5-minute linux handbook

https://boards.4channel.org/g/thread/92936829#p92938504

5-minutes Linux handbook

This handbook is intended for people who are considering about switching over to linux or have just switched to linux, and are unfamiliar with common CLI tools and basic stuff.

This handbook assumes you have been a seasoned Windows user and possess more IQ than a snail.

1. Understanding what the commands actually do

ALWAYS REMEMBER : UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE DOING *BEFORE* YOU DO IT

If someone tells you to type any command, you can find out what said command can do by :

<command> --help
man <command>

*<command> refers to a single command without any arguments

this will show you all the options of said command, if you want to know what a specific argument of a command does, type

<command> --help | grep <argument>

Examples :

ls --help
ls --help | grep "-s"

2. Navigating your filesystem and editing files inside CLI (Command Line Interface)

Reminder : Everything is case-sensetive, including names and commands

"Purple purple PuRpLe"
are three different names/commands/directories/arguments

Folders and Directories mean the same thing

//navigating and viewing directories
ls : list files and folders in current directory
pwd | tree : same as ls but in tree-view
cd <path> : takes you to a specific directory
cd .. : goes up one directory

//creating or editing files
touch : creates new file
nano : basic text editor
(Ctrl+S to save, Ctrl+X to exit)

if you need to append a single line to a text file do :
echo <text> >> filename.txt

if you need to create/replace a file and append some text to it do :
echo <text> > filename.txt

//deleting files and folders
rm : deletes a single file
rm -r : bulk deletes folder(s) and everything inside it

//what is ~
~ is usually an alias to your "home" folder

most of your userdata resides in /home/<user>/
instead of typing the ^entire path in a command you can just type ~

for example :

instead of typing :
rm -r /home/user/Documents/new-files/

you can type :
rm-r ~/Documents/new-files/

3. Overview of the Filesystem

Reminder : If you're a beginner, you really shouldn't mess with anything that's outside of ~/

/ : Root directory, under which literally everything of a linux system resides (even hardware devices)

/home : where your "Home" is, usually anything you access from your graphical File Manager or other apps are stored here by default under your username

~/ : An alias for your Home directory, basically points to /home/<user>/

/etc , /usr/share , ~/.local/share : usually where config files for both system and normal apps are stored

~/.local/ is usually used by Apps for that specific user's configuration
/usr/ is usually used by Apps for configuration which needs to apply for all users
/etc/ is usually for other system-related stuff