diff options
| author |   Patrick J Volkerding <volkerdi@slackware.com> | 2009-08-26 10:00:38 -0500 |
|---|---|---|
| committer |   Eric Hameleers <alien@slackware.com> | 2018-05-31 22:41:17 +0200 |
| commit | 5a12e7c134274dba706667107d10d231517d3e05 (patch) | |
| tree | 55718d5acb710fde798d9f38d0bbaf594ed4b296 /slackbook/html/help.html | |
| download | current-5a12e7c134274dba706667107d10d231517d3e05.tar.gz current-5a12e7c134274dba706667107d10d231517d3e05.tar.xz | |
Slackware 13.0slackware-13.0
Wed Aug 26 10:00:38 CDT 2009
Slackware 13.0 x86_64 is released as stable! Thanks to everyone who
helped make this release possible -- see the RELEASE_NOTES for the
credits. The ISOs are off to the replicator. This time it will be a
6 CD-ROM 32-bit set and a dual-sided 32-bit/64-bit x86/x86_64 DVD.
We're taking pre-orders now at store.slackware.com. Please consider
picking up a copy to help support the project. Once again, thanks to
the entire Slackware community for all the help testing and fixing
things and offering suggestions during this development cycle.
As always, have fun and enjoy! -P.
Diffstat (limited to 'slackbook/html/help.html')
| -rw-r--r-- | slackbook/html/help.html | 292 |
1 files changed, 292 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/slackbook/html/help.html b/slackbook/html/help.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000..691282f6e --- /dev/null +++ b/slackbook/html/help.html @@ -0,0 +1,292 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org" /> +<title>Help</title> +<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7" /> +<link rel="HOME" title="Slackware Linux Essentials" href="index.html" /> +<link rel="PREVIOUS" title="Open Source and Free Software" +href="introduction-opensource.html" /> +<link rel="NEXT" title="Online Help" href="help-online.html" /> +<link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="docbook.css" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> +</head> +<body class="CHAPTER" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" +alink="#0000FF"> +<div class="NAVHEADER"> +<table summary="Header navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" +cellspacing="0"> +<tr> +<th colspan="3" align="center">Slackware Linux Essentials</th> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td width="10%" align="left" valign="bottom"><a href="introduction-opensource.html" +accesskey="P">Prev</a></td> +<td width="80%" align="center" valign="bottom"></td> +<td width="10%" align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="help-online.html" +accesskey="N">Next</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" /> +</div> + +<div class="CHAPTER"> +<h1><a id="HELP" name="HELP"></a>Chapter 2 Help</h1> + +<div class="TOC"> +<dl> +<dt><b>Table of Contents</b></dt> + +<dt>2.1 <a href="help.html#HELP-SYSTEM">System Help</a></dt> + +<dt>2.2 <a href="help-online.html">Online Help</a></dt> +</dl> +</div> + +<p>Often there are times when you might need help with a specific command, setting up a +program, or getting a piece of hardware to work. Maybe you simply want to understand a +given command better, or see what other options are available to use with it. Luckily, +there are a variety of ways that you can get the help you're looking for. When you +install Slackware you have the option of installing packages from the “F” +series which includes FAQs and HOWTOs. Programs also come with help about their options, +configuration files, and usage.</p> + +<div class="SECT1"> +<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="HELP-SYSTEM" name="HELP-SYSTEM">2.1 System Help</a></h1> + +<div class="SECT2"> +<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="HELP-SYSTEM-MAN" name="HELP-SYSTEM-MAN">2.1.1 <tt +class="COMMAND">man</tt></a></h2> + +<p>The <tt class="COMMAND">man</tt> command (short for “manual”) is the +traditional form of online documentation in Unix and Linux operating systems. Comprised +of specially formatted files, the “man pages”, are written for the vast +majority of commands and are distributed with the software itself. Executing <tt +class="COMMAND">man somecommand</tt> will display the man page for (naturally) the +command specified, in our example this would be the imaginary program <tt +class="COMMAND">somecommand</tt>.</p> + +<p>As you might imagine, the amount of man pages can quickly add up, becoming overly +confusing and seriously complicated, even for an advanced user. So, for this reason, man +pages are grouped into enumerated sections. This system has been around for a very long +time; enough so that you will often see commands, programs, and even programming library +functions referred to with their man section number.</p> + +<p>For example:</p> + +<p>You might see a reference to <tt class="COMMAND">man</tt>(1). The numbering tells you +that “<tt class="COMMAND">man</tt>” is documented in section 1 (user +commands); you can specify that you want the section 1 man page for “man” +with the command <tt class="COMMAND">man 1 man</tt>. Specifying the section that man +should look in is useful in the case of multiple items with the same name.</p> + +<div class="TABLE"><a id="AEN409" name="AEN409"></a> +<p><b>Table 2-1. Man Page Sections</b></p> + +<table border="0" frame="void" width="100%" class="CALSTABLE"> +<col width="25%" /> +<col width="75%" /> +<thead> +<tr> +<th>Section</th> +<th>Contents</th> +</tr> +</thead> + +<tbody> +<tr> +<td>Section 1</td> +<td>user commands (intro only)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Section 2</td> +<td>system calls</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Section 3</td> +<td>C library calls</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Section 4</td> +<td>devices (e.g., <tt class="FILENAME">hd</tt>, <tt class="FILENAME">sd</tt>)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Section 5</td> +<td>file formats and protocols (e.g., wtmp, <tt class="FILENAME">/etc/passwd</tt>, +nfs)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Section 6</td> +<td>games (intro only)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Section 7</td> +<td>conventions, macro packages, etc. (e.g., nroff, ascii)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Section 8</td> +<td>system administration (intro only)</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> +</div> + +<p>In addition to <tt class="COMMAND">man</tt>(1), there are the commands <tt +class="COMMAND">whatis</tt>(1) and <tt class="COMMAND">apropos</tt>(1) available to you, +whose shared purpose is to make it easier to find information in the man system.