Boost Your Linux Command Recall with the Cheat Utility

Common ways to recall Linux command usage

When you can't remember how to use a command such as tar , most people turn to the manual page ( # man tar) or the built‑in help ( # tar --help), perform a web search, or consult personal notes.

Manual pages and --help are convenient because they stay inside the terminal, but they present exhaustive documentation that can be cumbersome when you need a quick example. Searching online or using personal cheat sheets is faster for concrete usage, though it requires leaving the shell.

Introducing the cheat utility

The cheat program displays concise usage examples directly in the terminal. For example: # cheat tar and # cheat top The output lists short, practical examples, making it a handy “command cheat sheet”.

Project repository: https://github.com/chrisallenlane/cheat

Installation on CentOS

# yum install python

# yum install python-pip

# yum install git

# pip install docopt pygments

# git clone https://github.com/chrisallenlane/cheat.git

# cd cheat

# python setup.py install

# cheat -v