Linux Basics (tutorial) #15

[MrNiitriiX]

Where Can I Get Help on Linux Commands?
How to Get Help

Need help figuring out what a command is supposed to do? In an operating system with strange-sounding commands like awk, grep, and sed, it's not surprising. The man command (short for manual) is a source of online help for most Linux commands . For example, you can enter
man grep

to learn all the secrets of the very useful grep command. (For a summary of the most-used Li nux commands, see the section "Important Linux Commands").

If man claims no knowledge of the command in which you're interested, try help instead. This command will list all the built-in bash commands with a brief syntax summary.

Another help format called info is more powerful, since it provides hypertext links to make reading large documents much easier, but not all documentation is available in info format. T here are some very complete info documents on various aspects of Red Hat (especially the portions from the GNU project).

To try it out, use the info command without any arguments. It will present you with a list o f available documentation. Press h to read the help for first-time users, or use the tab key to move the cursor to a topic link and then press enter to follow the link. Pressing p returns you t o the previous page, n moves you to the next page, and u goes up one level of documentation. To exit info, press q< /STRONG>.

LINKS TO THE OTHER TUTORIALS


Leason 1: Living in a shell
Leason 2: Root and Other Users
Leason 3: Virtual Consoles
Leason 4: Logoff and Shutdown
Leason 5: Choosing a Shell
Leason 6: The Command Prompt
Leason 7: Wildcards
Leason 8: Command History and Editing
Leason 9: Aliases
Leason 10: Redirection
Leason 11: Pipelines
Leason 12: Processes
Leason 13: Stopping a Program
Leason 14: Environment Variables
Leason 15: Help!