command-line focus website or mail list / [Fwd: SEUL: a second old mail]

["Pete St. Onge" <pete@seul.org>]

Hi Joe,
     There are a few resources for people who want to learn how to use
the command prompt effectively. I'm not sure how familiar you are with
the command prompt yet, but I can tell you what I know already:

     - help mode: Many linux commands will give you a list and
       expanations of their options if you give '--help' as an
       argument

       ie. <command name> --help
           ls --help

       (Be forewarned, though, that many of these lists are long, so
       it helps to have set a long scrollback buffer in your terminal
       window (if you are using an Xterm or a telnet client)


     - manual pages ('man pages'): man pages are the equivalent of
       the command prompt encyclopedia. They also tend to be written
       for people with a familiarity and understanding of linux (there
       are, I think, around 600 commands after all. Normal mortals
       like me get around with about 10-15 :) but they are a useful
       resource.

       ie. man <command name>
           man ls


     - HOWTOs: I checked the current list of HOWTOs and MINI-HOWTOs at
       http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX-3.html
       but I didn't find much in the way of help on command usage.


     - newsgroups: I can't point you to specific news groups right
       off the top of my head, but I could suggest that you use
       something like dejanews ( http://www.dejanews.com ) to carry
       out a search on the commands you're looking for. This will also
       help you find the relevant news groups. In any case, this is a
       good first step before posting to groups - the second step is
       to find a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). Reading the
       FAQ before posting is a really good idea - people on the news
       groups get kinda tired of seeing the same question raised again
       and again.

     That said, if you wanted to put together a web page that would help
explain some of the common linux commands, I'm sure you would find a
fair bit of help from the folks on this list, as well as potentially a
place to host it.

     Hope this helps,

     Pete


------- Forwarded Message

Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 12:31:37 -0700
To: seul@seul.org
From: joe@whidbey.net
Subject: command-line focus website or mail list

Are you aware of any web site or mail list which focuses 
primarily on linux command-line use? 

------- End of Forwarded Message