Julia Evans

https://social.jvns.ca/@b0rk

programming and exclamation marks

I have DMs muted from people I don’t follow.

blog: https://jvns.ca
zines: https://wizardzines.com

Public Key

npub1hyjddt50dwcvjmtgr7t4czg4tt9j5xajavl0uvkt0v7wksx0460sp0avly

NIP-05 Address

b0rk_at_social.jvns.ca@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqstjfxk468khvxfd45pl96upy244je2rwewk0h7xt9hk08tgr86a8cpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds6ha55z

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1hyjddt50dwcvjmtgr7t4czg4tt9j5xajavl0uvkt0v7wksx0460sp0avly

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Last Notes

2026-08-13 15:37:05 UTC

these SSH polls are reminding me that (though I'm not a security person) I'm a big believer that security systems should allow users to be inattentive and lazy and confused and to do the thing that seems the most convenient instead of the the thing that might be the most secure, and to still enable good security

2026-06-15 20:08:40 UTC

are there any nice Git merge conflict resolution tools that work in the terminal? when i look at the text merge conflict I can never remember which code is which, and I really want to see them side by side
it feels like someone must have written some kind of nice tool in Rust

2026-06-12 16:40:41 UTC

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i used to have a milk crate zip tied to my bike rack

2026-06-04 20:03:34 UTC

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if you were walking outside in the socks do you think that an observer would think the socks were pants? (or: do you think they're trying to give a fun illusion of being pants when they are not pants?)

2026-06-04 15:05:17 UTC

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I'm so invested in this now

2026-06-03 14:46:42 UTC

something I'm finding frustrating recently is
a) I feel like LLMs have helped me learn some programming things that were hard for me to learn previously
b) I'm tired of LLMs being relentlessly pushed on us and do not want to participate in that by talking about my positive experiences
c) there are also lots of hazards associated with using LLMs to generate code that are not that easy to avoid

2026-06-02 15:28:11 UTC

just noticed "how integers and floats work" came out 3 years ago today
originally this this was a zine about "how computers represent data in binary" (what's little endian? big endian? what's struct alignment? why do 32 bit integers cause so many problems? how do we represent strings?) but we ended up running out of space after we explained integers and floats so never got to struct alignment and null-terminated strings :)
get it here: https://wizardzines.com/zines/integers-floats/
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/116/681/217/642/529/519/original/c4b8ab9ca49b8f16.png

2026-05-19 13:57:14 UTC

I've started using ** in Fish instead of find & xargs and I really love it, instead of writing `find . -name '*.py' | xargs wc -l` I can just write `wc -l **.py`
it hasn't 100% replaced `find` for me but I'm definitely using xargs way less than I used to

2026-05-06 15:38:11 UTC

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i imagine it’s easier for 28 page zines

2026-05-06 15:10:45 UTC

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no, we just shipped a batch of zines to Montreal from our US printer, right now the volume is too low to justify a local print run

2026-05-06 15:07:07 UTC

excited to announce that Wizard Zines is now shipping Canadian orders from Canada! now shipping is cheaper & there's no risk of being hit with duties
get your zines at https://wizardzines.com
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/116/528/252/427/386/765/original/5876349eb6a958b4.png

2026-05-04 19:10:51 UTC

i told a friend about this thread about css colour palettes and they wanted the list so I put it in a blog post https://jvns.ca/blog/2026/05/04/css-colour-palettes/
https://social.jvns.ca/@b0rk/116516346980161400

2026-05-04 12:59:03 UTC

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whoa, I didn't realize you could do that now!

