How to get a cheat sheet for any command with curl and cheat.sh

You forget a command's options, open a browser, scroll past ads... or ask your terminal. cheat.sh is a free service that answers with short cheat sheets, made for the terminal. Windows has curl built in, so there is nothing to install.

A cheat sheet for any command

curl.exe cheat.sh/tldr:robocopy

# robocopy
# Robust File and Folder Copy.

# Copy all `.jpg` and `.bmp` files from one directory to another:
robocopy path\to\source_directory path\to\destination_directory *.jpg *.bmp

The tldr: pages are short, with examples you can copy. Swap robocopy for tar, git, ffmpeg, winget or almost any other command.

Ask it a coding question

Put the language, then your question with plus signs instead of spaces:

curl.exe cheat.sh/python/reverse+a+list

#  You can make use of the `reversed` function for this as:

 >>> array=[0,10,20,40]
 >>> for i in reversed(array):
 ...     print(i)

These answers come from community sites such as Stack Overflow. They're usually good, but read a command before you run it, especially anything that deletes files.

Handy extras

• curl.exe cheat.sh/git shows a longer sheet that combines several sources.
• curl.exe cheat.sh/:help lists all the options.
• Add ?T to the end to remove colours if the text looks messy: curl.exe "cheat.sh/tar?T".

Why curl.exe and not curl?

In Windows PowerShell, curl is a shortcut for a different command (Invoke-WebRequest). curl.exe runs the real curl that comes with Windows 10 and 11.

On a Mac

Plain curl works: curl cheat.sh/tar.

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