Below is a listing of each of the Linux commands and a brief explanation of what each of the commands do. This is a full listing which means not all the below commands will work with your distribution and may also not work because of your privileges. 

Command              Description
a2p                  Creates a Perl script from an awk script.
ac                   Prints statistics about users' connect time.
alias                Create a name for another command or long command
ar                   Maintain portable archive or library.
arch                 Display the architecture of the current host.
arp                  Manipulate the system ARP cache.
as                   An assembler.
at                   Command scheduler.
awk                  Awk script processing program.
basename             Deletes any specified prefix from a string.
bash                 Command Bourne interpreter
bc                   Calculator.
bdiff                Compare large files.
bfs                  Editor for large files.
bg                   Continues a program running in the background.
biff                 Enable / disable incoming mail notifications.
break                Break out of while, for, foreach, or until loop.
bs                   Battleship game.
bye                  Alias often used for the exit command.
cal                  Calendar
calendar             Display appointments and reminders.
cancel               Cancels a print job.
cat                  View and/or modify a file.
cc                   C compiler.
cd                   Change directory.
chdir                Change directory.
checkeq              Language processors to assist in describing equat
checknr              Check nroff and troff files for any errors.
chfn                 Modify your own information or if super user or r
chgrp                Change a groups access to a file or directory.
chkey                Change the secure RPC key pair.
chmod                Change the permission of a file.
chown                Change the ownership of a file.
chsh                 Change login shell.
cksum                Display and calculate a CRC for files.
clear                Clears screen.
cls                  Alias often used to clear a screen.
cmp                  Compare files.
col                  Reverse line-feeds filter.
comm                 Compare files and select or reject lines that are
compress             Compress files on a computer.
continue             Break out of while, for, foreach, or until loop.
copy                 Copy files.
cp                   Copy files.
cpio                 Creates archived CPIO files.
crontab              Create and list files that you wish to run on a r
csh                  Execute the C shell command interpreter
csplit               Split files based on context.
ctags                Create a tag file for use with ex and vi.
cu                   Calls or connects to another Unix system, termina
curl                 Transfer a URL.
cut                  Cut out selected fields of each line of a file.
date                 Tells you the date and time in Unix.
dc                   An arbitrary precision arithmetic package.
df                   Display the available disk space for each mount.
deroff               Removes nroff/troff, tbl, and eqn constructs.
dhclient             Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Client.
diff                 Displays two files and prints the lines that are
dig                  DNS lookup utility.
dircmp               Lists the different files when comparing director
dirname              Deliver portions of path names.
dmesg                Print or control the kernel ring buffer.
dos2unix             Converts text files between DOS and Unix formats.
dpost                Translates files created by troff into PostScript
du                   Tells you how much space a file occupies.
echo                 Displays text after echo to the terminal.
ed                   Line oriented file editor.
edit                 Text editor.
egrep                Search a file for a pattern using full regular ex
elm                  Program command used to send and receive e-mail.
emacs                Text editor.
enable               Enables / Disables LP printers.
env                  Displays environment variables.
eqn                  Language processors to assist in describing equat
ex                   Line-editor mode of the vi text editor.
exit                 Exit from a program, shell or log you out of a Un
expand               Expand copies of file s.
expr                 Evaluate arguments as an expression.
fc                   The FC utility lists or edits and re-executes, co
fg                   Continues a stopped job by running it in the fore
fgrep                Search a file for a fixed-character string.
file                 Tells you if the object you are looking at is a f
find                 Finds one or more files assuming that you know th
findsmb              List info about machines that respond to SMB name
finger               Lists information about the user.
fmt                  Simple text formatters.
fold                 Filter for folding lines.
for                  Shell built-in functions to repeatedly execute ac
foreach              Shell built-in functions to repeatedly execute ac
fromdos              Converts text files between DOS and Unix formats.
fsck                 Check and repair a Linux file system.
ftp                  Enables ftp access to another terminal.
getfacl              Display discretionary file information.
gprof                The gprof utility produces an execution profile o
grep                 Finds text within a file.
groupadd             Creates a new group account.
groupdel             Enables a super user or root to remove a group.
groupmod             Enables a super user or root to modify a group.
gunzip               Expand compressed files.
gview                A programmers text editor.
gvim                 A programmers text editor.
gzip                 Compress files.

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