Cheat Sheets — Examples

Back to the overview: Cheat Sheets · Open the tool live: www.jpkc.com/tools/cheatsheet/

The manual explains every feature in detail. This page adds concrete workflows — typical lookup situations, step by step.

Example 1: Look up a git command fast

The classic — you want to undo a commit and can't remember whether it was reset or revert.

Open the Cheat Sheets. The Git sheet is already loaded by default.
Press / — the cursor jumps into the Search field — and type a keyword, e.g. revert. The command list filters live, sections with no match disappear, your search term is highlighted in command and description, and the counter updates to the number of still-matching commands (format X / N commands).
Read the matching entry — command, short description, and (often) an example. Click the clipboard icon and the command is on your clipboard.
In the terminal, replace the placeholder — set off in orange in the command line, e.g. <commit> — with the real hash. Done.

The keyword doesn't have to be a command name: because the search also runs over the descriptions, a word like undo gets you to the right git commands too. undo alone returns three entries from the "Undoing Changes" section: git revert and the two git reset variants. Type undo last to narrow it down — only entries containing both words remain: the two git reset variants that take back the most recent commits. Esc clears the field for your next question.

Example 2: Find the right sheet when you're unsure of the tool name

You want to synchronize files but aren't sure whether the tool is rsync or something else.

Click the Cheat Sheet dropdown at the top. The category-grouped list of all 220 sheets opens, with the cursor already in its search field.
Type a fragment into the search field (Search cheat sheets...), e.g. sync. The list narrows to matching sheet names; categories with no match are hidden.
Navigate with Up/Down arrows and confirm with Enter — or click directly. The sheet loads. If the first match is already the right one, Enter alone does it, no arrow key needed.

Alternatively, browse the categories: looking for something about backups, you'll find rsync, restic, rustic, BorgBackup, Rclone, and more side by side under Remote & Backup — handy for comparing alternatives. If you only know the task and no tool for it at all, the search across all sheets takes you further — see example 7.

Example 3: Search a Docker sheet precisely

You need the syntax to inspect a running container.

Pick Docker from the Cheat Sheet dropdown (or open /tools/cheatsheet/#docker directly).
Instead of scrolling, type logs or exec into the Search field. The list shows only the matching commands.
If you'd rather get an overview of a whole topic block, use the Section dropdown and jump straight to the section, here "Logs & Exec" — the page scrolls there smoothly, and the address bar shows #docker/logs-and-exec.
Copy the command you want via its clipboard button.

Remember: command search and section jump are two routes to the goal — the search is faster for a known keyword, the Section dropdown is better when you want to skim a topic.

Example 4: Copy a snippet and use it cleanly

You want to take over a ready-made example, not just the bare command.

Find the entry (e.g. ssh-keygen in the SSH sheet, section "Key Management"; for all its options there's also a dedicated ssh-keygen sheet).
Many entries have their own syntax-highlighted example block below the description with a real invocation. Next to it sits a second clipboard button — it copies the example, not the generic command line.
Paste it in the terminal and just adjust the specific values (path, hostname, file name).

The distinction pays off: the upper button (Copy command) copies the generic syntax with placeholders (<…>, set off in orange in the command line), while the button on the example (Copy example) copies a filled-in, runnable invocation you only need to tweak.

You're explaining something to a colleague and want to send them exactly the right spot.

Pick the sheet (e.g. NGINX). The address bar now shows …/tools/cheatsheet/#nginx.
If it's about a specific section, say "Logs", click the link button on the right of its header. The tool writes …/tools/cheatsheet/#nginx/logs into the address bar and copies the URL right away (Link to section copied!).
Pass the link along — when they open it, your colleague lands straight in the nginx sheet, right at that section, no searching needed.
For sheets or sections you use often, a bookmark on the hash link pays off. Next time you jump in with a single click.

Handy: every sheet switch creates its own history entry. If you went from nginx to certbot, the browser's back button takes you back to the nginx sheet. Section jumps, on the other hand, don't fill up your history.

Example 6: Skim a new tool instead of reading the man page

You hit restic for the first time and want to get a feel for what it does in two minutes.

Load the restic sheet.
Leave the search empty and open the Section dropdown — the section titles (e.g. Repository Initialization, Creating Backups, Listing Snapshots, Restoring Data) are a mini table of contents for the topic.
Jump through the sections in order. You see the typical steps in their logical sequence — more compact than any man page, but with real examples.

That's where the sheets shine for learning: they show not every option but the ones you actually need day to day — in a structure you take in at a glance.

Example 7: Search for a command across all sheets

You want to know which process is listening on which port on a server — but have no idea whether that's a job for netstat, ss, or something else entirely.

Below the Search field, turn on Search all cheat sheets. The Results in all cheat sheets card appears above the sheet description.
Type listening ports. The first time, the tool fetches the remaining sheets (Loading cheat sheets… x / y); then the result list is there — grouped by sheet, with hits from netstat, ss, and lsof, among others. The status gives the number of commands and sheets.
Compare the variants right in the list: netstat -tlnp, ss -tlnp, lsof -i -nP -sTCP:LISTEN. Each row has its own copy button.
Want to see more of one of the tools? Click the sheet name (the sheet opens with listening ports as its filter) or the section name below a hit (the sheet jumps straight there).

If the search in the current sheet comes up empty, you don't have to go looking for the switch: the No commands in this cheat sheet match your search. card offers the Search all cheat sheets button right there and carries your query over.

Going deeper: the manual for every feature and the data structure, the tips & tricks for knacks and pitfalls. You can try all of it right in the tool.