Linux Commands Cheat Sheet
161+ commands worth keeping within reach, grouped by what you're trying to do. Every entry links to its full guide: syntax, options, real examples and an interactive terminal. Print this page for the wall, or work through the 60-lesson course to put it in your fingers.
161 commands in 15 sections. Click any command to copy it.
Printable one-page sheets
Each topic on its own A4 page: the essentials up front, the mistakes to avoid on the side. Print them, pin them, or save as PDF.
Files & directories
Create, copy, move, destroy. No trash bin: read twice before Enter.
- Create a directory guide ›
- Create a nested path in one go (no error if it exists) guide ›
- Create an empty file / refresh its timestamp guide ›
- Copy a file guide ›
- Copy a tree preserving permissions, times, symlinks guide ›
- Instant backup: expands to cp file file.bak guide ›
- Move or rename (same operation) guide ›
- Delete a file: permanently guide ›
- Delete a directory and everything inside guide ›
- Create a symbolic link guide ›
- Update an existing symlink to a directory guide ›
Viewing files
Read without opening an editor.
- Print the whole file guide ›
- Print with line numbers guide ›
- Page through: / search, G end, q quit guide ›
- Follow a growing file, Ctrl+C to browse guide ›
- First 20 lines guide ›
- Last 20 lines guide ›
- Follow live, surviving log rotation guide ›
- Everything except the first line (skip a CSV header) guide ›
- Count lines
- Show what changed between two files guide ›
Search
grep looks inside files; find looks for the files themselves.
- Lines containing "text" guide ›
- Case-insensitive guide ›
- Lines that do NOT contain it guide ›
- Recursive, with file names and line numbers guide ›
- Count matching lines instead of printing them guide ›
- 2 lines before and 5 after each match guide ›
- Only the names of files that match guide ›
- Find by name (quote the pattern!) guide ›
- Find directories by name guide ›
- Files larger than 100 MB guide ›
- Modified in the last 24 hours guide ›
- Delete matches (run it once without -delete first) guide ›
- Run a command on every match guide ›
Pipes & redirection
The idea that makes the shell powerful.
- Write output to a file (replaces contents)
- Append output to a file
- Redirect only errors
- Redirect output AND errors to one file
- Discard error messages
- Pipe: output of cmd1 becomes input of cmd2
- See it live and save a copy guide ›
- The correct way to append to a root-owned file guide ›
- Run cmd2 only if cmd1 succeeded
- Run cmd2 only if cmd1 failed
- Compare the output of two commands guide ›
Text processing
The filters that live in the middle of pipelines.
- Print the second column of any output guide ›
- Third column of a comma-separated file guide ›
- Sum a column guide ›
- Deduplicate, preserving original order guide ›
- Replace every occurrence (prints the result) guide ›
- Replace in place, keeping a .bak backup guide ›
- Print only lines 20 to 40 guide ›
- Strip comment lines guide ›
- Extract columns 1 and 3 guide ›
- Sort lines alphabetically
- Sort numerically, descending
- Count occurrences of each line guide ›
- Show only the duplicated lines guide ›
- Uppercase everything guide ›
- Strip Windows carriage returns guide ›
Permissions & ownership
r=4, w=2, x=1: owner, group, others.
- Make a file executable guide ›
- rwxr-xr-x: directories and executables guide ›
- rw-r--r--: regular files guide ›
- rw-------: private keys and secrets guide ›
- Correct recursive fix for directories guide ›
- Correct recursive fix for files guide ›
- Change owner and group of a tree guide ›
- Copy ownership from another file guide ›
- Show which permission bits are removed from new files
Processes
What is running, and how to stop it politely.
- Every running process guide ›
- Top memory consumers guide ›
- Find PIDs by command line guide ›
- Live monitor (htop is friendlier) guide ›
- Ask a process to close cleanly guide ›
- Force termination: last resort, nothing is saved guide ›
- Signal processes matching a pattern guide ›
- Tell a daemon to reload its configuration guide ›
- Run in the background guide ›
- List, foreground, resume background jobs guide ›
- Keep running after you log out guide ›
- Suspend the current foreground job guide ›
Disk & memory
Where the space and the RAM went.
Networking
Reachability, addresses, ports, names.
- Is it reachable, and how far guide ›
- Your addresses, one line per interface guide ›
- Routing table and default gateway guide ›
- Which interface and source IP would be used guide ›
- Listening ports with the owning process guide ›
- Current established connections guide ›
- Resolve a name guide ›
- Ask a specific resolver (bypass your cache) guide ›
- Where the domain's mail goes guide ›
- Response headers only guide ›
- Just the status code guide ›
- Send JSON to an API guide ›
- Download, resuming if interrupted guide ›
Remote & transfer
Working on machines that are not yours.
- Open a remote shell guide ›
- Custom port guide ›
- Run one command remotely and return guide ›
- Create a key pair (once per machine) guide ›
- Install your key: no more passwords guide ›
- Tunnel a remote port to your machine guide ›
- Copy one file over SSH guide ›
- Sync a tree, only what changed travels guide ›
- Dry run of a mirror (always do this first) guide ›
Archives & compression
Packing, shipping, unpacking.
- Create a compressed archive guide ›
- Extract it (the one to memorize) guide ›
- List contents without extracting guide ›
- Extract somewhere specific guide ›
- Compress, keeping the original guide ›
- Search inside a compressed file guide ›
- Windows-friendly archive guide ›
- Inspect before extracting guide ›
- Fingerprint: verify a download guide ›
System & services
systemd, packages, scheduled jobs.
- State, PID and recent logs guide ›
- Restart a service guide ›
- Start now and at every boot guide ›
- Anything broken on this machine? guide ›
- Follow one service's logs live guide ›
- Everything the system did in a time window guide ›
- Errors since boot, all sources guide ›
- Refresh the catalog, then patch guide ›
- Install with dependencies guide ›
- Edit / list scheduled jobs guide ›
- Cron line: every day at 03:00 guide ›
- Load, kernel version, CPU count
Shell & environment
Your setup, your shortcuts, your history.
- Where the shell looks for commands guide ›
- Set a variable children will inherit guide ›
- Set it for one command only guide ›
- Reload your config in this shell guide ›
- Create a shortcut (put it in ~/.bashrc) guide ›
- Is it an alias, function, builtin or file? guide ›
- Which file would actually run guide ›
- Portable existence check for scripts guide ›
- Search your past commands guide ›
- Repeat the last command with sudo guide ›
- The last argument of the previous command guide ›
Keyboard shortcuts
The fastest wins on this page. Tab and Ctrl+R alone save more typing than every alias you'll ever write.
- Tab Complete a file or command name: nobody types full paths
- Ctrl+R Search your command history as you type (then Enter to run)
- Ctrl+C Stop the running command
- Ctrl+D End of input / log out of the shell
- Ctrl+Z Suspend the current job (then fg or bg)
- Ctrl+L Clear the screen (same as clear)
- Ctrl+A orCtrl+E Jump to the beginning / end of the line
- Ctrl+W orCtrl+U Delete the previous word / the whole line
- Alt+. Insert the last argument of the previous command
- Up orDown Walk through previous commands
Hit an error instead? The error reference
takes the exact message and walks you from cause to fix.
Want all of this, plus internals, worked examples and diagrams: as one printable book?
See The Linux Command Line Handbook.