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<title>userland: a book about the command line for humans</title>
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<link rel=stylesheet href="userland.css" />
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<h1 class=bigtitle>userland</h1>
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-<div id=toc>
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-<p><a href="#contents">contents</a></p>
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-<li><a href="#a-book-about-the-command-line-for-humans">a book about the command line for humans</a>
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-</li>
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-<li><a href="#the-command-line-as-literary-environment">1. the command line as literary environment</a>
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-<li><a href="#terms-and-definitions-twisty-little-passages">terms and definitions / twisty little passages</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#wildcards">wildcards</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#sort">sort</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#options">options</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#uniq">uniq</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#standard-IO">standard IO</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#code-help-code-and-man-pages"><code>–help</code> and man pages</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#wc">wc</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#head-tail-and-cut">head, tail, and cut</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#finding-text-grep">finding text: grep</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#now-you-have-n-problems-regex-rabbit-holes">now you have n problems: regex + rabbit holes</a></li>
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-</ul>
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-</li>
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-<li><a href="#a-literary-problem">2. a literary problem</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#programmerthink">3. programmerthink</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#learn-you-an-editor">learn you an editor</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#d-i-y-utilities">d.i.y. utilities</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#general-purpose-programmering">5. general purpose programmering</a></li>
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-<li><a href="#one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others">6. one of these things is not like the others</a>
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-<li><a href="#the-internet-for-humans-and-how-the-command-line-can-help">7. the internet for humans, and how the command line can help</a>
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-<li><a href="#reading-the-web">reading the web</a></li>
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<h1><a name=a-book-about-the-command-line-for-humans href=#a-book-about-the-command-line-for-humans>#</a> a book about the command line for humans</h1>
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<p>Late last year, <a href="//p1k3.com/2013/8/4">a side trip</a> into text utilities got me
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(Attribution / Share-Alike), whatever the latest version is. I promise I will
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not license it under more restrictive terms than that.</p>
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<h2><a name=contents href=#contents>#</a> contents</h2>
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+<div class=contents><ul>
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<li><a href="#a-book-about-the-command-line-for-humans">a book about the command line for humans</a>
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+<li><a href="#terms-and-definitions">terms and definitions</a></li>
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+<li><a href="#get-you-a-shell">get you a shell</a></li>
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+<li><a href="#twisty-little-passages">twisty little passages</a></li>
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<li><a href="#further-reading">8. further reading</a></li>
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the ways it could be useful in your own work with a computer, whatever that
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work happens to be.</p>
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<p>What software are we actually talking about when we say “the command line”?</p>
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and stupid in more ways than it is possible to easily summarize. It’s also an
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incredibly powerful and expressive piece of software.</p>
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<p>Have you ever played a text-based adventure game or MUD, of the kind that
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describes a setting and takes commands for movement and so on? Readers of a
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certain age and temperament might recognize the opening of Crowther & Woods'
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They tend to have weird, cryptic names, but a lot of them do very simple
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things. Tasks that might be a menu item in a big program like Word, like
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counting the number of words in a document or finding a particular phrase, are
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-often programs unto themselves.</p>
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+often programs unto themselves. We’ll start with something even simpler.</p>
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<h2><a name=cat href=#cat>#</a> cat</h2>
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<h1><a name=the-internet-for-humans-and-how-the-command-line-can-help href=#the-internet-for-humans-and-how-the-command-line-can-help>#</a> 7. the internet for humans, and how the command line can help</h1>
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<p>Web browsers are really complicated these days. They’re full of rendering
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-meaningful ones from snake oil and bureaucratic mysticism.</p>
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+engines, audio and video players, programming languages, development tools,
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+databases – you name it, and there’s a fair chance it’s in there somewhere.
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+The modern web browser is kitchen sink software, and to make matters worse, it
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+is <em>totally surrounded</em> by technobabble. It can take <em>years</em> to come to terms
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+with the ocean of words about web stuff and sort out the meaningful ones from
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+<p>All of which can make the web itself seem like a really complicated landscape,
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+and obscure the simplicity of its basic design, which is this:</p>
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-network for the stuff that lives at a particular URL.</p>
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<h1><a name=further-reading href=#further-reading>#</a> 8. further reading</h1>
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</html>
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Brennen Bearnes
6 years ago