FindCmd: A personalised command retrieval tool

Abstract The command line interface is a crucial way of interacting with Linux, many programs such as ls, pwd and netstat are used on it and it is also the primary way to access a server remotely. However, the command line interface is not user friendly and thus it is difficult to use; there are man...

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Main Authors: Pengpeng Hou, Heng Zhang, Yanjun Wu, Jiageng Yu, Yuxia Miao, Yang Tai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021-04-01
Series:IET Software
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12015
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author Pengpeng Hou
Heng Zhang
Yanjun Wu
Jiageng Yu
Yuxia Miao
Yang Tai
author_facet Pengpeng Hou
Heng Zhang
Yanjun Wu
Jiageng Yu
Yuxia Miao
Yang Tai
author_sort Pengpeng Hou
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The command line interface is a crucial way of interacting with Linux, many programs such as ls, pwd and netstat are used on it and it is also the primary way to access a server remotely. However, the command line interface is not user friendly and thus it is difficult to use; there are many programs and users do not know which one is appropriate for finishing their task. To help users find useful commands efficiently, the authors propose FindCmd that retrieves commands based on the local data and user familiarity with commands. Then the local command data are collected including user manual such as man, info and strings extracted from the binary ELF (executable and linkable format) file. Based on the characteristics of local data, an enhanced command retrieval framework is proposed. In addition, the authors marginally decreased the priority of familiar commands when retrieving commands since users tend to use command retrieval tool to find an unfamiliar command. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first local tool for personalised command retrieval. In the evaluation section, the authors compare FindCmd with retrieval tools apropos and howdoi; our experimental results show that FindCmd outperforms the other two tools in retrieving commands. In addition, the experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of personalised search of FindCmd.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1751-8806
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language English
publishDate 2021-04-01
publisher Wiley
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series IET Software
spelling doaj-art-abd4fb800bda4efda67d1834079cc2c22025-02-03T06:47:25ZengWileyIET Software1751-88061751-88142021-04-0115216117310.1049/sfw2.12015FindCmd: A personalised command retrieval toolPengpeng Hou0Heng Zhang1Yanjun Wu2Jiageng Yu3Yuxia Miao4Yang Tai5Institute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing ChinaInstitute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing ChinaInstitute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing ChinaInstitute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing ChinaInstitute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing ChinaInstitute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing ChinaAbstract The command line interface is a crucial way of interacting with Linux, many programs such as ls, pwd and netstat are used on it and it is also the primary way to access a server remotely. However, the command line interface is not user friendly and thus it is difficult to use; there are many programs and users do not know which one is appropriate for finishing their task. To help users find useful commands efficiently, the authors propose FindCmd that retrieves commands based on the local data and user familiarity with commands. Then the local command data are collected including user manual such as man, info and strings extracted from the binary ELF (executable and linkable format) file. Based on the characteristics of local data, an enhanced command retrieval framework is proposed. In addition, the authors marginally decreased the priority of familiar commands when retrieving commands since users tend to use command retrieval tool to find an unfamiliar command. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first local tool for personalised command retrieval. In the evaluation section, the authors compare FindCmd with retrieval tools apropos and howdoi; our experimental results show that FindCmd outperforms the other two tools in retrieving commands. In addition, the experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of personalised search of FindCmd.https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12015information retrievalLinuxuser interfaces
spellingShingle Pengpeng Hou
Heng Zhang
Yanjun Wu
Jiageng Yu
Yuxia Miao
Yang Tai
FindCmd: A personalised command retrieval tool
IET Software
information retrieval
Linux
user interfaces
title FindCmd: A personalised command retrieval tool
title_full FindCmd: A personalised command retrieval tool
title_fullStr FindCmd: A personalised command retrieval tool
title_full_unstemmed FindCmd: A personalised command retrieval tool
title_short FindCmd: A personalised command retrieval tool
title_sort findcmd a personalised command retrieval tool
topic information retrieval
Linux
user interfaces
url https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12015
work_keys_str_mv AT pengpenghou findcmdapersonalisedcommandretrievaltool
AT hengzhang findcmdapersonalisedcommandretrievaltool
AT yanjunwu findcmdapersonalisedcommandretrievaltool
AT jiagengyu findcmdapersonalisedcommandretrievaltool
AT yuxiamiao findcmdapersonalisedcommandretrievaltool
AT yangtai findcmdapersonalisedcommandretrievaltool