The Mac Terminal Commands Cheat Sheet

Keyboard Shortcuts

Tab

Auto-complete file and folder names

Cmd+ F

Find instances of specific text in the Terminal

Ctrl + A

Go to the beginning of the line you're currently typing on

Cmd + A

Select everything in the Terminal

Cmd + P

Print Terminal inputs and outputs

Ctrl + E

Go to the end of the line you're currently typing on

Ctrl + U

Clear the line before the cursor

Ctrl + K

Clear the line after the cursor

Ctrl + W

Delete the word before the cursor

Ctrl + T

Swap the last two characters before the cursor

Esc + T

Swap the last two words before the cursor

Ctrl + L

Clear the screen

Ctrl + C

Kill whatever you're running

Ctrl + D

Exit the current shell

Option + →

Move the cursor one word forward

Option + ←

Move the cursor one word backward

Ctrl + F

Move the cursor one character forward

Ctrl + B

Move the cursor one character backward

Ctrl + Y

Paste whatever was cut by the last command

Ctrl + Z

Puts whatever you're running into a suspended background process

Ctrl + _

Undo the last command

Option + Shift + Cmd + C

Copy plain text

Shift + Cmd + V

Paste the selection

exit

End a shell session

Basics

/ (Forward Slash)

Top-level directory

. (Single Period)

Current directory

.. (Double Period)

Parent directory

~ (Tilde)

Home directory

sudo [command]

Run command with the security privileges of the super user

nano [file]

Opens the Terminal editor

open [file]

Opens a file

[command] -h

Get help about a command

man [command]

Show the help manual of the command

Change Directory

cd

Home directory

cd [folder]

Change directory, e.g. cd Documents

cd ~

Home directory

cd /

Root of the drive

cd -

Previous directory or folder you last browsed

pwd

Show your working directory

cd..

Move up to the parent directory

cd../..

Move up two levels

List Directory Contents

ls

Display the name of files and subdirectories in the directory

ls -C

Force multi-column output of the listing

ls -a

List all entries including those with .(period) and ..(double period)

ls -1

Output the list of files in one entry per line format

ls -F

Display a / (slash) immediately after each path that is a directory, * (asterisk) after executable programs or scripts, and @ after a symbolic link

ls -S

Sort files or entries by size

ls -l

List in a long format. Includes file mode, owner and group name, date and time file was modified, pathname, and more

ls -l /

List of the file system from root with symbolic links

ls -lt

List the files sorted by time modified (most recent first)

ls -lh

Long listing with human readable file sizes in KB, MB, or GB

ls -lo

List the file names with size, owner, and flags

ls -la

List detailed directory contents, including hidden files

File Size and Disk Space

du

List usage for each subdirectory and its contents

du -sh [folder]

Human readable output of all files in a directory

du -s

Display an entry for each specified file

du -sk* | sort -nr

List files and folders, totaling the size, including the subfolders. Replace sk* with sm* to list directories in MB

df -h

Calculate your system's free disk space

df -H

Calculate free disk space in powers of 1,000 (as opposed to 1,024)

File and Directory Management

mkdir

Create a new folder named

mkdir -p

Create nested folders

mkdir

Create several folders at once

mkdir "

Create a folder with a space in the filename

rmdir

Delete a folder (only works on empty folders)

rm -R

Delete a folder and its contents

touch

Create a new file without any extension

cp

Copy a file to the folder

cp

Copy a file to the current folder

cp ~/

Copy a file to the folder and rename the copied file

cp -R

Copy a folder to a new folder with spaces in the filename

cp -i

Prompts you before copying a file with a warning overwrite message

cp /Users/

Copy multiple files to a folder

ditto -V [folder path][new folder]

Copy the contents of a folder to a new folder. Here "-V" prints a line of status for every file copied

rm

Delete a file (This deletes the file permanently; use it with caution.)

rm -i

Delete a file only when you give confirmation

rm -f

Force removal without confirmation

rm

Delete multiple files without any confirmation

mv

Move/rename

mv

Move a file to the folder, possibly by overwriting an existing file

mv -i

Optional -i flag to warn you before overwriting the file

mv *.png ~/

Move all PNG files from the current folder to a different folder

Command History

Ctrl + R

Search through previously used commands

history n

Shows the previous commands you've typed. Add a number to limit to the last n items

![value]

Execute the last command typed that starts with a value

!!

Execute the last command typed

Permissions

ls -ld

Display the default permission for a home directory

ls -ld/

Display the read, write, and access permission of a particular folder

chmod 755

Change the permission of a file to 755

chmod -R 600

Change the permission of a folder (and its contents) to 600

chown :

Change the ownership of a file to user and group. Add -R to include folder contents

Processes

ps -ax

Output currently running processes. Here, a shows processes from all users and x shows processes that are not connected with Terminal

ps -aux

Shows all the processes with %cpu, %mem, page in, PID, and command

top

Display live information about currently running processes

top -ocpu -s 5

Display processes sorted by CPU usage, updating every 5 seconds

top -o rsize

Sort top by memory usage

kill PID

Quit process with ID . You'll see PID as a column in the Activity Monitor

ps -ax | grep

Find a process by name or PID

Network

ping

Ping the host and display the status

whois

Output whois info for a domain

curl -O

Download a file via HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP

ssh @

Establish SSH connection to with user

scp @:/remote/path

Copy to a remote

arp -a

View a list of all devices on your local network. It will show you the IP and MAC address of all the devices

ifconfig en0

View your device IP and MAC address

traceroute [hostname]

Identify the path and the hops traversed by the packets from your device to the destination address

Homebrew

brew doctor

Check brew for potential problems

brew help

List of useful homebrew formula and cask commands

brew install |

Install a formula or cask

brew uninstall |cask>

Uninstall a formula or cask

brew list --formula

List only installed formulas

brew list --cask

List only installed cask

brew deps |

List all the dependencies of a formula or cask

brew search text|/regex/

Search formula or cask through regex

brew upgrade |

Upgrade the formula or cask

brew outdated |

Search for outdated formula or cask

brew outdated --formula

Search for outdated formula

brew outdated --cask

Search for outdated cask

brew pin [installed_formula]

Pin a formula from getting upgraded

brew unpin [installed_formula]

Unpin to upgrade a package

brew cleanup

Remove stale lock files and outdated packages for all formulas and casks

Environment Variable or Path

printenv

Display a list of currently set environment variables. Also tells you which shell you're using

$echo

Ask Terminal to print something and show it to you

echo $PATH

Check the value of the PATH variable, which stores a list of directories with executable files

echo $PATH >path.txt

Export the path directory to a text file

export PATH=$PATH:absolute/path to/program/

Execute a program via Terminal only in your current session. If you use a program regularly, add the path to the shell configuration file.

Search

find

Find all files named inside

find

Find all files larger than in

find

Find all files less than in

grep ""

Output all occurrences of inside (add -i for case insensitivity)

grep -rl ""

Search for all files containing inside

Output

cat

Output the content of

less

Output the contents of using the less command that supports pagination and more

head

Output the first 10 lines of

Use file contents as input to cmd

> >

Appends the output of to

>

Direct the output of into

|

Direct the output of to

Terminal Windows and Tabs

Cmd + N

Open a new Terminal window

Cmd + T

Open a new Terminal tab

Cmd + D

Split the Terminal window into two panes

Cmd +

Switch from one Terminal tab to another

Cmd + Page Up

Scroll one page up the Terminal window

Cmd + Page Down

Scroll one page down the Terminal window

Cmd + W

Close a Terminal tab

Option + Shift + Cmd + W

Close all Terminal tabs