My CLI cheat sheet

This is my CLI cheat sheet of the commands I most frequently use

List

  • ls - list files
  • ls - a list all including hidden files
  • ls - l list long version
  • ls - la or ls -lah list all including hidden files in long version
  • ls - s list and sort
  • ls -lt list long and sort by modification time - newest first
  • ls | less - list a shorter version (uses the pipe symbol)
  • ls a* - files starting with a (uses the wild card asterisk to search)
  • ls *a - files ending with a (uses the wild card asterisk to search)
  • ls *amperstand* - files with amperstand anywhere in the files (see grep as well)
  • ls -t - order in which changed
  • npm ls -g --depth 0 list all npm packages

Print and list

  • pwd - print working directory
  • echo $PATH - prints current path. Your default path should be export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin
  • echo * prints all the files in the directory (star is a wild card finder)

Sort

  • b- ignore blanks
  • ls -s -r - list sort reverse order

Create

  • mkdir <directory names space delineated> make directories with a space inbetween
  • mkdir -p <path/directories> make directories and subdirectories in a single path
  • touch <filename> make a new file in the directory if you have spaces between file names you will have as many files as there are spaces eg: touch this is my file - will create this/is/my/file as separate files.
  • cat this \ is \ my \file concatinates files into one file - you will get a file with as the file name
  • echo prints to console
  • nano create_report for nano editors

Copy

  • cp [~/filepathfrom ~/filepathto] copy file from one directory to another
  • cp [~/*.file-extension ~/filepathto]& copy all files with the file extension (eg. .doc/.jpg) from one directory to another
  • # Comments - non-executable as code

Navigate or move files/directories/shells

  • cd change directory
  • cd.. move one directory up
  • cd ../../ move up 2 directories - 2 dots for one level up
  • mv [~/filepathfrom ~/filepathto] move file from one directory to another
  • mv [~/*.file-extension ~/filepathto] move all files with the file extension (eg: .doc/.jpg) from one directory to another
  • open [file_name]
  • chsh -s change shell to Zish, Bash or sh
  • chsh -s /bin/zsh
  • chsh -s /bin/sh
  • chsh -s /bin/bash
  • echo $SHELL - which shell are you on
  • zsh --emulate sh - zsh can be made to emulate sh by executing the command man -ls manual for the ls command
  • / search
  • n next match
  • b move up a page
  • spacebar move down a page
  • q quit
  • wqa quit all
  • cmp - compare
  • cmp -b - compare bytes
  • cp copy files or folders
  • cp -i
  • date
  • date -r <filename>
  • date +%d gives you the day of the date eg: 30
  • df how much of your disc is free
  • df -i how much of you disc is free/used - info
  • df -h - in a table how much of disc free

Read

  • cat <file_name> outputs the contents of the file (good for small files)
  • open <file_name> opens the contents of the file (good for large files )
  • less (browse screen by screen)
  • / search
  • n next match
  • b move up a page
  • spacebar move down a page
  • q quit
  • tree - folder structure graphic equivalent of du

Checking

  • <package_name> -v list version/ sometimes <packagename> --version
  • whoami - check who the user is
  • ps - processes
  • ps -l - process long version

Delete Destructive

  • rm <file_name> remove file - destructive you won’t get the file back again
  • rm -rf <file_name> remove file force remove recursively - NO RECYCLE BIN IMPOSS TO RECOVER USE ADVISEDLY
  • rmdir -p remove directory and path - will remove only when empty
  • rmdir <dir> removes directory if empty

`sudo or Super user rights

sudo is the short version of super-user-do and is usually used to install packages - you will find many examples in the Installfest section

  • sudo gives you super admin rights to your computer - if you are working with a team these rights may be reserved only to senior developers.
  • ` sudo chown` - change file owner or user
  • ` sudo chown -r` change file owner or user recursively
  • ` sudo chmod` change mode - changes user rights

Credit for content in this section - A premium Plural Sight course on shells

Change user rights

  • chmod change mode
  • chmod u+x <file_name> change mode to the user of the computer only can execute commands on the file
  • chmod a+x <file_name> change mode to any user

What is C-URL

C-URL also written as c-url, c-URL and curl, is an acryonm for client-URL (unique resource locator).

Your local device, when it needs to connect to a client (on a remote server or cloud-based platform) can use a curl command in the terminal. The data from the client’s remote server then can be safely transferred to your local device via an URL.

A curl is encoded and therefore different from a general URL where you can access web or mobile pages and data. The code is then decoded at your local device making the data from software development kits (SDKs) available for developers to use.

Search with grep

  • grep search eg: grep <searchkeywords>* this will search through text and files
  • grep <searchkeywords> | sort sorts the search out in alphabetical order
  • grep <searchkeywords> | wc -l search and list number of lines and word count
  • grep <searchkeywords>* - search all matches - if key word is NodeJS matches and returns files

EXTERNAL REFERENCES - My CLI cheat sheet