Advanced Linux Commands for DevOps Beginners

Lets discuss some more Linux commands which is kind of interesting and important
1) Find
2) Sed
3) Tr
4) Add user
5) File permissions
6) Awk

1. find : The find command is used to search for files and directories based on different
conditions such as file type, name, size, and time of creation or modification. You can
search files created or modified days ago or even minutes ago.
Syntax: find <location> <options> <file_name_or_type>
Examples:
• find ~ -type f -name "[Link]"
Searches for a file named [Link] in the home directory.
• find / -type d -mtime 3 -name "india"
Searches for a directory named india that was modified exactly 3 days ago.
• find / -type d -mtime -3 -name "india"
Searches for a directory named india modified within the last 3 days.
• find / -type d -mtime +3 -name "india"
Searches for a directory named india modified more than 3 days ago.
• find / -type d -mmin 3 -iname "india"
Searches for a directory named india modified exactly 3 minutes ago.
Here, -iname means the search is case-insensitive.
• find / -type d -mmin -5 -iname "india"
Searches for a directory modified within the last 5 minutes.
• find / -type d -mmin +5 -iname "india"
Searches for a directory modified more than 5 minutes ago.
Key Points:
• -type f → files
• -type d → directories
• -mtime → modification time (in days)
• -mmin → modification time (in minutes)
• -name → case-sensitive search
• -iname → case-insensitive search
2. Sed: (Stream EDtionr): The sed command (Stream Editor) is used to modify text in
files without opening them in an editor. It works line by line, searches for patterns, and
performs actions like replace, delete, insert, or print lines.
By default, sed does not change the original file. It only prints the modified output to the
terminal. To permanently modify the file, we must use the -i (in-place) option. Be careful
when using -i because it directly edits the file.
Format: sed [OPTIONS] 'command' filename
Examples
Substitute text
sed 's/old/new/' [Link]
s → substitute
Replaces only the first occurrence of old in each line.
Global replacement
sed 's/dinesh/Dinesh/g' [Link]
g → global
Replaces all occurrences of dinesh in every line.
Edit the original file (in-place)
sed -i 's/dinesh/Dinesh/g' [Link]
-i → edits the original file directly
This is a dangerous option if used incorrectly.
Print specific lines using -n and p
sed -n '2p' [Link]
-n → suppress automatic output
p → print
Prints only the 2nd line
sed -n '2,5p' [Link]
Prints lines from 2 to 5
Replace and print only
sed -n 's/dinesh/Dinesh/gp' [Link]
Replaces text globally
Prints only the modified lines
Delete lines
sed '2d' [Link]
Deletes the 2nd line
sed '2,20d' [Link]
Deletes lines from 2 to 20
Replace text in a specific line
sed '2s/dinesh/Dinesh/' [Link]
 Replaces dinesh with Dinesh only in line
Important Concept: Word Boundary
Suppose the file contains:
engineer
engineering
If you run:
sed 's/engineer/engineering/' [Link]
Output:
engineering
engineeringing
This happens because sed finds engineer inside engineering.
Correct way (match whole word only):
sed 's/\<engineer\>/engineering/' [Link]
\< and \> ensure exact word matching
Only engineer is replaced, not engineering
sed 's/\<engineer\>/engineering/' [Link]– so it will search for the entire word

Option Explanation
s Substitute the text
g Global edit
p Print
-i Make the changes and edit the originalfile
d Delete the line
-n Not print the output
a Append after the line
i Insert before the line
c Change the existing line
3. tr: The tr command is used to translate or transform text that comes as output from
another command.
It works on standard input, so it is usually used with a pipe (|).
tr does not read files directly — it processes text passed to it.
Syntax:
command | tr 'set1' 'set2'
Examples
Convert lowercase to uppercase
cat [Link] | tr 'a-z' 'A-Z'
Converts all lowercase letters in [Link] to uppercase.
Convert uppercase to lowercase
cat [Link] | tr 'A-Z' 'a-z'
Useful tr Options
Remove characters
cat [Link] | tr -d '0-9'
Removes all numbers from the output.
Squeeze repeated characters
cat [Link] | tr -s ' '
Replaces multiple spaces with a single space.
When to use tr
Change text case (upper ↔ lower)
Remove unwanted characters
Clean up output from other commands

