Linux Bash Shell - Cheat Sheet - Basic Commands - Terminal Shortcuts - File Manipulation - Search - Time Settings

Oct 13, 2026

Linux Bash Shell Cheat Sheet compiles commonly used terminal and scripting commands for everyday work on most distributions. It covers keyboard shortcuts, navigation and listing files, core file operations (copy, move, remove, links, create/update), and essential text research tools like grep with options and regular expressions plus sort and wc. It also includes powerful file discovery with locate and find, data extraction workflows, and scheduling with date, crontab, and at.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Basic Commands

Basic Terminal Shortcuts

Basic Terminal Navigation

Basic file manipulation

Researching Files

locate and find

grep, sort, wc

Time settings

crontab and at

[freeworld.posterous.com](freeworld.posterous.com) Linux Bash Shell Cheat Sheet (works with about every distribution, except for apt-get which is Ubuntu/Debian exclusive) Legend: Everything in “<>” is to be replaced, ex: - - > iLovePeanuts .txt Don't include the '=' in your commands ' . . ' means that more than one file can be affected with only one command ex: rm file.txt file2.txt movie .mov .. .. Linux Bash Shell Cheat Sheet Basic Commands Basic Terminal Shortcuts CTRL L = Clear the terminal CTRL D = Logout SHIFT Page Up/Down = Go up/down the terminal CTRL A = Cursor to start of line CTRL E = Cursor the end of line CTRL U = Delete left of the cursor CTRL K = Delete right of the cursor CTRL W = Delete word on the left CTRL Y = Paste (after CTRL U,K or W) TAB = auto completion of file or command CTRL R = reverse search history!! = repeat last command CTRL Z = stops the current command (resume with fg in foreground or bg in background) Basic Terminal Navigation ls -a = list all files and folders ls = list files in folder ls -lh = Detailed list, Human readable ls -l *.jpg = list jpeg files only ls -lh = Result for file only cd = change directory if folder name has spaces use “ “cd / = go to root cd .. = go up one folder, tip: . ./ . ./ . ./ du -h: Disk usage of folders, human readable du -ah: “ “ “ files & folders, Human readable du -sh: only show disc usage of folders pwd = print working directory man = shows manual (RTFM) Basic file manipulation cat = show content of file (less, more) head = from the top -n <\#oflines> tail = from the bottom -n <\#oflines> mkdir = create new folder mkdir myStuff .. mkdir myStuff/pictures/ .. cp image.jpg newimage.jpg = copy and rename a file cp image.jpg / = copy to folder cp image.jpg folder/sameImageNewName.jpg cp -R stuff otherStuff = copy and rename a folder cp *.txt stuff/ = copy all of * to folder mv file.txt Documents/ = move file to a folder mv = move folder in folder mv filename.txt filename2 .txt = rename file mv stuff/newfileName mv / .. = move folder up in hierarchy rm .. = delete file (s) rm -i .. = ask for confirmation each file rm -f = force deletion of a file rm -r / = delete folder touch = create or update a file ln file1 file2 = physical link ln -s file1 file2 = symbolic link Linux Bash Shell Cheat Sheet Basic Commands Researching Files The slow method (sometimes very slow) : locate = search the content of all the files locate = search for a file sudo updatedb = update database of files find = the best file search tool (fast) find -name “” find -name “text” = search for files who start with the word text find -name “*text” = “ “ “ “ end “ “ “ “ Advanced Search: Search from file Size (in ~) find ~ -size +10M = search files bigger than. . (M,K,G) Search from last access find -name “” -atime -5 ('- ' = less than, '+' = more than and nothing = exactly) Search only files or directory’s find -type d - - > ex: find /var/log -name "syslog" -type d find -type f = files More info: man find, man locate Extract, sort and filter data grep = search for text in file -i = Doesn't consider uppercase words -I = exclude binary files grep -r / = search for file names with occurrence of the text With regular expressions: grep -E ^ = search start of lines with the word text grep -E <0-4> =shows lines containing numbers 0-4 grep -E = retrieve all lines with alphabetical letters sort = sort the content of files sort = sort alphabetically sort -o = write result to a file sort -r = sort in

FAQs

How do terminal shortcuts help during Bash work?

The sheet lists shortcuts like CTRL L to clear, CTRL A/E to jump to the start/end of a line, CTRL U/K to delete by cursor direction, and TAB for auto-completion. It also includes CTRL R for reverse search of command history and CTRL Z to stop a running command.

Which commands are used to list files and navigate directories?

Use ls with options such as -a, -l, -lh, and pattern matching like *.jpg. Navigate with cd, including cd / for root, cd .. to go up one folder, and quoting for folder names containing spaces.

How can I search for text inside files and filter results?

Use grep with options like -i for case-insensitive and -r to search within directories. It also provides grep -E examples for regular expressions, then suggests sort for ordering and wc for word/line/byte counts.

Oct 13, 2026

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