BASH and GNU/Linux Cheat Sheet
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Change log
- 2013/06/25 :: Minor changes and mistype fixes.
- 2013/06/12 :: English version released
Bourne-Again SHell and Linux CLI
Set interpreter: #!/bin/bash Remarks: # this is comment
Interactive control
Action | set -o vi | set -o emacs |
vi-command mode ( C) |
Esc |
— |
Previous/next command in history |
jC / kC |
Ctrl+p / Ctrl+n PageUp / PageDown |
Automatic fill of file name |
EscEscC |
Tab |
List of all matches |
Esc= |
TabTab |
Horizontal move in command line |
hC / lC |
Ctrl+b / Ctrl+f, ← / → |
Jump to line begin/end |
^C / $C |
Ctrl+a / Ctrl+e |
Backward/forward search in history |
/C / ?C |
Ctrl+r / Ctrl+s |
Delete word to the end/begin |
dwC / dbC |
Esc d / Esc h |
Delete text from cursor to the line end/begin |
d$C / d^C |
Ctrl+k / Ctrl+u |
Command line history
- history, fc -l – display numbered history of commands
- !n – run command number n
- !p – run last command beginning by p
- !! – repeat last entered command
- !!:n – expand n-th parameter of last command
- !$ – expand the last parameter of last command
- fc – run defined $EDITOR wit last command
- fc -e vim z k – open vim editor with commands from z to k
- ^old^new – substitute old with new in last command
- program `!!` – use output of last command as input
Help and manuals
- type -a command – information about command
- help command – brief help on bash command
- man command, info command – detailed help
- man -k key, apropos key, whatis key – find command
Debugging
Run a script as: bash option script and its parameters
- bash -x – print commands before execution
- bash -u – stop with error if undefined variable is used
- bash -v – print script lines before execution
- bash -n – do not execute commands
Variables, arrays and hashes
- NAME=10 – set value to variable $NAME, ${NAME}
- export NAME=10, typedef -x NAME – set as environment variable
- D=$(date); D=`date` – variable contains output of command date
- env, printenv – list all environment variables
- set – list env. variables, can set bash options and flags shopt
- unset name – destroy variable of function
- typeset, declare – set type of variable
- readonly variable – set as read only
- local variable – set local variable inside function
- ${ !var}, eval \$$var – indirect reference
- ${parameter-word} – if parameter has value, then it is used, else word is used
- ${parameter=word} – if parameter has no value assing word. Doesn't work with $1, $2, ets.
- ${parameter:-word} – works with $1, $2, etc.
- ${parameter?word} – if parameter has value, use it; if no display word and exit script.
- ${parameter+word} – if parameter has value, use word, else use empty string
- array=(a b c); echo ${array[1]} – print „b“
- array+=(d e f) – append new item/array at the end
- ${array[*]}, ${array[@]} – all items of array
- ${#array[*]}, ${#array[@]} – number of array items
- declare -A hash – create associative array (from version)
- hash=([key1]=value ["other key2"]="other value") – store items
- ${hash["other key2"]}, ${hash[other key2]} – access
- ${hash[@]}, ${hash[*]} – all items
- ${!hash[@]}, ${!hash[*]} – all keys
Strings
- STRING="Hello" – indexing: H0 e1 l2 l3 o4
- STRING+=" world!" – concatenate strings
- ${#string}, expr length $string – string length
- ${string:position} – extract substring from position
- ${string:position:length} – extract substr. of length from position
- ${string/substring/substitution} – substitute first occurrence
- ${string//substring/substitution} – substitute all
- ${string/%substring/substitution} – substitute last occurrence
- ${string#substring} – erase shortest substring
- ${string##substring} – erase longest substring
Embedded variables
- ~, $HOME – home directory of current user
- $PS1, $PS2 – primary, secundary user prompt
- $PWD, ~+ / $OLDPWD, ~- – actual/previous directory
- $RANDOM – random number generator, 0 – 32,767
- $? – return value of last command
- $$ – process id. of current process
- $! – process id. of last background command
- $PPID – process id. of parent process
- $- – display of bash flags
- $LINENO – current line number in executed script
- $PATH – list of paths to executable commands
- $IFS – Internal field separator. List of chars, that delimiter words from input, usually space, tabulator $'\t' and new line $'\n'.
