Command-line cheat sheet

This page lists the most common commands in the Ubuntu command line. For full details on any command, run man <command> in your terminal.

Navigation

Command	Description	Online manual page
pwd	Print the current working directory	pwd(1)
ls	List all files and directories in the current directory	ls(1)
ls -l	Long list, with permissions, owner, size, and date
ls -a	List all, including hidden files (file names starting with .)
ls -la or ll	Long listing including hidden files
ls -ld <dir>	Show the directory entry itself, not its contents, for directory <dir>
ls -l <file>	Show file type, permissions, owner, and size for <file>
cd <path>	Change to the specified directory	cd(1posix)
cd ..	Move up to the parent directory
cd ~	Return to the home directory
cd -	Return to the previous directory
cd /	Move to the root directory
cd ../../	Move up two levels at once

Working with the filesystem

Command	Description	Online manual page
mkdir <name>	Create a new directory	mkdir(1)
rmdir <name>	Remove an empty directory	rmdir(1)
tree	Display directory structure as a tree	tree(1)
tree -L <n> <path>	Display tree to depth n

Working with files

Command	Description	Online manual page
touch <file>	Create a new (empty) file, or update the timestamp of an existing file	touch(1)
cp <src> <dest>	Copy a file from a source (src) to a new destination (dest)	cp(1)
cp -a <src> <dest>	Copy a directory recursively, preserving permissions
mv <src> <dest>	Rename a file or directory	mv(1)
mv <src>/file <dest>/file	Move a file without renaming it
rm <file>	Remove a file	rm(1)
rm -r <dir>	Remove a non-empty directory and all its contents
cat <file>	Print the contents of <file> to the screen	cat(1)
less <file>	View file contents one page at a time	less(1)
head -n 20 <file>	Print the first 20 lines of a file (default with no flag is 10)	head(1)
tail -n 20 <file>	Print the last 20 lines of a file (default with no flag is 10)	tail(1)

Users, groups, and permissions

Command	Description	Online manual page
chmod <mode> <file>	Change file permissions (symbolic or numeric notation)	chmod(1)
chown <user>:<group> <file>	Change file owner and group	chown(1)
umask	Show or set the default permissions mask	umask(2)
sudo <command>	Run a command with administrator privileges	sudo(8)

Searching

Command	Description	Online manual page
grep <pattern> <file>	Search for lines matching a pattern in a file	grep(1)
grep <name> /etc/passwd	Look up a user account
grep <name> /etc/group	Look up group membership
find <path> -name <pattern>	Search for files matching a name pattern	find(1)
which <command>	Show the full path to an executable command	which(1)
file <name>	Determine the type of a file	file(1)

Getting help

Command	Description	Online manual page
man <command>	Open the manual page for a command
man man	Open the manual page for man itself	man(1)
man -k <keyword>	Search man page descriptions for a keyword
<command> --help	Print a brief help summary for a command