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Using terminal commands - corner cases

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  Using terminal commands - corner cases Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-11-27 12:40 +0100
    Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-27 13:00 +0100
      Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-11-27 14:40 +0100
        Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-27 14:40 +0100
          Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-11-27 15:50 +0100
          Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2024-11-27 15:50 +0100
        Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> - 2024-11-27 15:20 +0100
          Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-27 15:30 +0100
            help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm> - 2024-11-27 16:50 +0100
              Re: help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2024-11-27 17:10 +0100
                Re: help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-27 18:10 +0100
              Re: help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-27 18:00 +0100
                Re: help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm> - 2024-11-27 18:30 +0100
                  Re: help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-27 18:50 +0100
                Re: help, man, etc. (was: Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-11-28 03:40 +0100
                  Re: help, man, etc. (was: Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-28 06:40 +0100
          Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Yassine Chaouche <a.chaouche@algerian-radio.dz> - 2024-11-27 16:40 +0100
          Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> - 2024-11-27 17:20 +0100
      Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2024-11-27 15:50 +0100
    Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2024-11-28 05:20 +0100
      Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-11-28 09:40 +0100
      Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-11-28 16:00 +0100
        Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-11-28 16:20 +0100
          Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Erwan David <erwan@rail.eu.org> - 2024-11-28 16:20 +0100
        Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2024-11-29 19:40 +0100
          Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-11-30 16:20 +0100
            Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2024-12-02 04:00 +0100
              Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases debian-user@howorth.org.uk - 2024-12-02 13:00 +0100
    Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Michael Paoli <michael.paoli@berkeley.edu> - 2024-12-02 10:20 +0100

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#274947

On 11/27/24 10:13 PM, David Wright wrote:
> On Wed 27 Nov 2024 at 05:38:30 (-0600), Richard Owlett wrote:
>> I've used terminal commands for so many decades I don't know where to
>> look up fine details of a specific commands.
>>
>> I just tried to use the cd command with a target directory having
>> spaces in it's name. Of course the system responded
>>           > bash: cd: too many arguments
>>
>> DuckDuckGo led to [ https://bash.cyberciti.biz/guide/Cd_command#Dealing_with_directories_with_white_space_in_their_names
>> ].
>>
>> Problem solved. But is there somewhere to go directly without a web search?
> 
> Well, it strikes me that, with the exception of Greg's, all these
> posts are about man, info, help, etc., which you probably know
> about already, whereas what your error above shows is that you
> need some passing knowledge of the contents of man bash.
> 
> If you find that rather dry and indigestible, you might try running:
> 
>    $ wget http://folk.ntnu.no/geirha/bashguide.pdf

Quick browse - looks very interesting, especial the reference links. 
Will read after a night's sleep ;/

> 
> which gives you a guide that's designed more for reading than
> as a reference document.
> 
> BTW I find large man pages a little more navigable by running, eg:
> 
>    $ man -t bash | ps2pdf - /tmp/bash.pdf
> 
> though that might not be suitable for the OP.

Having it in PDF format has some of the convenience I associate wit HTML 
documents.

Thank you for both references.


> 
> Cheers,
> David.
> 
> 

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#274958

On 28/11/2024 11:13, David Wright wrote:
>    $ man -t bash | ps2pdf - /tmp/bash.pdf

What is the point in converting man when the same content is available 
as texinfo source? Moreover, PDF file is ready to use:

/usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bash.html
/usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bash.pdf
/usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bashref.html
/usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bashref.pdf

Latest released version is available from
<https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/>

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#274960

On 11/28/24 8:52 AM, Max Nikulin wrote:
> On 28/11/2024 11:13, David Wright wrote:
>>    $ man -t bash | ps2pdf - /tmp/bash.pdf
> 
> What is the point in converting man when the same content is available 
> as texinfo source? Moreover, PDF file is ready to use:
> 
> /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bash.html
> /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bash.pdf
> /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bashref.html
> /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bashref.pdf
??????????????????!
/usr/share/doc/bash-doc/ does *NOT* exist on my Debian 12.7 machine
All defaults were accepted during install.


> 
> Latest released version is available from
> <https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/>
> 
> 
> 

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#274961

On Thu, Nov 28, 2024 at 04:12:05PM CET, Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> said:
> On 11/28/24 8:52 AM, Max Nikulin wrote:
> > On 28/11/2024 11:13, David Wright wrote:
> > >    $ man -t bash | ps2pdf - /tmp/bash.pdf
> > 
> > What is the point in converting man when the same content is available
> > as texinfo source? Moreover, PDF file is ready to use:
> > 
> > /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bash.html
> > /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bash.pdf
> > /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bashref.html
> > /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bashref.pdf
> ??????????????????!
> /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/ does *NOT* exist on my Debian 12.7 machine
> All defaults were accepted during install.

It is in the bash-doc package, which is optional


-- 
Erwan David

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#274990

On Thu 28 Nov 2024 at 21:52:05 (+0700), Max Nikulin wrote:
> On 28/11/2024 11:13, David Wright wrote:
> >    $ man -t bash | ps2pdf - /tmp/bash.pdf
> 
> What is the point in converting man when the same content is available
> as texinfo source? Moreover, PDF file is ready to use:
> 
> /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bash.html
> /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bash.pdf
> /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bashref.html
> /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bashref.pdf
> 
> Latest released version is available from
> <https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/>

That Debian supplies a PDF in bash-doc certainly lends
support to its being a useful format.

