List of Linux acronyms and their details

About a week ago, I discussed with my friend some Linux topics.

At the time, he told me that he didn’t find a proper resource to find information about Linux command acronyms.

I did a little research, but I didn’t find what I wanted about this topic.

So I decided to write an article about it.

It may help others who are looking for this information. We have added a very small number of acronyms at this time.

But I can say for sure, over the period of time, we will load a dozen of abbreviations. So I urge you to stay on this page.

Also, if you would like to contribute to this article I would request you to update the information about acronyms in the comment section.

We are very happy to update this on your behalf.

Linux Package Manager:

Commands	Description
yum	Yellowdog Updater, Modified
dnf	Dandified yum
rpm	Red Hat Package Manager
apt	Advanced Package Tool
dpkg	Debian Package
YaST	Yet another Setup Tool

File Transfer Commands:

Command	Description
cp	copy
scp	Secure Copy
rsync	Remote Sync
pssh	Parallel Secure SHell
dsh	Distributed Shell or Dancer’s Shell
ftp	file transfer protocol
sftp	secure file transfer protocol
dd	Data Duplicator
mv	move

Linux Filesystem Commands:

Command	Description
fdisk	fixed disk or format disk
Parted	PARTition and EDitor
cfdisk	curses fdisk
df	Disk free
du	Disk usage
fsck	file system consistency check
fstab	file system table
UUID	Universally Unique IDentifier of a partition
mkfs	make filesystem
RAID	Redundant Array of Independent Disks or Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.
udev	userspace /dev
ASM	Automatic Storage Management
NFS	Network file system
lsblk	List block devices
fs	Filesystem
SAN	storage area network
scsi	Small computer standard interface
LVM	logical volume management

Linux Text Processing:

Command	Description
vi	visual
vim	vi improved
awk	Aho, Weinberger, Kernighan (names of program authors)
emacs	editing macros
fgrep	fixed-string grep
egrep	extended grep
grep	global regular expression print
rm	remove
umask	user’s (file creation) mask
sed	stream editor
wc	word count
xargs	extended arguments
nl	number lines
cat	Concatenates

Linux File and Directory Management:

Command	Description
mkdir	make directory
rmdir	Remove directories, if they are empty
tar	tape archive
chown	Change Owner
chmod	Change Mode
chgrp	Change Group
pwd	Print working directory
cd/chdir	Change directory
inode	index node
ls	list
sbin	system binaries or superuser binaries
setfacl	set file access control lists
getfacl	get file access control lists
chcon	change context (SELinux)

Linux User Management:

Command	Description
id	identity
umask	user mask
su	substitute user or Switch User or superuser
sudo	substitute user or super user or switch user
GID	group identification
UID	user identification
SUID	set user ID
SGID	set group ID
ulimit	user’s limit
utmp	temporary file with user information

Linux Process Management:

Command	Description
PID	process identification number
PPID	Parent Process identification number
ps	process status
fg	foreground
bg	background
lsof	list of open files
fuser	file user

Linux Network Commands:

Command	Description
nmap	Network Mapper
ss	Socket Statistics
netstat	Network Statistics
dig	Domain information groper
IP	Internet protocol
TCP	Transmission control protocol
ssh	secure shell
telnet	terminal over network
rlogin	remote login
rexec	remote execution
NIC	Network interface card
NTP	Network time protocol
telnet	Terminal over network
DHCP	Dynamic host configuration protocol
LAN	Local area network
MAC	Media access control
MTU	Maximum transmission unit
SNMP	Simple network management protocol
VPN	Virtual private network
WAN	Wide area network
WAP	Wireless access point/Wireless application protocol

Linux Hardware Information:

Commands	Description
lsusb	List USB devices
lspci	List all PCI devices
lsscsi	List Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) devices
vm	Virtual memory
dmidecode	Desktop Management Interface Decode
lshw	List Hardware
hwinfo	Hardware Information
wwn	World Wide Name
wwid	World Wide Identifier
dev	devices
uname	Unix name

Type of Linux Shells and Information:

Command	Description
sh	Bourne shell
bash	GNU Bourne-Again Shell
ksh	Korn shell
csh	C shell
Fish	Friendly interactive shell
chsh	Change shell
rsh	remote shell

Linux General Command:

Command	Meaning
sar	System Activity Report
bc	basic calculator
cal	calendar
man	manual
nslookup	name server lookup
dig	Domain Information Groper

Linux General Acronym:

Acronym	Meaning
GRUB	GRand Unified Bootloader
DNS	Domain Name Service or Domain Name System
FQDN	Fully qualified domain names
DE	Desktop Environment
GUI	Graphical User Interface
CLI	Command Line Interface
UI	User Interface
LILO	Linux Loader
SELINUX	Security Enhanced Linux
SSL	Secure Sockets Layer
LAMP	Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP
LAMPP	Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP and PERL
http	Hypertext Transfer Protocol
https	Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure
PHP	Hypertext Pre-processor
init	initialization
BSD	Berkeley Software Distribution (originally Berkeley Source Distribution)
CDROM	compact disc read-only memory
CUPS	common UNIX printing system
CPU	central processing unit
RAM	Random access memory
daemon	disk and execution monitor*
FOSS	free open source software
FSF	Free Software Foundation
GCC	GNU Compiler Collection (originally GNU C Compiler)
GIMP	GNU Image Manipulation Program
GNOME	GNU Network Object Model Environment
KDE	K Desktop Environment
HFS	hierarchical file system
I/O	input/output
ACL	Access Control List
JVM	Java virtual machine
LFS	Linux From Scratch
MBR	master boot record
PAM	pluggable authentication modules
GPG	GNU Privacy Guard
RDBMS	relational database management system
RHCE	Red Hat Certified Engineer
SMTP	simple mail transfer protocol
SMB	server message block
TTY	teletype terminal
PTY	pseudo-teletype
X	X Window System
tmp	temporary
xdm	X display manager
#!	Shebang

Wrapping Up

In this guide, we have included possible Linux acronyms and their meaning for your reference purpose and we hope it will be very useful.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to comment below.