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Paste a command you found in a tutorial, a README, or a colleague's script. Each command, flag, pipe, and redirect gets a plain-English explanation. Nothing is executed and nothing leaves your browser.

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Breakdown

$ ps aux | grep nginx | wc -l
  • command
  • option
  • value
  • argument
  • operator
  1. psCheatsheet entry →

    Shows the processes started in the current sandbox shell. Informational only — you cannot kill other sessions.

    auxoption
    BSD style: every process (a), with the owning user (u), including ones with no terminal (x).
  2. |Pipe: send the output of the command on the left into the input of the command on the right.
  3. grepCheatsheet entry →

    Prints lines that match a pattern. -i ignores case, -v inverts the match, -n prefixes each hit with its line number. Combine with | to filter any command’s output.

    nginxargument
    Argument passed to the command.
  4. |Pipe: send the output of the command on the left into the input of the command on the right.
  5. wcCheatsheet entry →

    By default prints three numbers: lines, words, bytes. Common flags: -l (lines only), -w (words only), -c (bytes only).

    -loption
    Count lines.