BASH

CHEAT SHEET

created by
Tomi Mester
I originally created this cheat sheet for my 6-week data science online course
participants.* But I have decided to open-source it and make it available to
everyone who wants to learn bash and the command line.

It's designed to give you a meaningful structure but also to let you add your own
notes (that's why the empty boxes are there). It starts from the absolute basics
(cd ..) and includes everything that you will need as a junior data analyst/
scientist (commands, scripting, automations, etc.).

The ideal use case of this cheat sheet is that you print it in color and keep it next to
you while you are learning and practicing Bash on your computer.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Tomi Mester

*The online courses I mentioned:

Online command line and bash tutorial (free): data36.com/bash-tutorial
6-week Data Science course: data36.com/jds
 BASH CHEAT SHEET

THE PROMPT
When working in the command line, at the beginning of every line you will see the
prompt.

Example:

tomi@data36-learn-server:~$

It's built from six elements:

• your user name (e.g. tomi)
• @
• your server name (e.g. data36-learn-server)
• :
• folder name (e.g. ~ which means your user's home directory)
• $

Your commands go after the $ sign.

ABOUT THE COMMAND LINE COMMANDS

In the command line, you interact with your server exclusively by typing commands.
You don't have a cursor or a graphical user interface.

A few commonalities of bash commands:

• They are usually created to do one simple thing and do that one thing very well.
• The name of the commands are almost always the short form of the things
they do. (e.g. pwd stands for "print working directory".)
• Their original function can be modified with options. (More details later.)

[your notes]

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !1

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

BASIC DIRECTORY COMMANDS

pwd
Prints the name of your current working directory.

ls
Lists all the content of your current working directory.

cd
You move from your current working directory to your user's home directory.
Note: cd stands for change directory.

cd test_dir
You move to the test_dir directory - if test_dir exists in your current working
directory.

cd ..
Moves up one folder.

cd -
Moves to the folder where you previously were.

mkdir one_more_dir
Creates a new directory called one_more_dir.

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !2

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

BASIC FILE COMMANDS

touch test_file.txt
Creates an empty file called test_file.txt.

cp test_file.txt test_file_copy.txt
Copies your original test_file.txt and names the new copy to test_file_copy.txt.

cp test_file.txt one_more_dir/test_file.txt
Copies your original test_file.txt into the one_more_dir directory - and keeps its
original name. (Only works if one_more_dir is in your current working directory.)

mv test_file.txt one_more_dir/test_file.txt
Moves your original test_file.txt into the one_more_dir directory.
(Only works if one_more_dir is in your current working directory.)

mv test_file.txt test_file_some_new_name.txt
Renames your original test_file.txt to test_file_some_new_name.txt.

rm test_file.txt
Removes the test_file.txt file - if it exists.
Note: Be careful! In bash, if you delete a file, it will be deleted for good. There's no
"Trash" folder or "Restore" button in case you remove something by accident.

More about the basics: https://data36.com/bash-basics

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !3

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

TIPS AND TRICKS

#1
clear
Clears your terminal screen.

#2
You can use the up (↑) and down (↓) arrows on your keyboard to bring back your
previous commands.

#3
history
Brings back all your previously typed-in commands and prints them to your screen.

#4
Hit the TAB key (→) on your keyboard to auto-extend your typed-in text (e.g.
commands or file names.)

More tips and tricks: https://data36.com/bash-tricks

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !4

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

PRINTING
echo "Hello, World!"
Prints Hello, World! to your screen.

cat some_data.csv
Prints the entire contents of the some_data.csv file to your screen.

head some_data.csv
Prints the first ten rows of the some_data.csv file to your screen.

head -50 some_data.csv

Prints the first fifty rows of the some_data.csv file to your screen.

tail some_data.csv
Prints the last ten rows of the some_data.csv file to your screen.

tail -50 some_data.csv

Prints the last fifty rows of the some_data.csv file to your screen.

COUNTING
wc some_data.csv
Counts the number of lines, words and characters in some_data.csv - and prints
this information to the screen.

wc -l some_data.csv
Counts only the number of lines in some_data.csv. (Note: -l stands for line.)

wc -w some_data.csv
Counts only the number of words in some_data.csv. (Note: -w stands for word.)

wc -c some_data.csv
Counts only the number of characters in some_data.csv.

