How to help a person who has bad times remembering commands when using Linux.

It happens to you, to me and to every UNIX user since the 70s. Your system is (or should be) full of docs and tools to get help. One thing that I noted over the years, when we have new people at work, is that they don't known how to get help from programs or they don't known how to get help from their systems and when they struggle with anything, doesn't matter how basic, they go to the web for help. I always show them this: apropos man help

What was that command to compress files? apropos compress Oh! it was gzip

What was that command to do whatever with the GRUB? apropos grub Oh yeah! update-grub

What about that command to download files? apropos download Oh! it's wget

The next tip should be learn how to use and navigate in the man pages, man have it's own man page; man man

There are different sections, section 1 is the default, you don't need to specify, so you can just; man bash

But if you want to get help from configuration files you should type; man 5 sysctl.conf

Also, almost every program have a built in help compiled with the program code, you usually call it with --help or -h, sometimes just help and other times just call the program without parameters and it should print it.

Other people already suggest the cheat sheets, very useful especially for programas like vim or emacs, some of them come like a template to create a cube, so you print it and then craft it (like an origami) and you can have it in your physical desktop.

Last thing; be patience, your are in the rigth path, there's always more than one way to do things, you just need to find your own way.

I use a snippet manager called keep.
It runs in the terminal, and helps remember commands. I use it for remembering commands with lots of flags and parameters that i don't use often. But it can be used to remember any command you need.
You can also add comments to each command to remind you what it does.
I add the command i need to remember with
keep new
And when i forget it i can run
keep list
To get a list of commands.
It can do more, but i've only ever used those two functions.

Find a cheat sheet. There are hundreds out there -- you probably want one for basic terminal commands, and one for whatever package manager you're currently using.

The history command is also great if it's something you do fairly often, but not often enough to remember clearly.

Use Fish (very good autocomplete) and aliases

I have around 10 "linux extract tar archive" online searches last year alone.

I think 90% of the comments here are “write your own notes“ - which is possibly over simplistic.

Everyone's different but IMHO:

The brain is better for imagination than long term storage. So if you're stuck trying to remember some obscure command(s), it's just better to use something else to store that on.

But when the brain understands the core concepts well enough, the details come together as habits (where repetition comes in).

So, if you're unable to recall something, take some time to think / remind yourself about the underlying concepts and why that's the command - next time it'll be easier, eventually it'll be effortless.

I had to learn some strange concepts for work during a deep technical troubleshooting session on a client's system and the commands were like just facemashing the keyboard... I've no idea what those commands are now (written down), but I can recall what / why I was doing them and that was the key... for me.

(Using computers since '80s)

I suggest having a GNU command cheatsheet set as your wallpaper or getting a Linux cheatsheet deskmat.

Repetition is key and eventually you will get the hang of it.

Unless you want to increase productivity in specific field (say some kinds of software development) you won't even need to remember anything more than cat, ls etc. In those specific usecases you'll become habituated to the command you use frequently, nobody becomes a grep ninja on day 0.

Whenever I need something mildly complex with ffmpeg or imagemagick, the right command is just a web search away, I rarely remember syntax of these anyway. I find commands less obvious and harder to find for windows shell (technically powershell is cross platform btw), but maybe that's because I'm not much familiar with windows-ism'

Tip: whenever you encounter a useful command syntax/one liner, save it with brief description. I find konsole's built in quick commands quite handy, some other terminals probably have such features too. Otherwise a simple markdown list is enough.

Use GUIs for all the things.

Linux users are obsessed with the command line because it's faster if you can type fast and remember everything. If you can't, GUIs are actually much much faster because you are visually guided towards what you're looking for and have to spend little time looking for the correct commands and syntax and everything.

Practice.

Practice.

Practice.

That's really the best I can give you. The more you use the commands the easier they come to you.

Even novices can struggle with the command line. Don't be afraid to search online for answers. I still need to look up arguments for things that I don't use daily and I've been using Linux for almost 20 years now. Duck duck go and man are your friends.

One thing that I have found nice is using a shell that remembers what you have typed in the past because sometimes I will remember part of a command but not the whole thing, for example fish shell remembers commands and will start to auto fill commands that are typed as long as I have the beginning of the command correct and as long as I have typed the command in the past, which works wonders when you're doing similar commands but with different file names or you are trying to remember the more advanced portions of git

A side note that I want to add regarding alternative shells be aware that every shell has its own strengths and weaknesses, for example fish shell is amazing for auto completion and plug in support, but it's downside is it's not compatible with standard bash Scripts and scripting as a whole on it is pretty mediocre

The gorilla bash llm thing has been immensely helpful.

https://gorilla.cs.berkeley.edu/

Idea 1:

Print out some of the various CLI cheat sheets and pin them to your wall by where you work on your computer.

Maybe this one:

Then, print a page with commands you commonly use, either with more complex syntax or that aren't on the sheet. (Like, "ls" is on there, but "ls -s -h" is not, for example.

Idea 2:

Write bash scripts to automate some of your commonly used tasks. Comment them. Imagine someone else is going to have to use them, even if you're the only one who's ever going to look at them. Not only will this help you learn lots of commands and force you to describe what they do (which will help you retain the information), it will be there as a record of how it works that you can go back and look at months or years later, to remind yourself how to do something.

Use fzf to complete commands, use cmd line helpers like 'tldr'

tldr is good for remembering how to use a command, once you find it.

