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enz
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21 Oct 2020, 3:44 am

I want to learn bash and how to customise Linux but I’m at level 0. How should I start?



DeepHour
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25 Oct 2020, 3:17 pm

Not sure. I've been using Linux on and off for about five years, but I've never got very far with the terminal. I can do a handful of basic procedures, like apt-get, the 'tar' commands, a bit of 'dd', inxi stuff, and so on, but not much more. I even struggle with some of that if I haven't used it for a while.

Thing is, I almost exclusively use the more accessible Debian-based distros like MX, Antix, LXLE, Q4OS and Mint, where you can get by easily enough without the terminal. I suppose if you used distros like Arch and Gentoo, you wouldn't be able to do that. Maybe the answer is to use those types of OS and be forced to 'sink or swim'?


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starkid
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29 Oct 2020, 6:49 pm

enz wrote:
I want to learn bash and how to customise Linux but I’m at level 0. How should I start?

Search online for a bash tutorial.



starkid
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29 Oct 2020, 6:56 pm

DeepHour wrote:
I suppose if you used distros like Arch and Gentoo, you wouldn't be able to do that. Maybe the answer is to use those types of OS and be forced to 'sink or swim'?

This is not a good idea. A person who is unfamiliar with the terminal would not be able to even install Arch, let alone work with it.

I'm fairly certain that basic Arch comes with no GUI (nor network connection software), so there would be nothing but a bash terminal interface for anyone who managed to get it installed. Such a new user would have to figure out how to install and configure everything from scratch, without even having a browser for looking things up nor network access to connect the browser. I have an Arch-based OS and I've done this multiple times; it's a long, tedious, frustrating process, even with experience.



zacb
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30 Oct 2020, 10:05 pm

Do realize to customize linux you don't need bash per se. You could try Python or C, although C is overkill in most cases.



starkid
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31 Oct 2020, 12:19 am

I thought OP was talking about the bash shell, which is also called a terminal. Poster above me is talking about the bash scripting language.

OP needs to clarify the question.



zacb
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01 Nov 2020, 3:14 am

starkid wrote:
I thought OP was talking about the bash shell, which is also called a terminal. Poster above me is talking about the bash scripting language.

OP needs to clarify the question.


Did not think about that thank you! To harp on that, you don't need the console per se (I use Ubuntu and use apt-get or Google the rest that I need).



TatjanaErika
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06 Nov 2020, 10:42 am

This tutorial has been very helpful to me :)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... QusbZgO_As



EnglishInvader
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09 Nov 2020, 6:41 pm

I've been using Linux as my main desktop for 6 years (mainly Mint) and I've always approached it on a problem-solution basis; I have something I want to do and I figure out how to do it. I haven't consciously tried to learn terminal commands or become a "power user". I just learn what I need to know as and when it comes up.



Mikah
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10 Nov 2020, 9:18 pm

Give this a try
https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-the-command-line

and its followup

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/bash-scripting

I haven't done them myself but they look like a nice intro.

If you're really, really interested in bash scripting, there is always this monster waiting for you https://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/index.html


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