linux commands
 

is there a fairly good list of linux commands out there that tell you the command and then describe what the command does, sort of like a dictionary of linux commands?


-thanks in advance

Use google. Search on "linux commands". There are tons of files to choose from.
You can also use the man pages (read manual pages) to find out about a command. Example: suppose you want to find out about the options for tar. Open a terminal, and enter the command 'man tar' (without quotes) to display the man page for tar.

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Main_Page

Can be found in the links section on the right hand
side (together with a truckload of other sensible
links, one might add ;}) ...



Cheers,
Tink

Try this command:

ls /bin | xargs whatis

The do the same for /sbin, /usr/bin and /usr/sbin. That should give you a fairly comprehensive list.

this will tell you what a command does, if it is in that database
this will tell you where commands are, if you have enough permissions to access them
this will search for a command when you don't know the exact name
this will pull up a manual (stated above)
of course permission restricted users cannot use any commands located in /sbin, so just browse the contents in there. And of course google will be the biggest resource

For what it's worth I bought this book and it's had most if not all of the little snippets I've been looking for. And for less then $10 you can't beat it.


Linux Pocket Guide (it even covers Fedora distro)

Linux Pocket Guide