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Commands used for System Information

Command(s)
 Sample Output

DATE

The simple “date” command displays the current date and time (including the day of the week, month, time, time zone, year).

date

Date TZ

By default, “date” command uses the time zone defined in path “/etc/localtime”. Linux user can change the time zone via Terminal by using command “TZ”.

TZ=GMT date
TZ=America/New_York date

Date --set

Linux allows its user to set the current date and time of the system manually.
Syntax: date –set=”Date_in_format(YYMMDD) Time_in_format(HH:MM)”

sudo date --set="YYYYMMDD HH:MM"

Example 

sudo date --set="20230519 22:10"

This would set the system date to May 18, 2023 10:10 PM 

 $ date Thu Mar  2 07:23:38 PM EST 2023   $ TZ=GMT date Fri Mar  3 12:03:59 AM GMT 2023   $ TZ=America/New_York date Thu Mar  2 07:04:12 PM EST 2023

DF

The command “df” shows the amount of disk space used and disk space available on every file system containing each filesystem’s name and its path.

df

The command “df -h” shows the same result as the command “df” but now the data is in a more human-readable form that can be easily comprehended by a new user.

df -h

$ df Filesystem    1K-blocks       Used  Available Use% Mounted tmpfs         1623284       3612    1619672   1% /run /dev/nvme0n1p3 491343600   18123184  452739188   4% / tmpfs            8116400     104604    8011796   2% /dev/shm tmpfs               5120          4       5116   1% /run/lock tmpfs            8116400          0    8116400   0% /run/qemu /dev/nvme0n1p2   456036     182424     239424  44% /boot /dev/nvme0n1p1    98304      57271      41033  59% /boot/efi /dev/sda1       47744748      57156   45229840   1% /tmp /dev/sda3     2787016696 1123163768 1531975216  43% /home /dev/sda2     47745772   31301948   13986020  70% /var

 

$ df -h Filesystem     Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on tmpfs           1.6G  3.6M  1.6G   1% /run /dev/nvme0n1p3  469G   18G  432G   4% / tmpfs           7.8G  103M  7.7G   2% /dev/shm tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock tmpfs           7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /run/qemu /dev/nvme0n1p2  446M  179M  234M  44% /boot /dev/nvme0n1p1  96M   56M   41M  59% /boot/efi /dev/sda1       46G   56M   44G   1% /tmp /dev/sda3       2.6T  1.1T  1.5T  43% /home /dev/sda2       46G   30G   14G  70% /var

 

FREE

The command “free” displays the amount of free and used memory in the complete system.

free
 $ free           total     used     free    shared  buff/cache   available Mem:    16232800  4698636  6761664 59100     4772500    11205016 Swap:        2097152   0  2097152











 

Command Name & Description

 

Command(s)

 

 Notes / Sample Output

 

 
free
 








PS


The command “ps” which is also known as the process status command is used to provide information about the processes currently running on the system, including their respective process identification numbers (PIDs).
Syntax: ps


 


PS AUX & PS -EF


Both list all processes of all users. In that aspect -e and ax are completely equivalent.


Where they differ is output format specifier, -f is "full", while u is "user-oriented". The displayed columns are different:






    

  • columns for ps -f
    • 







UID        PID  PPID  C STIME TTY          TIME CMD






    

  • columns for ps u
    • 







USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND


 

ps
ps -ef
ps -aux


 

$ ps
    PID TTY          TIME CMD
 434765 pts/0    00:00:00 bash
 441698 pts/0    00:00:00 ps

$ ps -ef
UID          PID    PPID  C STIME TTY          TIME CMD
root           1       0  0 Feb07 ?        00:19:03 /sbin/init splash
root           2       0  0 Feb07 ?        00:00:03 [kthreadd]
root           3       2  0 Feb07 ?        00:00:00 [rcu_gp]
root           4       2  0 Feb07 ?        00:00:00 [rcu_par_gp]
root           5       2  0 Feb07 ?        00:00:00 [slub_flushwq]
root           6       2  0 Feb07 ?        00:00:00 [netns]

$ ps -aux
USER         PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root           1  0.0  0.0 169808 12472 ?        Ss   Feb07  19:03 /sbin/init splash
root           2  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Feb07   0:03 [kthreadd]
root           3  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        I<   Feb07   0:00 [rcu_gp]
root           4  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        I<   Feb07   0:00 [rcu_par_gp]
root           5  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        I<   Feb07   0:00 [slub_flushwq]
root           6  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        I<   Feb07   0:00 [netns]






 

UPTIME


The command “uptime” provides information about how long the system has been running in one line. The result for this command includes the current time, the time duration system has been running, the number of users who are currently logged on, and the system load averages for the past 1, 5, and 15 minutes respectively.
Syntax: uptime


 

uptime


 

$ uptime
 19:59:06 up 22 days, 20:17,  1 user,  load average: 0.52, 0.39, 0.38








 W


The command “w” displays detailed information about the users who are logged into the system currently.
Syntax: w


 

w


 

$ w
 20:00:25 up 22 days, 20:18,  1 user,  load average: 0.44, 0.41, 0.38
USER     TTY      FROM             LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU WHAT
tim      :1       :1               07Feb23 ?xdm?   2days  0.00s /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session --run-script env








PASSWD


The command “passwd” stands for password and it is used to change the password of the user.
Syntax: passwd user_name




passwd my_user




$ passwd tim
changing password for tim.
(current) UNIX password:
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully








EXIT


The command “exit” as the name says it is used to exit from the system and log out from the current user.
Syntax: exit




exit




$ exit
logout
Connection to 192.168.1.1 closed.








SS


The ss command is a modern replacement for the classic netstat command. You can use it on Linux to get statistics about your network connections.


 





 


 


 


 


Use the -ltn flags to list all listening  ports on your system.


ss -ltn


Use the following to see if a specific port is listening on your system. In this case, the source port (sport) and destination port (dport) is 80 or you can use the protocol name, http, instead.


ss -a '( dport = :80 or sport = :80 )'

ss -a '( dport = :http or sport = :http )'




State   Recv-Q   Send-Q     Local Address:Port      Peer Address:Port
LISTEN  0        4096             0.0.0.0:9000           0.0.0.0:*              
LISTEN  0        4096             0.0.0.0:6767           0.0.0.0:*              
LISTEN  0        4096             0.0.0.0:111            0.0.0.0:*              
LISTEN  0        4096             0.0.0.0:80             0.0.0.0:*              
LISTEN  0        4096             0.0.0.0:8081           0.0.0.0:*              
LISTEN  0        4096             0.0.0.0:8082           0.0.0.0:*


 


 


 


Netid State     Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address:Port      Peer Address:Port Process 
tcp   LISTEN    0      4096         0.0.0.0:http           0.0.0.0:*               
tcp   LISTEN    0      4096            [::]:http              [::]:*








SHUTDOWN


The command “shutdown” is used to shut down the system.
Syntax: shutdown




shutdown




$ shutdown
Shutdown scheduled for Thu 2023-03-02 20:12:13 EST, use 'shutdown -c' to cancel.


 










    
        

    


            

        

    


    


    
    

        

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