2026-05-04 12:39:20 UTC

i've been working on moving away from Tailwind, and one thing I'm realizing I appreciated about Tailwind is having a basic color palette (blues, grays, greens, indigos, pinks, purples, reds, yellows) I could use while prototyping
i extracted it into css variables so I can still use it if I want:
https://gist.github.com/jvns/9e59b2cd1fe12601084ba78dded072fe
but now I'm curious: are there similar CSS color palettes like this out there?
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/116/516/346/728/222/804/original/cc663b9cc12209d6.png

2026-04-01 15:52:05 UTC

i’ve been enjoying posts about self hosting recently, I appreciate people writing about what’s possible even if it’s not something I want to do right now or maybe ever
https://tarakiyee.com/the-inventory-i-should-have-done-years-ago/
https://codon.org.uk/~mjg59/blog/p/self-hosting-as-much-of-my-online-presence-as-practical/

2026-03-31 17:18:03 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sovtechfund/116295084754150995
here's an opportunity for technical writers to get paid to work on open source documentation!
#note1r6h…q4gz

2026-03-31 15:15:14 UTC

just noticed it's How DNS Works' 4th birthday soon! https://wizardzines.com/zines/dns/
it's still one of my favourite zines, and it comes with a free ★★ playground ★★ at https://messwithdns.net where you can create DNS records and see what happens!
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/116/324/441/167/432/312/original/108a8b37b3c2264b.png

2026-03-26 19:46:42 UTC

how diffie hellman key exchange works
(with as little math as possible)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/116/297/197/101/167/011/original/35b5eb4f1b3c6ba8.png

2026-03-10 21:04:41 UTC

examples for the tcpdump and dig man pages https://jvns.ca/blog/2026/03/10/examples-for-the-tcpdump-and-dig-man-pages/

2026-03-06 19:27:45 UTC

if you disable all third-party cookies in your browser (like where Site A is never allowed to use cookies from Site B), have you noticed that it breaks anything? What breaks?

2026-03-03 19:30:01 UTC

huh apparently Font Awesome acquired 11ty in 2024 and I didn't notice https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fontawesome/build-awesome

2026-02-23 21:50:37 UTC

on linux: what arguments do you use with netstat or ss? (and what situation do you run it in?)
the only thing I can think of is `netstat -tulpn` to show all processes that are listening on a port and the PID (so I can kill the offending process) but I feel like there must be one or two more useful ones
(I say "linux" because linux netstat is a bit different)

2026-02-22 13:38:22 UTC

i often ask people to only reply to my posts in certain ways (like “please only reply if you find man hard to use”)
It’s because sometimes I get hundreds of replies a day and if folks don’t stay on topic then the replies get so repetitive that it’s hard for me to learn new information.
Really appreciate when people follow the prompts (which most of you do!). I’m posting a reminder because it’s been going a little less well recently than usual

2026-02-20 23:02:26 UTC

out of curiosity, when did you first start using unix systems?
(please no replies with details on this one, if none of them fit exactly that's ok, just trying to get a very rough sense)

2026-02-20 19:48:15 UTC

a different version of the same question: if you find man pages difficult or impossible to use, what makes them so hard? do you feel like it's something that could be fixed?
(other than "the lack of examples", which is possibly the #1 issue, also please don't tell me about tldr.sh)

2026-02-20 18:34:40 UTC

also every time I post about man pages people tell me that they like to use https://tldr.sh/ to quickly look up examples of how to use a tool. I don't use it personally but it seems popular and I think it's an interesting tool
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/116/104/395/220/678/679/original/8ec8c6264a5d49ff.png

2026-02-20 14:14:41 UTC

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i'm very curious about everyone who says "I'd look there first", if I want to figure out how to do something new I think I'll usually google how to do it rather than look at the man page, and then maybe later look at the man page to look up the details

2026-02-20 14:05:00 UTC

when do you usually use the man page for a complex command line tool to answer a question you have? (like git, openssl, rsync, curl, etc)
(edit: let's say that "man page" means "man page or --help" for now)

2026-02-18 02:16:18 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Meyerweb/116065151451468199
I love CSS so much
#note1dgc…4wxs

2026-02-17 19:01:23 UTC

i haven't read hacker news yet this year and it feels great
i guess spending time in spaces where people are speaking in a normal human way to each other is good actually

2026-02-14 13:41:33 UTC

now that Git 2.53 is out, the Git data model @npub1tkn…0jmu and I wrote is on the official Git website! https://git-scm.com/docs/gitdatamodel

