Let's see some important and commonly used commands in Kali Linux:

CommandsDescription
# historyThis command is used to print the bash history of the current user.
# freeIt gives the information about the available RAM and the total used and available spaces of physical memory and swap memory with buffer used by Kernal.
# viIt is a screen editor used to edit the file.
# sortIt sorts the content of a text file line by line.
# moreIt is used to display output in the terminal, one page at a time.
# lessIt is used to view the file instead of opening the file.
# dateThis command is used to display the system date and time.
# calIt will display a formatted calendar of the current month.
# whoamiIt will print the active user ID.
# pwdIt stands for "Print Working Directory" which prints the name of the working directory.
# lsIt is used to list out all the hidden files of a directory with -an attribute.
# usersIt will display login names of the user currently logged in to the system.
# uptimeIt will return you the time for which the system has been up.
# unameIt prints information about the current system.
# rmIt is used to delete files and directories.
# mvThis command moves, or renames, files, and directories on your file system.
# cpIt is used to copy files.
# catIt is used to create single or multiple files, view contained file, concatenate files, and redirect output in terminal or files.
# mkdirIt is used to create directories.
# cdIt is used to change or switch the current working directory.

Command structure:

  • Changes the tools behaviour
  • Letter preceded by a hyphen
  • Can be grouped
  • E.g. ls -alt
  • Word preceded by double hyphen
  • E.g. ls -help
Kali Linux Commands

Command arguments

It is an extra piece of information to tell the command what to act on. If we are using an option, argument comes after it. For example - ls -l /Desktop

Creating Directories in Kali Linux