But man-t yields a PDF with your appropriate page size,
whereas bash-doc has only A4.¹

Just as cd happened to be the command that triggered
the OP's problem with quoting, so bash just happens
to be the man page that's most relevant for answering
the OP's question.

But where are the PDF versions of other lengthy manpages,
like curl, ffmpeg-all, fvwm, gm, mc, mplayer, mpv, rsync,
etc., depending where you draw the line.

Perhaps permute fish, give, man, teach, into well-known
aphorism.

¹ With Letter size in xpdf, I press 3 for 200%, which
  gives me exactly two PageDowns per page. Annoyingly,
  A4 needs an extra PageDown to move to the next page.

Cheers,
David.

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#275023

On 30/11/2024 01:29, David Wright wrote:
> On Thu 28 Nov 2024 at 21:52:05 (+0700), Max Nikulin wrote:
>> On 28/11/2024 11:13, David Wright wrote:
>>>     $ man -t bash | ps2pdf - /tmp/bash.pdf
>>
>> /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bash.pdf
>> /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bashref.pdf
> 
> ¹ With Letter size in xpdf, I press 3 for 200%, which
>    gives me exactly two PageDowns per page. Annoyingly,
>    A4 needs an extra PageDown to move to the next page.

You may bind another key to zoom adjusted for A4. Actually I would 
prefer bashref.pdf that has hyperlinks and table of contents (bookmark), 
moreover I would prefer .info file to read it in tkinfo or emacs. PDF 
file generated through PostScript from man does not allow to use named 
anchors for adding links to notes. Page numbers may change in next 
release of if the file is rendered for another paper size.

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#275118

On Sat 30 Nov 2024 at 22:10:32 (+0700), Max Nikulin wrote:
> On 30/11/2024 01:29, David Wright wrote:
> > On Thu 28 Nov 2024 at 21:52:05 (+0700), Max Nikulin wrote:
> > > On 28/11/2024 11:13, David Wright wrote:
> > > >     $ man -t bash | ps2pdf - /tmp/bash.pdf
> > > 
> > > /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bash.pdf
> > > /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/bashref.pdf
> > 
> > ¹ With Letter size in xpdf, I press 3 for 200%, which
> >    gives me exactly two PageDowns per page. Annoyingly,
> >    A4 needs an extra PageDown to move to the next page.
> 
> You may bind another key to zoom adjusted for A4.

By "appropriate page size", I was thinking more about people who
might wish to print the document, rather than this trivial annoyance
for me. I don't come across that many A4 text documents over here.

> Actually I would
> prefer bashref.pdf that has hyperlinks and table of contents
> (bookmark), moreover I would prefer .info file to read it in tkinfo or
> emacs. PDF file generated through PostScript from man does not allow
> to use named anchors for adding links to notes. Page numbers may
> change in next release of if the file is rendered for another paper
> size.

That's a different type of document entirely. My comment was aimed
at /man pages in general/. As I said, man bash was just the example
that came up. Some other commands have further explanatory documents
in a variety of formats, but that doesn't reduce the usefulness of
  $ man -t foo | ps2pdf - /tmp/foo.pdf
does it?

Funnily enough, I'd never even thought about page numbering in
connection with man pages. But I notice now that the page contents
of my Letter PDF and Debian's A4 version are identical, and the
footers on the A4 are very high, so I'm guessing that the document
was originally set for Letter paper, with well-balanced margins,
and the A4 version just had more white space added at the bottom.

Cheers,
David.

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#275127

David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote:
 
> Funnily enough, I'd never even thought about page numbering in
> connection with man pages. But I notice now that the page contents
> of my Letter PDF and Debian's A4 version are identical, and the
> footers on the A4 are very high, so I'm guessing that the document
> was originally set for Letter paper, with well-balanced margins,
> and the A4 version just had more white space added at the bottom.

A4 paper is a little longer than LTR but also slightly narrower. So if
I'm trying to print the same content on both I use the width of A4 and
the length of LTR to set the margins. (210 x 297 A4, 215.9 x 279.4 LTR)

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#275123

>From most, shells, e.g. bash, dash, most or all POSIX shells, you can type:
type name_of_command
And it'll generally tell you what/where that command comes from, or if
it's an alias, etc.
E.g. from either bash or dash:
$ type cd
cd is a shell builtin
$
So then you could look it up in the relevant man page.
In this case, either bash or dash.
But your issue isn't with cd, but characters special to the shell,
and how the shell parses commands, and (your lack of) quoting.
So, read the bash (or dash) man page about that.
If you want to start somewhat simpler, rather than read the quite length
bash man page, start with something relevant that it's mostly backwards
compatible with, e.g. dash (1224 lines of text, vs. 6021 for bash),
or POSIX shell:
https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/V3_chap02.html
Or even start with ye olde Borne shell from 1979 (a mere 6 pages):
https://www.mpaoli.net/~michael/unix/sh/

So ... not a corner case, but how Bourne and relatively compatible shells
have generally been parsing commands for well over four decades now.

On Wed, Nov 27, 2024 at 3:38 AM Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> wrote:
> I've used terminal commands for so many decades I don't know where to
> look up fine details of a specific commands.
> I just tried to use the cd command with a target directory having spaces
> in it's name. Of course the system responded
>           > bash: cd: too many arguments
> Problem solved. But is there somewhere to go directly without a web search?

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