Skip to content

Linux Commands for DevOps Engineers (Beginner to Advanced)

Linux is the backbone of DevOps.
From CI/CD pipelines to Kubernetes nodes and cloud servers, every DevOps engineer works with Linux daily.

This guide is a complete, structured Linux commands reference, written specifically for DevOps engineers, starting from basics and progressing to real-world production troubleshooting.

📌 Who Is This Guide For?

This Linux commands guide is ideal if you are: - A beginner learning Linux for DevOps - A DevOps engineer working with AWS, Kubernetes, Jenkins, Terraform - Preparing for Linux / DevOps interviews - Debugging production servers

🧭 Linux Commands Learning Path

Follow this order for best results 👇

👉 Basic Linux Commands

Start here if you are new to Linux.

Topics covered: - ls, cd, pwd - Hidden files and directories - Relative vs absolute paths - Reading files using cat, head, tail

👉 System & Disk Commands

Understand memory and disk usage on Linux servers.

Topics covered: - free, df - Disk and memory usage - Hostname and system information - Directory navigation shortcuts

👉 File & Directory Management

Learn how files and directories are managed in Linux.

Topics covered: - mkdir, rm, cp, mv - touch, tree - Editing files using vi - File organization basics

👉 Users & Sudo Permissions

Critical for multi-user systems and production security.

Topics covered: - sudo, su - Creating and managing users - Groups and sudo access - Real-world permission scenarios

👉 File Permissions & Environment Variables

Understand Linux security and environment configuration.

Topics covered: - chmod, chown - Permission numbers (600, 644, 755) - Environment variables - env, printenv, echo $VAR

👉 Shell, Env, Alias & Package Management

Learn how Linux behaves interactively and during automation.

Topics covered: - Shell vs environment variables - PATH variable - Aliases and .bashrc - Package managers: yum, apt, apk

👉 Log & Text Processing Commands

DevOps engineers spend a lot of time analyzing logs.

Topics covered: - grep, awk, sed - cut, sort, uniq - Log filtering and pattern matching - Production log debugging

👉 Networking Commands

Essential for cloud, containers, and Kubernetes debugging.

Topics covered: - ip, ifconfig - ss, netstat - ping, curl, wget - DNS and port troubleshooting

👉 Process & Service Management

Learn how Linux runs applications and services.

Topics covered: - ps, top, htop - kill, nice - systemctl, service - Process and service troubleshooting

🎯 Most Used Linux Commands for DevOps

If you are short on time, focus on these first:

  • ls, cd, find
  • grep, awk, sed
  • ps, top, kill
  • df, du
  • curl, ss, netstat
  • chmod, chown

To become job-ready, combine Linux with:

🚀 Final Note

Linux mastery is non-negotiable for DevOps engineers.
This guide is designed to be: - Practical - Production-focused - Interview-ready

👉 Bookmark this page and follow the parts in order.

Happy Learning! 🚀

📬 Weekly DevOps, Cloud & Gen AI quizzes & guides