Linux CLI 101 - bit-tech.net Forums

CardJoe · 6th Sep 2007, 09:53

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...inux_cli_101/1

We've been covering a bit of Linux lately, but what about all these commands? And how do you know what you're really looking at? Ken Gypen takes a stab at demystifying everyone's biggest Penguin-based nightmare - the CLI.

Digg! For Love

naokaji · 6th Sep 2007, 10:06

simply great article... should help alot for those that want to use linux but arent "experts" yet

steveo_mcg · 6th Sep 2007, 10:10

Good article, where was it a year or two ago when i was trying to learn this stuff

<A88> · 6th Sep 2007, 10:20

Excellent article- really welcomed!

<A88>

riggs · 6th Sep 2007, 10:27

Again, another great little Linux article...thanks!

A question for you Glider; if you had to recommend just one Linux reference book, which would it be?

revlob · 6th Sep 2007, 11:06

Ooh! I've been using top for years, but hadn't heard of htop, which looks much nicer. Cheers for that.

Woodstock · 6th Sep 2007, 11:36

wow, a cli guide thats made for those who dont know anything lol, why couldnt i have found that when i needed it more lol (not that i didnt find it useful). im hoping youve got some more linux articles planned.

djDEATH · 6th Sep 2007, 12:20

i think this is a good article, as someone who doesn't need this help, i understood it thoroughly, however, for people who genuinely want to get stuck into this stuff, it kinda throws you in at the deep end, some friends i emailed this link to who genuinely do want ot learn some bash and basic unix/linux admin, emailed back asking what VMware is and what on earth we need that for to ssh into a linux box.

i found it very intuiive, but the style of writing is very reminiscent of linux geeks, assuming a lot of basic PC knowledge. Fair enough for a site like this i guess, but it will have a lto of people stumped at stage one i think.

do you really need to install VMware in order to learn bash? an unneccesary level of complication for an otherwise plain and simple guide.

DeX · 6th Sep 2007, 12:30

Great article but I think there's a few things you should have mentioned:

1) If you want the power of bash on windows there's Cygwin
2) If you need help with most commands there's usually an option called --help (I think it would be useful to mention this as well as the man command at the very start)
3) Did you even mention command pipes? That's something that should be near the beginning too.
4) Grep is command I've found invaluable. You don't need to use regular expressions to use it if you don't want to but that power is always there if you need it.
5) And perhaps a mention of the find command. Windows is useless for searching for files and I always get confused by find so that would be useful
6) Command aliases can be very useful. For example I have one for ls which makes it default to ls -alrt

Sorry, I know you couldn't possibly cover everything (this list turned out longer than I expected). As I said, it's a great article!

Da Dego · 6th Sep 2007, 13:10

hey guys, I just had to put a comment in here, mostly to djDeath and DeX.

First of all, thanks for the great comments, I'm glad to know that our linux articles are hitting a very often-missed target. Which leads me to -

As DeX said, you can't have EVERYTHING in here - or else it becomes more than just 101. Remember, DeX, the purpose of this first article is to familiarise yourself with how to move around, assuming you don't even know what "cd" means. Pipes, grep and aliases are all a bit out of the scope. Of course, that's what a CLI 102, 201, etc. are for...

So don't worry, we'll get there.

For DJ Death's comment, that was one reason LiveCD was mentioned in the very beginning. You can boot up using nothing but the Ubuntu guide, though VMWare Server makes for a little nicer (and I'd say cleaner) approach. That being said, you're right - an intro on how to install VMWare Server would not have gone amiss, though the basic steps are present.

1e8o · 6th Sep 2007, 14:06

This belongs in the software tab right?

Jamie · 6th Sep 2007, 14:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1e8o

This belongs in the software tab right?

If only we had one...

Bindibadgi · 6th Sep 2007, 14:26

Damn it. I should have checked and this would probably have been better in bits... or not?! Nm.

DougEdey · 6th Sep 2007, 16:25

Doesn't "mv" stand for "move" which makes more sense then "copy and delete the original"?

steveo_mcg · 6th Sep 2007, 16:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougEdey

Doesn't "mv" stand for "move" which makes more sense then "copy and delete the original"?

