This is a list of frequently used Linux SSH/shell commands. It may not apply to all Linux distributions.
cd : change directory (ex: cd /home)
dir: list files in directory
ls : list files in a certain directory (ex: ls /home)
ls -al : list all files in current directory
vi : opens vi editor to edit files (ex: vi filename)
rm : deletes a file (asks for confirmation)
rm -f : deletes a file w/o confirmation
rm -rf : deletes a folder and all files within it w/o confirmation (be very careful!)
cp : copy a file (ex: cp file1 file2)
top : shows live system stats such as CPU, RAM, load, etc
ps : shows process status - every program on the VPS will have a process ID (PID)
ps aux : shows all processes
ps U username : show processes from user
df -h : show disk space and partition info
du -sh : shows disk space summary in human readable format (ex: du -sh * - shows disk space usage of everything in current directory)
kill : terminate a process (obtain process IDs via "top")
kill -9 : force kill a process (ex: kill -9 PID)