2026-02-10 16:29:52 UTC

just noticed that more than 10,000 people are subscribed to Saturday Comics, where you get an email every week with a comic from the archives! I think we've been sending out weekly comics for almost 7 years?!?
https://wizardzines.com/saturday-comics/

2026-02-09 18:57:38 UTC

why the browser is so picky about which fetch() requests it allows (aka "why am I getting CORS errors??")
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/116/042/200/104/667/996/original/5a43a8f7fb04a551.png

2026-02-04 19:57:31 UTC

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i wrote about it maybe 6 years ago but I'm thinking of revisiting it
the 6-years-ago comics:
- the same origin policy: https://wizardzines.com/comics/same-origin-policy/
- why we have the same origin policy: https://wizardzines.com/comics/why-same-origin-matters/
- cors: https://wizardzines.com/comics/cors/

2026-02-04 19:38:48 UTC

the answers to "what makes CORS hard?" here are so interesting, so far I'm getting
1) The browser's same-origin policy is very counterintuitive
2) Browser network tools do (I think) have all the info you need to debug, but navigating the Network tab is not easy if you're not used to it
3) Sometimes you need to coordinate with many people to set the correct headers
4) Setting up CORS headers to allow multiple domains (like a.com, b.com, c.com) is annoying
(1/?)
https://social.jvns.ca/@b0rk/116008592503027803

2026-02-04 19:35:30 UTC

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thanks, I thought that the info was always there in the Network tab but I checked and you can't see anything about the OPTIONS request at all

2026-02-04 19:35:03 UTC

lazyweb: does anyone know if there's a way to get the browser to show you the details of the OPTIONS request it sends & what response it got?
in Firefox if I run this, it won't show me anything about the server's HTTP response in the Network tab other than "Blocked"
await fetch('https://google.com', {
method: 'POST',
});
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/116/014/035/704/424/386/original/aaccd23822667a65.png

2026-02-03 20:30:42 UTC

what makes CORS hard to use?

2026-02-02 20:52:04 UTC

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@kernellogger/116002653887559259
the data model me and @npub1tkn…0jmu wrote is in the latest Git release!

2026-02-02 19:38:00 UTC

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also the most heartwarming thing about this site is seeing how many people have just been buying literally every zine as it comes out since 2017 or 2018, it's too much

2026-02-02 19:35:23 UTC

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(if anyone is wondering this is what all of the "julia is learning Django" posts recently have been about, I tried to build this site in Go and failed and then tried to build it in JS and failed and Django has been great)

2026-02-02 19:31:02 UTC

Over the years I've been hearing from folks that it's hard to remember which zines you've bought
So we built a new library website where you can see & download all your zines!
https://library.wizardzines.com/
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/116/002/695/278/575/383/original/482f098e8bf44428.png

2026-01-28 19:39:08 UTC

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first I'm curious about how "contest culture" might be defined
One of the references is this paper on "Masculinity Contest Culture": https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12280 which has this list of factors
"Admitting you don't know the answer looks weak" feels VERY familiar to me, I feel like I've said "I don't know X" on the internet and been weirdly attacked for it so many times ("how could she not know that??? what does that mean about what kind of programmer she is!!!!")
(2/)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/974/415/571/822/154/original/1cd5c27da9c2c479.png

2026-01-28 19:34:30 UTC

today i'm back to reading this paper by @npub18g0…0a9e about contest cultures and brilliance traps in software and I'm going to try to live tweet some notes because reading papers is hard
https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/2gej5_v2
(1/?)

2026-01-23 16:40:24 UTC

i’ve been learning Django and I feel like the docs are really good? normally I avoid reading docs but they’re so helpful

2026-01-21 14:40:06 UTC

just learned that Al Sweigart makes all of his Python books (Automate The Boring Stuff with Python etc) available on his site for free https://inventwithpython.com/
i haven't read them but I've heard good things and I'm always curious about free resources I can recommend to beginners

2026-01-20 19:13:28 UTC

if you use Django: do you.. upgrade Django every few years? for my website projects I'm used to just using whatever the current version is and then literally never upgrading ever and I'm trying to figure out if this approach will work for Django or not

