This might be a stupid question, but hear me out.
I regularly document steps to install various software for myself on my wiki
More recently, I managed to use different custom text in the source markdown to prepend # and $ automatically, so commands can be copied more easily while still clarifying if it should be run as a normal user or as root.

Run command as user

$ some cool command

Run command as root/superuser with sudo

# some dangerous command

I usually remove and sudo and use the # prefix. However, in some cases, the sudo actually does something different that needs to be highlighted. For example, I might use it to execute a command as the user www-data

sudo -u www-data cp /var/www/html/html1 /var/www/html/html2

I often use $ as a prefix, but # would also make sense.
How would you prefix that line?

  • @StudioLEEnglish
    6•1 year ago

    You should consider who your audience is, are they all CLI experts familiar with the difference in syntax? That seems unlikely.

    I’d always write documentation in a way that’s accessible to most users. The difference between $ and # syntax is highly esoteric.

    sudo on the other hand is familiar to almost everyone. It’s one of the first things mentioned in beginners guides.

    I wouldn’t even prefix your commands with $ as an experienced user is quite likely to include that when copying the command.

    A lot of people are citing the arch wiki as a standard that uses # but isn’t the entire meme around arch that its a notably complex system?

    • JeremyTEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      It’s ok if you prefix with $ and # IF it’s not selectable. It should only be a visual reference for those who know and only helps keep your documentation complete.