Shell Tips

This list is continuously updated.

1. Tips

  1. To make apt install automatically you can pass -y. You can also hit enter after running the command to automatically accept Y in the upcoming confirmation dialog.
  2. You don’t need sudo to kill -9 processes started by your user, even though using sudo can feel like it’ll actually help the process die. Using kill -9 is enough.

1.1. How to Evaluate Commands From the Internet

  1. Never copy-paste these unless you know what they do.
    • This means you know what the command does and what the included flags do
    • Ideally you would have run this command before
  2. If you’re familiar enough with a command to know it won’t nuke your system, but you don’t remember the details of what it does:
    • Skim the intro paragraph of the man page to refresh your memory
    • You’re looking for any default behavior that does something weird

1.2. Safety

  1. Spend the least time in critical directories e.g. /boot as possible. Unless you need to run something in that dir, you shouldn’t be in it.

Email: lorenzohess@tutanota.com

Created: 2026-08-15 Sat 10:31