New to the Linux command line? Try `man` and `tldr`!

General system Newbie
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Many newbies coming from other operating systems don’t know that Linux systems come with a comprehensive, built-in manual—the so-called man pages. For any command, you can get its manual page by simply typing man command.

EOS also comes with tldr pre-installed. The name is an acronym for “Too Long; Didn’t Read.” It’s a community-driven effort to enrich the man pages with practical examples—and in your language, too. You can get the TL;DR page for a command by typing tldr command.

So, for any command, you basically get three levels of information:

  • command --help — shows what command is about, and its possible command line parameter use. (Offline)
  • man command — shows the manual page for command, a much more detailed explanation of its functionality and its parameters. (Offline)
  • tldr command — shows practical everyday usage examples for command. (Online and offline)

Note that tldr will try to use the online page on first use, then cache it for later offline reuse. You can completely clear its cache using tldr --clear-cache. List of cached pages (available offline): tldr -l.

Here are some examples for the command tldr:

tldr --help — Help for tldr

tldr-help
tldr-help1043×581 68.1 KB

man tldr — Manual page for tldr

man-tldr
man-tldr1043×581 49.9 KB

tldr tldr — TL;DR page for tldr

tldr
tldr1043×581 60.1 KB

tldr tldr — TL;DR page for tldr on a German system

tldr-german
tldr-german1043×581 47.1 KB

Learning Linux makes using it more enjoyable every day. These tools can help you get along much faster.

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Interesting info thanks! :+1: :smiley:

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For the kids on the Rust block, there is also: tealdeer

extra/tealdeer 1.7.2-1
    A fast tldr client in Rust
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Btw. the rust client tealdeer is a drop-in replacement for the tldr client,
thus the command will be replaced and it is used like the regular implementation.

It’s definitely way more responsive and fetches updates much faster than the regular client.

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Additionally, tealdeer allows some customizations as well as useful configurations. E.g. auto update or displaying the entries a bit more compact. Furthermore, instead of direct shell output, the results can be paged. I.e. less -R would be used instead.

Just check the documentation for further details.

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RTFM! - Never :rofl:

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RTFM much? Nah tldr :rofl:

Honestly this lil program is so handy dandy, finally I don’t have to remember on the *ctl subcommands :skull::sweat_smile:

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First two thoughts:

  1. Aprils Fools
    then
  2. way cool and useful
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In the next episode, cd, ls and more!

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or less :smiley:

sorry, I couldn’t resist xD

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less is more, more or less

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But it isn’t moar (my pager of choice) :smiley:

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Just in case it isn’t more, then it’s less :rofl:

“optimisticpessimism” “pessimisticoptimism” - or… somethin’ like that xD

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Thanks! I didn’t even know tldr came with Endeavour!

This post of yours is a keeper I will put on file, as I also keep vital info in a “library” on my PC, and anything to do with trouble shooting, OS install, Bios settings… on a USB too so I have it if I can’t access the drive it’s on, or the WWW!