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YES THIS PLEASE. I learned programming through the web, so I lack a lot of knowledge in basic systems / bash / *nix / I'm not even sure how to call that. I've

YES THIS PLEASE. I learned programming through the web, so I lack a lot of knowledge in basic systems / bash / *nix / I'm not even sure how to call that. I've googled so many time "learn bash" etc but it's never really what I'm looking for. I regularly discover tools that are so basic yet so powerful (all things you mention) yet I feel there is a lack of (great) resources online to "learn the basic tools of your CL".

crowbahr 9y ago
You mean you don't just go read the man page for every bash command and intuitively understand it? Sorry for the sarcasm, I just feel your pain. Learning even basic things in bash has been slow for me too. I love it. I prefer it to GUIs on most things I have figured out. But there's so much to learn.
- jypepin 9y ago
  from a sibling comment: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/ http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/ seems to be great :)
  - moviuro 9y ago
    It isn't as good as: https://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashGuide https://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashGuide (which is the one that gets recommended on #bash @ freenode). Also: https://shellcheck.net https://shellcheck.net
- zwischenzug 9y ago
  I spoke about bash and this exact thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb3k0sGKrjQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb3k0sGKrjQ Plug for book that resulted: https://leanpub.com/learnbashthehardway https://leanpub.com/learnbashthehardway
- acqq 9y ago
  Or learning git from its man pages. https://www.mercurial-scm.org/pipermail/mercurial/2015-March/048184.html https://www.mercurial-scm.org/pipermail/mercurial/2015-March...
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  UNIX Power Tools, written in 1992, once filled much of this niche. It badly needs updating and augmenting, or a novel replacement.
qiqitori 9y ago
Well, the way this person uses ImageMagick can hardly be described as "basic". In fact, he's a wizard. If you look through the bullet points at the top, he links to an impressive CV and PDFs with mathematical descriptions of how some of his scripts work.
sureaboutthis 9y ago
You can scroll through /bin, /usr/bin/ and /usr/local/bin/ and find all the included basic tools and then read "man 'tool'" or google for it
- linkmotif 9y ago
  This is not practically useful advice.
  - provost 9y ago
    Yes, it is practically useful advice, especially when you’re on a flight with no WiFi.
    - linkmotif 9y ago
      That’s a good use case. Believe me I’m into man pages. Every 6 months I check the Apple store to see if anyone has created a good man pages app. But as primary learning material for most people: not so sure.
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    It's how I learned, back in dial-up days. Coreutils is a good place to start. http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/coreutils.html http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/coreutils.html
    - linkmotif 9y ago
      I’m not saying you can’t learn this way. I’m saying it’s not practical for most people. Many people who would fail this way would succeed other ways. Reading man bash as primary learning material will lead to failure for 999/1000 humans.
      - ComputerGuru 9y ago
        That just means the man page you're using sucks.
ptr_void 9y ago
Explains concepts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFAC320731F539902 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFAC320731F539902
SSLy 9y ago
If you can spare the time read these two, the first one is free. http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php/ http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php/ https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0134277554 https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Hand...
paloaltokid 9y ago
The best way to learn in my opinion is to find someone who knows more than you and have them be your mentor. You don't even have to ask them directly, though many people I think are glad to teach. Identify someone at your work or school who you feel always has a nice perspective and who you trust; then seek out their opinion and advice when you have questions. You can learn a lot in a fairly short amount of time by applying this practice. You can also find what I've heard called "silent teachers" - there's no formal or informal relationship between the two of you, but you're always watching what they say, observing the things they care about, etc. If you're in a situation where you're not employed full-time in a technical position it becomes a little harder but you can still do it. Much of it depends on your local context.

crowbahr 9y ago

You mean you don't just go read the man page for every bash command and intuitively understand it? Sorry for the sarcasm, I just feel your pain. Learning even basic things in bash has been slow for me too. I love it. I prefer it to GUIs on most things I have figured out. But there's so much to learn.

jypepin 9y ago
from a sibling comment: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/ http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/ seems to be great :)
- moviuro 9y ago
  It isn't as good as: https://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashGuide https://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashGuide (which is the one that gets recommended on #bash @ freenode). Also: https://shellcheck.net https://shellcheck.net
zwischenzug 9y ago
I spoke about bash and this exact thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb3k0sGKrjQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb3k0sGKrjQ Plug for book that resulted: https://leanpub.com/learnbashthehardway https://leanpub.com/learnbashthehardway
acqq 9y ago
Or learning git from its man pages. https://www.mercurial-scm.org/pipermail/mercurial/2015-March/048184.html https://www.mercurial-scm.org/pipermail/mercurial/2015-March...
dredmorbius 9y ago
UNIX Power Tools, written in 1992, once filled much of this niche. It badly needs updating and augmenting, or a novel replacement.

qiqitori 9y ago

Well, the way this person uses ImageMagick can hardly be described as "basic". In fact, he's a wizard. If you look through the bullet points at the top, he links to an impressive CV and PDFs with mathematical descriptions of how some of his scripts work.

sureaboutthis 9y ago

You can scroll through /bin, /usr/bin/ and /usr/local/bin/ and find all the included basic tools and then read "man 'tool'" or google for it

linkmotif 9y ago
This is not practically useful advice.
- provost 9y ago
  Yes, it is practically useful advice, especially when you’re on a flight with no WiFi.
  - linkmotif 9y ago
    That’s a good use case. Believe me I’m into man pages. Every 6 months I check the Apple store to see if anyone has created a good man pages app. But as primary learning material for most people: not so sure.
- Symbiote 9y ago
  It's how I learned, back in dial-up days. Coreutils is a good place to start. http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/coreutils.html http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/coreutils.html
  - linkmotif 9y ago
    I’m not saying you can’t learn this way. I’m saying it’s not practical for most people. Many people who would fail this way would succeed other ways. Reading man bash as primary learning material will lead to failure for 999/1000 humans.
    - ComputerGuru 9y ago
      That just means the man page you're using sucks.

ptr_void 9y ago

Explains concepts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFAC320731F539902 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFAC320731F539902

SSLy 9y ago

If you can spare the time read these two, the first one is free. http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php/ http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php/ https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Handbook/dp/0134277554 https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Linux-System-Administration-Hand...

paloaltokid 9y ago

The best way to learn in my opinion is to find someone who knows more than you and have them be your mentor. You don't even have to ask them directly, though many people I think are glad to teach. Identify someone at your work or school who you feel always has a nice perspective and who you trust; then seek out their opinion and advice when you have questions. You can learn a lot in a fairly short amount of time by applying this practice. You can also find what I've heard called "silent teachers" - there's no formal or informal relationship between the two of you, but you're always watching what they say, observing the things they care about, etc. If you're in a situation where you're not employed full-time in a technical position it becomes a little harder but you can still do it. Much of it depends on your local context.