Script command line parameters
- $0, ${0} – name of script
- $1 to $9, ${1} to ${255} – positional command line parameters
- $# – number of command line parameters (argc)
- $* – expand all parameters, "$*" = "$1 $2 $3…"
- $@ – expand all parameters, "$@" = "$1" "$2" "$3"…
- $_ – last parameter of previous command
- shift – rename arguments, $2 to $1, $3 to $2, etc.; lower counter $#
- xargs command – read stdin and put it as parameters of command
Read options from command line
while getopts "a:b" opt; do case $opt in
a) echo a = $OPTARG ;;
b) echo b ;;
\?) echo "Unknown parameter!" ;;
esac; done
shift $(($OPTIND - 1)); echo "Last: $1"
Control expressions
- (commands), $(commands), `commands`, {commands;} – run in subshell
- $(program), `program` – output of program replaces command
- test, [ ] – condition evaluation:
- numeric comparison: a -eq b … a=b, a -ge b … a≥b, a -gt b … a>b, a -le b … a≤b, a -lt b … a<b
- file system: -d file is directory, -f file exists and is not dir., -r file exists and is readable, -w file exists and is writable, -s file is non-zero size, -a file exists
- logical: -a and, -o or, ! negation
- [[ ]] – comparison of strings, equal =, non-equal !=, -z \sl string is zero sized, -n \sl string is non-zero sized, <, > lexical comparison
- [ condition ] && [ condition ]
- true – returns 0 value
- false – returns 1 value
- break – terminates executed cycle
- continue – starts new iteration of cycle
- eval parameters – executes parameters as command
- exit value – terminates script with return value
- . script, source script – reads and interprets another script
- : argument – just expand argument or do redirect
- alias name='commands' – expand name to commands
- unalias name – cancel alias
- if [ condition ]; then commands;
elif [ condition ]; then commands;
else commands; fi
- for variable in arguments; do commands; done
- {a..z – expands to a b c … z
- {i..n..s} – sequence from i to n with step s
- \"{a,b,c}\" – expands to "a" "b" "c"
- {1,2}{a,b} – expands to 1a 1b 2a 2b
- seq start step end – number sequence
- for((i=1; i<10; i++)); do commands; done
- while returns true; do commands; done
- until [ test returns true ]; do commands; done
- case $prom in value_1) commands ;;
value_2) commands ;; *) implicit. commands ;;
esac
- Function definition: function name () { commands; }
- return value – return value of the function
- declare -f function – print function declaration
Redirections
- 0 stdin/input, 1 stdout/output, 2 stderr/error output
- > file – redirection, create new file or truncate it to zero size
- >> file – append new data at the end of file
- command1<<<command2 – ouput from 2nd to stdin of 1st
- command < file – read stdin from file
- tee file – read stdin, writes to file and to stdout
- command 2> file – redirect error messages to file
- exec 1> >(tee -a log.txt) – redirect stdout also to file
- 2>&1 – merge stderr and stdout
- exec 3<>/dev/tcp/addr/port – create descriptor for network read/write
- exec 3>&- – close descriptor
- command > /dev/null 2>&1 – suppress all output
- n> n>> n>&m – operation redirect for descriptors n, m
- mkfifo name – make a named pipe, that can be written and read as file
- command1 | command2 – pipe, connection between processes
- read parameters – read input line and separate it into parameters
Input for interactive programs (here documents)
./program << EOF ./program <<-'EOF' # suppress tabulators
Input1 Input1
Input2 Input2
