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I always end up having to google how to do stuff with CLI tools but GUIs let you discover how to do things intuitively. Tried using man pages but they're always

I always end up having to google how to do stuff with CLI tools but GUIs let you discover how to do things intuitively. Tried using man pages but they're always slower to find stuff in and a stackoverflow answer is more likely to target the use case I'm going for.

cyc115 7y ago
not super relevant here, but for those interested. There is a cli tool called `tldr` that takes in the name (of a tool) and prints out common usages.
- darkpuma 7y ago
  I'm a big fan of this. Probably 90% of the time the tldr summary has my use-case covered.
  - Fnoord 7y ago
    If the tldr entry exists. Obscure commands don't have one while you're less likely to know these well. Chicken/egg problem.
    - darkpuma 7y ago
      In my experience the coverage is shockingly good. And if you find a case where there is no tldr, you're back where you're started having lost not more than five seconds. The failure case is graceful, so it was easy to put tldr into my workflow.
      - weaksauce 7y ago
        I wonder if tldr returns a meaningful exit value that you could write an alias/function for something like tldr $term || man $term
        darkpuma 7y ago
        Definitely; tldr returns 0 on success, 1 on failure. tldr_or_man() { tldr $1 || man $1 }
F-0X 7y ago
> Tried using man pages but they're always slower to find stuff in Man pages are presented through less, so you can begin a (regex) search with / and hit n to go to the next result or N to go back. If you knew this, I am actually very surprised you don't find information near-instantly.
- jimmaswell 7y ago
  I'm aware, but this involves guessing the right word/phrase and sifting through multiple matches, and there often aren't quick examples given.
- andrezsanchez 7y ago
  > so you can begin a (regex) search with / and hit n to go to the next result or N to go back. His point of that being slower still stands. I also find that just googling generally what I want can more quickly lead me to a stack overflow post with exactly what is needed, while MAN pages can be rather cryptic at times without reading the whole thing.
visarga 7y ago
> but GUIs let you discover how to do things intuitively. The real advantage of CLI is that it is a language, not just a UI. It is composable, programable, remote-able and easier to automate.
ediardo 7y ago
And some new CLI programs don't ship with their manpages at all. I've also seen some manpages that don't match the specific version/release of a program installed on the OS.

cyc115 7y ago

not super relevant here, but for those interested. There is a cli tool called `tldr` that takes in the name (of a tool) and prints out common usages.

darkpuma 7y ago
I'm a big fan of this. Probably 90% of the time the tldr summary has my use-case covered.
- Fnoord 7y ago
  If the tldr entry exists. Obscure commands don't have one while you're less likely to know these well. Chicken/egg problem.
  - darkpuma 7y ago
    In my experience the coverage is shockingly good. And if you find a case where there is no tldr, you're back where you're started having lost not more than five seconds. The failure case is graceful, so it was easy to put tldr into my workflow.
    - weaksauce 7y ago
      I wonder if tldr returns a meaningful exit value that you could write an alias/function for something like tldr $term || man $term
      - darkpuma 7y ago
        Definitely; tldr returns 0 on success, 1 on failure. tldr_or_man() { tldr $1 || man $1 }

F-0X 7y ago

> Tried using man pages but they're always slower to find stuff in Man pages are presented through less, so you can begin a (regex) search with / and hit n to go to the next result or N to go back. If you knew this, I am actually very surprised you don't find information near-instantly.

jimmaswell 7y ago
I'm aware, but this involves guessing the right word/phrase and sifting through multiple matches, and there often aren't quick examples given.
andrezsanchez 7y ago
> so you can begin a (regex) search with / and hit n to go to the next result or N to go back. His point of that being slower still stands. I also find that just googling generally what I want can more quickly lead me to a stack overflow post with exactly what is needed, while MAN pages can be rather cryptic at times without reading the whole thing.

visarga 7y ago

> but GUIs let you discover how to do things intuitively. The real advantage of CLI is that it is a language, not just a UI. It is composable, programable, remote-able and easier to automate.

ediardo 7y ago

And some new CLI programs don't ship with their manpages at all. I've also seen some manpages that don't match the specific version/release of a program installed on the OS.