Talk:Guide to Unix/Commands

Categorization

We need to categorize this list better. Perl 00:53, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)~

Agreed. Additionally, it seems that this isn't a guide to the commands, so much as the output of appropos and a benign example. Most entries don't include any switches. Ironically, some of the few that do are typically invoked without switches. As it stands this seems to be a general overview of essential unix commands for new users, but it is not very effective. Granted it does list several commands which the new user might not be aware, but they would have to read the man page to fully understand the command and its usage.

--Eibwen 09:04, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Crucial Commands Missing?

... Perhaps someone should glance at

• UNIX Tutorial for Beginners by M.Stonebank http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Teaching/Unix/
• Unix Reference Guide http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/reference/unix_guide/

to make sure we haven't left out something crucial ...

chmod needs to be someplace--Wikiczar 22:39, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

I recently added chmod and chown to Guide to UNIX commands: File system utilities. --Kernigh 16:35, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

Proposed Restructuring

I propose renaming all of the Guide to UNIX commands pages to use the same slash syntax as pages that I recently added to Guide to UNIX. For example, Guide to UNIX commands: System Information would be renamed Guide to UNIX/Commands/System Information. I believe that this causes the wiki software to generate links up to Guide to UNIX and Guide to UNIX/Commands on each page. Wikibooks:Naming conventions and Wikibooks:Naming policy both suggest that the slash convention (or alternatively, the colon convention like Guide to UNIX:Commands:System Introduction) be superior to the current colon-space system. Kernigh 23:40, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Before you do that I suggest considering whether we want each command to have its own chapter (e.g. Guide to UNIX/Commands/ls). Uncle G 11:37, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

That would make them easier to link to. If we do that, then I want that the pages are significantly different from the ones at Wikipedia (like w:ls). I will try making an example page, but I have not time now, so I will post when it is ready. --Kernigh 00:20, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

User:Kernigh/chmod Example page (compare with w:chmod). I am not sure whether to split the current chapters (suggested by Uncle G) or keep the current chapters. --Kernigh 21:49, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

Also in the page names I want to capitalize the names. Getting Help and System Information are already capitalized, but I would move File system utilities to File System Utilities for example. (Unix command names like "ls" cannot be capitalized.) Also, the colon convention example is Guide to UNIX:Commands:System Information. --Kernigh 16:35, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

I personally prefer sentence case to title case. Uncle G 11:37, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

Most textbooks use title case, but GNU coreutils manual uses sentence case... --Kernigh 17:51, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Categories from GNU Coreutils

The GNU coreutils manual at http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_chapter/coreutils_toc.html contains 23 categories of commands. We have 15 categories in a different scheme. If Guide to UNIX commands changed to GNU's categorisation, we could merge material from their manual into ours, following the GFDL. (Our manual might not document all of the obscure options that GNU coreutils has.) (We would need a few extra cetegories, because some commands are not part of coreutils, and probably not all of them fit into the 23 categories.) This leaves five options for renaming the guide to slash convention:

• Keep 1 page per category, and keep 15 current category pages
• Keep 1 page per category, and switch to 23 GNU coreutils category pages
• Split the pages to 1 page per command, and keep 15 current categories
• Split the pages to 1 page per command, and switch to 23 GNU coreutils categories
• Split the pages to 1 page per command, and have no categories

--Kernigh 17:51, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

I would need to modify material I took from GNU coreutils, yet still credit them, so I've dropped it as an option. --Kernigh 20:18, 21 October 2005 (UTC) Advard

Death of a Template

I am moving it all to slash convention and uppercase titles now. It seems that Template:Guide to UNIX commandsTOC is leaving. I will insert it below to prevent is complete departure.

--Kernigh 21:10, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

if

Why there's no explanation of the if command, and its "scary" test options? Albmont (talk) 12:11, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

merge

Pretty much all the commands at Linux Guide/Linux commands are standard commands on any Unix-like system. Rather than maintain 2 copies of that information, I suggest we merge Linux Guide/Linux commands into Guide to Unix/Commands, leaving behind any Linux-specific commands and a link to "Guide to Unix/Commands". --DavidCary (talk) 16:50, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

This sounds reasonable, but we need to be careful as there is GNU, *BSD and other "Unices", some of who are, or claim to be, POSIX compliant. I don't know if it is essential to list only POSIX-compliant commands, or simply those that work on the most widely used Unix systems. In principle, I welcome the merge. If such a merge will occur I am planning to test the commands under OpenBSD, and change them if necessary (in that case I'll also test the updated commands on a GNU/Linux system). Hulten (discuss • contribs) 10:40, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

cron & at

missing these commands from this page see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Unix_commands