Command Line Handbook
Learning and science
command line handbook
SHOW HN2025
454points
109comments
#90of 3,837 in 2025
Top 3%of 2025 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
13 positive, 14 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 9 critical, out of 39 comments about the project. Thread score +0.13.
Docs: 6 for, 3 againstDesign: 2 for, 6 againstPricing: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Useful examples that teach things even experienced users did not know
From 2 comments
I consider myself reasonably proficient in the shell, but I learned something just from your sample pages (process substitution). Purchased!
justusthane on HNNice work, I've been using linux 20+ years and learnt something from the example pages. (edit, just realised it's closer to 30 now, jesus)
_joel on HN
Practical, accessible tone suited to teaching
From 2 comments
This is excellent! Thank you for posting and best wishes for your success with this! I'm teaching a class next year that'll have college-level students learning to use the…
MikeTheGreat on HNDifferent people prefer different formats for information. Some people prefer to read the manual from start to finish while others learn better seeing the same concepts in a…
mtlynch on HN
Objections
Website and sample pages are broken or hard to read on mobile
From 3 comments
Cool, couple of comments. The website it a bit broken on mobile (at least for me) since text goes off the screen. Second, it would be good to have some sample pages or at least a…
charlie-83 on HNI am also seeing text off the screen using Brave on Android.
jaredhallen on HNSorry, but it would be great to adapt it for the mobile layout.
sillyboi on HN
No PDF alternative such as EPUB for e-readers
From 2 comments
Honestly I would’ve liked to fork over cash for a book like this but the deal breaker for me is that it’s in PDF format. I like to read all of my books on a Kindle (with koreader…
JLO64 on HNYeah, same. On a phone or smaller e-reader, regular PDFs designed for normal book size are often unreadable.
InsideOutSanta on HN
Example pages are hard to find and lack a table of contents
From 2 comments
Interested, but going to the website told me nothing other than a book about the command line. Would be nice be able to get a preview of a some pages/chapters.
catoc on HNCool, couple of comments. The website it a bit broken on mobile (at least for me) since text goes off the screen. Second, it would be good to have some sample pages or at least a…
charlie-83 on HN
Some examples and regex details are technically inaccurate
From 2 comments
Hmm, the example page doesn't convince me, for example > The diff utility can compare files and print their differences. If we pass it the result of ls commands, we can compare…
jcynix on HNpage 112 > if [[ "${1-}" =~ ^-*h(elp)?$ ]]; then > ... is an option that starts with one or multiple - characters ... "one or multiple" is + not *. The regex above will also…
danadam on HN
Requests
Add a table of contents and sample pages to the homepage
From 3 comments
Cool, couple of comments. The website it a bit broken on mobile (at least for me) since text goes off the screen. Second, it would be good to have some sample pages or at least a…
charlie-83 on HNInterested, but going to the website told me nothing other than a book about the command line. Would be nice be able to get a preview of a some pages/chapters.
catoc on HNI agree with all this. I'm on Firefox android, pixel, lose part of the screen too. I'd love to read a table of contents. I don't want to rip you off with zero dollars! Anyway,…
pipes on HN
Offer EPUB or other e-reader formats
From 2 comments
Honestly I would’ve liked to fork over cash for a book like this but the deal breaker for me is that it’s in PDF format. I like to read all of my books on a Kindle (with koreader…
JLO64 on HNHonestly I would’ve liked to fork over cash for a book like this but the deal breaker for me is that it’s in PDF format. I like to read all of my books on a Kindle When I made my…
reaperducer on HN
Fix mobile layout of the website
From 2 comments
Cool, couple of comments. The website it a bit broken on mobile (at least for me) since text goes off the screen. Second, it would be good to have some sample pages or at least a…
charlie-83 on HNThese two tweaks should improve it (by preventing the largest text and book graphic from overflowing the viewport horizontally on some smaller screen sizes): ``` diff --git…
curtgrimes on HN
Improve page layout and typesetting of code blocks
From 1 comment
The content seems really great, however the typesetting makes it quite hard to read: * Code blocks on a subsequent page to the explanation, especially when there is enough space…
0x62 on HN
Questions
How well does pay-what-you-want work as a model
From 1 comment
How has the "pay what you want" model worked out if you don't mind me asking? It's something I've thought about in the past for selling courses.
nickjj on HN
Which tools are covered: older standard tools or newer ones like fzf and rg
From 1 comment
Is your focus on older tools that tend to be on most machines and used in older shell scripts (e.g., find and grep), or on newer and upgraded tools (fd, fzf, rg) that developers…
dkarl on HN
Alternatives named
Linux Journey
From 1 comment
Good resource to couple this resource with: https://linuxjourney.com.
rochak on HN
The Shell Haters Handbook
From 1 comment
Folks interested in this will also appreciate The Shell Haters Handbook: https://shellhaters.org/deck/
briandoll on HN
Interactive TUI apps for learning CLI tools
From 1 comment
I wrote interactive TUI apps with exercises for Linux CLI tools, coreutils, grep, sed and awk: https://github.com/learnbyexample/TUI-apps
asicsp on HN