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !5

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

OPTIONS
By using an option, you can modify what your original command does. Most
commands have plenty of options. You can apply them by:
1. typing your original command (e.g. wc)
2. then a space and a dash ( -)
3. then the option name (e.g. w)

General syntax:
command -option

A few examples:
wc -w some_data.csv
On its own, wc counts the number of lines, words and characters in some_data.csv.
But with the -w option, it only counts words.

ls -l
ls lists all the content of your current working directory.
But with the -l option, it also displays additional information for the given files and
directories (e.g. size, date of creation, owner, permissions).

tail -50 some_data.csv

tail prints the last 10 rows of the some_data.csv file.
But with the -50 option, it prints the last 50 rows instead.

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !6

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

MANUALS (LIST OF OPTIONS FOR EVERY COMMAND)

There is a built-in manual for every command, which you can open directly from the
command line.

Example:
man wc
Opens the manual for the wc command. There you'll find a general description of
the command and the descriptions for all the options it has.

When you are finished, you can exit the manual by hitting the Q key on your
keyboard.

PRINTING TO FILE
In complex data projects, you don't want to print results to your terminal screen.
You want to save them into files, so you can reuse them later.

Examples:
head some_data.csv > first_ten_rows.csv
Takes the first ten rows of the some_data.csv file and prints them into the file
called first_ten_rows.csv. (If the first_ten_rows.csv file didn't exist before, it will be
created. If it did exist, then it will be overwritten.)

head some_data.csv >> some_rows.csv

Takes the first ten rows of the some_data.csv file and adds them to the end of the
file called some_rows.csv. (If the some_rows.csv file didn't exist before, it will be
created. If it did exist, then the new lines will be appended to the file after the
already-existing lines.)

More about options and printing to file: https://data36.com/bash-concepts

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !7

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

FILTERING
cut -d';' -f1 some_data.csv
Instead of the whole file, it prints only the first column of the some_data.csv file.
The field separator (aka delimiter) between the columns is a semicolon (;).

cut -d'-' -f1,5,12,13 some_data.csv

Prints the first, fifth, twelfth and thirteenth columns of the some_data.csv file. The
delimiter is a dash (-).

grep "something" some_data.csv

Returns all the lines in the some_data.csv file that contain the "something" string.
(It's case sensitive by default.)

grep -v "something" some_data.csv

Returns all the lines in the some_data.csv file that do not contain the "something"
string. (It's case sensitive by default.)

grep -i "Something" some_data.csv

Returns all the lines in the some_data.csv file that contain the "Something" string.
It's not case sensitive.

More about grep and cut: https://data36.com/grep-cut

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !8

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

SORTING AND UNIQUE VALUES

sort some_data.csv
Sorts the some_data.csv file by alphabetical order (by default) and prints the result
to your screen.

sort -n some_data.csv
Sorts the some_data.csv file by numerical order.

sort -r some_data.csv
Sorts the some_data.csv file by alphabetical order (by default) and in reverse.

sort -r -n some_data.csv
Sorts the some_data.csv file by numerical order and in reverse.

sort -u some_data.csv
Sorts the some_data.csv file and removes duplicates. (Note: -u stands for unique.)

sort -n -t',' -k2 some_data.csv

Sorts the some_data.csv file in numerical order -- and the column that it uses for
sorting is the second column. The field separator is a comma (,).

uniq some_data.csv
Unifies repeated lines that follow each other.
Note: sort -u removes all duplicated rows. uniq removes only those duplicated
rows that follow each other.

uniq -c some_data.csv
Unifies repeated lines that follow each other and counts the number of
occurrences.

More about sort and uniq: https://data36.com/sort-uniq

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !9

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

PIPES - USING MULTIPLE COMMANDS

In complex data projects, one bash command is often not enough to do the job.
You'll need to apply several commands after each other. In theory, you could do
that by creating temporary files as the outputs to reuse them in the next
commands as inputs… But that'd be repetitive and way too complicated.

To get things done more simply and cleanly, you can use pipes instead.

A pipe takes the output of your command and redirects it directly into your next
command.

Examples:
head -50 some_data.csv | tail -10
Takes the first 50 rows of the some_data.csv file. The pipe redirects this output into
tail, which prints the last 10 rows of those first 50 rows. As a result, you will have
the rows from 41 to 50.

sort some_data.csv | uniq -c

Sorts the some_data.csv file and then it counts all occurrences of every unique row.

cut -d';' -f1 some_data.csv | grep "something" | wc -l

Takes the first column of the some_data.csv file. Then it filters for the rows that
contain the string "something". Eventually it counts the lines. As a result, you will
have the number of lines that contain the string "something" in the first column of
the file.

More about pipes: https://data36.com/bash-concepts

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !10

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

BASH SCRIPTING
mcedit
Opens a text editor in bash.
(If you haven't set up mcedit yet, go here: https://data36.com/server-setup)

In the editor, you can create a bash script by simply adding commands listed one
after another (the same commands that you would type on the command line).
When you run this script, the commands in it will be executed one by one.