I remember the basic filesystem commands like ls, cp, mv, rm, cat etc, but I generally don't remember much more than that. Even so, I still use the GUI file manager/software center pretty often, there's no reason why I have to force myself to use the terminal all the time.

I have an app on my phone to search for commands that I barely use and don't remember. Don't worry that much about it if you aren't a professional system administrator or other such jobs.

First of all, we are ALL in the same boat. Newcomers from whatever OS to professionals alike, we all struggle to remember commands and their idiosyncratic syntax.

Now that this is out of the way, namely that you are not "special" in having difficulties there, a little challenge. How do YOU normally do when you are learning something new? Typically when people do that, e.g. at school or while doing a professional training, they take notes. Are you doing that? I know it might sound "strange" but learning Linux is... well fundamentally learning so yes you can use whatever tools and techniques for that too. So... here are MY notes https://fabien.benetou.fr/Tools/Shell which will probably be rather pointless to you but at least prove that I'm not suggesting something I didn't try first.

TL;DR: yes, use all the tools & tricks recommended here (IMHO with reverse-i-search first) but don't forget to actually take notes!

You could make aliases that are easier to remember for you.

If you e.g. had trouble remembering that mv does a rename, you could alias rename=mv. Ideally just put whatever you would have googled in "linux command to x" as the alias.

That's the power of Linux; you can tweak everything to your preferences and needs.

My solutions are:

• Just arrow up until you find the command from last.
• Learn to use CTRL-r and search for old commands.
• Bash completion helps with arguments
• Save stuff in shell scripts

Back in the ancient pre-Internet days I worked for many years with a system called VMS made by Digital Equipment Corp (aka DEC), now long gone. VMS was a dream to use - every command and option was an actual word, and you could abbreviate commands and options any way you wanted, As long as you were unambiguous, it would figure out what you meant. So easy to learn, and felt so natural. Based on that alone I thought VMS would become more popular than Unix, with its cryptic commands, and those single-letter options that are sometimes the first letter of something obvious and other times seem totally random. But internally VMS wasn't structured as well - for example, piping output from one command to another was possible, but it wasn't geared for that like Unix is. There was also no free version of VMS, and it only ran on DEC hardware, so not that many people even knew about it. The dawn of Linux for PCs was essentially the nail in the coffin for VMS. But I do miss that CLI.

history | grep command you're searching for

That will return all commands you've typed that contain that keyword. Helps if you remember part of a command, but can't remember the specific flags or the proper format.

If there are common commands that you use over and over, turn them into a Bash script and name the script something descriptive.

I do that for long commands that I don't want to type out, like my whole system update workflow: sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo flatpak update -y

I saved that as a Bash script and called it "update.sh" then I saved it in my home directory. Now whenever I want to do a full system update, I just type ./update.sh and it asks me for my password, then updates my whole system without me having to do anything else. I do this with several different tasks like my remote Ansible server updates.

Other than that, you can buy/make a linux command cheat sheet with the most common commands. Keep it with you or next to your computer. Look at it whenever you need a refresh.

Use ctrl-r a lot (navigate up/down with ctrl-p and ctrl-n) and try to "fuzzy-match" previously used commands. There is a very useful command called fzf which, while only a search program at heart, can be configured to complement this nicely.

repetition...repetition...repetition...repetition...repetition...repetition...repetition...repetition...lol

https://tldr.sh/

Repetition is key. If you do it enough you'll remember it.

Here is my personal approach to this.

• I have set my bash history to a ridiculous 1000000 max length, so that I can use CTRL+R to search for commands that I have ran before

• I write down a lot of commands in a searchable note text document

• Ask chatGPT

• Use the tldr command

• Added A LOT of verbose custom aliases and scripts. For example instead of

inotifywait -m -r --exclude "(/tmp.*|/var/cache.*|/dev/pts/|/var/log.*)" -e MOVED_TO -e CREATE -e CLOSE_WRITE -e DELETE -e MODIFY . (nobody can remember that alphabet gibberish)

I just type watch_for_changes .

Since it is verbose, straight from my brain, I always remember it and it works with autocomplete. I have like ~30 such commands so far.

I partly remember the first letter and press arrow up.

I use ZSH shell with oh-my-zsh. It autofills the rest with history at the point you write. So arrow keys make you scroll through the history which is beginning with the thing you wrote

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.

Stick to one distribution. Using notes is fine. Make aliases if necessary. You will learn with repetition.

I recommend to installed starship, fish and ZSH. I just tried them recently with config files from a friend and am pleasantly surprised:

https://github.com/A5t4t1ne/arch_config/tree/main

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

I keep bash scripts on my desktop to do common things

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.

If it's basic commands, there's games like Terminal Quest that can help gamify your learning. Helped me.

Probably not very helpful in this case but a very nice resource for learning cli is:

https://explainshell.com/

Man is great to check quickly what something does. I use atuin as my shell history to make it a lot easier to search

Just create aliases with words you'll remember. Fart, Fart2, ect.

I currently use Bytestash. Used to use Obsidian, but the fact that all I have to do is pull up a webpage to copy and paste a command I need made ByteStash a better fit for me.

Up arrow

or

"history" if you're a psychopath

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

tealdeer and writing them down in a document

Install Thefuck to help when you screw up commands.

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.

Fish

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.

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.

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)

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.

@geography082 Thanks for this:

https://lemmy.starlightkel.xyz/pictrs/image/b336b5ec-2117-4acc-ba54-3457ad98f22d.jpeg

#linux
#bash
#CheatSheet