Table of contents

bash command line

getting help

getting information on a command

help [bash built-in cmd]
man [cmd]
info [cmd]
tldr [cmd]
curl cheat.sh/[cmd]

figure out of a command is part of the shell or a binary

type [cmd]

find path location of a command

which [cmd]

find binary, man page and source files of command

whereis [cmd]

finding a command related to a term

man -k [term]
apropos [term]

looking a word up in the dictionary

dict [term]

keyboard shortcuts

delete backwards until space

ctrl-w

delete path segment

alt-backspace

edit command line

ctrl-x ctrl-e

basic usage

redirect standard out to file

ls > /tmp/redirect.log

redirect standard error to file

ls 2> /tmp/redirect.log

redirect both to file

ls &> /tmp/redirect.log

redirect sterr to stout

2>&1

print something to the syserr

>&2 echo "error"
echo foo 1>&2

combine output of multiple commands: (prints "A B")

(echo "A" ; echo "B")    | xargs echo
{ echo "A" ; echo 'B'; } | xargs echo

the first command can read from stdin: (prints "A B")

echo "A" |  (cat - ; echo "B")   | xargs echo
echo "A" | { cat - ; echo 'B'; } | xargs echo

write the system output to the console & to a file

echo "show in console and write to file" | tee example.txt

write the system output to the console & append to file

echo "show in console and append to file" | tee -a example.txt

create a fifo queue to pipe contents to another program through a (virtual) file

mkfifo /tmp/fifo
while true; do read line < /tmp/fifo; echo "$line"; done
echo "FOO" >/tmp/fifo    # from another terminal

save input & output to file until exit or ctrl + d

script [file]?

wildcards

match all public files

*

match all hidden files

.*

files that end in a number

*[0-9]

files that start with a letter

[a-zA-Z]*

files that don't start with a number

[!0-9]*

Jobs

list jobs (background, foreground and suspended)

jobs

terminate foreground job

CTRL + C

pause foreground job

CTRL + Z

paused job to background

bg [job id]

paused job to foreground

fg [job id]

shorthands

foreground current job (marked with + in jobs output)

%%
%+

foreground previous job (marked with -)

%-

background current job

bg %%
bg %+

background previous job

bg %-

History

show command line history

history

search history dynamically

<CTRL> + R
ssh
<CTRL> + R (repeat)

current command

!#

previous command (executes the command)

!!

execute previous command with root priviliges

sudo !!

string replace in previous command & execute

^find^replace^

replace all occurrences

^find^replace^:&

remove only

^find

excute [n] commands ago

!-[n]

run last command starting with ssh

!ssh

run echo with all arguments to previous command

echo !*

run echo with first argument to previous command

echo !^
echo !:1

run echo with [n]th argument to previous command

echo !:[n]

run echo with argument #2 to my last ln command

echo !ln:2

aliases

list all active aliases

alias
alias -p

create la alias to do ls -la

alias la="ls -la"

bypass aliases when executing command

\[cmd]

terminal mode

set -o vi
set -o emacs