Cheatsheet

Bash Commands Cheat Sheet – Linux & Terminal Reference

Essential bash commands for navigation, file management, process control, networking, and scripting. Copy any command with one click.

Navigation

pwdPrint current working directory

ls -laList all files with details (including hidden)

cd ~Go to home directory

cd -Switch back to previous directory

pushd <dir>Push directory onto stack and navigate to it

popdPop top directory from stack and navigate to it

File Operations

cp -r <src> <dst>Copy directory recursively

mv <src> <dst>Move or rename file/directory

rm -rf <path>Delete file or directory (no confirmation)

mkdir -p <path>Create directory (and parents) if not exists

touch <file>Create empty file or update timestamp

ln -s <target> <link>Create a symbolic link

find . -name "*.js" -type fFind files by name pattern

find . -mtime -7Find files modified in the last 7 days

Viewing Files

cat <file>Print entire file to stdout

less <file>Page through a file (q to quit)

head -n 20 <file>Show first 20 lines

tail -f <file>Follow file as it grows (great for logs)

grep -r "pattern" .Search for pattern recursively in current dir

wc -l <file>Count lines in file

Permissions

chmod 755 <file>rwxr-xr-x — owner full, others read+execute

chmod +x <file>Make file executable

chmod -R 644 <dir>Set 644 recursively on directory

chown user:group <file>Change file owner and group

umask 022Set default file creation permissions mask

Process Control

ps auxList all running processes

topInteractive process viewer

kill <PID>Send SIGTERM to process

kill -9 <PID>Force kill (SIGKILL) a process

pkill -f <name>Kill process by name pattern

<command> &Run command in background

nohup <command> &Run immune to hangup, keep running after logout

jobsList background jobs in current shell

fg %1Bring job 1 to foreground

Networking

curl -fsSL <url>Fetch URL silently, fail on error

wget -O <file> <url>Download URL to file

ping -c 4 <host>Ping host 4 times

netstat -tulpnShow listening ports and processes

ssh user@hostConnect to remote host via SSH

scp <file> user@host:/pathSecurely copy file to remote

rsync -avz <src> user@host:/dstSync files to remote efficiently

Bash Scripting

#!/bin/bashShebang — use bash to run the script

$1 $2 $@Positional args: first, second, all args

if [ "$x" = "y" ]; then ... fiConditional block

for i in *.txt; do echo "$i"; doneLoop over files

while read line; do ...; done < fileRead file line by line

$?Exit code of last command (0 = success)

set -euo pipefailExit on error, undefined variable, or pipe failure

Bash Scripting Basics

A bash script is just a text file with a #!/bin/bash shebang on the first line. Make it executable with chmod +x script.sh and run it with ./script.sh.

Variables and Quoting

Assign with name="value" (no spaces around =) and reference with $name or ${name}. Always double-quote variable expansions to prevent word splitting: "$var".

Defensive Scripting

Add set -euo pipefail at the top to catch errors early
Quote all variables to handle filenames with spaces
Test scripts with bash -n script.sh to syntax check without running
Use shellcheck for static analysis of bash scripts