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Full Version: Command Line. Or. How I faced my Demons and Overcame them. By finding RTFM.
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You'll find the vast majority of commands on your system using this command:

Code:
ls -l /bin /usr/bin

also, some admin commands:

Code:
ls -l /sbin /usr/sbin

to read the manual page for a command ('grep', for example)

Code:
man grep

some commands also have info pages, like:

Code:
info grep

you can get some more info about a program by executing it with the --help switch

Code:
grep --help

If this unedjucated scooter tramp can tread where smarter minds than his fear to tread. So can you.

Just a example

Code:
harry@biker1:~$ ifconfig --help Usage:   ifconfig [-a] [-v] [-s] <interface> [[<AF>] <address>]   [add <address>[/<prefixlen>]]   [del <address>[/<prefixlen>]]   [[-]broadcast [<address>]]  [[-]pointopoint [<address>]]   [netmask <address>]  [dstaddr <address>]  [tunnel <address>]   [outfill <NN>] [keepalive <NN>]   [hw <HW> <address>]  [metric <NN>]  [mtu <NN>]   [[-]trailers]  [[-]arp]  [[-]allmulti]   [multicast]  [[-]promisc]   [mem_start <NN>]  [io_addr <NN>]  [irq <NN>]  [media <type>]   [txqueuelen <NN>]   [[-]dynamic]   [up|down] ...   <HW>=Hardware Type.   List of possible hardware types:     loop (Local Loopback) slip (Serial Line IP) cslip (VJ Serial Line IP)     slip6 (6-bit Serial Line IP) cslip6 (VJ 6-bit Serial Line IP) adaptive (Adaptive Serial Line IP)     ash (Ash) ether (Ethernet) ax25 (AMPR AX.25)     netrom (AMPR NET/ROM) rose (AMPR ROSE) tunnel (IPIP Tunnel)     ppp (Point-to-Point Protocol) hdlc ((Cisco)-HDLC) lapb (LAPB)     arcnet (ARCnet) dlci (Frame Relay DLCI) frad (Frame Relay Access Device)     sit (IPv6-in-IPv4) fddi (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) hippi (HIPPI)     irda (IrLAP) ec (Econet) x25 (generic X.25)     eui64 (Generic EUI-64)   <AF>=Address family. Default: inet   List of possible address families:     unix (UNIX Domain) inet (DARPA Internet) inet6 (IPv6)     ax25 (AMPR AX.25) netrom (AMPR NET/ROM) rose (AMPR ROSE)     ipx (Novell IPX) ddp (Appletalk DDP) ec (Econet)     ash (Ash) x25 (CCITT X.25)

Someone asks you on a forum. What does "ifconfig -a" say is available for your connections? You are like WTF does he mean?

Now you get a better Idea. Same when someone says  "inxi -F"

