The Art of Command Line: A Command Line Guide
/the-art-of-command-line
The Art of Command Line is a single, dense markdown page collecting command line tips and tricks, not an interactive course or a tool you install. Read it end to end if you already write Bash daily and want the gaps in your knowledge filled in fast; skip it if you need a slower, hands-on beginner track, since this guide assumes you'll look commands up yourself once you know their names.
What is The Art of Command Line?
The Art of Command Line is a GitHub repository maintained by jlevy that gathers shell knowledge and terminal tricks into a single page, written mainly for Linux with separate macOS-only and Windows-only sections. The README frames it as short by design: everything on the page is meant to matter, and anything you could easily look up elsewhere was left out.
Why master the command line?
Most engineers pick up command line habits piecemeal, from whatever Stack Overflow answer solved yesterday's problem, so the same person can know xargs cold and never have touched process substitution or a strict Bash mode. The guide's authors treat that fluency as an underrated skill rather than an obscure one, and built this page to compress the scattered tricks experienced Unix users already know into a single reference instead of a pile of blog posts and man pages.
Who is this guide designed for?
This guide suits developers and sysadmins who already work in a terminal daily and want to plug specific gaps: someone comfortable with cd and ls but shaky on job control, xargs, or Bash's stricter scripting modes. It's not a tutorial. Skip it if you've never opened a terminal, since the notes assume you already know how to look a command up once you know its name.
Key topics covered in the guide
- ✓Bash fundamentals: reading man pages, job control (ctrl-z, jobs, fg, bg), I/O redirection with >, >>, and |, and the difference between stdout and stderr.
- ✓Everyday shell habits: Tab completion, ctrl-r history search, Bash's readline keybindings (ctrl-w, ctrl-u, alt-b/alt-f), and editing long commands in an external editor.
- ✓Scripting practices: strict-mode flags (set -e, set -u, set -o pipefail), trap on ERR/EXIT, subshells, brace expansion, and here documents.
- ✓Text and data processing: sort, uniq, cut, paste, join, wc, and tee, plus newer search tools like ripgrep and format-specific tools such as jq for JSON, shyaml for YAML, and csvkit for CSV.
- ✓Networking and remote work: ssh basics, port tunneling, a sample ~/.ssh/config for keepalive and multiplexing, and tmux/screen for session persistence.
- ✓Dedicated macOS-only and Windows-only sections for platform-specific commands, alongside the Linux-focused core material.
- ✓Process management: pgrep/pkill, reading a process tree with pstree, and sending signals like kill -STOP.
Strengths
- ✓Everything sits on one markdown page, so ctrl-f finds a tip faster than searching a multi-chapter course.
- ✓Tips are concrete: most bullets give the actual command and flags (kill -STOP, IFS=$'\n', set -euo pipefail) instead of describing a concept in the abstract.
- ✓It mixes plain Unix commands with newer tools worth installing, like ripgrep, fzf, jq, and datamash, so it doubles as a list of things to go try.
- ✓The project has drawn many authors and translators over time, per its AUTHORS.md credit and the language links at the top of the README.
- ✓It's free and openly maintained on GitHub, with a documented contribution path via CONTRIBUTING.md.
Scope and approach of the guide
- △The guide covers Linux by default; only the labeled macOS-only and Windows-only sections address other platforms, so most tips assume a Linux box or a WSL2-style environment.
- △It's deliberately terse. Notes point you at a command name and expect you to run man or Explainshell yourself rather than walk through a full example.
- △There's no version number or last-updated date in the facts available here, so you can't tell from the page alone how current any single tip is against today's tool versions.
- △The note at the top of the README says the maintainer is looking for a co-author to expand the guide, which suggests the content is intentionally narrower and shallower than it could be.
- △It's a single reference page, not a graded course, so there are no exercises or progression for someone starting from zero.
Other ways to learn command line skills
Frequently Asked Questions
The Art of Command Line is written for Linux by default, with the README noting separate macOS-only and Windows-only sections for platform-specific commands; most tips also apply to other Unix-like systems, including Cygwin, per the README.
The Art of Command Line's own scope notes say it targets both beginners and experienced users, aiming for breadth and brevity rather than a step-by-step tutorial, so a first-time terminal user will need other resources to fill in the basics it assumes.
The Art of Command Line centers on interactive Bash use, and the README adds that a good share of its advice carries over to other shells and to writing Bash scripts in general.
The README points contributors to a CONTRIBUTING.md file for fixing errors or adding tips, and to a separate Airtable form for submitting command line questions.
The Art of Command Line's README links to versions in numerous other languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, French, and Spanish, alongside the English original.
Some of The Art of Command Line's original tips came from Quora discussion threads about obscure but handy Unix commands and one-liners, before the project moved to GitHub, where the README credits many contributors beyond the original author with expanding it since.
Best use cases
- •Skimming once a year as a refresher for shortcuts and flags you looked up before and forgot, like ctrl-r history search or brace expansion.
- •Keeping the page open while writing a Bash script, for the strict-mode flags and quoting rules that are easy to get wrong.
- •Onboarding a developer who's comfortable with a GUI but new to servers, pointing them at the Basics section for man pages, ssh, and job control.
- •Discovering newer command line tools worth installing, like ripgrep, fzf, or jq, that older habits might not include yet.
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