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
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
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?
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
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
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.
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
participants (9)
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Chuck Anderson
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E Johnson
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Franklin Moody
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Gregory Avedissian
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James Gray
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John Stoffel
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Jorden M
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Ken Jones
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Tim Keller