CLI for Noobies: A Primer on the Linux Command Line

Chapter 2. Alias, Cat, Grep, and Pipe

Let’s get started with a practical example of how to combine two commands with another one in order to create an easy-to-use tool. Our tool will use the cat, grep, and pipe commands to do its bidding. Then we’ll use the alias command like duct tape to wrap them all together and put an easy-to-remember label on the whole thing.

First, You Make a Roux

Open a terminal window. On my Gnome desktop, I can click Applications->System->Terminal->Gnome Terminal to open one. Or I can simply click on the Terminal icon on my top panel, which I created by right-clicking on Terminal instead of left-clicking on it at the tail end of that long string of clicks noted before.

I suggest you do the same, although how you do that ...