Folks, I have always wondered at my ability to keep the myriad of LINUX instructions in my head. What would I do if I were to start losing them? Is there a tool to search for recall? Is there any way to go backwards in LINUX command land? If I were to remember that there is a command that will print on standard output the contents of a file in txt characters, but could not for the life of me remember 'more'. Where would I go for help (other than sending a email to this list serve)? All the command dictionaries I have are alphabetic. Ken Jones (the elder)
On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 3:56 PM, Ken Jones <kjones@ziplink.net> wrote:
Folks,
I have always wondered at my ability to keep the myriad of LINUX instructions in my head. What would I do if I were to start losing them? Is there a tool to search for recall?
Is there any way to go backwards in LINUX command land? If I were to remember that there is a command that will print on standard output the contents of a file in txt characters, but could not for the life of me remember 'more'. Where would I go for help (other than sending a email to this list serve)? All the command dictionaries I have are alphabetic.
Ken Jones (the elder) _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
apropos, although that isn't always helpful. Google. There are also some sites that have commands listed categorically.
"Ken" == Ken Jones <kjones@ziplink.net> writes:
Ken> Folks, Ken> I have always wondered at my ability to keep the myriad of LINUX instructions in my head. What would I do if I were to start losing them? Is there a tool to search for recall? Ken> Is there any way to go backwards in LINUX command land? If I Ken> were to remember that there is a command that will print on Ken> standard output the contents of a file in txt characters, but Ken> could not for the life of me remember 'more'. Where would I go Ken> for help (other than sending a email to this list serve)? All Ken> the command dictionaries I have are alphabetic. man -k something where something is vaguely related to your needs. In this case, I just did 'man -k text' and the last things that popped up were 'zmore'. Plus a bunch of other system calls and library calls about text handling. Maybe pickup one of the linux for beginners books that O'Reilly puts out? Unix in a Nutshell, etc. That should help you find commands. Also, *any* text editor will let you read a text file, even if you don't want to edit it. John
apropos is equivalent to man -k On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 7:00 PM, John Stoffel <john@stoffel.org> wrote:
"Ken" == Ken Jones <kjones@ziplink.net> writes:
Ken> Folks, Ken> I have always wondered at my ability to keep the myriad of LINUX instructions in my head. What would I do if I were to start losing them? Is there a tool to search for recall?
Ken> Is there any way to go backwards in LINUX command land? If I Ken> were to remember that there is a command that will print on Ken> standard output the contents of a file in txt characters, but Ken> could not for the life of me remember 'more'. Where would I go Ken> for help (other than sending a email to this list serve)? All Ken> the command dictionaries I have are alphabetic.
man -k something
where something is vaguely related to your needs. In this case, I just did 'man -k text' and the last things that popped up were 'zmore'. Plus a bunch of other system calls and library calls about text handling.
Maybe pickup one of the linux for beginners books that O'Reilly puts out? Unix in a Nutshell, etc. That should help you find commands.
Also, *any* text editor will let you read a text file, even if you don't want to edit it.
John _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
The up arrow will take you through your command history in reverse order. If you want to see more than one command at a time, open .bash_history in your home with a text editor, or, while you're still remembering it, do 'more .bash_history'. If you remember the command, but you can't recall what options you used with it, 'grep some-command .bash_history' can help. You can set the system to hold more commands, if you want. In debian, the default is to hold the last 500 commands. I don't recall what it is in other distros. Spiral-bound notebook is good, too. A couple of pages of your favorite commands and just about anything else will still be readable if the system crashes. Greg Avedissian On 01/12/2011 03:56 PM, Ken Jones wrote:
Folks,
I have always wondered at my ability to keep the myriad of LINUX instructions in my head. What would I do if I were to start losing them? Is there a tool to search for recall?
Is there any way to go backwards in LINUX command land? If I were to remember that there is a command that will print on standard output the contents of a file in txt characters, but could not for the life of me remember 'more'. Where would I go for help (other than sending a email to this list serve)? All the command dictionaries I have are alphabetic.
