Terminal Cheatsheet for Mac ( basics )

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SHORTCUTS

Key/Command	Description
Ctrl + A	Go to the beginning of the line you are currently typing on
Ctrl + E	Go to the end of the line you are currently typing on
Ctrl + L	Clears the Screen
Command + K	Clears the Screen
Ctrl + U	Clears the line before the cursor position. If you are at the end of the line, clears the entire line.
Ctrl + H	Same as backspace
Ctrl + R	Lets you search through previously used commands
Ctrl + C	Kill whatever you are running
Ctrl + D	Exit the current shell
Ctrl + Z	Puts whatever you are running into a suspended background process. fg restores it.
Ctrl + W	Delete the word before the cursor
Ctrl + K	Clear the line after the cursor
Ctrl + T	Swap the last two characters before the cursor
Esc + T	Swap the last two words before the cursor
Alt + F	Move cursor forward one word on the current line
Alt + B	Move cursor backward one word on the current line
Tab	Auto-complete files and folder names

CORE COMMANDS

cd	Home directory
cd [folder]	Change directory
cd ~	Home directory, e.g. ‘cd ~/folder/’
cd /	Root of drive
ls	Short listing
ls -l	Long listing
ls -a	Listing incl. hidden files
ls -lh	Long listing with Human readable file sizes
ls -R	Entire content of folder recursively
sudo [command]	Run command with the security privileges of the superuser (Super User DO)
open [file]	Opens a file ( as if you double clicked it )
top	Displays active processes. Press q to quit
nano [file]	Opens the Terminal its editor
pico [file]	Opens the Terminal its editor
q	Exit
clear	Clear screen

COMMAND HISTORY

history n	Shows the stuff typed – add a number to limit the last n items
ctrl-r	Interactively search through previously typed commands
![value]	Execute the last command typed that starts with ‘value’
!!	Execute the last command typed

FILE MANAGEMENT

touch [file]	Create new file
pwd	Full path to working directory
..	Parent/enclosing directory, e.g.
	‘ls -l ..’ = Long listing of parent directory
	‘cd ../../’ = Move 2 levels up
.	Current folder
cat	Concatenate to screen
rm [file]	Remove a file, e.g. rm [file] [file]
rm -i [file]	Remove with confirmation
rm -r [dir]	Remove a directory and contents
rm -f [file]	Force removal without confirmation
rm -i [file]	Will display prompt before
cp [file] [newfile]	Copy file to file
cp [file] [dir]	Copy file to directory
mv [file] [new filename]	Move/Rename, e.g. mv -v [file] [dir]

DIRECTORY MANAGEMENT

mkdir [dir]	Create new directory
mkdir -p [dir]/[dir]	Create nested directories
rmdir [dir]	Remove directory ( only operates on empty directories )
rm -R [dir]	Remove directory and contents

PIPES – Allows to combine multiple commands that generate output

more	Output content delivered in screensize chunks
> [file]	Push output to file, keep in mind it will get overwritten
>> [file]	Append output to existing file
<	Tell command to read content from a fi

HELP

[command] -h	Offers help
[command] —help	Offers help
[command] help	Offers help
reset	Resets the terminal display
man [command]	Show the help for ‘command’
whatis [command]	Gives a one-line description of ‘command’