Code:
harry@biker1:~$ inxi --help inxi supports the following options. You can combine them, or list them one by one. Examples: inxi -v4 -c6 OR inxi -bDc 6. If you start inxi with no arguments, it will show the short form. The following options if used without -F, -b, or -v will show just option line(s): A, C, D, G, I, M, N, P, R, S, f, i, m, n, o, p, l, u, r, s, t - you can use these alone or together to show just the line(s) you want to see. If you use them with -v [level], -b or -F, it will show the full output for that line along with the output for the chosen verbosity level. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Output Control Options: -A    Audio/sound card information. -b    Basic output, short form. Like inxi -v 2, only minus hard disk names. -c    Color schemes. Scheme number is required. Color selectors run a color       selector option prior to inxi starting which lets you set the config       file value for the selection.       Supported color schemes: 0-32 Example: inxi -c 11       Color selectors for each type display (NOTE: irc and global only show       safe color set):         94  Console, out of X         95  Terminal, running in X - like xTerm         96  Gui IRC, running in X - like Xchat, Quassel, Konversation etc.         97  Console IRC running in X - like irssi in xTerm         98  Console IRC not in  X         99  Global - Overrides/removes all settings. Setting specific removes             global. -C    CPU output, including per CPU clockspeed (if available). -d    Optical drive data. Same as -Dd. See also -x and -xx. -D    Full hard Disk info, not only model, ie: /dev/sda ST380817AS 80.0GB.       See also -x and -xx. Disk total used percentage includes swap partition       size(s). -f    All cpu flags, triggers -C. Not shown with -F to avoid spamming. ARM       cpus show 'features'. -F    Full output for inxi. Includes all Upper Case line letters, plus -s and       -n. Does not show extra verbose options like -d -f -l -m -o -p -r -t -u       -x -G    Graphic card information (card, display server type/version,       resolution, glx renderer, version). -i    Wan IP address, and shows local interfaces (requires ifconfig network       tool). Same as -Nni. Not shown with -F for user security reasons, you       shouldn't paste your local/wan IP. -I    Information: processes, uptime, memory, irc client (or shell type),       inxi version. -l    Partition labels. Default: short partition -P. For full -p output, use:       -pl (or -plu). -m    Memory (RAM) data. Physical system memory array(s), capacity, how many       devices (slots) supported, and individual memory devices (sticks of       memory etc). For devices, shows device locator, size, speed, type       (like: DDR3). Also see -x, -xx, -xxx -M    Machine data. Motherboard, Bios, and if present, System Builder (Like       Lenovo). Older systems/kernels without the required /sys data can use       dmidecode instead, run as root. Dmidecode can be forced with -! 33 -n    Advanced Network card information. Same as -Nn. Shows interface, speed,       mac id, state, etc. -N    Network card information. With -x, shows PCI BusID, Port number. -o    Unmounted partition information (includes UUID and LABEL if available).       Shows file system type if you have file installed, if you are root OR       if you have added to /etc/sudoers (sudo v. 1.7 or newer)       Example: <username> ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/file  -p    Full partition information (-P plus all other detected partitions). -P    Basic partition information (shows what -v 4 would show, but without       extra data). Shows, if detected: / /boot /home /tmp /usr /var. Use -p       to see all mounted partitions. -r    Distro repository data. Supported repo types: APT; PACMAN; PISI; YUM;       URPMQ; Ports. -R    RAID data. Shows RAID devices, states, levels, and components, and       extra data with -x/-xx. md-raid: If device is resyncing, shows resync       progress line as well. -s    Sensors output (if sensors installed/configured): mobo/cpu/gpu temp;       detected fan speeds. Gpu temp only for Fglrx/Nvidia drivers. Nvidia       shows screen number for > 1 screens. -S    System information: host name, kernel, desktop environment (if in X),       distro -t    Processes. Requires extra options: c (cpu) m (memory) cm (cpu+memory).       If followed by numbers 1-20, shows that number of processes for each       type (default: 5; if in irc, max: 5): -t cm10       Make sure to have no space between letters and numbers (-t cm10 -       right, -t cm 10 - wrong). -u    Partition UUIDs. Default: short partition -P. For full -p output, use:       -pu (or -plu). -v    Script verbosity levels. Verbosity level number is required. Should not       be used with -b or -F       Supported levels: 0-7 Example: inxi -v 4         0  Short output, same as: inxi         1  Basic verbose, -S + basic CPU + -G + basic Disk + -I.         2  Networking card (-N), Machine (-M) data, shows basic hard disk             data (names only), and, if present, basic raid (devices only, and             if inactive, notes that). similar to: inxi -b         3  Advanced CPU (-C), network (-n) data, and switches on -x advanced             data option.         4  Partition size/filled data (-P) for (if present): /, /home,             /var/, /boot. Shows full disk data (-D).         5  Audio card (-A); sensors (-s), memory/ram (-m), partition             label (-l) and UUID (-u), short form of optical drives, standard             raid data (-R).         6  Full partition (-p), unmounted partition (-o), optical drive             (-d), full raid; triggers -xx.         7  Network IP data (-i); triggers -xxx. -w    Local weather data/time. To check an alternate location, see:       -W <location>. For extra weather data options see -x, -xx, and -xxx. -W    <location> Supported options for <location>: postal code; city,       state/country; latitude/longitude. Only use if you want the weather       somewhere other than the machine running inxi. Use only ascii       characters, replace spaces in city/state/country names with '+'.       