Maemo specific:
maemo-list-user-packages
Lists user installed packages. Tends to list also packages that have been uninstalled but have configuration file still in home directory.

Adding | to end of command gives user ability to pipe commands to one after another.

grep <searchterm> extracts only lines that have search term.

ps lists all processes that are currently running. So for e.g. to list processes that include word hildon in them you might run command:
ps | grep hildon
Test and experiment with this.

sort sorts inputted data by switches. Look here for more info. E.g we can list installed packages and sort them by 3rd item like this:
maemo-list-user-packages | sort -k 3
And we got nice list of installed packages that are sorted by the category.

> in the end of command gives you choice to output data to file. E.g
maemo-list-user-packages | sort -k 3 >list.txt
outputs listed packages in sorted order to filename list.txt in directory where you currently are.

df shows filesystem data and how much you got free space. Adding -h gives space in megabytes and command:
df -h | grep rootfs
Shows only info about rootfs space.

IMO one of the most important things about x terminal (busybox) is that you can always use tabulator to fill command/filename/directoryname. And also remember that filesystem is case sensitive.

No need to port man, you can just

but it takes way too much space (~31MB according to apt)

It's opinion.. but you might be true. I prefer grep.. but then i use it in more cases than just find. Actually i only mentioned "find | grep" as an explanation of "dpkg -l | grep". But then "apt-cache search" could be better to find programs on the system.

For a normal user "find | grep" and "find -name" will do the same. Also it could be harder to remember the citation, "*", "?", "^" or "$" symbols even though it could be good to know them.

"awk" and "sed" are good to know too.. but i do not know if a noob would find it useful.

In a wiki for noobs.. what would be most useful to know?

ls, cd, cp, mv, rm, mkdir, find, grep, cat, [tab-key], chmod, chown, apt-get, dpkg and ?? what more?

It would be good with a wiki page on this if it do not exist.

I created one a while back for this purpose,

http://wiki.maemo.org/Terminal

Rich

K guys thanks for all the suggestions. At the moment I'm hurrying to work so I'll have to edit this page and move it to where ossipena suggested. Thanks

For those interested in the subject, I have compiled a couple of books on the topic, info on which can be found here.

Ohh.. and to abort an comman you could press "ctrl+c".. you could try it by writing "find /". To log out from root "ctrl+d"

I'm thinking of letting someone else put up this wiki because I'm new at that also and I can't even put in a Title. So what I'll do is put together everything I want in the Wiki and who ever wants to help me out by posting it up. I'll PM it to you alright.

Don't think I'll need someone to initiate the process for me I think I got it under control now sorry guys

Don't pm, say if in difficulty, that's what for community is!

Well don't know how to enter a Title for my Wiki and although others can edit the body of my wiki after I just want to you know add my title although it's just going to be "X Terminal Commands for Noobs"

Guys and gals I got to go to work now so I'll finish this later but the WIKI will go up soon because it is important. Basically I want it in categorical form so it's easier to navigate other than just a plain list of commands with explanations for each.

N.B. Also each command that is added should be given a clear explanation and even examples. If you don't have the patience hand over the task to someone capable. I am capable of breaking down complicated stuff.

Thank you all again for helping with this project.