Bash to PowerShell: Commands Cheat Sheet

A quick reference guide of common Bash commands and their PowerShell equivalents.

File & Directory Navigation

Description	Bash Command	PowerShell Equivalent	Notes
List files in current directory	ls	Get-ChildItem or ls	ls is an alias in PowerShell, but formatting differs.
List one item per line	ls -1	Get-ChildItem -Name or gci -Name	Shows only names, one per line.
Show current directory	pwd	Get-Location or pwd	pwd exists as alias.
Change directory	cd <destination>	Set-Location <destination> or cd <destination>	cd is an alias.
Go up one directory	cd ..	cd ..	Works the same in both.

File Viewing

Description	Bash Command	PowerShell Equivalent	Notes
View file contents	cat <file>	Get-Content <file> or gc <file> or cat <file>	gc and cat are aliases.
View first N lines	head -n N <file>	Get-Content -TotalCount N <file>	N = number of lines.
View last N lines	tail -n N <file>	Get-Content -Tail N <file>	N = number of lines.
View file with paging	less <file>	Get-Content <file> | more or Get-Content <file> | Out-Host -Paging	PowerShell has no native pager.

File & Directory Management

Description	Bash Command	PowerShell Equivalent	Notes
Copy file	cp <source> <destination>	Copy-Item <source> <destination> or cp <source> <destination>	cp is an alias.
Move/rename file	mv <source> <destination>	Move-Item <source> <destination> or mv <source> <destination>	mv is an alias.
Remove file	rm <file>	Remove-Item <file> or rm <file>	rm is an alias.
Create directory	mkdir <directory>	New-Item -ItemType Directory <directory> or mkdir <directory>	mkdir is an alias.
Create empty file	touch <file>	New-Item -ItemType File <file>
Delete directory recursively	rm -r <directory>	Remove-Item -Recurse <directory>

Search & Filtering

Description	Bash Command	PowerShell Equivalent	Notes
Find files by name	find . -name <name/pattern>	Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Filter <name/pattern>
Search inside file	grep <pattern> <file>	Select-String <pattern> <file>	Supports regex by default.
Search recursively	grep -r <pattern> .	Select-String -Recurse <pattern> -Path .

System Info & Environment

Description	Bash Command	PowerShell Equivalent	Notes
Show command path	which <command>	Get-Command <command> | Select-Object Source	Shows full path to command.
Show environment variables	printenv	Get-ChildItem Env:
Set environment variable	export <name>="<value>"	$Env:<name> = "<value>"
Show single environment variable	echo $<name>	$Env:<name>

Help & History

Description	Bash Command	PowerShell Equivalent	Notes
Show command help	man <command>	Get-Help <command>	Add -Online to open in browser.
Show command history	history	Get-History or Get-Content (Get-PSReadLineOption).HistorySavePath	Get-History shows current session history while Get-Content (Get-PSReadLineOption).HistorySavePath shows the saved history from all sessions.
Clear terminal screen	clear	Clear-Host or clear or cls	clear and cls are aliases.

Pipes & Redirection

Description	Bash Command	PowerShell Equivalent	Notes
Pipe output to file (overwrite)	<command> > <file>	<command> | Out-File <file>
Pipe output to file (append)	<command> >> <file>	<command> | Out-File -Append <file>
Pipe to another command	<command1> | <command2>	<command1> | <command2>	Works the same, but passes objects instead of text.

Process Management

Description	Bash Command	PowerShell Equivalent	Notes
Show running processes	ps aux	Get-Process
Search processes by name	ps aux | grep <name>	Get-Process -Name <name>	Supports wildcards
Kill process by name	killall <name>	Stop-Process -Name <name>	Supports wildcards
Kill process by PID	kill <PID>	Stop-Process -Id <PID> or kill <PID>	kill is an alias.

Permissions

Description	Bash Command	PowerShell Equivalent	Notes
Change permissions	chmod 644 <file>	(No direct equivalent)	Windows uses ACLs instead.
Change ownership	chown user <file>	(No direct equivalent)	Requires icacls or Set-Acl.