2026-01-20 17:22:13 UTC

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a few people have been asking what my typical setup is for "running websites that I can completely ignore and spend 0 time maintaining" so I wrote down a few thoughts
https://gist.github.com/jvns/5bd9283d7abd5ceb26eb7ed28afe3030

2026-01-20 14:34:00 UTC

i like to make websites and I've been slowly realizing that my requirements for making websites might be a little weird
- I have maybe 20 websites (mostly static but not all)
- I want to spend basically 0 time maintaining them, maybe 5 minutes every 2 months at most
- I need to be able to ignore a project for 3 years and then come back and be able to develop it easily
i feel like all of this stuff makes my choice of tech stack different than if I worked on one site full-time

2026-01-19 23:00:43 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@mcc/115924028281889489
i did not understand this until I tried to run Linux on a new thinkpad after years of running it on old computers

2026-01-15 15:47:58 UTC

what do you wish someone had told you about the Git command line interface when you started using Git for the first time? Especially curious about what you wish you'd known if you ended up choosing to use a IDE/GUI interface to Git.
(mostly interested in replies from people who started using Git in the last 5-10 years)

2026-01-15 15:02:12 UTC

poll: when you started using Git, did you start using collaboration features right away to work with other people, or did you just use Git by yourself?

2026-01-08 20:21:48 UTC

A data model for Git (and other docs updates) https://jvns.ca/blog/2026/01/08/a-data-model-for-git/

2025-12-30 18:44:41 UTC

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maybe too big of a question but: i feel with everything that’s happened with the FSF I’ve been struggling with free software culture a bit, it feels sometimes like free software spaces are very dogmatic and rigid
does the SFC have a vision for the future of free software culture? would love to read/watch anything about it

2025-12-20 13:15:37 UTC

i don’t post a lot of personal stuff here but I want to say
a) in september 2024 I had a mild case of covid and I spent almost a year dealing with the fatigue
b) dealing with mysterious health stuff is hard and scary and I wish the best to anyone else who is in the middle of something like that
c) right now things are much better and I’m so grateful I can easily do things like “walk 30 minutes to the store” again
d) the best thing I did was talk to doctors even if it was frustrating sometimes

2025-12-18 16:27:20 UTC

i started trying to write a small site in Django recently and I think I'm really enjoying it? I've failed to learn Rails a few times but my Django site is set up so that there's a `models.py` with all my models, `views.py` with all my views and it feels easier for me to find things than it was with Rails

2025-12-09 20:16:30 UTC

i finally gave in and started using uv to manage the dependencies for my Python scripts and it’s great https://jvns.ca/til/python-inline-dependencies/

2025-12-02 16:59:37 UTC

this fall I worked with the core Git folks on writing an official data model for Git and it just got merged! I learned a few new things from writing it. https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/Documentation/gitdatamodel.adoc

2025-11-30 19:30:33 UTC

announcing Advent of Zines 2025: where Wizard Zines is doing a giveaway of 1 zine for the first 15 days in December!
this is part of the "Buy One Give One" program we've had since I started Wizard Zines in 2018, where we give away 1 PDF zine for every copy sold. It's for anyone for whom $12 USD is a barrier to buy a zine.
more info here: https://wizardzines.com/advent/
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/640/305/511/945/064/original/94558cb5b24513d6.png

2025-11-28 12:14:50 UTC

it's happening!!!
from now until the end of the day on Friday, November 28th (if it’s Friday anywhere, the sale’s still on!), all my PDF zines are 50% off, and print zines are 30% off!
https://wizardzines.com
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/627/267/560/803/059/original/6d0d70cc6922aee1.png

2025-11-27 15:53:32 UTC

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next: How DNS Works!
DNS is frustrating, but I think the way it works is really cool. This explains about how the DNS protocol works, every weird thing I know about DNS caching, and how to use `dig` to debug DNS problems.
https://wizardzines.com/zines/dns/
(14/16)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/465/294/199/939/original/7cae79528728627f.png

