CKA Preparation: Part 1 – Bash cheat sheet

To prepare for the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam, basic Linux skills are a necessity. Being able to move the cursor around quickly in the Bash shell and Vim, create aliases and handy environment variables helps saving precious time during the CKA exam.

Of course there are plenty of cheat sheets around, but creating one yourself that has the commands you like and use, forces you to learn them. I started this series to have cheat sheets of my own that have the generic commands, but also the specific ones for my Windows and MacOS devices if any.

While I was progressing it made sense to share my preparations, so hopefully it serves you well. If so, please like the series at the bottom.

The CKA prep series

Part 1 – Bash cheat sheet

Part 2 – Vim cheat sheet

Part 3 – Kubectl time savings (in progress)

Bash

This section is about navigating in Bash. On my Mac I use iTerm2 instead of the built-in Terminal and use key mapping preset “Natural Text Editing“.

Action	Command	Alternative Win	Alternative Mac (iTerm2)
Navigation
Move the cursor back one character	CTRL+ B	Arrow Left	Arrow Left
Move the cursor forward one character	CTRL+ F	Arrow Right	Arrow Right
Move cursor back one word	ALT + B	CTRL+ Arrow Left	Opt+ Arrow Left
Move cursor forward one word	ALT + F	CTRL+ Arrow Right	Opt+ Arrow Right
Move cursor to the beginning of the line	CTRL+ A	Home	Fn+ Arrow Left Cmd + Arrow Left
Move cursor to the end of the line	CTRL+ E	End	Fn + Arrow Right Cmd + Arrow Right
Editing
Delete one character from cursor to the left	CTRL + H	Backspace	Backspace
Delete one character from cursor to the right	CTRL + D	DEL	Fn + Backspace
Delete word from cursor the the left	CTRL+ W	ALT + Backspace	Opt + Backspace
Delete word from cursor the the right	ALT + D	CTRL + Del	Fn + Opt +Backspace
Delete from cursor to the start of the line	CTRL+ U		Cmd + Backspace
Delete from cursor to the end of the line	CTRL+ K
Swap two chars	CTRL + T
Swap two words	ALT + T
Cancel current command	CTRL + C
Misc
Close the current terminal	CTRL + D
Undo last change	CTRL + Shift + _

Useful links

Handy Keyboard Shortcuts for the Linux Bash Terminal

Use These Keyboard Shortcuts to Quickly Move Around in Bash

iTerm2 Terminal for MacOS

MacOS built-in Terminal Shortcuts