Argument mnemonics
SoftwareI like argument and option mnemonics. I can see why standard usage documentation prefers to sort arguments l15y, but this way makes them much easier to remember.
For example, my standard directory listings:
$ ls -cola
From the FreeBSD ls(1)
manpage:
- Use time when file status was last changed for sorting or printing
- Include the file flags in a long (-l) output
- List files in the long format
- List all; include directory entries whose names begin with a dot
Or for sorting by ascending time modified, using the name of those Singaporean and Malaysian train systems:
$ ls -lrt
From that same manpage:
- List files in the long format
- Reverse the order of the sort
- Sort by descending time modified (most recently modified first)
And the classic, audio-sounding aux:
$ ps aux
From the FreeBSD ps(1)
manpage:
- Display information about other users’ processes as well
- Display information associated with the following keywords: user, pid, %cpu, %mem, vsz, rss, tt, state, start, time, and command.
- When displaying processes matched by other options, include processes which do not have a controlling terminal
And finally, a somewhat lowbrow insult to give to a folder that may be using way too much of your drive space:
$ du -sh
From the FreeBSD du(1)
manpage:
- Display an entry for each specified file
- “Human-readable” output. Use unit suffixes.
Unfortunately, tar
and related tools will never have mnemonic arguments, unless cjvf
becomes an overpriced clothing line or something.