for real though, modern linux distros will rarely require you to enter a command line, and if you do, a quick internet search can usually help you find out what you need to enter

  • spectre [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    The most handy thing about the Linux shell is googling "how do I configure___ " and then someone says "just run this: _____" and you paste it in and you're good.

    That said, I'm giving bad advice in that you should never run a command on your computer that you don't understand.

    That said, most people just do it anyway and it usually works out, but the more you take your time to dissect a command before hitting Enter, the safer and easier things'll be.

    • ComradeBongwater [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Honestly, my biggest gripe with the terminal is how little info it gives you about what you're about to run.

      It would be nice if distros included a decent zsh config with autocomplete, auto-help text, and syntax highlighting.

      • crime [she/her, any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Does man command or command --help not usually do it for you?

        • ComradeBongwater [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          My needs are met by those and stuff like tldr, cheat & howdoi, but I am specifically looking for something much more discoverable and inline as I type the command.

          Basically, I want:

          • fzf completions (or any fuzzy searcher w/ previewing)
          • commands and aliases showing description from man beneath
          • file/dir completion showing devicons & file previews
          • flag/option completion while displaying the corresponding help text beneath
          • integration with some of the tools like tldr, cheat, howdoi, navi, etc
          • BigLadKarlLiebknecht [he/him, comrade/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            I switched to fish last year, and I haven’t looked back. It feels like so much less of an abomination than zsh or bash, and I’ve barely modified it out of the box. Might be worth a whirl, the completion stuff rocks.

            • thisismyrealname [he/him]
              ·
              3 years ago

              i used to use fish, but having to translate scripts from POSIX to fish syntax got annoying. great shell otherwise

        • wantonviolins [they/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          man command often fails to provide examples of common use cases, and sometimes the man page assumes that you already know what the program was created to do.

          I didn’t know what cat was actually for for years

      • thisismyrealname [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        arch's installer has a really nice zsh setup, but it's not installed by default unfortunately

        • ComradeBongwater [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Hmm I'll look into it. I've been having trouble finding anything that meets my desires in terms of autocomplete/suggestions. Right now I'm doing mostly manual configuration because all the plugins are missing something in some regard.

          • wantonviolins [they/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            This is one of the things I hate about a lot of modern popular utilities, the ecosystems around them are extremely fragile and fractured. There isn’t a cohesive set of standard plugins or settings for things like zsh, so everyone ends up with an overly unique setup.

            • ComradeBongwater [he/him]
              ·
              3 years ago

              Agreed. Though, there is a lot of really great stuff in the zsh ecosystem. The problem with zsh (and bash, etc) is the archaic completion system, and all the community stuff is built on top of antiquated decisions.

    • thisismyrealname [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      That said, I’m giving bad advice in that you should never run a command on your computer that you don’t understand.

      totally, most of the time you'll be fine but it's worth learning some of the basic commands (ls, rm, cd, etc.) so you can at least understand what commands do. on systemd-based distros (most of them are these days for those unfamiliar), it's a good idea to learn how to use systemctl as well

      • ComradeBongwater [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Most basic users would only really need to learn apt to fill in the gaps and use GUI stuff for the rest.

    • star_wraith [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Tbf if only ran commands that I understood I wouldn't be able to operate Linux, but I'm probably an edge case anyway.

      • spectre [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        No I know, like I said everyone does it, but I'd feel bad "officially" condoning it. Hopefully you'll pick up some things along the way.