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Terminal and Command-Line Cheat Sheet: Simon

This document provides a cheat sheet for using the terminal and command line. It lists 18 common terminal commands and briefly explains what each one does, such as getting help with "man", using tab autocomplete, viewing the command history, changing directories, listing files, copying/moving files, finding files, and disconnecting sessions. The cheat sheet is intended to provide users with essential information on the basic functions and operations available in the terminal environment.

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Ulises Poblete Santis
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© © All Rights Reserved
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69 views

Terminal and Command-Line Cheat Sheet: Simon

This document provides a cheat sheet for using the terminal and command line. It lists 18 common terminal commands and briefly explains what each one does, such as getting help with "man", using tab autocomplete, viewing the command history, changing directories, listing files, copying/moving files, finding files, and disconnecting sessions. The cheat sheet is intended to provide users with essential information on the basic functions and operations available in the terminal environment.

Uploaded by

Ulises Poblete Santis
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Terminal and Command-Line Cheat Sheet

simon

<2018-03-08 Thu>

Contents
1 Getting Help 2

2 The TAB key 2

3 History of the command line 3

4 Where I am 3

5 Create new directory 3

6 Change directory 3

7 List the content of a directory 4

8 Read the content of a file 4

9 Display the first N lines (last N lines) 4

10 Clear the terminal window (just cosmetic) 5

11 Copy file / directory 5

12 Rename file / directory 5

13 Remove file / directory 5

14 Search files 6

15 Copy files / directory through the network 6

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16 Check what is going on 6

17 Kill active process 6

18 Disconnect the session 6

Open a Terminal and you can directly type the stuff below.

If you have time, enjoy this essay by the science-fiction author Neal
Stephenson.
Editing file is most of the job, so please also consider using a descent editor.
The author uses and recommends GNU Emacs, because it simply rocks!

1 Getting Help
man <command>

Quit by pressing q.

man ls
man cd
man mkdir

2 The TAB key


Whenever entering (long) paths or file names, the TAB key comes in very
handy, because it autocompletes the end or proposes how to complete.
Autocompletion is so handy. . .
Imagine you want to enter in this fictional directory, by typing all these
components:

cd /data/home/alturi/project/long-filename.ext

Prone error !! Instead, the TAB key is magic, try:

cd /d[TAB]ata/h[TAB]ome/al[TAB]turi/pro[TAB]ject/lo[TAB]ng-filename.ext
0
This document was generated the: Wednesday 21st March, 2018, 15:42

2
When you type ambiguous character (e.g., pro should point to your fictional
folder project/ or product/), the completion does not work. In that case,
hit TAB twice to view all the possible matches and then type a few more
characters.

3 History of the command line


Just use ARROW UP and DOWN to navigate through the history.
List all the recent history:

history

4 Where I am
pwd

Show the absolute path.

5 Create new directory


mkdir <name>

You can also create the directory and couple of subfolders:

mkdir -p my-project/this/that

6 Change directory
cd <directory>

For example, go to the previous created folder, and verify you are in:

cd my-project/this/that
pwd

Go at one level up (parent directory) and verify again:

cd ..
pwd

Go to the folder that/ then go at two levels up:

3
cd that/
pwd
cd ../..
pwd
Note that:
cd
go to the $HOME folder.

7 List the content of a directory


ls <directory>

and without any <directory> name, list the current folder.


List all the files, even the hidden ones:
ls -a
List the files and sort them by reverse order of modified time:
ls -rt1
List the files with some useful information (permissions, owner, size etc.)
ls -l
List recursively through the subfolders:
ls -R

8 Read the content of a file


less <filename>

Quit with :q.

9 Display the first N lines (last N lines)


head -nN <filename>
tail -nN <filename>

For example, display the first 5 commands:


head -n5 ~/.bash_history

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10 Clear the terminal window (just cosmetic)
clear

Nothing is erased, it is pure cosmetic by refreshing.

11 Copy file / directory


cp <source> <target>

For example, copy the history of the command lines and list the folder:

cp ~/.bash_history ~/my-history
ls -rt1

After creating a new folder, copy the file into it:

cp my-history my-project/this/that
ls my[TAB]-project/[TAB]this/[TAB]that/

Copy folders:

cp -R my-project my-project2
ls -R my-project2

12 Rename file / directory


mv <source> <target>

13 Remove file / directory


rm <filename>
rm -fr <filename>

The option -f means force. Be careful !!

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14 Search files
find <dir> -name "<filename>" -type f
For example, list all the files with the extensions .fastq.gz in the current
folder:
find . -name "*.fastq.gz" -type f -print
Find all Pearl files .pl containing the occurence xls and print the line:
find . -type f -name "*.pl" -print | xargs grep -nH xls

15 Copy files / directory through the network


rsync -av --progress <source> <target>
For example, push local folder to server toto.tata.univ-paris-diderot.fr:
rsync -av --progress my-project [email protected]:~/
Pull remote folder:
rsync -av --progress [email protected]:~/my-project my-project2
Be careful with the trailing slash /. Explanations later !

16 Check what is going on


htop

17 Kill active process


CONTROL c
Or you can find the process number with:
ps -fe | less
and identify the guilty.

18 Disconnect the session


CONTROL d

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