Linux Cheat Sheet

Cheat sheet for command lines I will never remember

find

find WHERE WHAT

find . -name "*.js" ! -path "./node_modules/*"

find . -regex ".*\\.\\(html\\|js\\)"

Note the backslash before group brackets and alternation operator. Use -regextype posix-extended to get rid of the backslashes

options

-maxdepth LEVELS -mindepth LEVELS

-type [fd]

-iname NAME : case insensitive name

-size [+-]SIZE[kMG]

grep

grep SEARCH IN_FILES

grep searchString app/* build/*

options

-H : file name

-n : line number

-r : recursive

-i : case insensitive

-l : only list files

-v : inverse (filter out)

awk

Extracts the first column of output

awk '{print $1}'

Extracts before last column and append it to a string (needs a white space)

awk '{print "path/" $(NF-1)}'

options

-F',' : Sets ',' as the field separator

tac

Reverse output (reverse cat) of a file or use a pipe

or tail -r

xargs

Runs a command on every line of input

ls -l | xargs -I{} echo {}

Inlines the output of a command (defaults utility to echo)

ls -l | xargs

options

-I{} : Argument placeholder

-n1 : Executes utility for each (one) argument (ie: -rw-r----- root root 358 Aug 8 15:00 README.md is 8 arguments)

-P2 : Parallel mode (2 at a time)

-p : Prompts before executing every command

sed

String substitution (global) in file or use a pipe

sed 's/hello/world/' <file>

ln

Create a symbolic link

ln -s /path/to/fileName linkName

du

Disk usage in a directory

du -shc * | sort -h

while

while read line; do echo "$line"; done;

for

for x in {a..z}; do echo "$x"; done

vim

Open result of a command in a buffer

ls | vim -

vim commands

Pipe current file in a command and send back into vim

:$!sort -u

Search and replace in the whole file

%s/search/replace/ (g flag optional at the end if vim configured with gdefault)

Search and replace the last search

%s//replace/

Delete all occurences of the last search

%s///

convert / ffmpeg

convert img.gif -coalesce img_%03d.png

ffmpeg -framerate 6 -i img_%03d.png -pix_fmt yuva420p output.webm