Creating and running a bash script step by step:

1. mcedit (it opens your text editor)
2. In the editor, add your commands line by line!

Example:

echo "number of lines in file:"

wc -l some_data.csv

echo "number of characters in file:"

wc -c some_data.csv
3. Still in the editor, add this line to the very beginning of your bash script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

(This line is called the shebang. It tells Ubuntu that your script is in bash.)
4. Click "10 Quit" in the bottom right corner of the editor and save your file.
5. Name your file to demo_script.sh (or whatever you prefer)!
6. Give permission to yourself to run your script. Type this command:

chmod 700 demo_script.sh
7. Run your script by typing this on the command line:

./demo_script.sh

Done!

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 BASH CHEAT SHEET

After running the script, your output will be something like this:

number of lines in file:

672
number of characters in file:
11424

You can create various bash scripts (even hundreds of lines long) and even Python
or SQL scripts the same way.

AUTOMATIONS
You can schedule your scripts (and your bash commands) to run automatically on
your remote server every day, every hour, even every minute.

For that, you'll have to use cron.

You can configure cron by opening crontab. Type this:
crontab -e

It will open a text file which starts with a detailed manual of how it works.
After the manual, you can add your actual tasks to schedule.

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !12

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

One line is one task and you have to define 6 parameters in each line:
• The minute of the hour
• The hour of the day
• The day of the month
• The month
• The day of the week
• The command you want to run.

The first five parameters define the when - the 6th defines the what.

Example:
01 00 * * * /home/demo_user/demo_script.sh
If you have this line in your crontab, it will run your demo_script.sh script (that's
located in the /home/demo_user/ folder) every day, one minute after midnight.

Here's a 9-minute detailed video tutorial about bash automations in crontab:

https://data36.com/automation-crontab

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !13

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

VARIABLES
In bash, you can assign a value to a variable as simply as:
variable_name=variable_value

Note: If you assign a new value to a variable that you have used before, it will
overwrite your previous value.

Examples:
a=100
b='hello, world'
c=true
d=0.75

You can refer to any of these variables by typing a $ sign and the variable name
itself.

Examples:
echo $a
Prints 100.

echo $b
Prints hello, world.

echo $c
Prints true.

echo $d
Prints 0.75.

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !14

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

IF STATEMENTS
If statements are great for evaluating a condition and taking certain action(s)
based on the result.

Example:
a=10
b=20
if [[ $a == $b ]]
then
echo 'yes'
else
echo 'no'
fi

WHILE LOOPS
While loops are great for repeating and executing one (or more) commands until a
condition is fulfilled.

Example:
i=0
while [ $i -lt 10 ]
do
echo $i
i=$((i + 1))
done

More about variables, if statements and while loops in bash:

https://data36.com/bash-if-while

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !15

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

A FEW MORE USEFUL COMMANDS

sed
sed was created to parse and transform text in the command line.

sed 's/,/;/g' some_data.csv

Replaces all comma (,) characters with semicolons (;) in the some_data.csv file and
it prints the result to the screen.

date
Prints the current time and date.
(Example output: Sat Aug 10 23:21:55 UTC 2019)

date +%D
Prints the current date in mm/dd/yy format. (Example output: 08/10/19)

date +%Y-%m-%d
Prints the current date in yyyy-mm-dd format. (Example output: 2019-08-10)

awk
awk is another great command line tool for text processing and data cleaning.

awk -F',' '{print $3,$2,$5}' some_data.csv

Prints the third, second and fifth columns (in that particular order) of the
some_data.csv file. The delimiter is a comma (,).

awk '{sss+=$1} END {print sss}' only_numbers.csv

Sums all the numbers in the first column of the only_numbers.csv file.

More about sed, date and awk: https://data36.com/bash-more-commands


CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !16

 BASH CHEAT SHEET

CREATED BY
Tomi Mester from Data36.com
Tomi Mester is a data analyst and researcher. He's worked for Prezi, iZettle and
several smaller companies as an analyst/consultant. He's the author of the Data36
blog where he writes posts and tutorials on a weekly basis about data science, AB-
testing, online research and coding. He's an O'Reilly author and presenter at
TEDxYouth, Barcelona E-commerce Summit, Stockholm Analytics Day and more.

WHERE TO GO NEXT
Find company workshops, online tutorials and online video courses on my website:
https://data36.com

Subscribe to my Newsletter list for useful stuff like this:

https://data36.com/newsletter

Online command line and bash tutorial (free): data36.com/bash-tutorial

6-week Data Science course: data36.com/jds

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !17