Here are some common SSH commands that our server administrators find they use quite often. Hopefully these SSH commands will be useful for others too.

Some Useful SSH Commands

SSH Command Description SSH Command
Delete a directory with all content and subdirectories: rm -fR /tmp/hacks
Displays everything in the current directory: ls
Displays all files, including hidden any hidden files: ls -a
Displays all files, along with the size and timestamp: ls -l
Uncompresses tar.gz files: tar -zxpf <file.tar.gz>
Uncompresses .gz files: gunzip <file>
Copies a file to a new file: cp <file>
Moves a file to a new file, or renames it: mv <file>
Create a new directory: mkdir <dir>
Deletes a directory: rmdir <dir>
Deletes a file: rm <file>
Move into a directory: cd <dir>
Move to a lower directory: cd ..
Move to your home directory: cd ~
Moves to the previous directory: cd –
Displays the current directory that you are in: pwd
Edit a file: pico <file>
Displays the hard drive status: df
Displays the uptime of a server: uptime
Displays others connected to the server: who
Displays previous logins: last
Displays processes running: ps -x
Displays all processes running: ps -a
Displays running processes, with CPU/Memory usage: ps -ux
Kills a process: kill <pid>
Kills all running process of the same type: killall <program>
Process list, 1 minute and 5 minute average load every 10 minutes since midnight server time: sar -q
Useful to see who is connected to your server: netstat -n -p
Edit the crontab file and see what is set to run in there: crontab -e
To edit a users cron jobs: crontab -u username -e
Gives you the last 10 lines of a file. Can change the # to whatever you want: tail -10 <filename>
Restart cPanel services: /etc/init.d/cpanel restart