Command Line Cheat Sheet¶

Browsing	ls — cd — mkdir — rm — cp — mv — Tab Key — less
Access Rights	chmod — setfacl
Help	man — -h \| --help
Disk Usage	du
Session Utilities	tmux — nohup — Ctrl+C — Ctrl+Z — jobs — fg — bg — ps — kill
Network Utilities	rsync
Archiving	tar
Executable	chmod (execute bit) — Execute Script

Browsing¶

`ls`¶

ls [-lh] [DIR]: List files and directories

$ ls
file1       file2   proj1   proj2

$ ls -lh
-rw-r--r--  1 user   group     0B  4 oct 14:11 file1
-rw-r--r--  1 user   group     0B  4 oct 14:11 file2
drwxr-xr-x  2 user   group    64B  4 oct 14:11 proj1
drwxr-xr-x  2 user   group    64B  4 oct 14:11 proj2

$ ls -lh proj1
-rw-r--r--  1 user   group     0B  4 oct 14:14 proj1_file1
-rw-r--r--  1 user   group     0B  4 oct 14:14 proj1_file2

`cd`¶

cd DIR: Change current location to a directory

$ ls
file1       file2   proj1   proj2
$ cd proj1
$ ls
proj1_file1 proj1_file2

`mkdir`¶

mkdir [-p] DIR: Create the DIRECTORY(ies), if they do not already exist

$ ls
file1  file2  proj1  proj2
$ mkdir proj3
$ mkdir -p proj4/subdir/subsubdir
$ ls -l
total 16
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user   group    0 Oct 31 11:27 file1
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user   group    0 Oct 31 11:27 file2
drwxrwxr-x 2 user   group 4096 Oct 31 11:27 proj1
drwxrwxr-x 2 user   group 4096 Oct 31 11:28 proj2
drwxrwxr-x 2 user   group 4096 Oct 31 11:28 proj3
drwxrwxr-x 3 user   group 4096 Oct 31 11:29 proj4
$ ls -l proj4/subdir
total 4
drwxrwxr-x 2 user   group 4096 Oct 31 11:29 subsubdir

`rm`¶

rm [-r] FILE: remove files or directories

$ ls
file1  file2  proj1  proj2
$ rm file1
$ ls
file2  proj1  proj2
$ rm -r proj1
$ ls
file2  proj2

`cp`¶

cp SRC DEST: Copy a file or directory.
cp -Rt DIR SRC...: Copy files and/or directories to a directory.

`mv`¶

mv SRC DEST: Move or rename a file or directory.
mv -t DIR SRC...: Move files and/or directories to a directory.

Tab Key¶

Tab key: Auto-complete the text

$ cd p[tab]
proj1/ proj2/
$ cd proj

`less`¶

less -r FILE: Visualize text in a pager rather than print it in the console. Use q to quit.
less -r +F FILE: Scroll forward the text of a log file and keep trying to read to update the pager as new content gets written into the file. Use Ctrl+C to interrupt the following and scroll back.

$ (for i in {1..10}; do (echo $i >> log_file.out; sleep 2) ; done) &
$ less -r +F log_file.out
[...]
~
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Waiting for data... (interrupt to abort)

Access Rights¶

`chmod`¶

chmod MODE[,MODE] FILE: Set the file mode bits

`MODE` format¶

The format of MODE is {ugo}{+-}perms[,...], where perms is one or more letters from the set rwxX

u:: set user mode bits
g:: set group mode bits
o:: set other mode bits
+-:: add/remove mode bits

r:: read bit
w:: write bit
x:: execute bit
X:: execute bit if already set or if the target is a directory

`setfacl`¶

setfacl [--default] [--recursive] {--set[-file]|--modify[-file]} MODE {DIR|FILE}: Set (purge previous acl permissions) or modify file access control lists. --set[-file] requires permissions of user, group and other to be listed. --default sets the default permissions to be applied to future files and sub-directory created in the directory.

