Linux Commands & Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet
Just a quick cheat sheet of basic and slightly less basic Linux commands, as well as handy keyboard shortcuts, that I maintain for myself since I can't always remember them all.
Sections
Commands
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
man | open “manual page” for specified command/utility (e.g. man ls opens ls command’s man page) |
clear | clears the terminal screen |
ls | list contents of directory (use -a to show hidden files, -l to show in long list format) |
cd | change present working directory (cd .. to move back one directory) |
mkdir | create new directory, multiple directories separated by spaces |
touch | create new file(s) |
cp | copy a file |
mv | move a file, also the way to rename files |
rm | delete files(s) |
rm -rf | delete recursively, necessary for deleting directories and all contents in them |
du | output sizes of files within a directory recursively (use -m for MiB or -g for GiB) |
cat | output all lines of a file onto terminal |
head | outputs first 10 lines of a file (use -n followed by a number to display different amount) |
tail | outputs last 10 lines of a file (use -n followed by a number to display different amount) |
less | opens file in its own “page” similar to man, rather than outputting to terminal like cat |
!! | repeat last command |
date | output system date |
uptime | output system uptime |
whoami | output current user |
which | output path of a command, if present (e.g. which nano shows path of nano |
find | search for files/directories matching a particular pattern (see usage examples below) |
history | output history of commands used, numbered in order |
&& | append between commands to run them in order (e.g. apt update && apt upgrade) |
df | output used and available space on mounted disks in bytes (-h to show MiB, GiB, TiB) |
ps | output of user-initiated processes and their process IDs |
top | opens separate page showing real-time information on running processes |
kill {PID} | terminate a running process, must specify the PID |
reboot | reboots the machine (may require sudo) |
shutdown | shuts down the machine (may require sudo) |
sudo | append prior to a command to use with elevated privileges (e.g. sudo shutdown) |
Basic Usage Examples
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
ls /path/to/directory | list files in a specific directory |
cd /path/to/other-directory | change from current working directory to another |
mkdir new-directory-name | create a new directory within current working directory |
touch filename | create new files, can specify file extension |
cp file /path/to/directory/file | copy a file to another directory |
mv file /path/to/new-filename | move (or rename) a file, leaves no copy behind |
rm -rf /path/to/directory | delete a directory and it’s contents |
find /etc -name hosts | shows any files in /etc with hosts in filename |
find /etc -type d -name '*.conf | shows any directories (d) in /etc with .conf in filename |
Advanced Commands & Usage
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
ln file1 file2 | creates a hard link between files, updates to either file syncs with the other |
ln -s file1 file2 | creates a symbolic link between files, but if original is deleted, symlinked file no longer works |
sadduser mary | add new user (must be done by root or with sudo) |
usermod -aG sudo mary | give a user sudo powers (must be done by root or with sudo) |
su mary | switch to user (keep current environment variables) |
su - mary | switch to user (new environment when using -) |
su mary passwd | change user password (must be done by root or with sudo) |
ssh-keygen | generate a basic SSH key pair |
Handy Keyboard Shortcuts
| Key Combination | Effect |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + C | interupt/terminate current process |
| Ctrl + A | go to start of line |
| Ctrl + E | go to end of line |
| Ctrl + U | delete entire line |