README.md

metadata

license: gpl
tags:
  - linux
  - bash
pretty_name: bash commands

Bash & Linux CLI Dataset

What This Dataset Is

A supervised fine-tuning (SFT) dataset that teaches a language model to produce correct Bash commands, shell scripts, and Linux CLI operations — including Arch Linux and Ubuntu/Debian specifics. The assistant responses are executable commands or scripts that directly accomplish the user's stated task. Explanatory rows describe what a given command does, its key flags, and caveats.

Sources (provenance-tracked)

Source	Type	Content
Embedded corpus (345 entries)	Static	Bash builtins (55), shell syntax (40), common Linux commands (100), scripting patterns (25), git/docker/systemd, Arch Linux operations (35), Ubuntu/Debian operations (35)
GNU Bash Reference Manual	Fetched + cached	Official Bash 5.3 reference (builtins, expansions, syntax)
Arch Wiki — Bash	Fetched + cached	Arch-specific Bash configuration and tips
Arch Wiki — Pacman	Fetched + cached	Package management operations
Greg's Wiki — BashPitfalls	Fetched + cached	Common scripting mistakes and correct alternatives
Greg's Wiki — BashFAQ	Fetched + cached	Frequently asked Bash scripting questions

Embedded corpus categories

Category	Count	Description
builtin	~55	All major Bash builtins (cd, echo, read, export, trap, set, declare, getopts, history, etc.)
syntax	~40	Quoting, expansion, redirection, pipes, heredocs, process substitution, globbing, parameter expansion, control flow (if, for, while, case, select)
command	~100	grep, sed, awk, find, xargs, sort, cut, tr, curl, rsync, ssh, tar, chmod, git, docker, systemctl, journalctl, etc.
scripting	~25	Strict mode, functions, argument parsing, temp files, lock files, retry patterns, arrays, associative arrays
arch	~35	pacman operations, AUR (yay/paru), makepkg, mkinitcpio, reflector, NetworkManager, kernel management
ubuntu	~35	apt/dpkg, Snaps, PPAs, ufw, netplan, do-release-upgrade, update-alternatives, Flatpak

System prompts

• SYSTEM_CMD — Produce the exact command or script. Use best-practice flags, POSIX-compatible syntax where possible, && for chaining. No commentary unless asked.
• SYSTEM_EXPLAIN — Explain what a command does, its key flags, and caveats, in 1–3 sentences.
• SYSTEM_SCRIPT — Write a complete runnable script with #!/usr/bin/env bash, set -euo pipefail, and proper error handling.

Row kinds

• nl_to_cmd — Natural language task → exact command(s).
• nl_to_cmd_alt — Alternative phrasing of the same task → same command.
• cmd_to_explain — Command string → plain-English description.

Augmentation kinds

• none — Direct from embedded or fetched corpus.
• distro_slot — Generic command reframed with "on Arch Linux" or "on Ubuntu" suffix in the user prompt; same assistant answer.
• oversample — Same assistant answer, user prompt rewritten with a different NL template from a bank of 10 phrasings.

Scale

Mode	Typical Row Count
Base (no --augment)	~5,100
--augment --target-rows 1000000	1,000,000

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What This Dataset Is NOT

• Not a Bash tutorial or course. Rows are isolated Q&A pairs, not sequential lessons. There is no curriculum ordering or prerequisite tracking.
• Not shell-agnostic. Commands target Bash specifically. Zsh, Fish, and POSIX sh may diverge on syntax ([[ ]], arrays, shopt, process substitution). The dataset does not flag Bash-only constructs.
• Not a complete man-page replacement. Coverage prioritizes commonly used flags and patterns. Obscure options and corner-case behaviors of each command are not exhaustively documented.
• Not distro-neutral. Arch and Ubuntu rows use distro-specific package managers (pacman, apt), init systems, and config paths. They will produce incorrect commands on Fedora, Alpine, or other distributions.
• Not a system administration runbook. It teaches individual commands and short scripts, not multi-step infrastructure deployment, monitoring strategy, or incident response procedures.
• Not validated against a specific Bash version. Most syntax targets Bash 4.4+ / 5.x. Some constructs (${var,,}, ${var^^}, declare -A, mapfile) require Bash 4.0 or later and will fail on older systems.
• Not safety-filtered. Destructive commands (rm -rf, dd, mkfs) appear as valid answers. No refusal patterns or warnings are included. Apply your own safety layer if needed.