Nowadays most of the Linux flavored desktop like Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Suse etc. are coming with very interactive user friendly graphical user interface (GUI). Using Linux GUI is similar to use other graphical user interface OS like Windows XP/7/8, Mac OS, Android or iOS etc.

Although Linux is coming with user friendly GUI but it is also providing a very strong command interface called command line interface (CLI) terminal similar to dos command interface in Windows. Similar to dos, this CLI is also not user friendly. But Linux terminal commands are important to learn as it is the base of this OS and if you learn this you can do almost anything in your system using terminal application (don’t take it so seriously, it will not cook food for you ;-) but definitely it will do).

So here is my first trick.

Use “apropos” to find your command

Any newbie when first open the Linux terminal, they can get confused because they don’t know what to do. But actually they know what to do but don’t know how to do that. So here is my first trick when you open Linux terminal. Don’t think too much, your first command is “apropos”. Using apropos command you can find all the command to do anything. For example, if you want to download a file using command, give command

apropos “download”

It will show you the list of all the commands, with their initial help, to download a file.

Now you try finding your command to download a file which is “wget”. wget command can be used as follows:

wget

But how will you know that “wget” or any other command can be used like this.

So here is my second tip.

Use “man” command for command manual page

It is very important to know about that how can you get the help of any Linux command. You can use any Linux command with care, if you will find its help. So after you know, which command can be used to do your task, check its manual page by “man” command. Linux Manual pages show the syntax and the detail description of the options of the command.

man <command>

Other than manual page of any Linux commands, a simple help is also there. So my third tip is about that.

Use “-h” or “–help” argument for command help

Most of the Linux commands have its help. Other than manual page, this help is also useful to learn the command syntax and options. Sometimes only this help is enough to execute a command but better look for its manual page to get detailed help.

wget -h

or

wget --help

Conclusion

After learning above three tips, you can find any required command and its manual or help. So, start finding and using Linux command line terminal.

Please feel free to contact me if you still need any help in using Linux.

Related Page:

Linux Commands Man Pages