The Ultimate Terminal Cheatsheet - Your Key to Command Line Productivity

Welcome to the Ultimate Terminal Cheatsheet! We know the command line can be intimidating, like trying to navigate a maze blindfolded. But fear not, for this cheatsheet will be your trusty guide, like a GPS for your terminal. From manipulating files to networking to version control, we've got you covered. Let's power up our keyboards and get ready to conquer the command line!

Get the markdown file for this cheatsheet

Basic Terminal Commands

• Command line
  • See where I am pwd
  • list files ls
  • list hidden files ls -a
  • change directory cd <directory-name>
  • Open whole directory in VS Code code .
  • shorthand for current and previous folder
    • ls . lists current folder
    • ls .. lists previous folder
    • cd .. moves up a folder
  • home vs root
    • ~ is short for home
    • cd ~ brings you home
    • / is short for root
    • cd / brings to you root
  • absolute vs relative paths
    • Absolute: touch /folder-name/file-name.txt goes to the root folder, into folder-name, makes a file inside of that folder
    • Relative: touch ./folder-name/file-name.txt goes into folder-name from current level, makes a file inside of that folder
    • touch ~/folder-name/file-name.txt goes into your home directory (usually looks like /home/username)
  • Files
    • create files touch file-name.txt
    • remove a file rm file-name.txt
    • rename a file mv file-name.txt new-file-name.txt
    • move a file mv this.txt target-folder/
  • Folders
    • create folders mkdir folder-name
    • remove a folder rm folder-name -R
    • rename a folder mv folder-name new-folder-name
    • move a folder mv folder-name ../../target-folder
  • grep
    • search recursively for a pattern in a directory: grep -r <pattern> <directory>
    • search for a pattern in a file: grep <pattern> <file>
    • search for a pattern in multiple files: grep <pattern> <file1> <file2> <file3>
    • ignore case when searching: grep -i <pattern> <file>
    • count the number of occurrences of a pattern: grep -c <pattern> <file>
    • print the line number for each match: grep -n <pattern> <file>
    • print the lines before or after the matching line: grep -A <num_lines> <pattern> <file> or grep -B <num_lines> <pattern> <file>
    • print the matching line and a few lines before and after it: grep -C <num_lines> <pattern> <file>

Git

• Cloning and remotes
  • Clone git clone <url>
  • Check where cloning from and committing to git remote -v
  • Add a remote repository git remote add <remote-name> https://remote-url/repo-name.git
  • Change the origin git remote set-url origin <new-git-repo-url>
• Committing
  • See status of staging area etc git status
  • Add all files in the repo to staging area git add -A
  • Add just one file to the staging area git add <filename>
  • Commit git commit -m "my-message"
  • Push git push
• Branching
  • Check out to a new branch git checkout -b <branchname>
  • Check out to an existing branch git checkout <branchname>
  • Delete a branch (cannot be the branch you're on!) git branch -D <branchname>
  • Merge another branch into current branch
    1. Move to the branch you want to merge FROM git checkout dev
    2. Pull down most recent remote version git pull
    3. Move to the branch you want to merge TO git checkout feature-branch-#25
    4. Merge the FROM branch (dev in this case) into the current branch git merge dev
• Logs
  • See log of activity (commits) git log
  • See log with limited info (easier to read) git log --oneline
• Configs
  • Change git email locally: git config user.name "Marley McTesterson"
  • Change git email locally: git config user.email example@email.com
  • See git repo config settings (i.e. email username etc): git config --list
• Diffs
  • See what is changed currently compared to the most recent commit git diff
  • See what has changed in the current working tree vs a specific branch git diff <branch-name> --
  • Show the difference between two branches: git diff <branch1> <branch2>
• Removing/rebasing changes - Intermediate to Advanced
  • Auto-stash changes before switching branches: git checkout <branch> --autostash
  • Remove uncommitted changes (but save them for later, just in case) git stash
  • Remove last commit git reset --hard HEAD^
  • Squash the last 3 commits into one single commit git rebase -i HEAD~3
    • Then in the editor, for any commits you want to keep leave pick. For anything you want to "squash" and not include that as a commit, change pick to squash.
  • Squash everything after git rebase -i e25340b where e25340b is the SHA1
    • Repeat next step from above to pick/squash specific commits.

ports/processes

• Show what is running on a port lsof -i:<port-number>
• Kill a process kill <process-id>
• Example of above two steps

$ lsof -i:3000
COMMAND   PID    USER   FD   TYPE            DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
node     78070 myuser   24u  IPv6 0xdc9d8g07c355e5f      0t0  TCP *:hbci (LISTEN)

$ kill 78070

• Show list of all node processes ps -ef | grep node
• Kill all node processes pkill -f node

cURL

• Methods
  • GET request: curl https://www.google.com/
  • POST request: curl http://localhost:3000/myroute -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"key1": "val1", "key2": "val2"}' (-H is a header, in this case setting our content type as json. -X is setting the method, post in this case. -d is the request body in JSON format.)
  • PATCH request: curl http://localhost:3000/myroute -X PATCH -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"key1": "val1", "key2": "val2"}'
  • DELETE request: curl http://localhost:3000/myrouote -X DELETE
• Setting Authorization header: curl http://localhost:3000/myroute -H 'Authorization: Bearer <myreallylongtoken>'
• Basic Auth: Authenticate with a username and password while accessing a URL: curl -u <username>:<password> <url>
• Send a POST request with data from a file: curl -X POST -d @<filename> <url>
• Fetch only the headers of a URL: curl -I <url>
• Download the contents of a URL and save it to a file: curl -o <output_file> <url>

VIM

• Insert mode: i
• Normal mode: Esc
• Write changes to file: :w
• Quit VIM: :q
• Save changes and quit VIM: :wq
• Undo last change: u
• Redo last undone change: Ctrl + r

Serverless Framework

• Create a new serverless project: serverless create --template <template-name>
• Deploy a serverless project: serverless deploy
• Remove a deployed serverless project: serverless remove

Docker

• List all running containers: docker ps
• Stop a container: docker stop <container-id>
• Remove a container: docker rm <container-id>
• List all available images: docker images
• Remove an image: docker rmi <image-id>

macOS

• Show hidden files in Finder: Shift + Command + .
• Open a file or folder in Finder from Terminal: open <file/folder>
• Show all running processes: ps aux
• Kill a process: kill <pid>
• Restart the macOS Dock: killall Dock

Linux

• Update package manager: sudo apt-get update
• Install a package: sudo apt-get install <package-name>
• Remove a package: sudo apt-get remove <package-name>
• Show all running processes: ps aux
• Kill a process: kill <pid>