EOF EOF
Process file line by line
cat file.txt | (while read L; do echo "$L"; done)
Evaluating mathematical expressions
- let expression, expr expression, $((expression)), $((expression1, expression2)), $[expression]
- Numeric systems: base#number; hexa 0xABC, octal 0253, binary 2#10101011
- Operators: i++, ++i, i–, –i, +, -; ** power, *, /, % remainder; logical: ! neg., && and, || or; binary: ~, &, |; <<, >> shifts; assignment: = *= /= %= += -= <>= &= ^= |= >>= <<=; relations: < <= > >=
- factor n – factorize n into primes
- Floating point operations: echo "scale=10; 22/7" | bc
Screen output
- echo "text" – print text, echo * print all files in current dir
- echo -e "text" – interpret escape-sequences (\t tab., \a beep, \f new page, \n new line), -n, \c suppressing \n, \xHH hex-byte, \nnn oct. byte, \u03B1 „α“ (U+03B1) in UTF-8
- stty – change and print terminal line settings
- tty – print name of terminal connected to stdout
- printf format values – format output
- printf -v variable form. val. – form. output into variable
- % [flags][width][.precision][length]specifier
- Specifier: %u, %d, %i decimal; %E, %f float, %x, %X hex; %o octal, %s string, %% char %
- Width: n prints at least n chars, spaces from right, 0n print at least n chars, zeros from left, * width specified in preceding parameter
- Precision: min. number of digits, digits after decimal point, number of printed chars, * number of chars given by preceding parameter
- Flags: - left-justify, + prints number with sign +/-
- printf "%d" \'A – display ASCII code of char “A” (65)
- printf \\$(printf '%03o' 65) – print char given by ASCII code
- tput action – terminal dependent action
- reset, tput sgr0, tset – reset terminal, cancel attributes
- clear, tput clear – clear screen
Process management
- command & – run command in background
- prog1 && prog2 – run prog2, if prog1 ends with success
- prog1 || prog2 – rub prog2, if prog1 ends with error
- Ctrl+z – stop process (SIGSTOP)
- bg / fg – run last stopped process in background/foreground
- jobs – list processes running in background
- exec command – shell is replaced by command
- wait – wait for end of background tasks
- top – watch CPU, memory, system utilization
- ps -xau – list processes and users, ps -xaf, pstree tree listing
- pgrep process, pidof process – get PID by name of process
- nice -n p command – priority p od -20 (max.) to 19 (min.)
- renice -n p -p pid – change priority of running process
- kill -s k n – send signal k to proces id. n, 0, 1 SIGHUP; 2 SIGINT Ctrl+c; 3 SIGQUIT; 9 SIGKILL; 15 SIGTERM; 24 SIGSTOP
- trap 'command' signals – run command when signal received
- killall name – send signals to process by name
- nohup command & – command will continue after logout
- time command – print time of process execution
- times – print user and system time utilization in current shell
- watch -n s command – every s seconds run command
Time and process planning
- date – print date, date –date=@\sl unix_time
- date +"%Y%m%d %H:%M:%S %Z" – format to 20130610 13:39:02 CEST
- cal – display calendar
- crontab -e – edit crontab, -l list, format min hour date month day command, * * * * * command run every minute, 1 * * * * command 1st min of every hour
- at, batch, atq, atrm – queue, examine or delete jobs for later execution
File operations
File name wildchars: ? a char; * zero or more chars;
[set] one or more given chars, interval
[0-9] [a-z], [A-Z]; [!set],
[^set] none of chars.
