My Linux Cheatsheet

Table of Contents

Compilation of Linux commands and shortcuts I use often.

I’ve made this list for my own reference, but who knows, you might learn something from it too.

Terminal keyboard shortcuts
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CTRL+L -> C[l]ears screen. Acts like clear -x, so it places the current line at the top of the screen
CTRL+E -> Move cursor to [e]nd of line
CTRL+A -> Move cursor to start of line
CTRL+R -> [R]everse search in the command history. Press it again to cycle through matching commands
CTRL+W -> Deletes [w]ord before the cursor
CTRL+K -> Deletes from cursor to start of line
CTRL+X+E -> Open line in default text [e]ditor. Useful for changing something in very long commands
CTRL+Z -> Suspends current process and moves it to background. Bring it back using fg or make it run in the background with bg
CTRL+D at an empty prompt -> Similar to exit, useful for [d]isconnecting from SSH sessions
CTRL+D with text input -> [D]eletes character at cursor
ALT+B -> Move cursor [b]ack one word
ALT+F -> Move cursor [f]orward one word

sudo !! -> Runs previous command (!!) with sudo
echo $((RANDOM % 100 + 1)) -> Generates random number 0-100
echo $((2#1111)) -> Converts binary (1111) to decimal
echo $((16#1a)) -> Converts hexadecimal (1a) to decimal
tr -dc '[:alnum:]' < /dev/urandom | head -c 32 -> Generates random alphanumeric password
time [command] -> Shows time it took to execute a command
[command] | tee output.txt -> Redirect output to terminal and file at the same time
hostnamectl -> Displays hostname and other goodies

ip a -> Show network interfaces info
ip link set [interface] up|down -> Set interface up or down
ip addr add|del ip/mask dev [interface] -> Add or delete IP address to interface
curl ifconfig.me -> Retrieve public IP address. Use curl ifconfig.me/all for more
ss -tunap -> Lists all TCP and UDP sockets with their state of connection, PID that owns it and local/remote addresses
ss -tunalp -> Lists all TCP and UDP sockets that are listening, along with PID and addresses
nc -l -p [port] -> Listen on port
ip route show -> Shows kernel’s routing table
nslookup example.com and dig example.com -> DNS lookup utilities

grep -r "pattern" -> Searches for a pattern recursively in all files
tail -f [path] -> Outputs logs in real time. You can further grep the output to get exactly what you’re looking for
dd if=/dev/zero of=file bs=1M count=100 -> Creates 100MB file filled with zeros
rsync --dry-run [source] [destination] -> Simulates rsync operation without actually doing anything

lsblk -> List block devices (disks)
df -h -> See disk space usage in a human readable format
du -sh * -> See disk space used by each file and directory in current location
parted /dev/sdX -> Disk partitioning tool
findmnt -> Displays info about mounted file systems
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX -> Creates ext4 filesystem. Replace ext4 with filesystem of choice

Add v to any of these to make them verbose

tar cf output.tar file1 file2 -> [c]reate archive and write it to [f]ile
tar czf output.tar.gz file1 file2 -> [c]reate g[z]ipped compressed archive and write it to [f]ile
tar xf source.tar -> Extract archive [f]ile into current directory
tar tf source.tar -> Lis[t] contents of tar [f]ile
zip -r archive.zip file1 directory1 -> Creates archive with specified files and directories
zip -r -[0-9] archive.zip file1 directory1 -> Creates archive with specific compression level (0 is lowest, 9 is highest)
zip -r --encrypt archive.zip file1 directory1 -> Creates encrypted archive with password
unzip archive.zip -> Extracts from archive into current directory
unzip -l archive.zip -> Lists contents of an archive. Does not extract anything

If you want to suggest any commands, put them in the comments, I would love to see them.