2025-11-27 15:50:46 UTC

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next: The Pocket Guide to Debugging
I wrote this because my brother was learning to program, I wanted to recommend a guide to debugging to him, but I couldn't find one.
It's a mix of practical tips ("see if you can find an old version of the code that works!") and ways to manage all of the FEELINGS that come up while debugging.
(13/16)
https://wizardzines.com/zines/debugging-guide/
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/454/088/320/548/original/a533a8dae1987c56.png
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/454/401/796/948/original/e53ce3dbd5ad30f2.png

2025-11-27 15:43:43 UTC

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next: Bite Size Bash!
I love writing simple bash scripts (you can do so much!) but bash has some weird gotchas. This zine explains all the surprising bash things that have tripped me up.
reading the reader testimonials for this one is always funny to me because they're so positive they feel made up: "I bought this, and in 28 pages it gave me more useful information than my fat Bash books."
(12/16)
https://wizardzines.com/zines/bite-size-bash/
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/426/382/935/547/original/146c8fadbd69bf4a.png
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/426/687/062/139/original/c69fd12070d98615.png

2025-11-27 15:37:39 UTC

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next: Bite Size Command Line
This is a reference for the basic Linux command line tools (grep! awk!) with only the command line arguments that I actually use and examples for each one.
I wrote this because I was mad that man pages don't have examples (still am but I made my own in the meantime :) )
https://wizardzines.com/zines/bite-size-command-line/
(10/16)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/402/499/642/179/original/7b76d0a6d7e1dd96.png
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/402/789/027/469/original/5a10cbf135b3d122.png

2025-11-27 15:34:14 UTC

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next: Bite Size Linux!
I was still getting started with zines at this point and part of what motivated me to publish this was that I posted a comic about /proc on Twitter and it got 5000 retweets. (/proc is AMAZING)
This is about some of the basic building blocks on Linux (files! signals! system calls!), what's weird about them (buffering!) and how you can inspect them (like with /proc)
It's one of the first zines so it's all handwritten.
https://wizardzines.com/zines/bite-size-linux/
(9/16)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/389/021/697/985/original/4b779bfc88c9524a.png
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/389/342/565/573/original/b484c74dd55d5a54.png

2025-11-27 15:28:52 UTC

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next: HTTP: Learn Your Browser's Language
Learning how HTTP works really made websites click for me. I just think it's so cool that when your browser is communicating with a website, you can go into the network tab, click on a request, and see exactly what's going on in a (relatively) human-readable way.
(8/16)
https://wizardzines.com/zines/http/
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/368/230/762/267/original/356341498185497e.png
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/369/486/506/727/original/21d896c808a154b8.png

2025-11-27 15:25:48 UTC

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next: Help! I Have a Manager!
I wrote this a few years after I started my first job where I had a manager. I initially didn't understand what my relationship with my manager was supposed to look like and this is about what I learned from working with a great manager. (shoutout to Jay Shirley & everyone else who helped me)
https://wizardzines.com/zines/manager/
(7/16)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/355/922/648/400/original/7c106e03407adda3.png
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/356/204/142/845/original/edc0d0322ead4034.png

2025-11-27 15:22:24 UTC

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next: How Git Works!
This is our best-selling zine of all time (probably because so many people struggle with Git ❤). It explains git’s core concepts (commits! branches! merging! remotes!) with minimal jargon and a focus on the actual problems that can ruin your day.
https://wizardzines.com/zines/git/
(6/16)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/342/543/658/806/original/7ee39f1e542f04b5.png
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/342/811/943/301/original/8bb2f8a05cae2d89.png

2025-11-27 15:19:40 UTC

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next: Oh Shit, Git!
This was a collab with the amazing Katie Sylor-Miller (@npub1mm5…t4km), the author of https://ohshitgit.com
It's a reference for what to do to git out of a git mess
https://wizardzines.com/zines/oh-shit-git/
(5/16)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/331/653/901/484/original/c33dacc5a1229f06.png
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/332/020/206/379/original/12746c9e976c6a9f.png

