Do not add $ preceeding bash command on code examples

[bidoubiwa]

We have a consistent manner to add a dollar sign in front of each bash command on our getting started.

These have already been changed in the documentation as they were copied when using the clipboard plugin. I have given a bit of thought on the subject and based on my experience of having to remove manually the $ sign from my copies multiple times a week, I was wondering how our competitors might approach this.

I could not find examples of basic bash commands with a $ sign but I found some when the output of the bash command is explicitly shown:

I have looked at more than 15 repos here are some well known

Example twilio

Example instantsearch

Example Commander (cli tool)

Commander when explicit output is shown:

It is really hard to find example of multiples cmd in the same code block. I found one in mongo installation, but most of the commands are in a separate code block

Example Mongo Installation

Example Strip ruby

Conclusion

What I conclude from that is, if we think the user might want to copy/paste every command, then we should put them all in a separate code block. If the commands are just a showcase that will mostly not be copy/paster, we add them in the same code-block.

• Break down code block with multiple important commands into multiple code block without a preceding $
• Leave $ on bash examples with a clear intention of showing the output of the code block
• No specific rules for $ when multiple non-important command lines are written one after the other. We could say yes by default. But again this limits the user that wants to copy/paste in a bash script.

[sanders41]

For what it's worth this is the markdownlint recommendation on the $.

[bidoubiwa]

This is a really really good reference. Thanks a lot @sanders41. It might settle this issue more easily 😄

[curquiza]

Thanks @sanders41 for the reference!
Indeed, we should remove the $ when the copy/paste context is obvious!