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#fs (17)

Cheat sheets (17)

mdfind — Spotlight Search From the Terminal

Query macOS's Spotlight index from the shell — fast name, content, and metadata search across the whole filesystem, with scope, attributes, and live-update modes.
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xattr — Extended Attributes on macOS

Deep-dive on macOS extended attributes — listing, reading, writing, and removing xattrs with xattr(1); the Gatekeeper com.apple.quarantine flag; Spotlight metadata attributes; ACLs via ls -le and chmod +a; preserving attributes on copy with cp -p and rsync -X.
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attrib — File Attribute Manager

View and modify Windows file attributes (hidden, read-only, system, archive) from the command line. Covers all attribute flags, recursive operations, and practical recipes for unhiding malware-hidden files and managing backups.
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cd — Change Directory

Navigate the Windows command prompt's current working directory. Covers drive switching, absolute and relative paths, UNC paths, and path-with-spaces quoting.
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copy — Copy Files

Copy one or more files to a new location in the Windows command prompt. Covers single-file copy, wildcard batches, file concatenation, and binary vs ASCII modes.
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del — Delete Files

Delete one or more files from the Windows command prompt. Covers wildcards, quiet mode, attribute overrides, recursive deletion patterns, and the distinction from rmdir.
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dir — List Directory Contents

Display files and folders in a directory with filtering, sorting, formatting, and recursive traversal options. The Windows cmd.exe equivalent of Unix ls.
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mkdir / md — Make Directory

Create one or more directories from the Windows command prompt. Covers single and nested directory creation, batch patterns, and common scripting idioms.
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move — Move and Rename Files

Move files to a new location or rename them within the Windows command prompt. Covers single files, wildcards, directory renames, overwrite control, and cross-drive behaviour.
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rmdir / rd — Remove Directory

Delete empty or entire directory trees from the Windows command prompt. Covers the /S and /Q flags, force-removing read-only trees, and safe deletion patterns.
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robocopy — Robust File Copy

Production-grade file and directory synchronisation with mirroring, multi-threading, retry logic, logging, and exclusion filters. The go-to for backup scripts and deployment pipelines on Windows.
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xcopy — Extended Copy

Copy files and directory trees with attribute preservation, date filtering, exclusion lists, and verification. The step between copy and robocopy for most scripting needs.
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node:fs — File System

Node.js file system module — the three APIs (callback, sync, promises), reading and writing files, directory operations, watchers, atomic writes, and path module pairing.
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df, du & duf — Disk Usage

Check filesystem free space (df), measure directory sizes (du), and view a colourful disk overview (duf). Covers all key flags, human-readable output, modern alternatives (dust, gdu, ncdu), and common sysadmin recipes.
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Filesystems — Inodes, Links, Journaling, ext4/XFS/Btrfs/ZFS/APFS/NTFS

Core filesystem concepts every operator should know: inodes, directory structure, hard vs symbolic links, journaling, copy-on-write, and a head-to-head of ext4, XFS, Btrfs, ZFS, APFS, and NTFS with mount options and pitfalls.
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pathlib — Object-Oriented File Paths

Work with filesystem paths using Python's built-in pathlib module. Covers Path creation, navigation, reading/writing files, glob patterns, and stat.
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find — File Search

POSIX file finder with powerful expression-based filters for name, type, size, time, permissions, and ownership. Covers exec actions, pruning, and real-world recipes.
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