network

netcat : NC(1) BSD General Commands Manual NC(1) nc — arbitrary TCP and UDP connections and listens
ping : 6 send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts
nmcli : – commandline tool for controlling NetworkManager
telnet : user interface to the TELNET protocol
sftp : secure file transfer program
openssl : OpenSSL command line tool
...

shell

busybox : The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux
gnome-terminal : is a terminal emulation application.
watch : execute a program periodically, showing output fullscreen
locale : specific information.
startpar : start runlevel scripts in parallel
xargs : build and execute command lines from standard input
...

filesystem

resize2fs : ext2/ext3/ext4 file system resizer
fsck : check and repair a Linux filesystem
chown : change file owner and group
passwd : change user password
mkfs : build a Linux filesystem
rename : renames multiple files
...

programming

strace : trace system calls and signals
startpar : start runlevel scripts in parallel
MAKEDEV : create devices
busybox : The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux
kmk_sed : framework for writing simple makefiles for complex tasks
setkeycodes : load kernel scancode-to-keycode mapping table entries
...

file

mkfs.ext2 : create an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem
egrep : , fgrep, rgrep print lines matching a pattern
hexdump : , hd ASCII, decimal, hexadecimal, octal dump
passwd : change user password
su : change user ID or become superuser
fsck.ext3 : check a Linux ext2/ext3/ext4 file system
...

graphic manipulation

start-stop-daemon : start and stop system daemon programs
gimp : an image manipulation and paint program.
transfig : creates a makefile for portable LaTeX figures
pbmtomda : convert a portable bitmap to a Microdesign .mda
resize : set environment and terminal settings to current xterm window size
pilfile.py :
...

database

mysqlimport : a data import program
mysqld_safe : MySQL server startup script
myisam_ftdump : display full-text index information
pdb3.3 : the Python debugger
sha1sum : compute and check SHA1 message digest
loadunimap : load the kernel unicode-to-font mapping table
...

X

gnome-terminal : is a terminal emulation application.
xfreerdp : FreeRDP X11 client
zenity : display GTK+ dialogs
update-grub : stub for grub-mkconfig
yuvdenoise : Motion-Compensating-YUV4MPEG2-frame-denoiser
avconv : avconv video converter
...

package management

dh_auto_test : automatically runs a package’s test suites
loadunimap : load the kernel unicode-to-font mapping table
dpkg-shlibdeps : generate shared library substvar dependencies
dh_auto_build : automatically builds a package
dpkg-architecture : set and determine the architecture for package building
dh_installcron : install cron scripts into etc/cron.*
...

printer

ppdc : cups ppd compiler
ghostscript : Ghostscript (PostScript and PDF language interpreter and previewer)
passwd : change user password
lpadmin : configure cups printers and classes
cups-calibrate : ESP CUPS Printer Calibration Tool
smbspool : send a print file to an SMB printer
...

text manipulation

gedit : text editor for the GNOME Desktop
pdb3.3 : the Python debugger
cweave : translate CWEB to C and/or TeX
view : Vi IMproved, a programmers text editor
xmlpatterns :
fgrep : , rgrep print lines matching a pattern
...

privacy

passwd : change user password
tor-gencert : Generate certs and keys for Tor directory authorities
lame : create mp3 audio files
start-stop-daemon : start and stop system daemon programs
wpa_passphrase : Generate a WPA PSK from an ASCII passphrase for a SSID
gpgsplit : Split an OpenPGP message into packets
...

sound manipulation

gst-launch-1.0 : build and run a GStreamer pipeline
audacity : Graphical cross-platform audio editor
start-stop-daemon : start and stop system daemon programs
ogmsplit : Split OGG/OGM files into several smaller OGG/OGM files
sndfile-metadata-set : set metadata in a sound file
spd-conf : A simple tool for basic configuration of Speech Dispatcher and problem diagnostics
...

Access Control List

su : change user ID or become superuser
gst-launch-1.0 : build and run a GStreamer pipeline
dh_installppp : install ppp ip-up and ip-down files
airtun-ng : a virtual tunnel interface creator for aircrack-ng
usermod : modify a user account
login : begin session on the system
...

file compression

pdb3.3 : the Python debugger
scp-dbus-service :
file-roller : archive manager for GNOME
lzcat : Compress or decompress .xz and .lzma files
airtun-ng : a virtual tunnel interface creator for aircrack-ng
nohup : run a command immune to hangups, with output to a non-tty
...

boot settings

update-grub : stub for grub-mkconfig
syslinux : install the SYSLINUX bootloader on a FAT filesystem
iconv : Convert encoding of given files from one encoding to another
nohup : run a command immune to hangups, with output to a non-tty
pdb3.3 : the Python debugger
airtun-ng : a virtual tunnel interface creator for aircrack-ng
...

text editor

pdb3.3 : the Python debugger
cweave : translate CWEB to C and/or TeX
cpp : The C Preprocessor
kerneloops : program to collect and submit kernel oopses to kerneloops.org
update-grub : stub for grub-mkconfig
gedit : text editor for the GNOME Desktop
...

webserver

a2ensite : enable or disable an apache2 site / virtual host
passwd : change user password
iconv : Convert encoding of given files from one encoding to another
arping : send ARP REQUEST to a neighbour host
lame : create mp3 audio files
loadunimap : load the kernel unicode-to-font mapping table
...

font

sha1sum : compute and check SHA1 message digest
nohup : run a command immune to hangups, with output to a non-tty
lame : create mp3 audio files
start-stop-daemon : start and stop system daemon programs
iwlist : Get more detailed wireless information from a wireless interface
spd-conf : A simple tool for basic configuration of Speech Dispatcher and problem diagnostics
...

mail

thunderbird : Mail User Agent (MUA) and newsgroup/RSS client for X11 derived from the Mozilla suite.
update-grub : stub for grub-mkconfig
pdb3.3 : the Python debugger
sha1sum : compute and check SHA1 message digest
logrotate : rotates, compresses, and mails system logs
lame : create mp3 audio files
...

Media Player

nohup : run a command immune to hangups, with output to a non-tty
ping : 6 send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts
subtitle2pgm :
svlc : , nvlc, rvlc, cvlc the VLC media player
spd-conf : A simple tool for basic configuration of Speech Dispatcher and problem diagnostics
update-grub : stub for grub-mkconfig
...

virtualization

ping : 6 send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts
start-stop-daemon : start and stop system daemon programs
VBoxControl : x86 virtualization solution
spd-conf : A simple tool for basic configuration of Speech Dispatcher and problem diagnostics
nohup : run a command immune to hangups, with output to a non-tty
passwd : change user password
...

help us categorise commands