Command line sessions

"First chink in the armor Ted"

Is there anybody here that gets off on working in the command line? I just started a class that has me dealing with the MS-DOS command line and it's so boring I want to drink paint. I realize that it is probably a necessary thing to learn for what I'm going to school for, but good god man.

I feel like I'm 10 years old trying to get Doom to work on my old i386 powered computer. I'm not really sure how to get interested in this. Does anybody feel me on this? Any tips for motivation?

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

peanutnoggin

mickeycoronado wrote: »

"First chink in the armor Ted"

Is there anybody here that gets off on working in the command line? I just started a class that has me dealing with the MS-DOS command line and it's so boring I want to drink paint. I realize that it is probably a necessary thing to learn for what I'm going to school for, but good god man.

I feel like I'm 10 years old trying to get Doom to work on my old i386 powered computer. I'm not really sure how to get interested in this. Does anybody feel me on this? Any tips for motivation?

I'm a command line junkie! I think it was because my IT career begin by me working with all unix (Solaris 2.5.1 -- WooHoo). I am one of those people that work from the GUI only when I have to. I'm not sure to tell you how to get motivated... good luck though...

-Peanut

tomahawkeer

mickeycoronado wrote: »

"First chink in the armor Ted"

Is there anybody here that gets off on working in the command line? I just started a class that has me dealing with the MS-DOS command line and it's so boring I want to drink paint. I realize that it is probably a necessary thing to learn for what I'm going to school for, but good god man.

I feel like I'm 10 years old trying to get Doom to work on my old i386 powered computer. I'm not really sure how to get interested in this. Does anybody feel me on this? Any tips for motivation?

I love it! Wish I could use it more.

gateway

Not that I am any good at it, but I love working from the command line wherever I can. I think it teaches you much more than doing the same thing using a gui.

I wish I had the time to dedicate to learning PoSH.

As Peanut said - can't really tell you how to get motivated, if it's not something you like working with naturally then you probably never will be motivated. On the other hand, if you are a fan of automation, find some tasks that you don't like doing manually and work out how to get a command line version doing the same thing to save you doing it anymore.

IT is just a tool - make what you want of it. Do it whichever way you feel comfortable.

mickeycoronado

Ok, the very fact that right of the bat there are 3 people who love it gives me hope. I used to lke it when I was a kid and it was fun typing different things seeing what they did. I learned a lot that way. But hell that was a long time ago. Maybe it's just because I spent 3 hours taking screenshots of all the different ways to display dierectories. I'll keep at it, it's gotta get better.

Repo Man

mickeycoronado wrote: »

Ok, the very fact that right of the bat there are 3 people who love it gives me hope. I used to lke it when I was a kid and it was fun typing different things seeing what they did. I learned a lot that way. But hell that was a long time ago. Maybe it's just because I spent 3 hours taking screenshots of all the different ways to display dierectories. I'll keep at it, it's gotta get better.

The best motivation to learn it is that each road you could go down (Linux, Powershell via Windows, Cisco ) will have you working from a command line.

RobertKaucher

mickeycoronado wrote: »

"First chink in the armor Ted"

Is there anybody here that gets off on working in the command line? I just started a class that has me dealing with the MS-DOS command line and it's so boring I want to drink paint. I realize that it is probably a necessary thing to learn for what I'm going to school for, but good god man.

I feel like I'm 10 years old trying to get Doom to work on my old i386 powered computer. I'm not really sure how to get interested in this. Does anybody feel me on this? Any tips for motivation?

There are somethings that should be done in the GUI and there are somethings that should be done via CLI, and there are a few things that must be done via the CLI. So you have to know it.

The things that should be done via the GUI are those things that you are not doing repeatedly and are infrequent. Joinging a single server to a domain, for example. Why bust out netdom for that? unless you are using Server Core - then you must.

Tracking down and deleting files assocated with a virus... I prefer to do it via CLI.

In general, though - I enjoy it.

DevilWAH

CLI is great, its not as visual as the GUI of course, and nither is it as easy to navigate, but it is so so so so powerfull once you know it.

once you know command line well you can o things like delete every file in a folder with the third letter = r and the tenth = e. all with a one line command.

