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I talk about scopes most when I'm talking about people setting a very defined and finite scope to avoid an "infinite-list-of-x" question. Compare:

• What image editors are available?
• Which image editor can add borders and export as a paginated tiff?

There are some questions where a generic lick of pain is appreciated but most times, if you want a specific answer, you should be asking a specific question.

As for those two examples...

I like the AppArmor one... Probably because it's a rather large system that I personally don't understand and would like to know more about it.

But I fervently dislike the "What do all the apt-* commands do?" question. My dislike is probably partly because it's something I'm more familiar with but more because it's desperately lazy.

There's a comment from the OP that reads:

I know it is time consuming, But Can you show me some practical examples for each one of them ? For the 1st two commands I already know what they do. I was hoping that someone explains the commands with an example.

It's really late here and I'm getting a bit cranky but I almost deleted the whole thread on seeing this.

TFM has examples for most commands and if somebody does not understand something about a specific command, I'll be the first to welcome them onto the site to ask a question about it... And if that means we have one question per apt-... command, so be it. That's what people will be searching for.

Because I'm tired, I'm going to leave this until morning (and coffee) before I consider doing anything but please feel free to comment on this.

##Morning hath broken...

And I've just had my coffee. I asked the other mods for feedback overnight and we're currently 4-0 for binning this question.

What still grinds my gears is the amount of work required to answer this question versus its utility. Nobody is going to search for "What do all the apt commands do?" and it's even less likely that if somebody does do that once in a blue moon are they going to expect a full on documented example of each command.

Edit: In discussion with Eliah on his answer, I've pointed out the scale of the apt-* problem. It's not just that there are 10 apt-... commands, but each command has numerous subcommands. In order to explain what command does, you need to explain what every subcommand does... There are 48 subcommands!

I'm not bending the rules to make an example here. The FAQ (that I clearly never read - thanks vasa1) states:

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

This is one of those times. It asks too much for no good reason, with no benefit for anybody. I'm going to refund the bounty and blow it up (close/lock it).

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

I talk about scopes most when I'm talking about people setting a very defined and finite scope to avoid an "infinite-list-of-x" question. Compare:

• What image editors are available?
• Which image editor can add borders and export as a paginated tiff?

There are some questions where a generic lick of pain is appreciated but most times, if you want a specific answer, you should be asking a specific question.

As for those two examples...

I like the AppArmor one... Probably because it's a rather large system that I personally don't understand and would like to know more about it.

But I fervently dislike the "What do all the apt-* commands do?" question. My dislike is probably partly because it's something I'm more familiar with but more because it's desperately lazy.

There's a comment from the OP that reads:

I know it is time consuming, But Can you show me some practical examples for each one of them ? For the 1st two commands I already know what they do. I was hoping that someone explains the commands with an example.

It's really late here and I'm getting a bit cranky but I almost deleted the whole thread on seeing this.

TFM has examples for most commands and if somebody does not understand something about a specific command, I'll be the first to welcome them onto the site to ask a question about it... And if that means we have one question per apt-... command, so be it. That's what people will be searching for.

Because I'm tired, I'm going to leave this until morning (and coffee) before I consider doing anything but please feel free to comment on this.

Morning hath broken...

And I've just had my coffee. I asked the other mods for feedback overnight and we're currently 4-0 for binning this question.

What still grinds my gears is the amount of work required to answer this question versus its utility. Nobody is going to search for "What do all the apt commands do?" and it's even less likely that if somebody does do that once in a blue moon are they going to expect a full on documented example of each command.

Edit: In discussion with Eliah on his answer, I've pointed out the scale of the apt-* problem. It's not just that there are 10 apt-... commands, but each command has numerous subcommands. In order to explain what command does, you need to explain what every subcommand does... There are 48 subcommands!

I'm not bending the rules to make an example here. The FAQ (that I clearly never read - thanks vasa1) states:

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

This is one of those times. It asks too much for no good reason, with no benefit for anybody. I'm going to refund the bounty and blow it up (close/lock it).

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

I talk about scopes most when I'm talking about people setting a very defined and finite scope to avoid an "infinite-list-of-x" question. Compare:

• What image editors are available?
• Which image editor can add borders and export as a paginated tiff?

There are some questions where a generic lick of pain is appreciated but most times, if you want a specific answer, you should be asking a specific question.

As for those two examples...

I like the AppArmor one... Probably because it's a rather large system that I personally don't understand and would like to know more about it.

But I fervently dislike the "What do all the apt-* commands do?" question. My dislike is probably partly because it's something I'm more familiar with but more because it's desperately lazy.

There's a comment from the OP that reads:

I know it is time consuming, But Can you show me some practical examples for each one of them ? For the 1st two commands I already know what they do. I was hoping that someone explains the commands with an example.

It's really late here and I'm getting a bit cranky but I almost deleted the whole thread on seeing this.

TFM has examples for most commands and if somebody does not understand something about a specific command, I'll be the first to welcome them onto the site to ask a question about it... And if that means we have one question per apt-... command, so be it. That's what people will be searching for.

Because I'm tired, I'm going to leave this until morning (and coffee) before I consider doing anything but please feel free to comment on this.

##Morning hath broken...

And I've just had my coffee. I asked the other mods for feedback overnight and we're currently 4-0 for binning this question.

What still grinds my gears is the amount of work required to answer this question versus its utility. Nobody is going to search for "What do all the apt commands do?" and it's even less likely that if somebody does do that once in a blue moon are they going to expect a full on documented example of each command.

