Shell Cheat Sheet
A searchable, printable Bash / shell reference — navigation, files, pipes, variables, loops, conditionals and handy one-liners. Free.
Navigation
8pwd
Print the working directory
ls -la
List all files with details
cd /path
Change directory
cd -
Go to the previous directory
cd ~
Go to the home directory
tree -L 2
Show directory tree (2 levels)
pushd / popd
Push and pop the directory stack
ls -lhS
List by size, human-readable
Files & directories
10touch file.txt
Create an empty file
mkdir -p a/b/c
Create nested directories
cp -r src dest
Copy recursively
mv old new
Move or rename
rm -rf dir
Remove recursively (careful!)
ln -s target link
Create a symbolic link
cat file.txt
Print file contents
head -n 20 / tail -n 20
First / last 20 lines
tail -f log.txt
Follow a file as it grows
less file.txt
Page through a file
Search & find
8grep 'pattern' file
Search for a pattern in a file
grep -rin 'text' .
Recursive, case-insensitive, numbered
find . -name '*.php'
Find files by name
find . -type f -mtime -1
Files modified in the last day
find . -size +10M
Files larger than 10 MB
which node
Locate an executable
locate file.txt
Find by indexed database
grep -v 'skip' file
Invert match (exclude lines)
Text processing
9wc -l file
Count lines
sort file | uniq -c
Sort then count duplicates
cut -d',' -f1 file
Extract a CSV column
awk '{print $1}' file
Print the first field
sed 's/old/new/g' file
Substitute text
tr 'a-z' 'A-Z'
Translate characters
diff a.txt b.txt
Compare two files
tee out.txt
Write to a file and stdout
xargs -I{} cmd {}
Build commands from input
Pipes & redirection
9a | b
Pipe output of a into b
cmd > file
Redirect stdout (overwrite)
cmd >> file
Redirect stdout (append)
cmd 2> err.log
Redirect stderr
cmd > out 2>&1
Redirect both streams
cmd < input.txt
Read stdin from a file
cmd1 && cmd2
Run cmd2 only if cmd1 succeeds
cmd1 || cmd2
Run cmd2 only if cmd1 fails
cmd &
Run in the background
Permissions & ownership
8chmod 755 file
Set rwx for owner, rx for others
chmod +x script.sh
Make a file executable
chmod -R 644 dir
Recursive permission change
chown user:group file
Change owner and group
umask 022
Default permission mask
sudo cmd
Run a command as root
stat file
Show file metadata
ls -l file
View permission bits
Processes & system
9ps aux
List running processes
top / htop
Live process monitor
kill -9 PID
Force-kill a process
pkill -f name
Kill processes by name
jobs / fg / bg
Manage background jobs
df -h
Disk space usage
du -sh dir
Size of a directory
free -h
Memory usage
uname -a
System and kernel info
Variables & expansion
9NAME='value'
Set a variable (no spaces)
echo \"$NAME\"
Use a variable
export PATH=\"$PATH:/x\"
Export to child processes
$(command)
Command substitution
${VAR:-default}
Default if unset
$1 $2 $@
Script positional arguments
$?
Exit status of the last command
read -p 'Name: ' x
Read user input
echo {1..5}
Brace expansion
Scripting
9#!/usr/bin/env bash
Shebang line
set -euo pipefail
Safer strict mode
if [ -f file ]; then ...; fi
Conditional on a file test
[ \"$a\" = \"$b\" ]
String comparison
for f in *.txt; do ...; done
Loop over files
while read line; do ...; done < file
Read a file line by line
case \"$x\" in a) ...;; esac
Multi-way branch
function greet() { echo hi; }
Define a function
trap cleanup EXIT
Run a handler on exit
No entry matches “:q”.
About Shell Cheat Sheet
This Bash and shell cheat sheet covers the command line from first steps to scripting: navigation, files and directories, search and find, text processing, pipes and redirection, permissions and ownership, processes and system info, variables and expansion, and shell scripting constructs.
It pairs everyday commands — ls, cp, grep, find, chmod, ps — with the flags that make them useful, plus the pipe, redirection and expansion syntax that turns single commands into one-liners. The scripting section reminds you of loop, conditional and function syntax when you write a script twice a year.
Everything is on one free, client-side page: search filters the rows live, the sticky table of contents jumps between sections, one click copies any command and the print button gives you a terminal reference for your desk.
How to use Shell Cheat Sheet
- Browse the sections, from Navigation and Files & directories through Pipes & redirection to Scripting.
- Type a command name like grep or chmod into the search box to filter the sheet instantly.
- Jump to a section such as Text processing via the sticky sidebar.
- Click a command or its copy icon to copy it, then paste it into your terminal.
- Print the page for an offline Bash command reference.
Frequently asked questions
The sheet is written for Bash and POSIX-style shells, so nearly everything works unchanged in bash, zsh and similar shells on Linux and macOS.
Both. Alongside file, search, text-processing and process commands, dedicated sections cover variables and expansion plus scripting constructs — loops, conditionals and the syntax you forget between scripts.
Yes. Click the command or the copy icon on its row and it is placed on your clipboard, ready to paste into a terminal.
Always read a command before running it, especially anything involving rm, permissions or redirection. Each row includes a one-line description of exactly what the command does.
Yes, completely free — it is a client-side reference page with no account and no limits.
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