4. adduser: The adduser command is a simple and user-friendly way to create a new user
in Linux.
Example:
adduser dinesh
This command creates a user named dinesh.
During the process, it will:
Create the user
Create a home directory
Ask for and set the password
Ask for basic user details (optional)
adduser vs useradd
adduser
High-level and interactive
Easy to use
Prompts for password and user details
useradd
Low-level command
Requires more options
Does not set a password automatically
When you use useradd, you must manually set the password using:
passwd username
Example:
passwd dinesh
When to use adduser
When you want a quick and simple way to create users
When you prefer an interactive setup
5. chmod: chmod is an important Linux command used to change file or directory
permissions. It controls who can read, write, or execute a file or folder.
Permissions are given to:
User (owner)
Group
Others
syntax: chmod <………..> file name
d- directory
r – read
w - write
x- execute
l - link
for file it will show like this -rwxrwxrwx
__________
d r w x r w x r w x demo ------- this demo folder has all the permeations
__________

Others
groups
users
chmod u+rwx [Link] here you are giving all the permeations to the users
chmod g+rwx you are giving all permeations to groups
chmod o+ rwx you are giving all permeations to the others
you can give what ever mermeats you want to
give reading permeates for others : chmod o +r [Link]
there is another way to give permeations
Numeric (octal) method
Each permission has a value:
Read (r) = 4
Write (w) = 2
Execute (x) = 1
Total:
rwx = 4 + 2 + 1 = 7
_ ________
drwxrwxrwx
__________
7 7 7
 Examples:
Give all permissions to everyone:
chmod 777 [Link]
Give full permissions to user and group, execute only to others:
chmod 771 [Link]
Give read and write permissions only to user:
chmod 600 [Link]
Quick tip
chmod is powerful. Giving 777 permissions can be dangerous, especially on servers.
Use it only when necessary.

6. Awk: awk is a text processing tool.

Think of awk as a smart filter That reads line by line Splits each line into columns Lets
you print, calculate, and format data If sed edits text, awk understands structure
(columns).

When do we use awk in real life?

• Logs analysis
• CSV files
• Command output (ps, df, free)
• Reports
• Monitoring scripts
Example:
ps aux | awk '{print $1, $2}'
Basic syntax
awk 'pattern { action }' file
Or:
command | awk 'pattern { action }'
If pattern is true → action runs.
How awk works internally
For every line:
1. Read the line
2. Split it into fields
3. Execute action
4. Move to next line
Fields and records (MOST IMPORTANT)
Record → one line
Field → one column
Default separator = space
Symbol Meaning
$0 whole line
$1 first column
$2 second column
$NF last column
NF number of fields
NR line number

First basic example

File: [Link]
Dinesh Linux 50000
Ravi DevOps 60000
Kumar AWS 55000
Print whole line
awk '{print $0}' [Link]
Print specific columns
awk '{print $1, $3}' [Link]
Output:
Dinesh 50000
Ravi 60000
Kumar 55000
Print with text (formatting)
awk '{print "Name:", $1, "Salary:", $3}' [Link]
Conditions (very powerful)
Print only salary > 55000
awk '$3 > 55000 {print $1, $3}' [Link]
Print lines where department is DevOps
awk '$2 == "DevOps" {print $0}' [Link]
BEGIN and END blocks
BEGIN → runs once before reading file
END → runs once after file ends
awk 'BEGIN {print "Report Start"}
{print $1, $3}
END {print "Report End"}' [Link]
 Output: Report Start
Dinesh 50000
Ravi 60000
Kumar 55000
Report End
You can use this in the csv files, which is Comma separated value
Field separator (-F)
CSV file
Dinesh,Linux,50000
Ravi,DevOps,60000
Command:
awk -F',' '{print $1, $3}' [Link] ---here F means file separator and after that you
need to mention what is the file separator value. In this case it is ‘,’ Comma.

If you have values like 40%, 20%, and similar data, you can remove the %
symbol using the awk command.
Example file: [Link]
40%
55%
80%
Command:
awk '{ gsub(/%/, "", $0); print }' [Link]
Explanation:
• gsub() stands for global substitution
• It searches for the % symbol and removes it from each line
• $0 represents the entire line
• print displays the modified output
Output:
40
55
80
Real-time use case:
This is commonly used when extracting memory or disk usage values, which are
often shown as percentages (like 40%).
To process or calculate these values, the % symbol must be removed — and gsub
makes this easy.
In short, gsub helps clean unwanted characters from command output or files,
making the data usable for further processing.