Unix Command-Line Kung Fu

deer-run.com

42 points·alexk··7 comments

Amazing that I just now learned Ctrl-R after so many years of bash use.

The suggestion on page 28 to use .[^.]* to match dot files is wrong I think, it won't match anything with a second dot in it, when they really want to avoid '.' and '..'.

No procrast kept me from fixing this and I couldn't stand it. The example is right and I am wrong. I was thinking about regex syntax, not globbing syntax.

I always seem to learn at least one new trick with each of these.

Wow! I learned a lot! Thanks!

Hmm,

Text starts talking about tab completion without giving slightest explanation of what it is. Oddly, I was wondering that a few week ago. Any guru ready to give a hint?

Tab completion is pushing the tab key at the command line or in an editor (it's often not tab in an editor, eclipse uses control-space I think). The computer will then complete what you were typing for you as if by magic. I have written whole dissertations just by typing the title and then leaving a heavy book on the tab key.

Different commands lines and editors vary, but in general tab completion will complete the current word/filename/command if it is unambiguous, and provide some kind of listing if it is ambiguous -- so on the bash command line it will beep if it can't complete, but pushing tab twice will then show all the possible completion.

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