Don't Fear Command Line

#CLI #Windows #Unix #Linux #Terminal #CMD

Generally I dive in depth on what a tool can do, generally I go deep down and start telling a few tips and tricks with some cool gadgets and gizmos a little software can do.  But its really hard with this one as it does everything, and does it very efficiently.  Yet anyone who goes "I want to be a hacker" doesn't really know it exists.  Dear newbie hackers, its time to go over one of your most important tools.

I'm a windows and Linux guy, sure I've touched Apple, I have access to one whenever I want, but just really had no interest in it.  So sadly I'm not really going to dive too deeply into Apple YET.  Eventually I will, when I get my test environment, plan on getting a few mac mini's.  Off topic, sorry.  Over the past few years I have come to notice I'm doing more and more with command line.  Not because I'm told I have to, but because I learned a cool trick that is exponentially faster by opening up CMD real quick or Terminal.

I'm not college trained, because... well I'm a college drop out.  Never attended a class.  Just watched a lot of YouTube, read a lot of books, and all to often I find myself re-situated in this area I was afraid of myself for a very long time.  What exactly is command line?  Why would someone my age want to delve in a piece of computer technology that is reminiscent of my fathers era?  My dad knows this, he programmed in Basic and Pascal, I'm not old so why do I want in here?  I'm a young guy, my world is focused on pretty graphics, and an easy to user interface that even the most incapable of humans is somehow cognizant enough to function.  That last sentence was that moment of enlightenment for myself, yes the Graphic User Interface of most computers isn't designed for someone who loves computers, its not designed for the hackers, the crackers, the programmers, or slackers.  Its designed for your grandmother, that kid who ate glue in your elementary school, it was designed for those apprehensive of a new option, those unwilling or incapable of learning to still produce something.

I'm a hacker, a wannabe programmer, and god damn I am a slacker, the easy interface is fine and dandy but I need something more.  I need to be capable of running a command or make a computer do something I didn't know about.  Make something no-one else knew about, or well at least some people did but not those who aren't completely computer literate.  This is the home of a hacker, command line, black and white screens (or change the color if that's your thing I prefer black and green).  The entire world isn't just CLI based, sure as hell makes things a lot faster, yes there are GUI programs that for navigation purposes are actually pretty important.

What I'm trying to say here is simple, anyone who wants to be a hacker, a programmer, a network admin, a security consultant, anything about computers, find your way into the command line.  Don't be afraid of it, we've all become so accustomed to the spoon fed drivel of our GUI's that watching someone play the hunting game using their mouse is just astounding we consider it normal.  As an example just look what I did without searching.  Opened Notepad, Calculator, Event Viewer, TaskManager, sure these are GUI based programs, but just for the sake of discussion they are opened, no start menu > all programs > accessories > calculator way of opening.  Just CMD, type, boom.

I have to say on the Linux end though, their commands are a lot easier to use right off the bat, and of course the man command is beyond helpful.  For those who don't know this command, its the manual to whatever program you're looking up.  So "man alias" will tell you everything you want to know about the Alias command.  Just a nod over to Linux for those who are still trying to figure out if they want to use it.  If you want to be a hacker though you're going to need to learn Linux.

Now why do I care though?  I've met "hackers" who don't know anything about a batch file, or have never heard of xcopy or robocopy.  You're going to need to become familiar with this, all to often these commands can sink an entire battle ship, hell any single command in our arsenal can sink an entire fleet of servers in one afternoon.  Xcopy this virus to that server under this program, dun dun dun, you sunk my battle ship.  But in all reality its terrifying to start.  I still look at command line at times and just get confused, why is it both terrifying and badass?

Because it is the most powerful part of a computer, for both good and bad reasons.  Typing a line improperly can cause a catastrophic melt down of regret, or a sigh of relief when something works perfectly.  The difference between copying a system file over to a corrupt server, or typing it in reverse to destroy the clean system file.  Command line can see more things than a pretty GUI, it's faster, its more powerful, its more destructive, and more redeeming than any other part of a computer.  Start tying lines of code together in files or programs and you can create a beautiful piece of art that does what YOU want, at a fraction of the time you'd do it in using a GUI.

I implore you, any newbies who want to be hackers, open the command prompt, watch some YouTube video's on what you can do, you can't rely on the GUI forever, you'll realize where the power really lies inside of a computer.  It's not in your clicky clicky wonderland designed for people who aren't tech savvy, but behind the scenes in the framework of what makes a computer work.  Inside the lines of text and code is where you'll find yourself most at home, most powerful, and most functional.  Don't gawk at the idea the GUI isn't as great as it seems, just open up the CLI and dive in, head first.  And as always, be safe my goblins.

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