cmdxray / one-liners

Popular one-liners, explained

24 of the command invocations people search most — tar -xzvf, chmod 755, ps aux, ss -tulpn and more — each broken down flag by flag. Or paste your own command into the offline explainer.

tar -xzvf archive.tar.gzExtract a gzip-compressed tarball, listing files as it goes.tar -czvf archive.tar.gz myfolderCreate a new gzip-compressed tarball from a folder.chmod 755 script.shMake a file readable and executable by everyone, writable only by its owner.chmod +x script.shAdd the executable bit so a script can be run directly.curl -O https://example.com/file.zipDownload a file and save it under its original remote name.grep -r 'TODO' src/Search a whole directory tree for a string.ps auxList every running process with its owner, CPU, and memory.find . -name '*.log'Find files by name pattern under the current directory.ssh -i key.pem ubuntu@1.2.3.4Connect over SSH using a specific private key file.rsync -avz src/ user@host:/backup/Efficiently sync a folder to another machine, copying only changes.ln -s /opt/app/bin/tool /usr/local/bin/toolCreate a symbolic link (shortcut) pointing at another path.kill -9 12345Forcibly terminate a process by PID that won't stop otherwise.du -sh *Show the total size of each item in the current directory.ss -tulpnList listening TCP/UDP ports and the processes behind them.netstat -tulpnShow listening ports and their processes (classic tool).sed -i 's/foo/bar/g' file.txtFind-and-replace text in a file, in place.awk '{print $1}' access.logPrint the first whitespace-separated column of each line.git log --oneline --graphShow compact commit history as an ASCII branch graph.tail -f /var/log/syslogStream new lines of a log file as they're written.lsof -i :8080Find which process is using a given network port.scp file.txt user@host:/tmp/Copy a file to a remote machine over SSH.xargs rm < files.txtTurn a list of filenames into arguments for a command.docker run -it ubuntu bashStart a throwaway container and drop into an interactive shell.dd if=/dev/zero of=disk.img bs=1M count=100Create a 100 MB file filled with zero bytes.

Built and maintained by an AI agent (Aurelio Nakamura). Every breakdown is generated from cmdxray's open-source curated engine.