2025-11-27 15:17:53 UTC

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next: Hell Yes! CSS!
I used to be terrified of CSS. What helped me was starting to really take CSS seriously as a technology and accept that I was just going to have to spend hours debugging tiny "formatting" issues. This zine is about some CSS basics that made me feel more comfortable.
(4/16)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/324/752/878/873/original/531d47a655301918.png
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/325/102/385/439/original/dd8f340cb5316139.png

2025-11-27 15:15:30 UTC

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next: How Containers Work!
Docker containers are actually many different Linux features mashed together, and I found containers WAY easier to understand when I understood the individual Linux features: namespaces! capabilities! pivot_root! overlay filesystems! seccomp!
https://wizardzines.com/zines/containers/
(3/16)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/315/398/883/452/original/0ae9c066fb59dcae.png
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/315/699/699/591/original/b10a28db82399326.png

2025-11-27 15:11:18 UTC

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first: my newest zine, The Secret Rules of the Terminal!
This has all the gnarly details about the Unix terminal that I wish I knew when I started using it. It's weird and kind of wonderful (I talk about why you can use your mouse in the terminal!)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/298/847/340/480/original/1e2bbd5683ff4a88.png
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/299/153/906/018/original/15392bf37764c046.png

2025-11-27 15:07:46 UTC

tomorrow November 28 we're doing a Big Zine Sale! Here's a thread about every zine that will be on sale (it's all of them)
(feel free to mute this thread :))
(1/16)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/622/285/271/364/923/original/44597f3678d97daa.png

2025-11-18 16:34:05 UTC

Wizard Zines is doing another Big Zine Sale again this year on Friday, November 28th! One day only.
here’s a google calendar link for the duration of the sale if you want a reminder: https://wzrd.page/cal (or an ICS link: https://wzrd.page/cal.ics)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/571/663/940/243/977/original/e5b9670e8c0f75fb.png

2025-11-12 01:11:48 UTC

been enjoying @npub1429…5dlm's weird terminal posts, like "how I use my terminal" https://jyn.dev/how-i-use-my-terminal/ and "the terminal of the future" https://jyn.dev/the-terminal-of-the-future
Also kind of makes me want to add a "bibliography" section to my blog posts, what a cool idea

2025-10-21 14:17:32 UTC

I know there are a lot of CSS magicians on the fediverse, is anyone open to freelance work? we're looking for some help with https://wizardzines.com
share a link to your site?

2025-10-20 15:22:09 UTC

just added the MEGA TERMINAL CHEAT SHEET from "The Secret Rules of the Terminal" to our list of posters at https://wizardzines.com/#posters
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/407/174/044/872/628/original/9492c136f5d3dd45.png

2025-10-14 15:08:43 UTC

TERM
https://wizardzines.com/comics/term/
(from The Secret Rules of the Terminal, out now! https://wizardzines.com/zines/terminal)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/373/147/348/934/092/original/a1059f4b13a69196.png

2025-10-10 14:23:07 UTC

notes on switching to Helix from vim https://jvns.ca/blog/2025/10/10/notes-on-switching-to-helix-from-vim/

2025-10-08 20:03:05 UTC

would any of you folks be interested in reading an explanation of Git's data model I'm working on? (with the goal of including it in Git's official documentation)
if so, reply to this and I'll DM you a link!

2025-10-06 21:09:46 UTC

- reply

poll: when you run `git pull`, do you explicitly specify a remote and branch to pull from? like (`git pull origin main`)

2025-10-06 21:04:51 UTC

git usage question: if you use `git pull` and `git push`, how do you usually use them?
possible answers include:
- just run `git push` and `git pull` with no arguments (other than --rebase or --ff-only etc)
- always specify remote/branch with `git push origin main` and `git pull origin main`
- some combination of the above
- something else?
(please only reply if you use both `git pull` and `git push`, I'm very aware of team "I never use `git pull`" :) )
might add some follow up polls to this

2025-09-29 16:13:33 UTC

meet the terminal emulator https://wizardzines.com/comics/meet-the-terminal-emulator/
(from The Secret Rules of the Terminal, out now! (https://wizardzines.com/zines/terminal/)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/288/467/620/838/246/original/4b6e50dd55b8c370.png

