Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start

I usually need a project.

Currently, probably trying to run a LLM locally is easiest to do in CLI, so just try that.

Alternatively, buy yourself a server, like 5$/month single core, ther eare budget friendly options, Linode is one. Once you have that, try to run something there. I.d.k. a miniecraft server. Open TTD server. Whatever you want. Not something too critical because you are learning and some automated bot could i.d.k. guess your password (don't use passwords) and turn your box into bitcoin miner ... but you will learn stuff.

If you want a game. Try https://overthewire.org/wargames/bandit/

You'll get used to the commands and using the man pages. It's not really focused on bash coding.

Let me tell you how I did it. I remember I wanted to start using Linux full-time no BS and have had some exposure to the terminal. I took the opportunity of a new position, I said I had to use Linux for the day-to-day activities and they bought it. So I had to use the terminal/Linux without disrupting any of the necessary activities.

Meanwhile, I read the beginning half of "The Linux Command Line" [1]. I highly recommend it. Looking back, I might have read it until part 2 and skimmed the rest, and read it as I needed it.

Try to do everything through the terminal. File creation, reading, managing stuff, changing wifi, configuring editors, writing files. Try to find the conversion tools with the rest of the "world". Some examples of what I mean are pandoc for md->docx conversion, python pandas for csv -> xlsx. Build small scripts for your tasks. For example, I work in a multilingual company and I have a tool for translation which at first used Google Translate and now uses gpt. At some point in the journey I even had my own custom dwm build. Fun times. Do read about suckless software, a fun philosophy with some genuine principles, and a nice (but not friendly) ecosystem.

So my recommendation is to read something to give you breadth on linux/terminal knowledge so you can navigate around and stick to it as your main driver.

Another book one I recommend is the "Unix and Linux system administration handbook"[2]. It will tell you more about the history and inner workings when compared to the previous one.

1: https://www.linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php

2: https://admin.com/

Aside: zsh is standard on macs now, thanks to Apple's lawyers freaking out over bash license terms. If you want to change to industry standard bash (I did) then there are three ways to do it.

Short: csh -s /bin/bash

Others: system settings or terminal settings.

[1] https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/terminal/trml113/mac

[2] https://www.howtogeek.com/444596/how-to-change-the-default-s...

You may want to update bash via homebrew, or install the full set of Xcode command line tools. (But not full Xcode environment)

xcode-select --install

[3] https://www.macobserver.com/tips/how-to/install-xcode-comman...

As I said, it was only an example. I had no idea what shell they'd be using or that macOS apparently left them with Zsh and no other option. Apple's website suggests otherwise https://support.apple.com/guide/terminal/change-the-default-...