</p> + +<p>The command <tt class="COMMAND">whatis</tt> gives a very brief description of system +commands, somewhat in the style of a pocket command reference.</p> + +<p>Example:</p> + +<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%"> +<tr> +<td> +<pre class="SCREEN"> +<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">whatis whatis</kbd> +whatis (1) - search the whatis database for complete words +</pre> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>The command <tt class="COMMAND">apropos</tt> is used to search for a man page +containing a given keyword.</p> + +<p>Example:</p> + +<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%"> +<tr> +<td> +<pre class="SCREEN"> +<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">apropos wav</kbd> +cdda2wav (1) - a sampling utility that dumps CD audio data into wav sound files +netwave_cs (4) - Xircom Creditcard Netwave device driver +oggdec (1) - simple decoder, Ogg Vorbis file to PCM audio file (WAV or RAW) +wavelan (4) - AT&T GIS WaveLAN ISA device driver +wavelan_cs (4) - AT&T GIS WaveLAN PCMCIA device driver +wvlan_cs (4) - Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 device driver +</pre> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>If you'd like further information on any of these commands, read their man pages for +the details. ;)</p> +</div> + +<div class="SECT2"> +<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="HELP-SYSTEM-DOC" name="HELP-SYSTEM-DOC">2.1.2 The <tt +class="FILENAME">/usr/doc</tt> Directory</a></h2> + +<p>The source for most packages that we build comes with some sort of documentation: +README files, usage instructions, license files, etc. Any sort of documentation that +comes with the source is included and installed on your system in the <tt +class="FILENAME">/usr/doc</tt> directory. Each program will (usually) install its own +documentation in the order of:</p> + +<p><tt class="FILENAME">/usr/doc/<var +class="REPLACEABLE">$program-$version</var></tt></p> + +<p>Where <var class="REPLACEABLE">$program</var> is the name of the program you are +wanting to read about, and <var class="REPLACEABLE">$version</var> is (obviously) the +appropriate version of software package installed on your system.</p> + +<p>For example, to read the documentation for the command <tt class="COMMAND">man</tt>(1) +you would want to <tt class="COMMAND">cd</tt> to:</p> + +<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%"> +<tr> +<td> +<pre class="SCREEN"> +<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">cd /usr/doc/man-<var +class="REPLACEABLE">$version</var></kbd> +</pre> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>If reading the appropriate man page(s) doesn't provide you with enough information, or +address what you're looking for in particular, the <tt class="FILENAME">/usr/doc</tt> +directory should be your next stop.</p> +</div> + +<div class="SECT2"> +<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="HELP-SYSTEM-HOWTO" name="HELP-SYSTEM-HOWTO">2.1.3 HOWTOs and +mini-HOWTOs</a></h2> + +<p>It is in the truest spirit of the Open Source community that brings us to the +HOWTO/mini-HOWTO collection. These files are exactly what they sound like - documents and +guides describing how to do stuff. If you installed the HOWTO collection, the HOWTOs will +be installed to <tt class="FILENAME">/usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs</tt> and the mini-HOWTOs to +<tt class="FILENAME">/usr/doc/Linux-mini-HOWTOs</tt>.</p> + +<p>Also included in the same package series is a collection of FAQs, which is an acronym +which stands for</p> + +<div class="INFORMALTABLE"><a id="AEN497" name="AEN497"></a> +<table border="0" frame="void" class="CALSTABLE"> +<col /> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">F</i></span>requently</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">A</i></span>sked</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">Q</i></span>uestions</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> +</div> + +<p>These documents are written in a “Question and answer” style for +(surprise) Frequently Asked Questions. The FAQs can often be a very useful place to look +if you're just looking for a “Quick Fix” to something. If you decide to +install the FAQs during setup, you will find them installed to the <tt +class="FILENAME">/usr/doc/Linux-FAQs</tt> directory.</p> + +<p>These files are well worth reading whenever you're not quite sure how to proceed with +something. They cover an amazing range of topics, more often than not in a surprisingly +detailed manner. Good stuff!</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="NAVFOOTER"> +<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" /> +<table summary="Footer navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" +cellspacing="0"> +<tr> +<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top"><a href="introduction-opensource.html" +accesskey="P">Prev</a></td> +<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href="index.html" +accesskey="H">Home</a></td> +<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top"><a href="help-online.html" +accesskey="N">Next</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top">Open Source and Free Software</td> +<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"> </td> +<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top">Online Help</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> +</body> +</html> + |