Using the Command Line?

[arctic]

I am interested how much our users know about the CLI and how much they use it. Are there any that use the CLI exclusively for their administration jobs /work? Are there some users that are afraid of the command-line? Why are they afraid?

 

I hope we get a nice discussion about usefulness, overcoming possible fears, sharing tips & tricks. :)

[ianw1974]

I voted "I am quite comfortable with the CLI and use it on a regular basis." There are certain things I can't do, so I tend to use GUI's where appropriate.

 

I feel both GUI and CLI each have their own advantages :P

[arctic]

I use it on a regular basis for system admninistration and fast organizing of files, but sometimes I am somewhat "lazy" and start the filebrowsers (the picture preview option there is one thing why I love nautilus).

[jaraeez]

I do use CLI when I really have to (ssh & rdesktop spring to mind) but find remembering the input to be an issue (luckly BASH remembers better than me..) I think its a bit like DNS & IP addresses, where we prefer to type www.easy-to-remember.com instead of 123.123.123.123. The CLI commands I use on a regular basis I have created short-cuts & much prefer to click ´n´ go... Then again typing ¨urpmi give-me-that-software¨ is much quicker than clicking through mcc to get the same results... :D

[phunni]

I think I prefer using GUI tools, but since arch doesn't really have any and I can't be arsed to set something up - I tend to use the CLI since I am quite comfortable doing that and it often just seems easier...

[solarian]

I'm comfortable with CL too. I'm relatively new to Linux, but command line has never actually scared me and there are things which I do from it exclusively, like downloading files through internet and making database backups from my website using wget.

I really like the lightness of the CL and that many things can be done through it that can not be done through a GUI.

[Leo]

I like the CLI but am not very competent (yet) I like the fact that I usually know exactly what I have done and have the option to tweak commands that the GUI doesn't give me. In particular I prefer it to the MCC as I find this poorly designed and rather unhelpful in terms of exactly what is being done and why.

 

Having said that, other GUIs I love (I prefer Firefox to Lynx although am coming around to Lynx (am I just regressing?)).

 

I reckon that a combination of the two is quite a healthy mix, conversely over reliance on either can really limit you.

 

Leo

[jboy]

I tend to use the CLI quite a bit and use urpmi about equally as much as rpmdrake. When searching for packages, rpmdrake is a lot hander than urpmq, though urpmq is useful at times.

 

I rely a lot on ssh for routine admin of other network machines. Also use rsync a lot. I make use of some simple bash scripts to automate some things (urpmi updates, trimming logs, etc). Am comfortable with vim and use it about as much as kwrite for editting text files.

 

Some of the CLI network and admin tools are very useful: netstat, route, ifconfig, ps, etc.

 

Certain GUI tools are terrific: e.g., kdiff3 and krusader. The CLI midnight commander is very nice, but I'd rather use krusader (or even konqueror with the midnight commander profile option).

 

I have some UNIX experience from about 10 years ago and those machines were CLI only, so I got comfortable using the CLI back then.

[scarecrow]

I'm an Archer, so my preference is rather obvious! :D

But anyway, the console, no-CLI Midnight Commander has really saved my loads of typing, and it's almost the very first thing I install in every system (together with nano and links2).

Edited November 28, 2005 by scarecrow

[phunni]

not necessarily - I use arch as well - but I'd often prefer a gui tool... :P

[tyme]

i use the CLI almost every day. whether i use it or a gui tool really depends on what i need to do. if i'm browsing files i'll use a gui, but if i need to edit a text file real quick i'll just open a terminal and nano -w it. imho, the zen is to have a perfect mix of the two - use the right tool for the job, don't ya know.

[Qchem]

I use CLI for most things, major exceptions being web browsing and email. As my work is numerical computation the codes that we run only accept text input and output text, knowledge of various CLI tools is very handy in such situations.

 

Additionally a lot of work I do is on remote machines where it's either impossible or inconvinient to use X so I've just got into the habit of managing my files using the shell.

[mystified]

I use cli a lot. Especially being a Gentoo user there is no GUI except what you have with your DE. I do prefer it for most things.

[Ixthusdan]

I use the CL anytime I know what file to edit. (And how to edit it) I refer all new users to the gui/frontends because of people's familiarity with gui. I also used CL in windows years ago, and today it is easier to issue a command than to find the gui in administration!

[neddie]

I use a mixture, as I suspect most people do.

For file browsing I often use Konqueror for the thumbnails/icons and occasionally filelight. For adding software I find rpmdrake much easier than urpmi. On the other hand, there are things for which you _need_ the CLI, for example unmounting a USB stick. Sometimes there's a desktop icon which you can click on to unmount, very often there isn't. I can't find a way to unmount from Konqueror so I have to go to the CLI and run umount. Also, taking files out of a jar or a tar.gz doesn't work from Konqueror (navigating into the compressed file is ok, but you can't copy and paste from there to somewhere else). So I run unzip or tar from the CLI to do that. Other things- running java programs (with command-line parameters), perl, running subversion, rename, grep, man, ...