`MODE` format¶

The format of MODE is u::perms,g::perms,o::perms[,...], where perms is one or more letters from the set rwxX

[u:]uid:perms:: Set user mode bits where perms is one or more letters from the set rwxX
[g:]gid:perms:: Set group mode bits where perms is one or more letters from the set rwxX
o:perms:: Set other mode bits where perms is one or more letters from the set rwxX

r:: read bit
w:: write bit
x:: execute bit
X:: execute bit if already set or if the target is a directory

$ setfacl --default --recursive --set u:$USER:rwx,u:otheruserid:rwx dir/
$ getfacl --recursive dir/
# file: dir
# owner: ownerid
# group: groupid
user::rwx
group::rwx
other::r-x
default:user::rwx
default:user:otheruserid:rwx
default:user:userid:rwx
default:group::rwx
default:mask::rwx
default:other::r-x

# file: dir/file
# owner: ownerid
# group: groupid
user::rw-
group::rw-
other::r--
$ setfacl --recursive --modify u:$USER:rwx,u:otheruserid:rwx dir/
$ getfacl --recursive dir/
# file: dir
# owner: ownerid
# group: groupid
user::rwx
user:otheruserid:rwx
user:userid:rwx
group::rwx
mask::rwx
other::r-x
default:user::rwx
default:user:otheruserid:rwx
default:user:userid:rwx
default:group::rwx
default:mask::rwx
default:other::r-x

# file: dir/file
# owner: ownerid
# group: groupid
user::rw-
user:otheruserid:rwx
user:userid:rwx
group::rw-
mask::rwx
other::r--

Help¶

`man`¶

Open the help manual (man page) of a command. Not all commands have a man page entry.

man COMMAND

Open the help manual (man page) of a command.

The manual will be shown in a pager.

$ man ls
LS(1)                     BSD General Commands Manual                    LS(1)

NAME
     ls -- list directory contents

SYNOPSIS
     ls [-ABCFGHLOPRSTUW@abcdefghiklmnopqrstuwx1] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     For each operand that names a file of a type other than directory, ls displays its name as
     well as any requested, associated information.  For each operand that names a file of type
     directory, ls displays the names of files contained within that directory, as well as any
     requested, associated information.
[...]

`-h` | `--help`¶

Display help for a command. The information will be printed in the console.

command (-h|--help): Display help for a command.

Commands might have either or both options ( -h , --help ).
command (-h|--help) | less: Useful to scroll text in a pager rather than print it in the console

$ ls --help
Usage: ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...
List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default).
Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort is specified.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
  -a, --all                  do not ignore entries starting with .
[...]
$ ls --help | less
Usage: ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...
List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default).
Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort is specified.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
  -a, --all                  do not ignore entries starting with .
[...]

Disk Usage¶

`du`¶

du -sh [DIR]: Print the disk usage of a directory

$ du -sh proj1
1.5K        proj1

Session Utilities¶

`tmux`¶

Enables a number of terminals to be created, accessed, and controlled from a single screen.

tmux: Open a new window
tmux ls|list: List sessions
tmux attach: Attach to the last detached window
tmux attach -t SESSION_INDEX: Attach to a detached session

Inside a tmux terminal¶

Sessions¶

<Ctrl+b>+s:: List sessions
<Ctrl+b>+$:: Rename current session

Windows¶

<Ctrl+b>+w:: List all windows
<Ctrl+b>+c:: Create a new window
<Ctrl+b>+d:: Detach the current window
<Ctrl+b>+,:: Rename current window

Panes¶

<Ctrl+b>+%:: Opens a new pane
<Ctrl+b>+Left, Right:: Change to the left or right pane
<Ctrl+b>+x:: Closes the current pane

`nohup`¶

nohup COMMAND &: Run a command that will NOt HangUP when the terminal closes

Ctrl+C¶

Ctrl+C: Interrupt the current command

Ctrl+Z¶

Ctrl+Z: Stop (pause) and background the current command

`jobs`¶

jobs: List the background jobs

$ jobs
[1]-  Stopped                 command1
[2]+  Stopped                 command2

