Linux Filesystem Cheat Sheet

pwd

# Show the absolute path of the current directory.

cd ~

# Change to the current user's home directory.

cd ..

# Move up one directory level.

cd -

# Switch back to the last directory you were in.

dirs -v

# Display directories stored by pushd/popd.

ls -lah

# Show detailed directory contents with human-readable sizes.

ls -lt

# Show newest files first.

tree -L 2

# Visualize nested files and directories.

stat path/to/file

# Inspect inode, permissions, timestamps, and ownership.

file path/to/file

# Show MIME-like or content-based type information.

mkdir -p app/data/uploads

# Create a directory path including missing parents.

rmdir empty-dir

# Delete a directory only if it is empty.

rm -rf old-build

# Delete a directory and all of its contents.

cp -a source-dir target-dir

# Copy directory trees while preserving timestamps and mode when possible.

cp -i source.txt dest.txt

# Prompt before overwriting an existing file.

mv old-name.txt new-name.txt

# Rename a file or move it within the same filesystem.

mv logs /var/archive/logs

# Move a directory to a new location.

install -m 755 script.sh /usr/local/bin/script

# Copy a file and set destination permissions in one step.

ln original.txt alias.txt

# Create another filename pointing to the same inode.

ln -s /opt/app/current app-current

# Create a symlink to another file or directory.

readlink app-current

# Print where a symlink points.

realpath ./app-current/../config

# Normalize paths and follow symlinks.

du -sh /var/log

# Show total size for a directory in human-readable format.

du -h --max-depth=1 .

# Show one-level deep size totals.

df -h

# Display mounted filesystem capacity and usage.

find . -type f -printf '%s %p
' | sort -nr | head -20

# List the biggest files under a directory.