True, but thats what it does. Some people find that easier to visualise.

shaq · 6th Sep 2007, 16:31

Great article Glider!

I use Nautilus on my Ubuntu installation occasionally, but when I need to some serious file manipulation, I bring out ksh!

And then when things get really serious, that's when I fire up PERL...

Can we get a PERL 101?... :-)

Jamie · 6th Sep 2007, 16:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by shaq

Can we get a PERL 101?... :-)

Then Ruby, Python, Java, C?

Bluephoenix · 6th Sep 2007, 16:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamie

Then Ruby, Python, Java, C?

and what about PHP? (lol, what can I say, it rhymes

)

excellent article though, now maybeI'll be able to educate my friend on how to use the media server rather than always being at a loss and asking me.

shaq · 6th Sep 2007, 16:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamie

Then Ruby, Python, Java, C?

Sorry I asked!

reason I mentioned it is that I've always found PERL really easy to use for more complex file manipulations...

It's also really easy to pick up.

Now Python I've heard good things about... I'm hoping to pick it up soon, so yes, a Python tutorial would be handy...

Glider · 6th Sep 2007, 17:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by riggs

Again, another great little Linux article...thanks!

A question for you Glider; if you had to recommend just one Linux reference book, which would it be?

A general Linux book, hmm, hard... My first tought (don't laugh) is Google... Linux' strength is it's great online documentation, certainly for a distro like Gentoo... If it isn't in the handbook or the wiki, you have some exotic stuff going on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougEdey

Doesn't "mv" stand for "move" which makes more sense then "copy and delete the original"?

mv stands for move, but it does a copy & delete...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluephoenix

and what about PHP? (lol, what can I say, it rhymes

)

PHP is about one of the nicest languages I've learned...

EDIT: @DeX, piping, grepping, sed, ... all usefull, all easy, but all require that you understand the basics first, basics being tree structure and the likes... The goal of this guide was a bare introduction, and I do mean bare

6th Sep 2007, 09:53	#1
CardJoe Player Character bit-tech Staff Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 7,940	Linux CLI 101 http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...inux_cli_101/1 We've been covering a bit of Linux lately, but what about all these commands? And how do you know what you're really looking at? Ken Gypen takes a stab at demystifying everyone's biggest Penguin-based nightmare - the CLI. Digg! For Love __________________ this is joe's non-bit-tech blog Last edited by Bindibadgi; 6th Sep 2007 at 11:49.

6th Sep 2007, 10:10	#3
steveo_mcg What owl? Join Date: May 2005 Location: Edinburgh Posts: 3,975	Good article, where was it a year or two ago when i was trying to learn this stuff __________________ No boom today, boom tomorrow... there's always a boom tomorrow.

6th Sep 2007, 10:20	#4
<A88> Trust the Computer Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 4,797	Excellent article- really welcomed! <A88> __________________ TheCounterfit.co.uk Twitter Facebook Last.fm Flickr! FriendFeed

6th Sep 2007, 10:27	#5
riggs ^_^ Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Lincs. Posts: 1,643	Again, another great little Linux article...thanks! A question for you Glider; if you had to recommend just one Linux reference book, which would it be? __________________ Hell hath no fury like a hippo with a machine gun PSN ID: buster2006

6th Sep 2007, 11:36	#7
Woodstock So Say We All Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New Zealand Posts: 1,657	wow, a cli guide thats made for those who dont know anything lol, why couldnt i have found that when i needed it more lol (not that i didnt find it useful). im hoping youve got some more linux articles planned. __________________ Hell hath no fury like a hippo with a machine gun.

6th Sep 2007, 11:06	#6
revlob Modder Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: UK Posts: 58	Ooh! I've been using top for years, but hadn't heard of htop, which looks much nicer. Cheers for that.

