Learning Command Line Interface Linux [Higher Ed]

Posted by Stubrochill17@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 10 comments

So I'm currently enrolled in a database admin program at my local community college. I started in the summer and my first classes were fairly easy, but the fall term courses have really tested my resilience. I have a Bachelors degree already in an unrelated field, but I'm taking this hard science associate's to further my career.

My classes right now are really pushing me to my limit for what I can handle. I have Intro to Linux and Intro to SQL at the same time, plus two other much easier courses. I'm keeping up with my grades and everything, but I really feel like I'm not learning anything because my brain is too split between learning these foreign concepts. I feel like I'm really close to catching onto SQL, the logic in it makes sense to me. But my Linux course is really kicking my ass.

We use Testout for quizzes and videos and I have an in person lecture twice a week. I pay attention in class and stay late to ask questions to my professor. But I'm just feeling like this is an impossible task to learn both at once. The course is designed so that at the end, we should be able to take the Comp TIA+ cert, but I honestly feel like I'd score maybe a 10% on that exam right now. We're about halfway through the course and I'm still struggling with simple vocabulary.

I have a laptop running dual boot Win10 and Pop!OS to practice stuff on. I purchased the Linux command pocket guide. I take hand written notes and do my best to pay attention to online learning (though I tend to struggle in that environment).

I guess I'm just venting, but for those well versed in CLI Linux - am I wasting my time if it's not clicking for me? Was there anything that made the learning stick for you? How long should I tolerate losing my sanity and confidence? For those that work in the IT field, how much of your education would you say is imperative to commit to memory vs how much do you just learn on the job from others?

I just don't want to complete this degree and still feel like I'm at square one. Thank you in advance

- struggling student

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heliruna@reddit

As someone who is self-taught (100% learned at home/on the job, but used it at college):

use the help provided by commands tar --help, grep --help, etc
more complex commands like git or docker have built-in help to list and describe their commands:
git help, git help clone
use man pages man tar, man grep. There is also an apropos command that searches through man pages to help you find the right command, e.g. apropos search can tell you that the command for searching is find
use command history: you know you used rsync correctly yesterday, but you don't remember how. You can search through your command history with Ctrl+R
use shell completion: the tab key can complete commands and arguments for you. There are extra packages you can install (e.g. called bash-completion for the bash shell) that allows you tab completion for options and arguments of commands.
If someone is showing you something, you can get a written log of every command entered in the shell by using type

When I was young the internet was expensive and the modem unreliable, so I had to rely on the built-in documentation and the occasional forum search. Then there were the golden years with easy to find documentation with google. Nowadays, the internet is full of ad-ridden AI-generated garbage, and search engines have lost their usefulness, so you need to know in advance where to find reliable sources. Check out the linux documentation project https://tldp.org. You can use google to restrict you search to specific sites by using "site:" in your query

TL;DR: This more of a "teach man to fish" than a "give a man a fish" situation.

Alverso_Balsalm@reddit

Most of cli programs I learnt is by practice, not memorizing them. Also you can fall back to the good ol manual for every single cli program (e.g man ls, man df, man ps and so on). I think one of the worst things you can do when learning is memorizing...sooner or later you will forget things especially when shit goes down

Due-Vegetable-1880@reddit

Delete your windows installation and do everything on Linux.

fearless-fossa@reddit

You just need practice. Use an AI of your choice and give it prompts like "generate ten CLI exercises for Linux learners". Lectures and stuff are good for learning the concepts on how something works and maybe neat tricks that aren't immediately obvious (especially for new people), but you also need to do stuff with your hands to properly absorb the knowledge.

Once you're more versed sites like SadServers will also give you interesting challenges.

rileyrgham@reddit

There are no shortcuts. Application, effort, practice. Watch a few "placebo" videos on youtube - get comfortable but TRY the examples yourself. Binge watching tech videos on youtube is a sure-fire way to end up completely clueless but somehow convinced you know it all ;)

that_one_wierd_guy@reddit

command line is a pretty broad category, as a lot can be done with it. try breaking it into categories relevant to what the course is currently going over.

FLMKane@reddit

What does any of this have to do with ed?

Daharka@reddit

For me it was globbing that made me see the point.

mv *.pdf directory to move all the pdfs in one go? Easy peasy.

Also this documentary helped me understand the context of the command line and how revolutionary it was (in the 70s).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc4ROCJYbm0

ChocolateMagnateUA@reddit

A lot of Linux CLI tools deal in some way or another with files (because everything is a file), and to me CLI was difficult until I understood how paths and filename resolution work. How exactly, how to move a file called speech.txt one directory up? Or how to copy the same file to your user's document directory? Once you understand absolute, relative paths and shell expansions, you would understand the underlying files where operations take place on and from there it will be much easier since CLI does only one thing but does it really well.

Stubrochill17@reddit (OP)

This is a really detailed and thoughtful response, thank you. I appreciate you typing it out.

I recognize that I'm not meant to learn Linux in its entirety in a matter of months, but I just feel so far behind the proverbial 8 ball. What does make sense to me is committing to memory things that I'll end up using a lot in the real world. I just have difficulty differentiating between what is "class room material" and what I should be expected to know when I enter the industry.