Linux command cheat sheet

In this cheat-sheet file usually means file or directory ~ is a linux short-hand for your home-directory

Command

Description/explanation

Useful options

Examples

ssh

secure shell  - remote login to another linux machine

ssh ola@saga.sigma2.no

hostname

Given name to machine

cd

change directory – move around in your file hierarchy

cd ~/documents

pwd

print working directory

ls

List – list content of directory

-l,-lh

ls documents

echo

print out something

echo “Hi there”

mkdir

Make directory

-p

cp

copy

cp file1.txt ~/documents/file2.txt

mv

move

mv file1.txt ~/documents/file2.txt

rm

remove

-f, -r, -i

rm -i file1.txt

cat

Cocatenate – used to view contents of a text file
or fill text-file with contents

cat file1.txt

more

View text file in command promt, move
forward one page at a time

more file1.txt

less

Similar to more – but you can move
forwards and backwards

less file1.txt

head

Print out top N lines of text file

-n

head file1.txt

tail

Print out bottom N lines of text file

-n

tail file1.txt

diff

Print out differences between files

diff file1.txt ~/documents/file2.txt

wget

Download files from the internet

wget https://www.nrk.no

tar

Archive or unarchive files

xvf (x: extract v: verbose f: filename)
cvf (c: create)

tar xvf demo-moving-around.tar.gz

find

Find files in the file hierarchy

find file1.txt ~/

touch

Create, modify and change timestamps of a file

touch newfile.txt
touch existingfile.txt

grep

Searches through files and prints out
occurrences of the string grepped

grep car texaboutcars.txt

bash

Sh-compatible command language interpreter

chmod

change mode – change permission mode
of file – read/write/execute

-R

chmod u+x file1.exe
chmod 0700 file1.exe

sort

Sort the given input

uniq

Filters out repeated occurences

wc

Word count

-l,-c,-m

wc textaboutcars.txt

history

Show bash history

xargs

Build and execute command lines
from standard input

man

Linux manual – all linux commands have
a man page showing required
and optional parameters to the linux command

man ls