I recommend to installed starship, fish and ZSH. I just tried them recently with config files from a friend and am pleasantly surprised:
this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2025
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you don't need to remember anything, except commands you use the most often but even then it becomes muscle memory after a while. If you ever need some specific command to use, just look it up online.
Online
Ok but what if my Wi-Fi isn't working
use your phone to look up the commands on how to get internet working again
alternatively, connect computer to your router via cable
You can download StackOverflow, Wikipedia, etc very conveniently, cf https://kiwix.org/
I have a local copy that I bring on travels with me and I keep it relatively up to date. Very convenient thanks to having a single file per source and tools to read it (Web server, GUI, etc).
Then use the commands help or read the local man document. In example for grep it would be grep --help and man grep. You don't need an online connection for this.
Containers become problematic, some don't have man pages or other common commands installed. Debugging applications on them requires a wide knowledge of all sorts of primitive commands and workarounds to achieve common tasks. My biggest fear is a container without grep.
How do I remember what the command even is? Like how would I discover the grep tool without using the Internet?
Discovering tools is not what the question and solution presented here was. But for that question, I recommend downloading a book about Linux as a reference or something like that. Or a basic tutorial series to read and remember basics about Linux.
You can also just list the ls /usr/bin directory to see what programs are there.
There is actually a command to search the man pages for terms, to list the commands: apropos
$ apropos -s 1 search
apropos (1) - search the manual page names and descriptions
find (1) - search for files in a directory hierarchy
flatpak-search (1) - Search for applications and runtimes
gamemodelist (1) - search for processes running with gamemode
rg (1) - recursively search the current directory for lines matching a pattern
zipgrep (1) - search files in a ZIP archive for lines matching a pattern
Note: I cut some parts out in the output to make it shorter. The option -s 1 means, it will list man pages from section 1 only.
Keep a "cheat sheet" of common commands printed out nearby-- either something from the internet and/or a custom one for your own commands.
Also, nobody can remember all the commands. We mostly just remember the ones we use most often. Otherwise, we have to look things up! It's not too bad since you know that the command exists and you just need to know the exact way to type it.
Find mnemonics to help remember certain things. For example if you want to decompress a .tar file, you remember "xtract zee file" or: tar -xzf
Stick to one distribution. Using notes is fine. Make aliases if necessary. You will learn with repetition.
I keep bash scripts on my desktop to do common things
If it's basic commands, there's games like Terminal Quest that can help gamify your learning. Helped me.
There's nothing wrong with notes. I keep a text file open permanently at work and home with all my notes in it. I have a bunch of commands in it to copy-paste. Or Ctrl+r and type to search the history.
But if you want to memorize, I usually use flash cards.
Probably not very helpful in this case but a very nice resource for learning cli is:
Man is great to check quickly what something does. I use atuin as my shell history to make it a lot easier to search
You know atuin is legit because the demo gif on their site is using GruvBox, the most bestest color scheme.
Just create aliases with words you'll remember. Fart, Fart2, ect.
Fish
What does Fish that Bash does not, specifically to help the person remembering the program names and options??
It automatically suggests commands, you've run before, if you start typing the first letters, like so:
You can also press the Up-Arrow at any point to show other commands from your history which contain the text that you just typed.
So, it is similar to Ctrl+R in Bash, but easier to use and you don't have to actively think about it.
And, if you can't remember the options for commands, fish will offer you suggestions. So, if you type ls - and press tab, fish will give you a list of all of the valid switches and a brief description.
I made a text file using vim that contains all of the commands I use. I open it in a terminal window when I need a reference.
i made this for anyone struggling to remember vim commands and want a basic text-editor like experience
Up arrow
or
"history" if you're a psychopath
history | grep whatever is quite useful when you just barely remember a command or the files you used it on.
Also use alias for it like "hist" then do "hist stuff"
Do you struggle to remember the names of commands or how to use them or how you have used them in the past?
Around 2012-2014 it was common to have Conky print things like system information or keyboard shortcuts in the desktop.
I think Conky is still around although less popular now. You could look into that though.
This is just an example from an image search for Conky desktop, but it gives you an idea how information can be displayed https://live.staticflickr.com/4062/4543953032_e6d7473206.jpg
I'm also not a text first person. There are a lot of us about. I have found GUI applications to do most commands I need. Most IT users don't know them, as they've never searched for them. I pin the apps as Favourites in the launcher, to help remember my processes. The apps typically keep the last used values, making them quite productive.
That looks pretty tight, thanks
Apart from fzf that helps me find recently used commands and also files and directories easily, I also use tldr that gives you a simple cheat sheet for every command and very often saves you trawling through endless man pages.
How often do you need commands you cant remember? The ones i use are typically memorized via regular use, or i just look it up for the one off ones. You can use some distros without ever touching the terminal too if thats what you prefer.
Hi,
I’m a Windows user of all life
I was a Mac user for 35+ years (still am, partly). It took me a little while to get used to new names/commands in Linux but that's to be expected. And it is not much an issue anymore ;)
I am those persons that has bad times remembering names, words… imagine commands… Even after using it so much I remember some basics but I’m struggling a lot and I have to go back to notes constantly to do some basic operations. Even worst after trying multiple distro from from different upstreams that commands are … Different
What kind of commands exactly? I mean, I don't know that 'commands' are different from one distro to the other' as they all use the same apps. So, beside the name of a few specific ones (like, maybe the app installer).
What would be your recommendations to help me. Are there tools to help this issue ?
My two sole advice:
- don't try to remember too many commands. Instead, focus on the ones you use daily or very often. After you get those memorized you can always decide to memorize more... or not memorize them at all. I don't bother remembering them, why would I when I can easily use Ctrl+F and instantly find them the moment I need them?
How do I do? I keep a text files in which I store all the stuff I seldom use but still want to be able to find in case I need it someday. To make finding them easier, I put descriptive titles and comments with each command. And that's what I'm searching for, not the command name ;)
- If you're talking about Terminal commands, learn to create your own aliases they will let you remember a short name instead of full commands. I have a few lengthy commands and some scripts (for example, to compress/convert images) that I I regularly use. I don't remember them. I've saved them in a .sh file that I can either call through a Terminal or simply by a right-click in my File Explorer (it's Nemo and they're called 'Actions', on Linux Mint)
tealdeer and writing them down in a document
Anything you have trouble remembering, or just find yourself doing often, create an alias (or bash script if it constitutes a multi line command). Name the alias something you can easily remember that also lets you know what that command does.
Then, and here's he trick, don't rely on the alias. Use it when you can't remember, say "aww, damn it I had to use the alias again", and then use which followed by the alias name to see what the command was again. Do this over and over and eventually some commands will stick.
Ones that you don't care about or are just super long, just keep using the alias and don't worry about remembering them. Use aliases as both commands and notes.
