Command-Line Tip: Put Down the Pipe

Linux Journal ^ | 22 January 2019 | Kyle Rankin

[zeugma]

This is still one of my favorite lines in any of my scripts:

sed 's/#/ /g' $FILE | awk '{print $4}' | sort | uniq -ic | sort -nr | sed 's/://g' > $FILE.client

[Calvin Locke]

Back in the day, doing development on an 11/70 running Xenix, the prankster at the company would hit the new hires, changing their own various commands with his own.

So, the first time one would print off something during the day, it would get piped into "rev" first. The routine would rename itself, and schedule the replacement command again at midnight, for instance.

[ShadowAce]

Here's an informal poll:

Should I try to put together a very basic introduction/tutorial for the shell?

If "yes" do you have a suggestion for a source?

If "no" why not?

[LaRueLaDue]

“I am surprised they didn’t recommend running each command in its own Docker container !”

Precisely... lol!

[zeugma]

Shell stuff is always good. One of the biggest problems with newbies is they tend to be fairly mystified by it, even if they are somewhat familiar with the DOS prompt, because the commands are mostly different from what they expect. It is easy though, to go too far and scare folks with too much info at once.

I'd actually suggest starting with basics, kinda like what you had in the previous article concerning files, paths, and directories, though perhaps not to that detail. Maybe something that has a DOS command, and the BASH equivalent.

Need something on mounting and unmounting filesystems, even though most of that is done via GUI these days. The 'df' command is pretty critical. Even when using a GUI to mount/unmount a device, I always double-check with 'df' before pulling a drive. Might be worthwhile to go over a file manager and compare it to 'windows explorer'. Which one really doesn't matter that much, as they are all similar by virtue of function, though some have some extra features, such as Dolphin's ability to parse "fish://" URLs.

A document about processes would be helpful. (ps, top, htop, kill)

Perhaps a brief tutorial on how to write simple batch files.

Heck, I could write most of this, but I tend to go off on tangents and be distracted by shiny things.

[BraveMan]

What zeugma said . . .

I’m familiar with DOS command line stuff; Linux, not so much . . .

[Openurmind]

Honestly... I’m along for the ride to the drive-in with a bag of popcorn. While I like to learn everything I can, I have very little desire to actually see what’s under the hood. I have enough on my hands teaching myself to code websites.

As for an OS to get me to my server files, I just want an easy to use, stable GUI OS that always starts and runs, and the headlights and turn signals work. Like most, I only need to know how to drive it to get me there.

Online servers are where my interests are once I get there. I just need a stable reliable vehicle to get me there. Hence Linux. I consider myself among the greater percentage of the average noobs with minimal knowledge about how the turney thingy drives it down the road. lol

But maybe I will learn how to change the oil myself. Never turn down free knowledge. :)

[BitWielder1]

When I started to learn Unix, when one Unix guru taught me something, the next guru would inevitably come along and say, "Why do you do it THAT way? All you have to do is blablabla…"
And the new way was no simpler.

[notdownwidems]

Here's an informal poll: Should I try to put together a very basic introduction/tutorial for the shell?

Yes! I would especially like to know the differences between the shells and why, for instance, I would want to use, say the Korn shell rather than the C shell. Not sure about a source however. Thanks!~

[notdownwidems]

Thanks for that! Do grep or other pattern-matching commands have - delete as well?

[ShadowAce]

grep is a command that prints lines that contain a matching pattern.

It does not edit, change, insert, or delete.