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Common Commands

Help Commands
Command
Description
compgen -c Show all commands
compgen -a Show all alias commands
compgen -A function Show available functions
man <command>
Show manual page of a command (more info than --help)
<command> --help
Show help page of a command (less info than man command)
<command> --version
Show version of a command

File & Folder Commands
Command Description
ls -lah
List files/folders in current directory (+infos)
mkdir newdir
Create a new folder
cd somefolder
Change/switch to another directory
cd /mnt/ change/switch to another drive
cp file.txt file-copy.txt
Copy a file
mv file.txt file-renamed.txt
Rename a file
mv file.txt /tmp
Move file to another folder
rm file.txt
Remove a file
rm -rf folder
Remove entire folder (recursive)
ln -s original target
Create a symlink
pwd
Show path of current folder
chown <arguments> <user>:<group> file.txt

Change Owner and Group of file (use -R for rekursive)

Search & String Commands
Command Description
find . -name "file.txt"
Search for a file (recursive)
find . -name "*.txt"
Search for all txt files
grep -rin "search string"
Search for a string in current folder (recursive)
grep -rin "search string" | cut -c 1-100
Search for a string in current folder + limit output of string
sed -Ei 's/someString/newString/g' file.txt
Replace "someString" with "newString" in a file
head file.txt
Show first 10 lines of file
tail file.txt
Show last 10 lines of file
cat file.txt
Show full content of file
cat file.txt | grep "search string"
Pipe output of "cat" command to grep + filter string

Terminal Search, Shortcuts & Autocompletion
Command Description
Ctrl + a Jump to beginning of line
Ctrl + e Jump to end of line
Ctrl + Arrow Left

Jump word backward

Ctrl + Arrow Right

Jump word forward

Ctrl + w Remove word backward
Alt + w
Remove word forward
Ctrl + p

Go through command line history backward

Ctrl + n

Go through command line history forward

Ctrl + r

Reverse Search in command history: 

  - Type in something to search

  - Type Enter to execute the searched command

  - Type "Ctrl + r" to search further in reverse

  - Type "Ctrl + s" to search further in inverse

  - Tip: In only a few cases it makes sense to use the inverse search (Ctrl + s) from the beginning, but usually you want to search in reverse from the latest history commands

Ctrl + s

Same as "Ctrl + r" but inverse (starts from the beginning of the history)

Ctrl + f

Autocomplete a suggestion (Fish Shell only)

OS Helper Commands
Command Description
du -csh .
Show size of current folder
df -h
Show partitions / drives
lsb_release -a
Show OS Version / Informations

Remote / Host Commands
Command Description
wget https://www.somewhere495848.com/test.txt
Download a file
curl -LI https://www.google.com
Show Header Informations of URL


whois <host>
Show NS, DNS, Register about a host (e.g.: whois google.com)
host <host>
DNS Lookup of a host (e.g.: host google.com)
dig <host>
DNS Lookup of a host (verbose) (e.g.: dig google.com)


rsync -avz myfolder somehost:/var/www/
Sync a folder to a remote host and specific path
rsync -avz somehost:/var/www/ .
Sync from remote host and specific path to local folder
rsync -avz <dirSource> <dirTarget> Sync entire Folder (locally)
rsync -avz <dirSource>/ <dirTarget>  Sync only contents of folder (locally)

Command-Line Operators
Command Description
<command> > file.txt
Write output of a command into a file (creates/overwrites file)
<command> >> file.txt
Write output of a command into a file (appends at end of file)
<command1> && <command2>
Do command2 only if command1 succeeds
<command1> || <command2>
Do command2 only if command1 fails
<command1> | <command2>
Pipe command1 output into command2
!
Negation Operator (e.g. find . ! -user "root")
More about operators: linux-command-operators
 

Other helpful Commands
Command Description
bash myCustomScript.sh
Execute a bash script
history | tail
Show last 10 lines of your history (commands)
htop
Very helpful utility to show all process, cpu, ram, ..
ps aux | grep http
Show processes who accesses http
which <command>
Show path location of a command


tar -cvf myfolder.tar myfolder
Create a compressed tar file of a folder
tar -xvf myfolder.tar
Extract a compressed tar file
zip -r myfolder.zip myfolder
Create a compressed zip file
unzip myfolder.zip
Extract a compressed zip file


EDITOR=nano crontab -e Set Editor for current shell only (temporarily)
select-editor Set Editor for user (usually permanently)
vim file.txt Edit a file in the Vim Editor
nano file.txt Edit a file in the Nano Editor


sudo su - www-data -s /bin/bash
Switch User to example "www-data"