{"id":28639,"date":"2018-10-12T06:41:19","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T11:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rosehosting.com\/blog\/?p=28639"},"modified":"2023-04-05T02:01:37","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:01:37","slug":"how-to-create-human-readable-output-with-linux-commands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rosehosting.com\/blog\/how-to-create-human-readable-output-with-linux-commands\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create Human Readable Output with Linux Commands"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

\"How<\/p>\n

The command line interface is a lot more “information dense” compared to the equivalent GUIs on Windows. With a single instruction, you can get a screen full of data, with columns, calculations, and colors. Most commands have additional options that allow you to modify their output so that you get the exact information you’re looking for.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this power comes with a loss of usability. Many useful commands like netstat for example, generate their output in a series of columns with no fixed width, making it hard to parse by human readability standards. Even simple commands like listing the contents of a directory can contain additional information to confuse you.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this article, I’ll show you how to do three things:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Choose to display only certain columns of output<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Retain the color options for certain commands<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Make the columns neat and tidy when the output is all scrambled<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    Table of Contents<\/p>\n