Advice needed on Kolab suitability

[Gavin McCullagh]

Hi,

On Thu, 22 Jul 2010, Duffields wrote:

> I do not know a great deal about networking, and because I am slightly dyslexic,  
> terminal commands sometimes cause strife, so I rely on Graphic Interfaces as 
> much as possible.

Just a side note on this.  If you're going to be a sysadmin on linux,
attempting to avoid the command line is really going to hold you back.
Much of using the command line effectively is about practice so the more
you avoid using it, the more you avoid becoming practiced.  I can
appreciate of course that dyslexia may make it more difficult but there are
a few helpful things to make sure you use.  I have come across quite a few
UNIX people with dyslexia, so it's certainly possible.

== Tab Completion ==

If you haven't got used to this already (it usually takes UNIX beginners a
while to get used to it), tab completion should take the edge off the need
for accuracy.  Type the first couple of letters of any command and then hit
tab.  If there is only one command which you could be typing, the shell
will complete the word for you.  If you don't get a completion, there are
probably several possibilities, you need to hit tab twice and you will be
given a list of those possibilities.  Type another letter or two and hit tab
again.  If you get no response from hitting tab twice, the command you're
typing doesn't exist.

On recent debian/ubuntu systems (and no doubt others), this tab completion
will work intelligently for commands, files suitable to your command and
command line options.  For example if I type "ls --" and then hit tab
twice, I get a list of the possible options.

  gavinmc at paidi:~/kolab_install/from_source$ ls --<tab><tab>
  --all                                      --file-type                                --quote-name
  --almost-all                               --format=                                  --quoting-style=
  <..snip..>
  --escape                                   --numeric-uid-gid                          --width=


== [command] --help ==

With almost any UNIX [command], if you can't recall the options you need
will give you a brief list of them by running the command with --help or -h

	[command] -h
	[command] --help

== Man Pages ==

Man pages can be very long, uninviting texts, but if you get used to the
structure of them it can be very quick to find what you need without
actually reading through them.  

Also, if you can't recall the command name, "man -k <keyword>" will search
the database of man pages and give you a list of pages which match that
keyword.

  gavinmc at paidi:~/kolab_install/from_source$ man -k ext4
  e2undo (8)           - Replay an undo log for an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem
  fsck.ext4 (8)        - check a Linux ext2/ext3 file system
  fsck.ext4dev (8)     - check a Linux ext2/ext3 file system
  mkfs.ext4 (8)        - create an ext2/ext3 filesystem
  mkfs.ext4dev (8)     - create an ext2/ext3 filesystem



There are some interesting tips here too....

  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2163402/tips-for-a-programmer-with-dyslexia

Gavin