Terminal Commands Cheat Sheet for Mac & Linux

This terminal commands cheat sheet covers the commands people use every day on a Mac or Linux computer: moving between folders with cd, listing files with ls, copying with cp, searching with grep, and managing permissions and running programs. Everything below works in zsh (the default shell on macOS) and in Bash on Linux unless a row says otherwise.

How to Open the Terminal on Mac, Linux, and Windows

On a Mac, press Command+Space, type “Terminal,” and hit Return. You’ll find it in Applications > Utilities too. Apple has used zsh as the default shell since macOS Catalina in 2019, and Apple’s own Terminal User Guide covers windows, profiles, and settings.

On most Linux desktops (Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint), press Ctrl+Alt+T. On Windows, open Windows Terminal or PowerShell from the Start menu.

Basic Terminal Commands for Getting Around

The terminal always has a “current folder,” called the working directory. Most confusion for beginners comes from running a command in the wrong folder, so start every session by checking where you are.

Command	What it does
pwd	Prints the folder you’re in right now
ls	Lists files and folders in the current folder
ls -la	Lists everything, including hidden files, with details
ls -lh	Shows file sizes in KB, MB, and GB instead of bytes
cd Documents	Moves into the Documents folder
cd ..	Goes up one level
cd ~ or cd	Jumps to your home folder
cd -	Returns to the previous folder you were in
clear	Clears the screen

A small tip that helps a lot: folder names with spaces need quotes, like cd "Tax Returns 2025". Or just type the first few letters and press Tab, and the shell fills in the name with the spaces handled for you.

File and Folder Commands

These are the commands you’ll use to create, copy, move, and delete things. They’re fast, and that’s both the appeal and the risk.

Command	What it does
touch notes.txt	Creates an empty file (or updates the timestamp of an existing one)
mkdir projects	Creates a new folder
mkdir -p work/2026/reports	Creates nested folders in one step
cp file.txt backup.txt	Copies a file
cp -R photos photos-backup	Copies a whole folder and everything inside it
mv file.txt Documents/	Moves a file into another folder
mv old.txt new.txt	Renames a file (there’s no separate rename command)
rm file.txt	Deletes a file permanently
rm -i file.txt	Asks for confirmation before deleting
rm -r folder	Deletes a folder and everything in it
rmdir folder	Deletes a folder only if it’s empty

One Safety Rule for rm

Files you delete with rm don’t go to the Trash or Recycle Bin. There’s no undo. Before you run rm -r or rm -rf, run pwd and ls first so you know exactly what’s in front of you.

Also watch your spaces. rm -rf ~/old-site deletes one folder. Add an accidental space, as in rm -rf ~ /old-site, and you’ve told it to delete your entire home folder. That’s a real mistake people make, usually late at night.

Viewing and Searching Files

You can read and search files without opening an app. This is where the terminal starts to feel faster than clicking around.

Command	What it does
cat file.txt	Prints the whole file to the screen
less file.txt	Opens a scrollable view (press q to quit)
head -n 20 file.txt	Shows the first 20 lines
tail -n 20 file.txt	Shows the last 20 lines
tail -f app.log	Watches a log file live as new lines are added
grep "invoice" notes.txt	Finds lines containing “invoice”
grep -ri "invoice" .	Searches every file in this folder and below, ignoring case
find . -name "*.pdf"	Finds all PDF files under the current folder
wc -l file.txt	Counts the lines in a file

Use less instead of cat for anything longer than a screen. cat on a 50 MB log file will flood your window, and you’ll end up hitting Ctrl+C anyway.

Permissions and sudo

Every file has permissions for reading, writing, and running. You’ll mostly touch these when a script won’t run or a file says “Permission denied.”

Command	What it does
chmod +x script.sh	Makes a script executable
chmod 755 script.sh	Owner can read, write, run; everyone else can read and run
chmod 644 file.txt	Owner can read and write; everyone else can only read
chown user file.txt	Changes who owns a file (usually needs sudo)
sudo command	Runs a command as an administrator
sudo !!	Reruns your last command with sudo

Treat sudo like a master key. It asks for your account password, and after that it can change anything on the system. If a random website tells you to paste a sudo command you don’t understand, don’t.

Processes and System Info

When your computer feels slow or an app freezes, these commands show what’s running and let you stop it.

• top shows live CPU and memory use. Press q to quit.
• ps aux lists every running process with its ID (PID).
• ps aux | grep chrome finds the process you’re looking for.
• kill 1234 asks process 1234 to close. kill -9 1234 forces it, and should be your last resort because the program gets no chance to save.
• df -h shows free disk space.
• du -sh * shows how big each item in the current folder is. Great for finding what’s eating your drive.
• whoami and uname -a print your username and system details.

Networking, Downloads, and Compression

Command	What it does
ping -c 4 google.com	Tests your connection with 4 pings (without -c it runs until you press Ctrl+C)
curl -O https://example.com/file.zip	Downloads a file into the current folder
ssh user@server.com	Logs in to a remote computer
scp file.txt user@server.com:~/	Copies a file to a remote computer
tar -czvf site.tar.gz site/	Compresses a folder into a .tar.gz file
tar -xzvf site.tar.gz	Extracts a .tar.gz file
zip -r site.zip site/	Creates a .zip file
unzip site.zip	Extracts a .zip file

An easy way to remember the tar flags: create or extract, zip it with gzip, verbose, file name comes next.

