Command line stuff cheatsheet

List (ls)

ls [options] [paths]

Format

-1 One entry per line -l Long view -o Long view (without groups) -C Multicolumn (sorted horizontally) -x Multicolumn (sorted vertically) -F Add / after directories -G Color

Options

-R Recurse -a Include hidden (dotfiles) -A Include hidden (but not . and ..)

Sorting

-r reverse order -S sort by size -t sort by time modified -u sort by time accessed -U sort by time created -c sort by time status was changed -h Human-readable size (3k)

tail [-F | -f | -r] [-bN | -cN | -nN] [file ...]

Modes

-f follow -F follow by filename (accounts for log rotation) -r Reverse order

Options

-bN N*512 bytes -cN N bytes -nN N lines +N Start from line N

sudo [options] <command>

Listing

-l List allowed commands

Options

-A Use $SUDO_ASKPASS -b Run in background -E Preserve environment -H use target’s $HOME -n Don’t prompt for password -P Preserve group vector -S Read password from stdin

File descriptors

-C fd Close all open file descriptors

Prompt

-p prompt Custom prompt (-p “%p password:”)

Interactive

-i [cmd] Interactive shell without variables -s [cmd] Interactive shell -u user run as this user -g group run as this group

Timestamp

-v revalidate timestamp for 5 mins -k invalidate timestamp -K just like -k

wc (Word count)

... | wc [options]

-c Bytes -l Lines -m Characters (incl multi-byte) -w Words

Search-and-replace in all files

perl -p -i -e 's/hello/HELLO/g' **/*

grep [options] [pattern] [file ...]

Options

-A num Print num lines of training context -G –basic-regexp (default) -E –extended-regexp -P –perl-regexp -f file –file (Get patterns for file) -F –fixed-strings -h –no-filename -H –with-filename -l –files-with-matches (just print filenames) -L –files-without-match -r, -R –recursive -v –invert-match -i –ignore-case

Synonyms

egrep  =>  grep -E
fgrep  =>  grep -F