Like with Git, the usual set of common *nixy tools (coreutils as well as certain shell built-ins) contains tools in both the 'porcelain' (meant mostly for human

Like with Git, the usual set of common *nixy tools (coreutils as well as certain shell built-ins) contains tools in both the 'porcelain' (meant mostly for human consumption) and 'plumbing' (meant mostly for scripting and constructing pipelines) categories. Perhaps tutorials and reference documentation should place more emphasis on which is which, and why. Using the right tool for the job leads to better results and less frustration.