Linux Cheat Sheet

TODO

• Table of contents

whoami

Print the username associated with the current effective user ID.

More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/whoami-invocation.html.

Display currently logged username:

whoami

Display the username after a change in the user ID:

sudo whoami

pwd

Print name of current/working directory.

More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/pwd-invocation.html.

Print the current directory:

pwd

Print the current directory, and resolve all symlinks (i.e. show the "physical" path):

pwd -P

ls

List directory contents.

More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/ls-invocation.html.

List files one per line:

ls -1

List all files, including hidden files:

ls -a

List files with a trailing symbol to indicate file type (directory/, symbolic_link@, executable*, etc.):

ls -F

List all files in long format (permissions, ownership, size, and modification date):

ls -la

List files in long format with size displayed using human-readable units (KiB, MiB, GiB):

ls -lh

List files in long format, sorted by Size (descending) Recursively:

ls -lSR

List files in long format, sorted by time the file was modified and in reverse order (oldest first):

ls -ltr

Only list directories:

ls -d */

Info: Use the above commands with for a better experience: --color=auto and --group-directories-first

cd

Change the current working directory.

More information: https://manned.org/cd.

Go to the specified directory:

cd path/to/directory

Go up to the parent of the current directory:

cd ..

Go to the home directory of the current user:

cd

Go to the home directory of the specified user:

cd ~username

Go to the previously chosen directory:

cd -

Go to the root directory:

cd /

mkdir

Create directories and set their permissions.

More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/mkdir-invocation.html.

Create specific directories:

mkdir path/to/directory1 path/to/directory2 ...

Create specific directories and their parents if needed:

mkdir -p|--parents path/to/directory1 path/to/directory2 ...

Create directories with specific permissions:

mkdir -m|--mode rwxrw-r-- path/to/directory1 path/to/directory2 ...

rm

Remove files or directories.

See also: rmdir

More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/rm-invocation.html.

Remove specific files:

rm path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...

Remove specific files ignoring nonexistent ones:

rm -f path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...

Remove specific files interactively prompting before each removal:

rm -i path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...

Remove specific files printing info about each removal:

rm -v path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...

Remove specific files and directories recursively:

rm -r path/to/file_or_directory1 path/to/file_or_directory2 ...