Simplifying getting started with the Command Line

[Chris Robinson]

________________________________
From: Nathaniel <nathaniel73 at gmail.com>
To: Ubuntu AU List <ubuntu-au at lists.ubuntu.com>
Sent: Sun, 10 April, 2011 6:40:56 PM
Subject: Simplifying getting started with the Command Line


What I propose is a simple "First time here? try man -k <keyword> to get you 
started"_____________________________________________

That would get old very quickly, but I do sympathise.  Back in the bad ol' days 
before open source, and almost back before the internet (certainly before it was 
called "The Web") operating systems like SCO Unix came with a thick manual.  
This had most of what you needed to get started, but it wasn't a comprehensive 
guide by any means.  One of the things it did show was "man -k", and from there 
you were mostly expected to find your own way.

Things are very much easier now, and next to "man -k" Google is probably your 
best friend.  It helps to know what you're looking for though, and in this case 
it's a primer on the terminal shell, which is called "bash".  Most primers will 
probably start with an explanation of just why it's called that.  A quick search 
found the following primer:

http://www.faqs.org/docs/bashman/bashref_toc.html


which looks better than some, but not as good it might be.  Some searching will 
find others that you might find more (or less) useful.  A good primer might take 
you from the very basics (what is bash) right through to basic bash scripting 
after which you might be ready for some of the more advanced scripting 
tutorials.  I'm about halfway somewhere myself, being rather keen but lacking 
any real time to spend on it.

Chris
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