Terminal Cheatsheet for Mac (Basics)

Letters are shown capitalized for readability only. Capslock should be off.

SHORTCUTS

Key/Command	Description
Ctrl + A	Go to the beginning of the line you are currently typing on. This also works for most text input fields system wide. Netbeans being one exception
Ctrl + E	Go to the end of the line you are currently typing on. This also works for most text input fields system wide. Netbeans being one exception
Ctrl + L	Clears the Screen
⌘Cmd + K	Clears the Screen
Ctrl + U	Cut everything backwards to beginning of line
Ctrl + K	Cut everything forward to end of line
Ctrl + W	Cut one word backwards using white space as delimiter
Ctrl + Y	Paste whatever was cut by the last cut command
Ctrl + H	Same as backspace
Ctrl + C	Kill whatever you are running
Ctrl + D	Exit the current shell when no process is running, or send EOF to a the running process
Ctrl + Z	Puts whatever you are running into a suspended background process. fg restores it.
Ctrl + _	Undo the last command. (Underscore. So it's actually Ctrl + Shift + minus)
Ctrl + T	Swap the last two characters before the cursor
Ctrl + F	Move cursor one character forward
Ctrl + B	Move cursor one character backward
Esc + F	Move cursor one word forward
Esc + B	Move cursor one word backward
Esc + T	Swap the last two words before the cursor
Tab	Auto-complete files and folder names

Key/Command	Description
cd	Home directory
cd [folder]	Change directory e.g. `cd documents`
cd /	Root of drive
cd -	Previous directory
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 file using the nano editor
vim [file]	Opens the file using the vim editor
clear	Clear screen
reset	Resets the terminal display

Key/Command	Description
[command-a]; [command-b]	Run command A and then B, regardless of success of A
[command-a] && [command-b]	Run command B if A succeeded
[command-a]		[command-b]	Run command B if A failed
[command-a] &	Run command A in background

Key/Command	Description
[command-a] \| [command-b]	Run command A and then pass the result to command B e.g ps auxwww \| grep google

Key/Command	Description
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

Key/Command	Description
touch [file]	Create new file
pwd	Full path to working directory
.	Current folder, e.g. `ls .`
..	Parent/enclosing directory, e.g. `ls ..`
`ls -l ..`	Long listing of parent directory
`cd ../../`	Move 2 levels up
cat	Concatenate to screen
rm [file]	Remove a file, e.g. `rm data.tmp`
rm -i [file]	Remove with confirmation
rm -r [dir]	Remove a directory and contents
rm -f [file]	Force removal without confirmation
cp [file] [newfile]	Copy file to file
cp [file] [dir]	Copy file to directory
mv [file] [new filename]	Move/Rename, e.g. `mv file1.ad /tmp`
pbcopy < [file]	Copies file contents to clipboard
pbpaste	Paste clipboard contents
pbpaste > [file]	Past clipboard contents into file, `pbpaste > paste-test.txt`

Key/Command	Description
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
[command] \| [command]	Allows to combine multiple commands that generate output, e.g. `cat data.txt	pbcopy`
less	Output content delivered in screensize chunks
[command] > [file]	Push output to file, keep in mind it will get overwritten
[command] >> [file]	Append output to existing file
[command] < [file]	Tell command to read content from a file

Key/Command	Description
find [dir] -name [search_pattern]	Search for files, e.g. `find /Users -name "file.txt"`
grep [search_pattern] [file]	Search for all lines that contain the pattern, e.g. `grep "Tom" file.txt`
grep -r [search_pattern] [file]	Recursively search for all lines that do not contain the pattern
grep -v [search_pattern] [file]	Search for all lines that do NOT contain the pattern

Key/Command	Description
[command] -h	Offers help
[command] —help	Offers help
info [command]	Offers help
man [command]	Show the help manual for [command]
whatis [command]	Gives a one-line description of [command]
apropos [search-pattern]	Searches for command with keywords in description