When working with Linux systems, understanding your hardware specifications is crucial for performance tuning, troubleshooting, and capacity planning. Here's a comprehensive list of commands to extract detailed hardware information:

cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "model name" | head -n 1
lscpu
dmidecode -t processor

free -h
cat /proc/meminfo | grep MemTotal
dmidecode -t memory

lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT
df -h
hdparm -I /dev/sda | grep -i "model"

For comprehensive hardware details, consider these powerful tools:

sudo lshw -short
inxi -Fx
hwinfo --short

To get a quick overview of all hardware components (requires root privileges):

sudo lshw -html > system_report.html

For a quick check of disk performance characteristics:

sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

Here's a bash script to collect essential hardware information:

#!/bin/bash
echo "===== SYSTEM HARDWARE REPORT ====="
date
echo -e "\nCPU INFO:"
lscpu | grep -E "Model name|Socket|Core|Thread"
echo -e "\nMEMORY INFO:"
free -h
echo -e "\nDISK INFO:"
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT
echo -e "\nEND OF REPORT"

Remember that some commands require root privileges to display complete information. When working on production systems, consider using sudo with appropriate caution.

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When administering Linux systems, knowing how to extract hardware specifications directly from the command line is essential for troubleshooting, capacity planning, and system documentation. While GUI tools exist, command-line methods work across all distributions and in headless environments.

The most comprehensive processor details can be found in the /proc/cpuinfo file:

cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "model name" | uniq

For more detailed architecture information:

lscpu

To view installed RAM capacity and configuration:

free -h

For detailed memory module information:

sudo dmidecode --type memory

To list all storage devices and their capacities:

lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT

For SATA/SAS drive specifications (requires root):

sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda | grep -i "model\|capacity"

The lshw command provides a comprehensive hardware report:

sudo lshw -short

For a more readable JSON output:

sudo lshw -json

Some distributions include additional utilities:

# For RedHat-based systems
sudo dnf install inxi
inxi -Fxz

# For Debian-based systems
sudo apt install hardinfo

Create a script to collect hardware specs periodically:

#!/bin/bash
DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
{
  echo "=== CPU ==="
  lscpu
  echo "=== MEMORY ==="  
  free -h
  echo "=== STORAGE ==="
  lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT
} > hardware_report_$DATE.txt

To inspect network interfaces and their capabilities:

lspci | grep -i ethernet
ethtool eth0