I'm not bending the rules to make an example here. The FAQ (that I clearly never read - thanks vasa1) states:

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

This is one of those times. It asks too much for no good reason, with no benefit for anybody. I'm going to refund the bounty and blow it up (close/lock it).

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

I talk about scopes most when I'm talking about people setting a very defined and finite scope to avoid an "infinite-list-of-x" question. Compare:

• What image editors are available?
• Which image editor can add borders and export as a paginated tiff?

There are some questions where a generic lick of pain is appreciated but most times, if you want a specific answer, you should be asking a specific question.

As for those two examples...

I like the AppArmor one... Probably because it's a rather large system that I personally don't understand and would like to know more about it.

But I fervently dislike the "What do all the apt-* commands do?" question. My dislike is probably partly because it's something I'm more familiar with but more because it's desperately lazy.

There's a comment from the OP that reads:

I know it is time consuming, But Can you show me some practical examples for each one of them ? For the 1st two commands I already know what they do. I was hoping that someone explains the commands with an example.

It's really late here and I'm getting a bit cranky but I almost deleted the whole thread on seeing this.

TFM has examples for most commands and if somebody does not understand something about a specific command, I'll be the first to welcome them onto the site to ask a question about it... And if that means we have one question per apt-... command, so be it. That's what people will be searching for.

Because I'm tired, I'm going to leave this until morning (and coffee) before I consider doing anything but please feel free to comment on this.

##Morning hath broken...

And I've just had my coffee. I asked the other mods for feedback overnight and we're currently 4-0 for binning this question.

What still grinds my gears is the amount of work required to answer this question versus its utility. Nobody is going to search for "What do all the apt commands do?" and it's even less likely that if somebody does do that once in a blue moon are they going to expect a full on documented example of each command.

Edit: In discussion with Eliah on his answer, I've pointed out the scale of the apt-* problem. It's not just that there are 10 apt-... commands, but each command has numerous subcommands. In order to explain what command does, you need to explain what every subcommand does... There are 48 subcommands!

I'm not bending the rules to make an example here. The FAQ (that I clearly never read - thanks vasa1) states:

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

This is one of those times. It asks too much for no good reason, with no benefit for anybody. I'm going to refund the bounty and blow it up (close/lock it).

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

I talk about scopes most when I'm talking about people setting a very defined and finite scope to avoid an "infinite-list-of-x" question. Compare:

• What image editors are available?
• Which image editor can add borders and export as a paginated tiff?

There are some questions where a generic lick of pain is appreciated but most times, if you want a specific answer, you should be asking a specific question.

As for those two examples...

I like the AppArmor one... Probably because it's a rather large system that I personally don't understand and would like to know more about it.

But I fervently dislike the "What do all the apt-* commands do?" question. My dislike is probably partly because it's something I'm more familiar with but more because it's desperately lazy.

There's a comment from the OP that reads:

I know it is time consuming, But Can you show me some practical examples for each one of them ? For the 1st two commands I already know what they do. I was hoping that someone explains the commands with an example.

It's really late here and I'm getting a bit cranky but I almost deleted the whole thread on seeing this.

TFM has examples for most commands and if somebody does not understand something about a specific command, I'll be the first to welcome them onto the site to ask a question about it... And if that means we have one question per apt-... command, so be it. That's what people will be searching for.

Because I'm tired, I'm going to leave this until morning (and coffee) before I consider doing anything but please feel free to comment on this.

##Morning hath broken...

And I've just had my coffee. I asked the other mods for feedback overnight and we're currently 3-0 for binning this question.

What still grinds my gears is the amount of work required to answer this question versus its utility. Nobody is going to search for "What do all the apt commands do?" and it's even less likely that if somebody does do that once in a blue moon are they going to expect a full on documented example of each command.

I'm not bending the rules to make an example here. The FAQ (that I clearly never read - thanks vasa1) states:

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

This is one of those times. It asks too much for no good reason, with no benefit for anybody. I'm going to refund the bounty and blow it up (close/lock it).

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

I talk about scopes most when I'm talking about people setting a very defined and finite scope to avoid an "infinite-list-of-x" question. Compare:

• What image editors are available?
• Which image editor can add borders and export as a paginated tiff?

There are some questions where a generic lick of pain is appreciated but most times, if you want a specific answer, you should be asking a specific question.

As for those two examples...

I like the AppArmor one... Probably because it's a rather large system that I personally don't understand and would like to know more about it.

But I fervently dislike the "What do all the apt-* commands do?" question. My dislike is probably partly because it's something I'm more familiar with but more because it's desperately lazy.

There's a comment from the OP that reads:

I know it is time consuming, But Can you show me some practical examples for each one of them ? For the 1st two commands I already know what they do. I was hoping that someone explains the commands with an example.

It's really late here and I'm getting a bit cranky but I almost deleted the whole thread on seeing this.

TFM has examples for most commands and if somebody does not understand something about a specific command, I'll be the first to welcome them onto the site to ask a question about it... And if that means we have one question per apt-... command, so be it. That's what people will be searching for.

Because I'm tired, I'm going to leave this until morning (and coffee) before I consider doing anything but please feel free to comment on this.

##Morning hath broken...

And I've just had my coffee. I asked the other mods for feedback overnight and we're currently 4-0 for binning this question.

What still grinds my gears is the amount of work required to answer this question versus its utility. Nobody is going to search for "What do all the apt commands do?" and it's even less likely that if somebody does do that once in a blue moon are they going to expect a full on documented example of each command.

I'm not bending the rules to make an example here. The FAQ (that I clearly never read - thanks vasa1) states:

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

This is one of those times. It asks too much for no good reason, with no benefit for anybody. I'm going to refund the bounty and blow it up (close/lock it).

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.