Redirection and Pipes

This is the part that makes the terminal powerful. You can send one command’s output into a file or into another command.

• ls > files.txt saves the output to a file, replacing what was there.
• echo "done" >> log.txt adds a line to the end of a file.
• history | grep ssh sends one command’s output into another. Here it finds every ssh command you’ve run.
• mkdir test && cd test runs the second command only if the first one worked.

Be careful with a single >. Point it at an existing file and that file’s contents are replaced without a warning.

Terminal Keyboard Shortcuts That Save the Most Time

Shortcut	What it does
Tab	Autocompletes file, folder, and command names
Up / Down arrow	Scrolls through previous commands
Ctrl+R	Searches your command history as you type
Ctrl+C	Stops the command that’s running
Ctrl+L	Clears the screen (same as clear)
Ctrl+A / Ctrl+E	Jumps to the start or end of the line
Ctrl+D	Closes the current shell session
Ctrl+Z, then fg	Pauses a running program, then brings it back

Mac users, note that these use the Control key, not Command. Command+K in Terminal on a Mac clears the screen and the scrollback. If you want the rest of the Mac’s shortcuts in one place, see our guide to MacBook Pro keyboard shortcuts.

Mac Terminal Commands vs Linux Terminal Commands

Mac and Linux both come from the Unix family, so the basics match. macOS ships BSD versions of many tools while most Linux distributions use GNU versions, which is why some flags behave a little differently.

Task	Mac	Linux (Ubuntu)
Install software	brew install wget (Homebrew, a free add-on)	sudo apt install wget
Update software	brew upgrade	sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Open a folder in the file browser	open .	xdg-open .
Copy output to clipboard	pbcopy	xclip (install first)
Show network info	ifconfig	ip a
Quick help for a command	man ls	ls --help or man ls
Keep the computer awake	caffeinate	Depends on the desktop

Fedora users swap apt for dnf. And here’s a detail that trips people up: --help works on most Linux commands but often errors out on the Mac versions, so on a Mac, reach for man instead.

What About Windows?

PowerShell understands a handful of these names (ls, cd, pwd, cp, mv, rm, cat) because it maps them to its own commands, but the flags are different and tools like grep aren’t there. The better route is the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Run wsl --install in an administrator PowerShell window, restart, and you get a full Ubuntu terminal. Microsoft’s WSL installation guide walks through it.

How to Get Help Without Leaving the Terminal

Type man followed by any command, like man grep, to read its full manual. Use the arrow keys to scroll, type / plus a word to search, and press q to quit. For the Linux versions of core tools, the GNU Coreutils documentation is the official reference.

Where to Go From Here

Pick three commands from this terminal commands cheat sheet and use them today instead of clicking: cd into a project folder, ls -la to see what’s there, and grep -ri to find something inside it. After a week, add the file commands and Ctrl+R. Bookmark this page so you can come back when you forget a flag.

If you’re starting to write code, pair the terminal with a good editor from our list of the best free code editors for developers. And if you live in spreadsheets too, our Excel shortcuts cheat sheet uses the same idea: learn a few keys, save hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most basic terminal commands?

The most basic terminal commands are pwd (show your current folder), ls (list files), cd (change folders), mkdir (make a folder), cp (copy), mv (move or rename), rm (delete), and cat (show a file’s contents). Learn these eight first. They cover most everyday tasks on Mac and Linux, and every other command builds on them.

How do I open the terminal on a Mac?

Press Command+Space to open Spotlight, type Terminal, and press Return. You can also open Finder, go to Applications, then Utilities, and double-click Terminal. To keep it handy, right-click its icon in the Dock and choose Keep in Dock. Since macOS Catalina, Terminal uses zsh as its default shell.

Are Mac and Linux terminal commands the same?

Mostly, yes. Commands like ls, cd, cp, mv, grep, and chmod work on both because both systems come from Unix. The differences are in some flags, since macOS uses BSD versions of tools and Linux uses GNU versions, plus package managers (Homebrew on Mac, apt or dnf on Linux) and a few Mac-only commands.

How do I stop a command that’s running in the terminal?

Press Ctrl+C to stop most running commands right away. If a program ignores it, open a second terminal window, find its process ID with ps aux, and run kill followed by that ID. Use kill -9 only as a last resort, because it force-quits the program without giving it a chance to save.

Is rm -rf dangerous?

Yes, rm -rf is one of the riskiest terminal commands. It deletes folders and everything inside them without asking, and the files skip the Trash, so there’s no undo. Always run pwd and ls first to confirm your location, double-check the path for stray spaces, and never run it with sudo unless you fully understand the target.

How do I clear the terminal screen?

Type clear and press Enter, or press Ctrl+L on Mac or Linux. Both wipe the visible screen but keep your command history, so the up arrow still works. On a Mac, Command+K in the Terminal app clears the screen and the scrollback buffer too. In Windows PowerShell, cls and clear both work.