# tldr

11 Hacker News commenters recommended tldr and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A collection of typical example invocations for common terminal commands. Critics note the clients depend on the internet.

## Why people recommend it

- Practical examples for terminal commands (4 comments): "tldr, navi cheatsheets are essentially a great set of how to do X using Y for terminal utilities" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49576045)) "usually just a pile of typical usage examples, almost always covers what I want" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45875739)) "It's essentially a collection of example invocations of *nix commands." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47335496))
- Covers the usual needs (2 comments): "usually just a pile of typical usage examples, almost always covers what I want" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45875739)) "I've found tldr to be useful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47690554))
- Wished it were built-in help (2 comments): "tldr is so good, i wish it was a part of the os the same way manpages are just to help out newcomers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47336895)) "the help menu should provide examples like `tldr`" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48332994))

## What people warn about

- Clients depend on the internet (1 comments): "I like everything about tldr except for the fact that every way to use it is an Internet-dependent client" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47088270))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [man](https://hackerapproved.com/p/man.md): 15 recommend
- [GNU Info](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gnu-info.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "tldr", https://hackerapproved.com/p/tldr/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).