- Learn at least one text-based editor well. The `nano` editor is one of the simplest for basic editing (opening, editing, saving, searching). However, for the power user in a text terminal, there is no substitute for Vim (`vi`), the hard-to-learn but venerable, fast, and full-featured editor. Many people also use the classic Emacs, particularly for larger editing tasks. (Of course, any modern software developer working on an extensive project is unlikely to use only a pure text-based editor and should also be familiar with modern graphical IDEs and tools.)
- Know how to read documentation with `man` (for the inquisitive, `man man` lists the section numbers, e.g. 1 is "regular" commands, 5 is files/conventions, and 8 are for administration). Find man pages with `apropos`. Know that some commands are not executables, but Bash builtins, and that you can get help on them with `help` and `help -d`. You can find out whether a command is an executable, shell builtin or an alias by using `type command`.
- Know how to read documentation with `man` (for the inquisitive, `man man` lists the section numbers, e.g. 1 is "regular" commands, 5 is files/conventions, and 8 are for administration). Find man pages with `apropos`. Know that some commands are not executables, but Bash builtins, and that you can get help on them with `help` and `help -d`. You can find out whether a command is an executable, shell builtin or an alias by using `type command`. If you want to see some common examples of how to use a shell command you can use `curl cheat.sh/command` to view a cheatsheet of this command.
- Learn about redirection of output and input using `>` and `<` and pipes using `|`. Know `>` overwrites the output file and `>>` appends. Learn about stdout and stderr.
Benj Fassbind
6 years ago