Kali Linux Commands

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

Commands	Description
# history	This command is used to print the bash history of the current user.
# free	It 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.
# vi	It is a screen editor used to edit the file.
# sort	It sorts the content of a text file line by line.
# more	It is used to display output in the terminal, one page at a time.
# less	It is used to view the file instead of opening the file.
# date	This command is used to display the system date and time.
# cal	It will display a formatted calendar of the current month.
# whoami	It will print the active user ID.
# pwd	It stands for "Print Working Directory" which prints the name of the working directory.
# ls	It is used to list out all the hidden files of a directory with -an attribute.
# users	It will display login names of the user currently logged in to the system.
# uptime	It will return you the time for which the system has been up.
# uname	It prints information about the current system.
# rm	It is used to delete files and directories.
# mv	This command moves, or renames, files, and directories on your file system.
# cp	It is used to copy files.
# cat	It is used to create single or multiple files, view contained file, concatenate files, and redirect output in terminal or files.
# mkdir	It is used to create directories.
# cd	It 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

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

• To create directories, type-in mkdir /tmp/testdir inside the terminal. It will create a directory with name tetsdir.
• To create parent dir, type-in mkdir -p /tmp/dir1/dir2.
• To create a file inside a directory type-in touch /tmp/testfile.
• To view the directory use the ls command.

Listing Directory Content

• -l -long listing
• -a -list hidden files
• -r -list in reverse name
• -t -list new files first
• -rt -list in reverse time (older first)