- ls – list directory, ls -la, vdir all files with info
- tree – display hierarchy tree of directories
- file file – determine file by its magic number
- lsattr, chattr – list and change file attributes for ext2,3
- umask – define permission mask for new file
- pwd (-P) – logical (physical) path to current directory
- cd directory – change directory, cd jump to $HOME, cd - to $OLDPWD
- dirs – list stack of directories
- pushd directory – store directory to stack
- popd – set top stack directory as actual directory
- cp source target – copy file
- ln -s source link – create a symbolic link
- mkdir, rmdir – create, remove directory
- rm file, rm -r -f directory, unlink – delete
- touch file – create file, set actual time to existing file
- du -h – display space usage of directories
- stat file – file statistics, stat –format=%s size
- basename name suffix – remove path or suffix
- dirname /path/to/file – print only path
- repquota – summarize quotas for a filesystem
- mktemp – create file with unique name in /tmp
Work with file content
- cat – concatenate files and print them to stdout
- cat > file – create file, end with Ctrl+d
- tac – like cat, but from bottom to top line
- more, less – print by pages, scrollable
- od, hexdump -C, xxd – print in octal, hex dump
- wc – get number of lines -l, chars -n, bytes -c, words -w
- head/tail – print begin/end, tailf, tail -f wait for new lines
- split, csplit – split file by size, content
- sort – -n numerical, -r reverse, -f ignore case
- uniq – omit repeated lines, -d show only duplicates
- sed -e 'script' – stream editor, script y/ABC/abc/ replaces A, B, C for a, b, c; s/regexp/substitution/
- tr a b – replace char a for b
- tr '[a-z]' '[A-Z]' < file.txt – change lowercase to uppercase
- awk '/pattern/ { action }' file – process lines containing pattern
- cut -d delimiter -f field – print column(s)
- cmp file1 file2 – compare files and print first difference
- diff, diff3, sdiff, vimdiff – compare whole files
- dd if=in of=out bs=k count=n – read n blocks of k bytes
- strings – show printable strings in binary file
- paste file1 file2 – merge lines of files
- rev – reverse every line
Search
- whereis, which – find path to command
- grep – -i ignore case, -n print line number, -v display everything except pattern, -E extended regexp
- locate file – find file
- find path -name 'file*' – search for file*
- find path -exec grep text -H {} \; – find file containing text
Users and permissions
- whoami, who am i – tell who I am :)
- w, who, users, finger – list connected users
- last / lastb – history successful / unsuccessful logins
- logout, Ctrl+d – exit shell
- su login – change user to login
- sudo – run command as other user
- id login, groups login – show user details
- useradd, userdel, usermod – create, delete, edit user
- groupadd, groupdel, groupmod – create, delete, edit group
- passwd – change password
- pwck – check integrity of /etc/passwd
- chown user:group file – change owner, -R recursion
- chgrp group file – change group of file
- chmod permissions file – change permissions in octal of user, group, others; 444=-r–r–r–, 700=-rwx——, 550=-r-xr-x—
- runuser login -c "command" – run command as user
System utilities
- uname -a – name and version of operating system
- uptime – how long the system has been running
- fuser – identify processes using files or sockets
- lsof – list open files
- sync – flush file system buffers
- chroot dir command – run command with special root directory
- strace,ltrace program – show used system/library calls
- ldd binary – show library dependencies
Disk partitions
- df – display free space
- mount – print mounted partitions
- mount -o remount -r -n / – change mount read only
- mount -o remount -w -n / – change mount writeable
- mount -t iso9660 cdrom.iso /mnt/dir -o loop – mount image
- mount -t cifs \\\\server\\ftp /mnt/adr -o user=a,passwd=b
- umount partition – unmount partition
- fdisk -l – list disk devices and partitions
- blkid – display attributes of block devices
- tune2fs – change ext2/3/4 filesystem parameters
- mkfs.ext2, mkfs.ext3 – build file-system
- hdparm – set/read parameters of SATA/IDE devices
System utilization
- ulimit -l – print limits of system resources
- free, vmstat – display usage of physical, virt. memory
- lspci, lsusb – list PCI, USB devices
- dmesg – display messages from kernel
- sysctl – configure kernel parameters at runtime
- dmidecode – decoder for BIOS data (DMI table)
- init, telinit – command init to change runlevel
- runlevel, who -r – display current runlevel
Networking
- hostname – display computer hostname
- ping host – send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST
- dhclient eth0 – dynamically set eth0 configuration
- host, nslookup host/adr – DNS query
- dig – get record from DNS
- whois domain – finds owner of domain or network range
- ethtool eth0 – change HW parameters of network interface eth0
- ifconfig – display network devices, device configuration
- ifconfig eth0 add 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
- ifconfig eth0 hw ether 01:02:03:04:05:06 – change MAC address
- route add default gw 10.0.0.138 – set network gateway
- route -n, netstat -rn – display route table
- netstat -tlnp – display processes listening on ports
- arp – display ARP table
- iptables -L – display firewall rules
- tcpdump -i eth0 'tcp port 80' – display HTTP communication
- tcpdump -i eth0 'not port ssh' – all communication except SSH
- ssh user@hostname command – run command remotely
- mail -s "subject" address – send email to address
- wget -e robots=off -r -L http://path – mirror given page