`fg`¶

fg: Resume the job that’s next in the queue

`bg`¶

bg: Push the next job in the queue into the background

`ps`¶

ps -fju $USER --forest: Display the user’s process tree

UID        PID  PPID  PGID   SID  C STIME TTY          TIME CMD
user     26468 25983 25983 25983  0 10:20 ?        00:00:00 sshd: user@pts/0
user     26591 26468 26591 26591  0 10:20 pts/0    00:00:00  \_ -bash
user     32650 26591 32650 26591  0 10:44 pts/0    00:00:00      \_ ps -fju user --forest

`kill`¶

kill %JOB_INDEX: Kill a job using the job’s index
kill PID: Kill a process using the process’s id
kill -- -PGID: Kill all process belonging to the process group id

$ kill %1
[1]+  Stopped                 command1

Network Utilities¶

`rsync`¶

rsync -arLv SRC [SRC ...] DEST: Recursively copy from source to destination, locally or remotely

Additional Options¶

--partial

Keep partially transferred files

--relative

Copy “implied directories” as well as the last part of SRC. Ex.: foo/bar/ in:

rsync -arLv --relative /foo/bar/baz.c ...

Inserting a ./ in a SRC path will limit the amount of path information that is sent as implied directories. Ex.: bar/ in:

rsync -arLv --relative /foo/./bar/baz.c ...

--bwlimit=RATE

Specify the maximum transfer rate for the data sent over the socket, specified in units per second. Ex.: 10 megabytes/sec bandwidth:

rsync -arLv --bwlimit=10mb REMOTE:/foo/ foo/

rsync -arLv --bwlimit=10mb foo/ REMOTE:/foo/

-e <”ssh -p PORT”>

Use a non-standard SSH port

Archiving¶

`tar`¶

tar -cvf TAR_NAME.tar --sort=name -ML100G DIR...: Create a multi-volume .tar archive (max 100G per volume) with the content of directories
tar -cvvf TAR_NAME.tar -ML100G DIR >TAR_NAME.index: Create a multi-volume .tar archive (max 100G per volume) from a directory and save the file listing to TAR_NAME.index
tar -tvvf TAR_NAME.tar >TAR_NAME.index: Generate an index file from an existing .tar archive
tar -xf TAR_NAME.tar -C DIR: Extract a .tar archive into a directory
tar -xf TAR_NAME.tar -C DIR FILE...: Extract specific files from a .tar archive into a directory

Additional Options¶

-r: Append files to the .tar archive. This replaces -c.
--sort=name: Sort the directory entries on name.

Executable¶

`chmod` (execute bit)¶

chmod +x script.sh: Add the execute mode bit to a script file so it can be executed

Execute Script¶

./script.sh: Execute a script

Command Line Cheat Sheet¶

Browsing¶

ls¶

cd¶

mkdir¶

rm¶

cp¶

mv¶

Tab Key¶

less¶

Access Rights¶

chmod¶

MODE format¶

setfacl¶

MODE format¶

Help¶

man¶

-h | --help¶

Disk Usage¶

du¶

Session Utilities¶

tmux¶

Inside a tmux terminal¶

Sessions¶

Windows¶

Panes¶

nohup¶

Ctrl+C¶

Ctrl+Z¶

jobs¶

fg¶

bg¶

ps¶

kill¶

Network Utilities¶

rsync¶

Additional Options¶

Archiving¶

tar¶

Additional Options¶

Executable¶

chmod (execute bit)¶

Execute Script¶

`ls`¶

`cd`¶

`mkdir`¶

`rm`¶

`cp`¶

`mv`¶

`less`¶

`chmod`¶

`MODE` format¶

`setfacl`¶

`MODE` format¶

`man`¶

`-h` | `--help`¶

`du`¶

`tmux`¶

`nohup`¶

`jobs`¶

`fg`¶

`bg`¶

`ps`¶

`kill`¶

`rsync`¶

`tar`¶

`chmod` (execute bit)¶