Try doing that from the GUI for a folder that has 10,000 files in it!!

I always think og the GUI as a frount end to the CLI anyway, as 99.9% of things you can do through the GUI there is a CLI command to achive the same thing.

For Linux admin the CLI is amazing, SSH in to 20 linux server and you an copy and past between them to change configs and so forth. you try managing that many remote desktop session!!

unfortunaly to learn the cool stuff you need to lean how to do the boering stuff first, as the cool stuff is really jsut mix and matching the boering stuff togather as you need.

lean how to seach for a file via the cli = easy
learn how to delte a file via cli = easy
learn how to copy a file = easy
learn how to move a file = easy

now put it all togather to find a named file, copy a renamed copy to a new location and deleate the original....

This is the real power of the cli, you work out the commands to profrom a basic task that you need to repete many times. and adujest to make it work as a batch task.

For example I want to know the ac address of every PC on the network. well you could write a cli that will ping every IP address, proform a look up to get the host name and write it to a file.

there is also a inbuilt applcation in windows called "getmac" (type it at the command line)

so once we have the host name list, the second part of the task is to run that command agaisnt all the host names to get the mac.

finaly you have a line or two of code to tidy up the out put and arange it in to a neat file...

next thing you know you have a script that you run, it discovers what devices are around and recordes there IP and mac address for you in to a CVS text docuemnt...

most cli is really quite simple, you enter a command you get a result. that is not amazing I agree, but add a few simple commands togather and sundly it is a very powerfull tool for the network admin!

Devilsbane

peanutnoggin wrote: »

I'm a command line junkie!

Lot's of the old folks are.

Me, not so much. I use the command line when it makes the most sense. For example, recently I decided that the 30 .java files needed to be removed from my desktop. I could have individually selected them to move. Or I can just go move *.java NewFolder

There are instances where the command line is your best friend, and there are others when the GUI is.

Plantwiz

mickeycoronado wrote: »

"First chink in the armor Ted"

Is there anybody here that gets off on working in the command line? I just started a class that has me dealing with the MS-DOS command line and it's so boring I want to drink paint. I realize that it is probably a necessary thing to learn for what I'm going to school for, but good god man.

I feel like I'm 10 years old trying to get Doom to work on my old i386 powered computer. I'm not really sure how to get interested in this. Does anybody feel me on this? Any tips for motivation?

I find Command line stuff very FUN, so not 'feeling' you here.

Is it not fun because it is too difficult? Or too easy?

Mishra

I like tools that get the job done quickly. I use both GUI and CLI daily to do my job. Let's take for example, random things I've done today with both.

GUI:
Built a VM using a template from ESX
Opening Outlook 2010
Removing a server from a Citrix farm
Searched Google
Looked at Citrix licensing
IMed people and sent emails
Created a Change Request in Sharepoint
Looked at performance in Task Manager

CLI:
Looked at zoneload for Citrix
Launched RDP using mstsc /v:servername
Used a powershell script to push patches to mutliple servers
Looked at more Win32 classes for WMI
Pslist a box that had 100% CPU load
Looked at the hostname of a box
Restarted a server using shutdown /r /t 0

Hope that puts things in perspective!

mickeycoronado

First of thanks for the replies guys, I really need people like you around me saying things like all of that. Secondly, I can't wait until I can respond to you with like-minded lingo and expertise, but until I learn a bit more, I'm not going to make myself look like an idiot in front of all you guys by pretending I know what all that stuff is.

That being said, keep it coming as it will help me learn quicker

PlantWiz, It's not to easy or to difficult. It's just monotonous. I admit I have fallen under the spell of using a GUI all the time (I know that one). Like I said before, I used DOS all the time when I was a kid but that was years ago. Maybe I'm frustrated because I had more fun doing it back then compared to now? It is a mindset I obviously need to break. But the book doesn't seem that exciting either now that I think about it.

Thanks again for your time everybody. It means a lot to be able to talk with some very smart people. Let me know if you have anything else to add.

-MickeyC

MentholMoose

You will really appreciate it when you have a repetitive task to do, and instead of spending 10 hours doing the same thing 500 times in a GUI (and developing an RSI in the process), you write a simple script and get it done in 2 seconds at the CLI.