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Show HN: A single command terminal configuration installer

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Re: Show HN: A single command terminal configuration installer

#11

Post by zimbatm »

oftenwrong wrote: post #7

The last thing an inexperienced terminal user should be doing is installing a bunch of software without understanding how it fits together, how it is used, or how it is actually configured. If you want to understand your terminal stack, build it; don't have it built for you. The better approach is to start from a basic setup. For example, with vim, don't use vim-sensible right off the bat. Instead, just use vim. If a…

Learning everything from scratch is a big ask not everybody is willing to jump for. Some users might feel intimidated by the amount of things to learn before they can become productive.

If that gets new users in, make them comfortable until they outgrow the setup then it's a good thing.

Re: Show HN: A single command terminal configuration installer

#12

Post by h1d »

oftenwrong wrote: post #7

The last thing an inexperienced terminal user should be doing is installing a bunch of software without understanding how it fits together, how it is used, or how it is actually configured. If you want to understand your terminal stack, build it; don't have it built for you. The better approach is to start from a basic setup. For example, with vim, don't use vim-sensible right off the bat. Instead, just use vim. If a…

You sound like average people should not start from Windows but from Slackware, so they will have better understanding of what's comprised of their machine.

It's a good start to give people the sense of what can be achieved by customization. If they don't like it from there they can certainly learn and tune to their needs, which should give more motivation than getting stuck googling for hours without any results from a bare terminal.

Re: Show HN: A single command terminal configuration installer

#14

Post by yumaikas »

collinf wrote: post #5

While it looks great, for a real noob the real problem (at least when I was starting out this was mine) is fast terminal navigation. To learn to do that I always thought the normal progression is sort of like this: 1. Mastering getting around terminal with slight configuration (bash, zsh, random dotfiles, maybe a plugin manager) 2. Getting used to editing files in the terminal (Vim) 3. Managing multiple terminals at…

I've found that using a bookmarking system helps cut down the use of cd a lot. That's the latest addition I've made to my terminal setup, and it's helped a lot.

Re: Show HN: A single command terminal configuration installer

#16

Post by tomsmeding »

forgotpwd16 wrote: post #15

Is `sh -c "$(wget $link -O -)"` supposed to be better than `wget $link -O - | sh`?

It's still executing code right from the internet without any checking. What it does fix is one of the ways in which a server can tell that a script is being executed and not just downloaded for reading: when piping, the download stalls while the shell is slugging through the script, but when it's done in a shell escape as here, it's downloaded in one go. So theoretically, you have less chance of reading something different (when inspecting the source) than what the shell is going to execute.

However, the script can't be overly long this way, since there is a limit to the command line length on Linux.

Safe, however, this is clearly still not.

Re: Show HN: A single command terminal configuration installer

#17

Post by obel1x »

yumaikas wrote: post #14
collinf wrote: post #5

While it looks great, for a real noob the real problem (at least when I was starting out this was mine) is fast terminal navigation. To learn to do that I always thought the normal progression is sort of like this: 1. Mastering getting around terminal with slight configuration (bash, zsh, random dotfiles, maybe a plugin manager) 2. Getting used to editing files in the terminal (Vim) 3. Managing multiple terminals at…

I've found that using a bookmarking system helps cut down the use of cd a lot. That's the latest addition I've made to my terminal setup, and it's helped a lot.

sounds useful. i cd often. can you expand on your bookmarking system?

Re: Show HN: A single command terminal configuration installer

#18

Post by yumaikas »

obel1x wrote: post #17
yumaikas wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found that using a bookmarking system helps cut down the use of cd a lot. That's the latest addition I've made to my terminal setup, and it's helped a lot.

sounds useful. i cd often. can you expand on your bookmarking system?

One better, I can link you to it (I had written my own version at work, but ran across this and forked it to switch out the command names, since someone else had done it alreay)

https://github.com/yumaikas/bashmarks/blob/customized/README...

Re: Show HN: A single command terminal configuration installer

#19

Post by aaronkjones »

tomsmeding wrote: post #16
forgotpwd16 wrote: post #15

Is `sh -c "$(wget $link -O -)"` supposed to be better than `wget $link -O - | sh`?

It's still executing code right from the internet without any checking. What it does fix is one of the ways in which a server can tell that a script is being executed and not just downloaded for reading: when piping, the download stalls while the shell is slugging through the script, but when it's done in a shell escape as here, it's downloaded in one go. So theoretically, you have less chance of reading something di…

By safe do you mean there is something insecure with redirecting output in this manner or do you mean one shouldn’t sh -c $(wget... without first checking the source of what they’re downloading?

Re: Show HN: A single command terminal configuration installer

#20

Post by aaronkjones »

sudofail wrote: post #10

This looks really well done. I've been meaning to do this for some time. While I agree it's best to learn to properly configure your tools, this can be a good first step for newbies. The problem I run into with sharing dotfiles is that my dotfiles aren't what someone who's new should be using. They need sane defaults that they can build upon, not the mess that my dotfiles have become over 10 years. This seems to be a…

Thank you. You summed up precisely my thinking. I think the “sensible” projects lay a foundation people can learn on. I just wrapped them up into a single package.
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