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Floss Manual CommandLine Introduction
=====================================
source: http://en.flossmanuals.net/gnulinux
© Free Software Foundation 2009
This documentation is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License as
published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 1.3 of the
License, or (at your option) any later version.
This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Free Documentation
License for more details.
Put Yourself in Command
-----------------------
Commands enable you to do all sorts of powerful things. We will demonstrate
this by looking at an everyday task you might be familiar with. If you use a
digital camera, you probably have a folder full of images on your computer.
Imagine you wish to resize the image *profile.jpg* so it is 300 pixels wide
and then save it as a new image called *profile_small.jpg*.
Using an image editing software, the steps you need to go through might be as
follows:
1. Open the image editor from the Applications menu.
2. Click File>Open.
3. Browse to the folder where you have saved your images.
4. Click the image file profile.jpg, and then click Open.
5. Click Image>Scale Image to resize the selected image.
6. Change the image width to 300 pixels, and then click Scale.
7. Click File>Save As to save the image file.
8. Enter profile\_small.jpg as the new file name, and then click Save.
Using the command line, you can achieve the same result by typing the
following:
convert -resize 300 profile.jpg profile_small.jpg
That is one step in the command line instead of eight steps using the image
editor. Perhaps, you think that the time you spend on reading this book and
studying the commands is not worth saving seven steps. But what if there were
30 images to be resized? Do you still want to open each image individually and
repeat the process 30 times using the image editor? That would require a total
of 240 steps. Would you rather just type one command instead and get the job
done?
A single command can do the same thing whether you have 30 images, 300, or
3000. This is one of the most compelling reasons to start using the command
line. You might start with a slow learning curve, but in the long run, it will
save a lot of time. Even more important, learning the command line will open up
interesting possibilities and fun ways of working. Let us look at some more
reasons why learning the command line is a good idea. En utilisant la ligne de
commande, vous pouvez effectuer toutes ces opérations juste en tapant:
Advantages of Using Commands
----------------------------
Many people who give the command line a try are so amazed by its possibilities
that they do not even want to go back to a Graphical User Interface(GUI)! Why?
Well, in brief, the command line offers the following main advantages over
common graphical software:
- **Flexibility**. With graphical programs, you sometimes hit a limit; you just
can't do what you want or you need to find cumbersome work-arounds to program
limits. With the command line, you can combine commands to yield a virtually
infinite range of new and interesting functions. By combining commands
creatively, you can make the command line do exactly what you want; it puts
you in control of your computer.
- **Reliability**. Graphical programs are often immature or even unstable. In
contrast, most of the tools that the command line offers are highly reliable.
One of the reasons for this reliability is their maturity; the oldest command
line programs have been around since the late 1970s. This means that these
command lines have been tested for over three decades. They also tend to work
the same way across different operating systems, unlike most graphical tools.
If you want a Swiss Army knife you can rely on, the command line is for you.
- **Speed**. Fancy graphics consume a lot of your hardware's resources, often
resulting in slowness or instability. The command line, on the other hand,
uses the computer's resources much more sparingly, leaving memory and
processing power for the tasks that you actually want to accomplish. The
command line is also intrinsically faster; instead of clicking through long
chains of graphical menus, you can type commands in a dozen or so keystrokes,
and often apply them to multiple files or other objects. If you can type
fast, this will enable you to drastically increase your productivity.
- **Experience**. Using the command line is a great learning experience. When
you use the command line, you communicate with your computer more directly
than with the graphical programs, thus learning a lot about its inner
workings. Using the command line on a regular basis is the way to becoming a
GNU/Linux guru.
- **Fun**. Have you ever wanted to be like those cool computer hackers who can
make a GNU/Linux machine do things that you have not even dreamed of? Once
you learn to use this powerful tool, you will find yourself doing funny and
interesting stuff that you have never imagined.
The Value of Scripting
----------------------
But wait, there's more! You can also store commands in text files. These text
files are called *scripts* and can be used instead of typing a long series of
commands each time. For example, if you store commands in a file called
mycommand.sh, you don't have to type out the commands again. Instead, you can
simply type:
mycommand.sh
In addition, you can combine commands together in simple or sophisticated ways.
Further, you can schedule scripts to run at a specific time or specific date or
at the occurrence of a specific event on your computer.
You can also write scripts that accept additional information from you. For
example, an image resizing script might ask you to what size the images should
be resized before it starts the process.
Ever tried to do anything remotely like that by using a GUI? Perhaps now you
can see how working with the command line interface (CLI) starts to open a
whole new world to using your computer.
Is my Computer Sick?
--------------------
The command line is also used to check the well-being of your computer. There
are many commands you can use to check every facet of your computer's health,
from the amount of space left on the hard drive to the temperature of the CPU.
If your computer is acting poorly and you do not know what the matter is, a few
commands will help you quickly determine whether it is a hardware or a software
issue, and help you quickly rectify the problem.
Spanning the network
--------------------
Another interesting feature of command line interfaces that GUIs can't match is
the interaction over a network. Imagine you have a computer in another room and
you wish to turn it off. How do you do that? Easy right? Get up, walk to the
computer, and click on the "Shutdown" button.
Well, those who know how to connect to the computer in the next room use the
command line and type halt to do the same thing.
That might seem trivial. Perhaps it's actually better for you to get up off
that comfy chair and expend 5 calories walking to the next room. However, what
if the computer you wanted to shut down was in another suburb? In another city?
Another country? Then, remote control of that computer might be very useful.
Shutting down a remote computer is just a start. Everything you can do on the
command line you can do on the remote computer. That means you can run scripts,
execute commands, edit text files, check the diagnostics, and do many other
tasks. The world of the command line just got a whole lot bigger.
Even graphical programs are commands
------------------------------------
When you click an icon or menu item to start a program, you are actually
running a command. You may require, at times, to understand what commands are
you are running. For instance, if you suspect a program is running invisibly in
the background and slowing your computer, you can find its command and
terminate the program. GUI programs often send more error messages to the
command line than to GUI dialog boxes. You can often use these command line
messages to diagnose problems more precisely than you can using a graphical
interface.