Example: inxi -W new+york,ny -x    Adds the following extra data (only works with verbose or line output,       not short form):         -C  CPU Flags, Bogomips on Cpu;         -d  Extra optical drive data; adds rev version to optical drive.         -D  Hdd temp with disk data if you have hddtemp installed, if you are             root OR if you have added to /etc/sudoers (sudo v. 1.7 or newer)             Example: <username> ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/hddtemp         -G  Direct rendering status for Graphics (in X).         -G  (for single gpu, nvidia driver) screen number gpu is running on.         -i  IPv6 as well for LAN interface (IF) devices.         -I  System GCC, default. With -xx, also show other installed GCC             versions. If running in console, not in IRC client, shows shell             version number, if detected. Init/RC Type and runlevel (if             available).         -m  Part number; Max memory module size (if available).       -N -A  Version/port(s)/driver version (if available) for Network/Audio;   -N -A -G  Network, audio, graphics, shows PCI Bus ID/Usb ID number of card.         -R  md-raid: Shows component raid id. Adds second RAID Info line:             raid level; report on drives (like 5/5); blocks; chunk size;             bitmap (if present). Resync line, shows blocks synced/total             blocks. zfs-raid: Shows raid array full size; available size;             portion allocated to RAID         -S  Desktop toolkit if avaliable (GNOME/XFCE/KDE only); Kernel gcc             version         -t  Memory use output to cpu (-xt c), and cpu use to memory (-xt m).       -w -W  Wind speed and time zone (-w only). -xx    Show extra, extra data (only works with verbose or line output, not       short form):         -A  Chip vendor:product ID for each audio device.         -D  Disk serial number.         -G  Chip vendor:product ID for each video card.         -I  Other detected installed gcc versions (if present). System             default runlevel. Adds parent program (or tty) for shell info if             not in IRC (like Konsole or Gterm). Adds Init/RC (if found)             version number.         -m  Manufacturer, Serial Number, single/double bank (if found).         -M  Chassis information, bios rom size (dmidecode only), if data for             either is available.         -N  Chip vendor:product ID for each nic.         -R  md-raid: Superblock (if present); algorythm, U data. Adds system             info line (kernel support,read ahead, raid events). If present,             adds unused device line. Resync line, shows progress bar.         -S  Display manager (dm) in desktop output, if in X (like kdm, gdm3,             lightdm).       -w -W  Humidity, barometric pressure.   -@ 11-14  Automatically uploads debugger data tar.gz file to             ftp.techpatterns.com. EG: inxi -xx@14 -xxx  Show extra, extra, extra data (only works with verbose or line output,       not short form):         -m  Width of memory bus, data and total (if present and greater than             data); Detail, if present, for Type; module voltage, if             available.         -S  Panel/shell information in desktop output, if in X (like             gnome-shell, cinnamon, mate-panel).       -w -W  Location (uses -z/irc filter), weather observation time, wind             chill, heat index, dew point (shows extra lines for data where             relevant). -y    Required extra option: integer, 80 or greater. Set the output line       width max. Overrides IRC/Terminal settings or actual widths. If used       with -h, put -y option first. Example: inxi -y 130 -z    Security filters for IP/Mac addresses, location, user home directory       name. Default on for irc clients. -Z    Absolute override for output filters. Useful for debugging networking       issues in irc for example. Additional Options: -h --help      This help menu. -H            This help menu, plus developer options. Do not use dev options               in normal operation! --recommends  Checks inxi application dependencies + recommends, and               directories, then shows what package(s) you need to install to               add support for that feature. -U            Auto-update script. Will also install/update man page. Note: if               you installed as root, you must be root to update, otherwise               user is fine. Man page installs require root user mode. -V --version  inxi version information. Prints information then exits. Debugging Options: -%    Overrides defective or corrupted data. -@    Triggers debugger output. Requires debugging level 1-14 (8-10 - logging       of data). Less than 8 just triggers inxi debugger output on screen.         1-7 On screen debugger output         8  Basic logging         9  Full file/sys info logging         10  Color logging.       The following create a tar.gz file of system data, plus collecting the       inxi output to file. To automatically upload debugger data tar.gz file       to ftp.techpatterns.com: inxi -xx@ <11-14>       For alternate ftp upload locations:       Example: inxi -! ftp.yourserver.com/incoming -xx@ 14         11  With data file of xiin read of /sys.         12  With xorg conf and log data, xrandr, xprop, xdpyinfo, glxinfo etc.         13  With data from dev, disks, partitions, etc., plus xiin data file.         14  Everything, full data collection. Advanced Options: -! 31  Turns off hostname in output. Useful if showing output from servers etc. -! 32  Turns on hostname in output. Overrides global B_SHOW_HOST='false' -! 33  Forces use of dmidecode data instead of /sys where relevant (-M). harry@biker1:~$

