Linux Basics for IT Support

Many corporate servers run Linux. Basic command-line familiarity is valuable even for Windows/macOS-focused support roles.

Essential Commands

• pwd – show current directory
• ls -la – list files (including hidden) with details
• cd /path – change directory
• cat filename – view file contents
• sudo command – run command with admin privileges

Networking Commands

• ip a – show IP addresses (modern replacement for ifconfig)
• ping google.com – test connectivity
• traceroute google.com – trace network path
• nslookup domain.com – DNS lookup

System Monitoring

• top or htop – view running processes and resource usage
• df -h – check disk space
• free -h – check memory usage
• systemctl status servicename – check status of a service

File Permissions

Linux file permissions follow the pattern rwx (read, write, execute) for three groups: owner, group, others.

-rwxr-xr--  1 user group  file.txt
 |||  |||  |||
 |||  |||  +-- others: read only
 |||  +-- group: read + execute
 +-- owner: read, write, execute
    

Common Interview Talking Point

“While my main experience is with Windows, I’m building familiarity with Linux command-line basics – navigation, checking system resources, and basic networking diagnostics like ping and ip a.”