A cheat sheet for bash
pwd
: prints working directory
ls
: lists contents of current directory
ls -l
: list contents of current directory with extra details
ls -a
: list hidden files too
ls /home/user/*.txt
: lists all files ending with .txt
inside /home/user
cd
or cd ~
: change directory to your home directory
cd folder1/folder2/
: change directory to folder2
inside folder1
mkdir mydir
: create a new directory named mydir
rmdir mydir
: remove directory mydir
touch myfile
: create or update a myfile
cp myfile myfile2
: copy myfile
into myfile2
cp -r mydir mydir2
: copy mydir
into mydir2
(creates new directory if it doesn't exist)
rm myfile
: removes myfile
rm -rf mydir
: removes mydir
and all its contents
mv myfile mydir/
: moves myfile
into mydir
mv myfile newfile
: renames myfile
to newfile
mv mydir newdir
: renames mydir
to newdir
cat file
: outputs the contents of file
cat > file
: places standard input into file
(^c
to end)
head file
: output first 10 lines of file
tail file
: output last 10 lines of file
tail -f file
: output contents of file
as it grows (^c
to exit)
nano
: opens a terminal editor
nano newfile
: opens newfile for editing
echo text
: prints text on the screen
cmd > file
: redirects stdout to file
echo "text" >> file
: appends "text" to file
cmd 2> file
: redirects stderr to file
cmd 2>&1 file
: redirects stderr and stdout to both terminal and file
ps
: Display your currently active processes
top
: display all running processes
htop
: more interactive and colorful version of top
kill pid
: kill process with id pid
killall proc
: kill all processes named proc*
date
: show the current date and time
cal
: show this month's calendar
uptime
: show current uptime
uname -a
: show all kernel information
cat /proc/cpuinfo
: show cpu information
cat /proc/meminfo
: show memory information
df
: show disk usage
du
: show directory space usage
free
: show memory and swap usage
whereis app
: show possible location of app
which app
: show which app will be run by default
man command
: shows manual for command
command --help
or command -h
: (almost always) shows short help about the command
ping host
: ping host and output results
whois domain
: get whois information for domain
dig domain
: get DNS information for domain
dig -x host
: reverse lookup host
wget file
: download file
wget -c file
: continue a stopped download
sudo apt-get update
or sudo apt update
: updates repository list
sudo apt-get upgrade
or sudo apt upgrade
: installs possible updates
sudo apt-get install package
or sudo apt install package
: installs package
apt search package
or aptitude search package
: searches for the package
yum update
: updates repository list
yum search package
: searches for package
sudo yum install package
: installs package
sudo dpkg -i package.deb
: install package from deb file (Debian)
sudo rpm -Uvh package.rm
: install package from rpm file (Fedora)
./configure
make
make install
May require sudo
. Read the README for the source before proceeding.