Terminal Cheatsheet for Mac (Basics) This cheatsheet is available in many languages. Since the translation rely on volunteers, the content between the available languages may vary. Choose one below:
Letters are shown capitalized for readability only. Capslock should be off.
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. Also clears everything on current line
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
Option + →
Move cursor one word forward
Option + ←
Move cursor one word backward
Esc + T
Swap the last two words before the cursor
Esc + Backspace
Cut one word backwards using none alphabetic characters as delimiters
Tab
Auto-complete files and folder names
Key/Command
Description
cd [folder]
Change directory e.g. cd Documents
cd
Home directory
cd ~
Home directory
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
Clears the 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’
![value]:p
Print to the console the last command typed that starts with ‘value’
!!
Execute the last command typed
!!:p
Print to the console the last command typed
Key/Command
Description
touch [file]
Create a 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]
Paste 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
less [file]
Output file 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] [dir]
Recursively search in all files in specified directory for all lines that contain the pattern
grep -v [search_pattern] [file]
Search for all lines that do NOT contain the pattern
grep -i [search_pattern] [file]
Search for all lines that contain the case-insensitive pattern
mdfind [search_pattern]
Spotlight search for files (names, content, other metadata), e.g. mdfind skateboard
mdfind -onlyin [dir] -name [pattern]
Spotlight search for files named like pattern in the given directory
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
For Git related commmands you can check my git-basics-cheatsheet