In a perfect world, I would remember every single detail.
Unfortunately I don't live in that world.
In my day job, because of certain Autoxxxx products, I'm stuck with Windows. But Linux Mint is normally running nearby as well.
I'd say about a third of the time I spend in Linux is spent in a Bash shell (terminal, or command line). Not being a school-trained *nixer, I find myself having to refer to resources to refresh my recollection of commands and/or syntax in order to complete a task. Like most people, I usually pop open a browser tab and type some words into the URL bar.
Over the years I developed a list of the things I most often queried. One day I had this spare domain and I decided to put it to use as a repository for my list.
Most of the things I need a prompt on are there, one click away. Is this some sort of Ultimate Guide? No. Not even close.
Just one guy saying, "Hey man, you can look at my notes if you want."
I know that I can type man [command] and get very detailed instructions on how to use nearly any feature of a shell command. Often times, however, man gives me too much information that is not helpful, which slows me down, or worse, confuses me and side-tracks me. Same for [command] --help. I normally start there, but often I've already listed what I need in my List.
Like most people, I'm a creature of habit, and there are some commands I use frequently with a certain syntax of options. Thing is it may be months between uses, and in that time I have forgotten if it was -a or -k in the second position.
Forums
I appreciate the value of forums, I really do. But far too often I find myself wasting time following threads that either
1) are obsolete,
2) don't have what I need,
3) have the same question, but no answer,
4) or are just plain wrong.
In part, that's what prompted me to start this list. And then there's forum drama. [[insert rolling eyes here]]
So I offer my notes to anyone who might benefit. No charge, no sign-up, no telemetry, AI or tracking. Just information, like we used to have on the Internet.
Wow. People freely sharing information on the Internet! That's a thing that works. Unless you're trying to make a living from the Internet, then I suppose that's not sustainable. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Be nice.
