Command Line Cheat Sheet

Here we have narrowed down the most required 38 commands one require at command line.

1. Commands For Directories

The below command display path of current working directory –

$ pwd

Command to Change directory to <directory>

$ cd <directory>

Command to Navigate to parent directory

$ cd ..

Command to List directory contents

$ ls

Command to List detailed directory contents, including
hidden files

$ ls -la

Command to create a new directory named <directory>

$ mkdir <directory>

2. Commands For Output

Output the contents of <file>

$ cat <file>

Output the contents of using <file> the less command (which supports pagination etc.)

$ less <file>

Output the first 10 lines of <file>

$ head <file>

Direct the output of <cmd> into <file>

$ <cmd> > <file>

Append the output of <cmd> to <file>

$ <cmd> >> <file>

Direct the output of <cmd1> to <cmd2>

$ <cmd1> | <cmd2>

Clear the command line window

$ clear

3. Commands for files

Delete <file>

$ rm <file>

Delete <directory>

$ rm -r <directory>

Force-delete <file> (add -r to force delete a directory)

$ rm -f <file>

Rename to <file-old> to <file-new>

$ mv <file-old> <file-new>

Move <file> to <directory> (possibly overwriting an existing file)

$ mv <file> <directory>

Copy <file> to <directory> (possibly overwriting an existing file)

$ cp <file> <directory>

Copy <directory1> and its contents to <directory2> (possibly overwriting files in an existing directory)

$ cp -r <directory1> <directory2>

Update file access & modification time (and create <file> if it doesn’t exist)

$ touch <file>

4. Commands for Permissions

Change permissions of <file> to 755

$ chmod 755 <file>

Change permissions of <directory> (and its contents) to 600

$ chmod -R 600 <directory>

Change ownership of <file> to <user> and <group> (add -R to include a directory’s contents)

$ chown <user>:<group> <file>

5. Commands for Search

Find all files named <file>. inside <dir> (use wildcards [*] to search for parts of filenames, e.g. “file.*”)

$ find <dir> -name "<file>"

Output all occurrences of <text> inside <file> (add -i for case-insensitivity)

$ grep "<text>" <file>

Search for all files containing <text> inside <dir>

$ grep -rl "<text>" <dir>

6. Commands for Network

Ping <host> and display status

$ ping <host>

Output whois information for <domain>

$ whois <domain>

Download <file> (via HTTP[S] or FTP)

$ curl -O <url/to/file>

Establish an SSH connection to <host> with user <username>

$ ssh <username>@<host>

Copy <file> to a remote <host>

$ scp <file> <user>@<host>:/remote/path

Check ip address of your system – windows

ipcofig      (for windows)

ifconfig      (for linux/macos)

7. Commands for Processes

Output currently running processes

$ ps ax

Display live information about currently running processes

$top

Quit process with ID <pid>

$ kill <pid>

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