Ken Jones (the elder)
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On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 07:24:17PM -0500, Gregory Avedissian wrote:
The up arrow will take you through your command history in reverse order. If you want to see more than one command at a time, open .bash_history in your home with a text editor, or, while you're still remembering it, do 'more .bash_history'. If you remember the command, but you can't recall what options you used with it, 'grep some-command .bash_history' can help.
You can set the system to hold more commands, if you want. In debian, the default is to hold the last 500 commands. I don't recall what it is in other distros.
Spiral-bound notebook is good, too. A couple of pages of your favorite commands and just about anything else will still be readable if the system crashes.
Greg Avedissian
I usually use "history | grep $blah" when looking for a particular set of command line options... On machines where I don't intentionally disable history for security... Frank
I've gotten in the habit of doing a "ctrl-r" in my current shell and then searching for a command I've used. On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 9:19 PM, Franklin Moody <fmoody@moodman.org> wrote:
On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 07:24:17PM -0500, Gregory Avedissian wrote:
The up arrow will take you through your command history in reverse order. If you want to see more than one command at a time, open .bash_history in your home with a text editor, or, while you're still remembering it, do 'more .bash_history'. If you remember the command, but you can't recall what options you used with it, 'grep some-command .bash_history' can help.
You can set the system to hold more commands, if you want. In debian, the default is to hold the last 500 commands. I don't recall what it is in other distros.
Spiral-bound notebook is good, too. A couple of pages of your favorite commands and just about anything else will still be readable if the system crashes.
Greg Avedissian
I usually use "history | grep $blah" when looking for a particular set of command line options... On machines where I don't intentionally disable history for security...
Frank
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-- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".
The Up arrow is a total lifesaver. Whoever commented on making a text file containing Linucommands & their uses was right on, too. I can certainly search a text file residing in my hard drive much easier than I could ever find a note in one of a series of sprial (paper) notebooks. Liz J On 12 January 2011 19:24, Gregory Avedissian <avedis.g@verizon.net> wrote:
The up arrow will take you through your command history in reverse order. If you want to see more than one command at a time, open .bash_history in your home with a text editor, or, while you're still remembering it, do 'more .bash_history'. If you remember the command, but you can't recall what options you used with it, 'grep some-command .bash_history' can help.
You can set the system to hold more commands, if you want. In debian, the default is to hold the last 500 commands. I don't recall what it is in other distros.
Spiral-bound notebook is good, too. A couple of pages of your favorite commands and just about anything else will still be readable if the system crashes.
Greg Avedissian
On 01/12/2011 03:56 PM, Ken Jones wrote:
Folks,
I have always wondered at my ability to keep the myriad of LINUX instructions in my head. What would I do if I were to start losing them? Is there a tool to search for recall?
Is there any way to go backwards in LINUX command land? If I were to remember that there is a command that will print on standard output the contents of a file in txt characters, but could not for the life of me remember 'more'. Where would I go for help (other than sending a email to this list serve)? All the command dictionaries I have are alphabetic.
Ken Jones (the elder)
_______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
_______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
If Google and other search commands don't get what you want you could buy a reference book. Or you could create your own cheat sheet. On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 3:56 PM, Ken Jones <kjones@ziplink.net> wrote:
Folks,
I have always wondered at my ability to keep the myriad of LINUX instructions in my head. What would I do if I were to start losing them? Is there a tool to search for recall?
On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 03:56:02PM -0500, Ken Jones wrote:
output the contents of a file in txt characters, but could not for the life of me remember 'more'. Where would I go for help (other than sending a email to this list serve)? All the command dictionaries I have are alphabetic.
linuxcommand.org might be helpful.
participants (9)
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Chuck Anderson -
E Johnson -
Franklin Moody -
Gregory Avedissian -
James Gray -
John Stoffel -
Jorden M -
Ken Jones -
Tim Keller