tldr

tldr is a command-line tool that I've been using a lot recently.

Usually, on the command line, you'd use the man command to show a manual page for a certain command - like man ls.

tldr is "a collection of simplified and community-driven man pages".

After installing it, run man tldr or even tldr tldr to learn more about it.

Then, run a command like tldr ls to get output for a specific command.

I like that it shows a short description of what the command does, followed by a link to find out more information and then several valuable examples demonstrating the various options, flags, and arguments the command takes.

For ls, it shows how to list one file per line, list hidden files, use a long format list, show human-readable size units, long format sorted by size or modification date, and only show directories.

For commands like tar, rsync, and scp that I don't use that often or can't remember all of the different options, I like being able to see these examples and figure out what I need at that time.

- Oliver

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About me

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I'm an Acquia-certified Drupal Triple Expert with 17 years of experience, an open-source software maintainer and Drupal core contributor, public speaker, live streamer, and host of the Beyond Blocks podcast.