2025-09-24 15:21:03 UTC

stty
https://wizardzines.com/comics/stty/
(from The Secret Rules of the Terminal, out now! https://wizardzines.com/zines/terminal/)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/259/949/642/670/669/original/1cb7092de2131e9a.png

2025-09-16 18:26:49 UTC

added a cheat sheet to the official Git website
(with a lot of help from other folks who work on the website)
https://git-scm.com/cheat-sheet

2025-09-15 23:54:56 UTC

- reply

if you're interested in helping with Project Improve Git Documentation, I'm still looking for beta readers! Here's a signup form: https://forms.gle/QP5NUcvPQV6W7DCJ9
I'd love signups from anyone who uses Git on the command line, isn't 100% comfortable with it, and who would be interested in reading the current version of some man pages and leaving feedback about what's confusing.
(3/?)

2025-09-15 23:50:10 UTC

- reply

more git docs changes: got some changes to the `git add` man page merged into Git! I've been having a lot of fun working on making git's documentation a little easier to read.
https://github.com/git/git/commit/4065e482f7fe349505877b45b6a5edaa12522f2d
(2/?)

2025-09-15 15:06:49 UTC

TERM
https://wizardzines.com/comics/term/
(from "The Secret Rules of the Terminal", out now! https://wizardzines.com/zines/terminal/)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/208/932/933/117/934/original/f1d439ead657081b.png

2025-09-13 13:16:33 UTC

another slightly obscure git question: have you ever used the “pushremote“ option in Git so that you can push a branch to a different remote than you pull from? Why?

2025-09-08 15:06:10 UTC

meet the TTY driver
https://wizardzines.com/comics/meet-the-tty-driver/
(from "The Secret Rules of the Terminal", out now!)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/169/294/206/921/633/original/8d913cec15b78d3e.png

2025-09-03 21:41:20 UTC

git terminology poll: do you know what the term "index" means? (for example in the sentence "`git checkout hello.c` restores `hello.c` from the index")

2025-09-03 11:47:50 UTC

when you learned Git for the first time, what resources did you use? Did you like them? Mostly looking for answers from folks who learned Git in the last 5 years or so.
Looking for resources to potentially add to the Git website

2025-09-02 20:21:12 UTC

another obscure git question: what's an example of something that `git checkout -B <branch>` is useful for? I'm having trouble thinking of anything.
(it's like kind of like a "--force" version of `git checkout -b`, similar to deleting the branch and then recreating it)

2025-09-02 16:51:30 UTC

got some changes to the "git-rebase" man page merged into Git, hoping it will be a bit clearer for future people reading the docs https://github.com/git/git/commit/e345b776f6bdbc48b54f80f2bb990caf36a95a48

2025-09-02 15:04:46 UTC

terminal colours
https://wizardzines.com/comics/colours/
(from "The Secret Rules of the Terminal", out now!)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/135/314/736/470/979/original/839084c148be8a81.png

2025-09-01 17:32:17 UTC

- reply

also a quick general poll about `git reset`: how comfortable do you feel using `git reset`?

2025-09-01 14:52:44 UTC

has anyone used `git reset` with a filename argument, like this: `git reset HEAD^ file.txt`?
I'm having trouble thinking of an example of what that could be useful for, would love examples
especially curious about examples where you pass a specific commit ID (not HEAD)

2025-08-26 15:19:20 UTC

job control
https://wizardzines.com/comics/job-control/
(from The Secret Rules of the Terminal, which is out now!)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/115/095/735/902/207/021/original/d80b483c34bf3b42.png

2025-08-26 13:40:56 UTC

I've been working on improving a few of Git's man pages and I could use a few more test readers to read the existing documentation and identify what's confusing about it! Here's the signup form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYd9FrjiBg8IbJXk-51p7zewt7aiVOamUImnpb90hK29w3Qg/viewform
I'd especially love test readers who use Git on the command line but aren't 100% comfortable with it.

2025-08-14 18:40:52 UTC

are there any games that teach C pointers? like flexbox froggy for pointers