The Book of Secret Knowledge: A Developer’s Ultimate Cheat Sheet
Intro
Ever stumbled upon a GitHub repo and thought, "Where has this been all my coding life?" That’s exactly how I felt when I discovered The Book of Secret Knowledge. With over 176k stars and counting, this isn’t just another curated list—it’s a sprawling, meticulously organized vault of tools, tricks, and resources that’ll save you hours of Googling.
What It Does
This repo is a massive collection of:
- Cheatsheets (Linux, Git, Vim, you name it)
- CLI/web tools (from obscure one-liners to productivity boosters)
- Security guides (pentesting, hardening, networking)
- DevOps/Admin manuals (Docker, Kubernetes, AWS)
- Blogs & tutorials (curated for quality)
Think of it as a crowdsourced brain dump from sysadmins, security researchers, and DevOps engineers—all neatly categorized and regularly updated.
Why It’s Cool
-
No Fluff, Just Gold
Unlike bloated "awesome lists," this focuses on practical, battle-tested resources. For example:- Need to debug a stuck process? There’s a
kill
command flowchart. - Setting up a secure server? Here’s a hardened
sshd_config
template.
- Need to debug a stuck process? There’s a
-
For Everyone, But Especially Ops/Security Folks
It’s DevOps/SRE-friendly (Ansible playbooks, Terraform tips) but also handy for developers (e.g., Git shortcuts, regex cheatsheets). -
Community-Driven
Contributions are vetted (no dead links!), and the maintainer enforces a "usefulness-first" policy.
How to Use It
- Bookmark the repo (link).
- Ctrl+F the README—it’s structured by topic (e.g., "Security", "Containers").
- Contribute back if you find gems missing (see guidelines).
No installation needed—just pure, open-source knowledge.
Final Thoughts
This isn’t just a repo; it’s a time machine. Instead of digging through Stack Overflow or outdated blogs, you’ll find answers here faster. My advice? Skim it weekly—you’ll always spot something new.
Pro tip: Pair it with tldr.sh for simplified man pages, and you’ve got a killer combo.
TL;DR: If your bookmarks bar is a mess, let this repo replace it. 🚀
Found a killer tool in the book? Drop it in the comments!