Good cushions
Knowing:
- pwd, ls, cd, cat/less, cp, mv, rm, rmdir, rm -rf, ls -lah
- command --help
- man command | grep thing I care about
- bonus points if you have tldr command installed
Have someone on Google doing the thing I need to do.
I have no clue… I grew up on Windows 3.11 and I thought Windows was kinda lame while MS-DOS was the coolest thing ever because you typed things like magic spells 😅
This right here (more or less - first home PC was Win95, but it still relied pretty heavily on DOS, esp for games). I loved the RPGs where you typed in your actions, too.
When you aren’t in a rush try to do stuff in command instead, looking for a file? , try to find it in command. Need to copy and move a folder? Don’t use your file manager, use the command line instead.
Eventually you will piece together the bits you learn and it starts to make sense, and then you feel like a God. Lol.
Practice I guess. Especially using cli for specific tasks that is done more efficiently on there than the gui.
Moving files using regex for example is useful. Or finding files with specific phrases in them. Stuff like that
For me it was self hosting, aka not having a choice but to learn. I’ll be dead before using remote desktop for that.
Also, self hosting gives you real motivation, because you actually need to do things, carry tasks, not just learning for the sake of it. Your efforts get immediately rewarded with functioning things.
real motivation, because you actually need to do things, carry tasks, not just learning for the sake of it. Your efforts get immediately rewarded with functioning things.
Yes indeed, and that’s true for any challenging skill to hone.
Mastering the command line? A few observations. First, consult and take notes (yes, even seasoned terminal veterans forget syntax.) Secondly, embrace tab completion. It’s your friend, and a surprisingly effective substitute for remembering every single command. Third, the true test: procure a VPS or remote server and exclusively use the command line. No GUI crutches allowed. It’s a digital wilderness, and you’ll learn to navigate it.
Lastly, and this is non-negotiable: keep a terminal window permanently resident on your desktop. Consider it a vital organ, deserving of its space. It’s a constant reminder of the power you wield, and a readily available portal to a world beyond the pretty buttons.
On that front: to developers-
Please make sure you include bash completions for your tools
Hehe, I’m doing this all the time now ! 3 years ago when I started my linux/self-hosted server journey with debian: CLI only !
Was difficult at times and had a few breakdowns (most got fixed the next day… Sleep/taking some time off really helps !!!)
One thing I’m still bad at… Is taking notes. Haven’t found a good way take IT notes. And I tried sooo many different approaches…
Breakdowns are inevitable; a good night’s sleep is often the most elegant solution. :) I utilize Zim (for note management) as plain text remains a perfectly serviceable option, imo.
I upvoted this comment multiple times while reading.
Knowing the commands
I want a dropdown terminal la guake and yuake. Both options don’t work on my Fedora. Because of this, I almost never use the terminal.
Well, it’s easy… just be born in the early 80s and grow up with home micros!
I am a Linux noob as far as the desktop goes. But I’m quite comfortable in the terminal because for years I’ve maintained a home server running Debian. After I install the OS, I unplug the keyboard and monitor and the only way to talk to that box is through SSH.
Colors. And a nice, readable font. Make your terminal pretty so you feel good every time you interact with it. Think about window dimensions (I personally always find the standard 80x24 too small), maybe set up some manual tiling so you can have two terminal windows fill your screen. Use the keyboard to move around your desktops.
But mostly, colors.
Colors and ASCII graphics.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Or fancy.
But breaking things up so it’s readable helps massively.
Or a nice prompt that creates a distinguishable marker across output.
And the message “DON’T PANIC” in big friendly letters.
And make sure you know where your towel is.
I think just doing it more, and thinking it’s cool to interact more directly. At least that helps me. I do feel bad for dyslexic peiple though, it’s a lot harder for them to use CLI.
Yeah that was it for me. Just keep regular backups and bear in mind that you’ll probably break stuff at first. But once you get the hang of it, it’s like a whole other level of control over your system.
Also I’m not dyslexic but would things like tab completion and aliases help maybe? I sometimes shorten often-used commands with aliases just for convenience (as an example, I use
rsynca lot, particularly the commandrsync --ignore-existing -ravwhich I just shorten torsto save time) so maybe that could also be used to avoid mis-spelling?Thats a good idea, i have not made any aliases yet. Also remembering all of those aliases is another challenge ha. I keep a text file named commands on my desktop with a whole bunch of commands I forget.
I have some mapped to super simple aliases too like
e1to reboot,e2to shutdown etc. I don’t remember why I started doing that, but that way I only have to remember which number does what lol.
I set it so when I hit CTRL-Tilde it drops down from the top of the screen.
Quake-style, baby.
CTRL-tilde or CTRL-backtick?
Yes
