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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 6 points 1 year ago

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.

this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
17 points (94.7% liked)

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