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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Documenting commands # or $ before sudo? (feditown.com)

submitted 1 year ago by exu@feditown.com to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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This might be a stupid question, but hear me out.
I regularly document steps to install various software for myself on my wiki
More recently, I managed to use different custom text in the source markdown to prepend # and $ automatically, so commands can be copied more easily while still clarifying if it should be run as a normal user or as root.

Run command as user

$ some cool command

Run command as root/superuser with sudo

# some dangerous command

I usually remove and sudo and use the # prefix. However, in some cases, the sudo actually does something different that needs to be highlighted. For example, I might use it to execute a command as the user www-data

sudo -u www-data cp /var/www/html/html1 /var/www/html/html2

I often use $ as a prefix, but # would also make sense.
How would you prefix that line?

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[–] StudioLE@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You should consider who your audience is, are they all CLI experts familiar with the difference in syntax? That seems unlikely.

I'd always write documentation in a way that's accessible to most users. The difference between $ and # syntax is highly esoteric.

sudo on the other hand is familiar to almost everyone. It's one of the first things mentioned in beginners guides.

I wouldn't even prefix your commands with $ as an experienced user is quite likely to include that when copying the command.

A lot of people are citing the arch wiki as a standard that uses # but isn't the entire meme around arch that its a notably complex system?

[–] JeremyT@lemmy.teaisatfour.com 1 points 1 year ago

It's ok if you prefix with $ and # IF it's not selectable. It should only be a visual reference for those who know and only helps keep your documentation complete.