Learning commands for CLI in Ubuntu Gutsy

zambonibutt · 10-26-2007, 11:40 AM

Hi folks,
I installed Gutsy Ubuntu last weekend, and want to learn the commands for the CLI, but I would like to know how many other distro's and *nix variants those commands will work in, before I invest time in memorizing them. Is there a list somewhere of the most common commands for Terminal and what flavours they will work in?

pixellany · 10-26-2007, 11:49 AM

Most Linux distros use BASH by default---this is a very common shell and your time will not be wasted.

I would start with "Bash Guide for Beginners"--free at http://tldp.org

In a terminal, type "info coreutils"**. This gets you a synopsis of some more common commands. Another good trick is "man -k <keyword>" For example, "man -k file" give you all the commands relating to files.

**You might have to install the "info" utility using your package manager (Adept or Synaptic)

zambonibutt · 10-26-2007, 11:53 AM

Thanks so much, that is exactly what I was looking for!