There seem to be several ways to do anything...Just ask
a how to, and if TERMINAL is involved, you'll get as many
varieties of the answer as responders. How does one learn
the order of things, the syntax, of TERMINAL? I have asked
a question and gotten two totally different looking sets of
bash commands. How do a newbie learn which way is
right? (Not to mention the guys who give you a command,
then, a day later, add "Oh, yeah, I forgot
to tell you to add a flag of BLANK, or else it all gets screwed
up.") Too late. Not that I am not grateful for the attempt....
Hope this is making sense, because this whole
thing has my head spinning.
PLEASE clue me in.
I am all eyes....

one reads a book.

click the link on my sig and explore.

I'd recommend one of the best books for learning shells "Unix Shells by Example" author, Ellie Quigley. Comes with a CD with all the source code and data files used in the book.

That book rules..

Haven't found much agreement between books or between folks.
That's the point. Why I asked.
Oh, and just to be fair, Acid, I actually went to your place, ALREADY,and downloaded ABS GUIDE to read on my vacation. I had a lot of trouble at your site downloading, too. My machine
crashed for some crazy reason while downloading...Hey, I
use a dialup modem over an ISP, nothing personal here!
Just why I remember it was your site, that's all. ...BOOKS?
I just spent fifty bucks for RedHat Unleashed7.2, after buying
three books on Linux that were outdated because of the changes
of just the last year. Oh, and they don't agree on SYNTAX, either.
So don't say, in effect, RTFM. That ain't fair, in this case. I now
own three copies of RedHat, because they come with the books.
(When I bought the box originally.) Sorry, this is frustrating...
I asked this same question to a bunch of old pros and they
all laughed and said, there ain't no right way, only wrong ways.
And a kindly old codger who has forgotten more than we all
will learn, wrote to me personally and said "midnight commander."

I will look for Ellie's book, and thanks.

Hey, the only way to learn such broad subject is to get your hands, brain and patience on reading books, there are tutorials available on the net, but they are basic in their best, try http://www.linuxnewbie.org.
And personally, I had no books whatsoever, and I started with man pages and the net resources, then I took a UNIX course in my college, and it all had emerged from there.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by neo77777
[B]Hey, the only way to learn such broad subject is to get your hands, brain and patience on reading books, there are tutorials available on the net, but they are basic in their best, try http://www.linuxnewbie.org.

Thank you, Neo.
I have been there. But I will go back, since you suggested it. Maybe the other books I have read will help me to be able to appreciate that site more.

Actually, what prompted the question was that I posted
an identical and somewhat routine problem at 6 different
forums, and got lots of answers and half answers, even
down to 13 "here's what you type:" answers.
Not a single one of them was correct. None. NOT ONE.
(though some nearly ruined my install)
Closest to right came from a pre-teen gamer who can't read
a book. Imagine that. It was quite an experience---
Which is why I asked the question.
Now do you see?

Neo, you have given me a good answer on something past,
so this is not personal...Not at all. Thank you for responding.
And I will simply chalk all of THIS THREAD up to possibly
poor wording on my part, as I didn't make myself understood.
My bad!

TomP

If you truly want to learn Unix/Linux, you can't always go by how people tell you to do it. Most of the time, everyone has a different way of approaching it. Its like math, the teacher always wants you to do it their way, but there could be other ways.

The way I am learning *nix right now is or how I have gotten a grasp of it so far is the man pages to tell you the truth. Of course they are hard to understand and read but they actually tell you the correct way to use any given command the way it was designed for.

Of course the Solaris class I am in, learning alot from that as well.

The internet is the greatest place though. Even before ever posting a problem, I will exhaust myself, even looking for a solution for days before giving up and then asking for help.

Just a thought.

-trickykid

I do understand, TK...
But a wrong way is still a wrong way, and not just "another
way."
The man pages can be quite hard to read, yes, and I try the
info pages too, for a comparison. And Red Hat very nicely has
a reference CD in the box, if you purchase it.

Pardon the smile here, but let me get this straight---
Apparently then, you look everywhere...before you try one
of these forums? Maybe says more than you intended, but in many cases you are totally and completely right.
We shall see about here. But first, I have to learn to ask
better, so it can be fair. I took full blame here.
Mea Culpa.
Tom

as harshly as I've heard that book criticized I find myself continually returning to it for reference.

One of the nice things about LIAN is that it's set up by hierarchically by what the command is for/the command/the options or flags.

If you haven't already considered it... it's more of a solid reference book than a comprehensive how-to but worth the twenty or so bucks.

Another point that probably needs to be addressed: yes, coming here should be an option after others are exhausted. There are reams and reams of documentation on the bash shell and all of the applications that run within the shell. Repeating this information that is available on dead tree and on the internet in a variety of different formats is senseless.

It's especially difficult to try to address the extremely broad questions. If I read your first post correctly you referred to the terminal as an application (using syntax). I think this thread is becoming a giant misunderstanding.

1) DON'T PRESS ENTER WHEN YOU HAPPEN TO GET TO THE END OF THE TEXT BOX! IT LOOKS SILLY!!

2) i just think that at the end of the day there IS no "linux pill". you can't just have some injection or learn soem simple acronym to suddenly know linux. I can't understand why people get offended when told to go find out for themselves... BOOKS ARE GOOD HAPPY NICE THINGS!!!

First, I took responsibility for all misunderstandings. Secondly,
your website caused my machine to malfunction...Possibly
because I have a dialup ISP. I was nice about this. It is called
MANNERS...
Thirdly, I have read more books already in my life than you will..ever. In several languages.
Fourthly, did no one ever tell you to respect your elders?
I am old enough to be your father.
Okay?
Backoff.
I already profusely took blame, and apologized.
I will work on being more precise in the future.

Tom

it was not a personal comment, i meant it as a very general observation of "newbies" in general, and i'm sorry if you thought it was aimed at you, as it certainly wasn't.

acid_kewpie wrote:
it was not a personal comment, i meant it as a very general observation of "newbies" in general, and i'm sorry if you thought it was aimed at you, as it certainly wasn't.

Tom Plate writes:
Then, acid_kewpie, I will gladly apologize to you. You did not
mean it to be taken that way, and that was what I was saying
about the thread I began. It just had legs of its own. Let us
act as though it never happenned..and know that I am ready
to help you in any thing, at any time, all this forgotten. And
since all is forgotten, it is my pleasure to read and post at
this wonderful and helpful place, which I will again recommend
to any Brothers or Sisters I may encounter.

May God be with You, and with us all,

TomP