Now you can stride through a terminal like the giants. Head held high.

[Image: 0.jpg]

1st one I learned was when someone asked me. What does "cat /etc/issue" say?

So I

Code:
info cat

Happy Trailz , Rok

PS. Don't ask me to interpet. I am a slow study when it comes to code and like you. I learn as I go.
Nice one rokytnji!  Short, sweet and very useful!

Hope you don't mind -- I added "man" command to it.
Nice, always read the manual.

Introduction to using the shell on Linux
Code:
man intro
Search the man page with /
type /shell while reading the man intro

Search the man pages for a term
Code:
man -k download

display one-line manual page descriptions with whatis.
Code:
whatis man

pipes help when posts are long
Code:
ls -l /bin /usr/bin | less
Code:
ls -l /bin /usr/bin | more
q to quit

For internal shell commands.
Code:
help

Smile
Code:
misko@misko-virtual-machine:~$ whatis help help: nothing appropriate.
No problemo gold_finger. This thread was meant to be added to anyways. Won't hurt my feelers.

Code:
harry@biker1:~$ lspci -knn 00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub [8086:2a40] (rev 07)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 07)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: i915 00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a43] (rev 07)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263] 00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:2937] (rev 02)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd 00:1a.1 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 [8086:2938] (rev 02)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd 00:1a.2 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 [8086:2939] (rev 02)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd 00:1a.7 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 [8086:293c] (rev 02)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci 00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:293e] (rev 02)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel 00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:2940] (rev 02)   Kernel driver in use: pcieport 00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:2942] (rev 02)   Kernel driver in use: pcieport 00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 [8086:2948] (rev 02)   Kernel driver in use: pcieport 00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:2934] (rev 02)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd 00:1d.1 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:2935] (rev 02)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd 00:1d.2 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:2936] (rev 02)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd 00:1d.7 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 [8086:293a] (rev 02)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci 00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev 92) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller [8086:2919] (rev 02)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: lpc_ich 00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 82801IBM/IEM (ICH9M/ICH9M-E) 4 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [8086:2929] (rev 02)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: ahci 00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:2930] (rev 02)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263] 02:01.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II [1180:0476] (rev ba)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus 02:01.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller [1180:0832] (rev 04)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: firewire_ohci 02:01.2 SD Host controller [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter [1180:0822] (rev 21)   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci 09:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5756ME Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express [14e4:1674]   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0263]   Kernel driver in use: tg3 0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev 01)   Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card [1028:000c]   Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge

To monitor free space in real time on your internal hard drive

Code:
watch df