6th Sep 2007, 12:20	#8
djDEATH gert rubbish or summat Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: BRISTOL Posts: 370	i think this is a good article, as someone who doesn't need this help, i understood it thoroughly, however, for people who genuinely want to get stuck into this stuff, it kinda throws you in at the deep end, some friends i emailed this link to who genuinely do want ot learn some bash and basic unix/linux admin, emailed back asking what VMware is and what on earth we need that for to ssh into a linux box. i found it very intuiive, but the style of writing is very reminiscent of linux geeks, assuming a lot of basic PC knowledge. Fair enough for a site like this i guess, but it will have a lto of people stumped at stage one i think. do you really need to install VMware in order to learn bash? an unneccesary level of complication for an otherwise plain and simple guide. __________________ BEASTIE Lian-Li PC-07b ASUS M2N-E nForce 570 Ultra OCZ StealthXtreme 600W PSU Phenom X3 8750 BLACK EDITION @ 3.103 Ghz (14.5 x 214 FSB, HTT @ 1070 Mhz) Gainward 8800GT Golden Sample @ 730/1825/1000 Mhz 4GB (2x2GB) OCZ Blade PC8500 CL5 Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB WD Caviar SE 250GB

6th Sep 2007, 12:30	#9
DeX Mube Codder Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,103	Great article but I think there's a few things you should have mentioned: 1) If you want the power of bash on windows there's Cygwin 2) If you need help with most commands there's usually an option called --help (I think it would be useful to mention this as well as the man command at the very start) 3) Did you even mention command pipes? That's something that should be near the beginning too. 4) Grep is command I've found invaluable. You don't need to use regular expressions to use it if you don't want to but that power is always there if you need it. 5) And perhaps a mention of the find command. Windows is useless for searching for files and I always get confused by find so that would be useful 6) Command aliases can be very useful. For example I have one for ls which makes it default to ls -alrt Sorry, I know you couldn't possibly cover everything (this list turned out longer than I expected). As I said, it's a great article! __________________ Play my game: Shyguy's Cave of Death! If you dont have the time to check your spelling and grammar, you dont have the time to post! -Liquid K9

6th Sep 2007, 13:10	#10
Da Dego Brett Thomas Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Cleveland, OH USA Posts: 3,906	hey guys, I just had to put a comment in here, mostly to djDeath and DeX. First of all, thanks for the great comments, I'm glad to know that our linux articles are hitting a very often-missed target. Which leads me to - As DeX said, you can't have EVERYTHING in here - or else it becomes more than just 101. Remember, DeX, the purpose of this first article is to familiarise yourself with how to move around, assuming you don't even know what "cd" means. Pipes, grep and aliases are all a bit out of the scope. Of course, that's what a CLI 102, 201, etc. are for... So don't worry, we'll get there. For DJ Death's comment, that was one reason LiveCD was mentioned in the very beginning. You can boot up using nothing but the Ubuntu guide, though VMWare Server makes for a little nicer (and I'd say cleaner) approach. That being said, you're right - an intro on how to install VMWare Server would not have gone amiss, though the basic steps are present. __________________ "Frankly that seems overkill. iluvtrees2 arguing with spec is the intellectual equivalent of a bunny rabbit taking on a pissed-off lion." - Nexxo

6th Sep 2007, 14:06	#11
1e8o Supermodder Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Netherlands Posts: 272	This belongs in the software tab right? __________________ NEW!!! X2 4200+\| 2 x XFX Geforce 6600 gt in SLI \| Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe \| 4 x hitachi 250 gb sata hdd + Maxtor 160 usb 2.0 total of 1160 GB \| 2 x 1024 MB DDR-400 (2 GB ) \| Tagan U force 580 Watt \| Saving money for an macbook and an Iphone (2nd edition)

6th Sep 2007, 14:26	#13
Bindibadgi Richard Swinburne bit-tech Staff Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Omnipwntent Posts: 28,228	Damn it. I should have checked and this would probably have been better in bits... or not?! Nm. __________________ Made you look, made you stare, made you clicked this in your underwear! Den of Geek!

6th Sep 2007, 16:25	#14
DougEdey I pwn all your storage Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Southampton Posts: 13,933	Doesn't "mv" stand for "move" which makes more sense then "copy and delete the original"? __________________ Burnout: Paradise Stats!XBL: DougEdey Bindi PSN ID: DougEdey Twitter

6th Sep 2007, 16:31	#16
shaq What's a Dremel? Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: London, UK Posts: 15	Great article Glider! I use Nautilus on my Ubuntu installation occasionally, but when I need to some serious file manipulation, I bring out ksh! And then when things get really serious, that's when I fire up PERL... Can we get a PERL 101?... :-)