- Linux Basics
- Starting Up
- Logging In
- The Unix Command
- Getting Help with the man and info Pages
- Task: Look Up Information on a Topic
- Shutting Down
- Summary
- Workshop
Task: Look Up Information on a Topic
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To look up info on a topic, type info topic, for example:
$ info ls
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To invoke a man page about a command or system file, type man command at the shell prompt. For example, to get help on the command ls, type
$ man ls
The manual page for that command opens, as shown in Figure 3.5. The first line of the man page is the name of the command, a synopsis of all the different switches and parameters that you can attach to the command, and a detailed description of the command usage.
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To scroll through the man page, use the arrow down and arrow up buttons.
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To quit the man page, enter q.
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In addition to the man and info pages, many commands come with an option that prints out a description of the command, such as command --help. Also, all the documentation that comes with application packages that you install is stored in /usr/doc. Many of the files are simple README files or other notes, but you can sometimes find a wealth of information (the X documents are an example).
Figure
3.5
As a beginner, you can usually get the information you need by reading the first
few paragraphs of a man page.