Locate & use Help Resources

Using Linux

Version 0.1 ● 5th May 2014

© 2014 Faisal Khan - www.FaysalKhan.org

licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.3 or later
Locate & use Help Resources

Using Linux

VERSION: 0.1 REVISION DATE: 5th May 2014

www.FaysalKhan.Org
Table Of Contents
Overview.................................................................................................................................. 1

help .......................................................................................................................................... 2

man ......................................................................................................................................... 2

info ........................................................................................................................................... 2

apropos ................................................................................................................................... 3

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Overview
In this article, we will practice the commands using the files already in the system of Linux.
Whereas all the commands which we will practice will be based upon the management of users
and groups of Linux Operating System. It also possible the files or directories which wil be
showled in example for the execution of command or on output of execution of command will
differ from your system, it is only because I am using my own system to generate the output for
the example, but technically I hope it will not make any difference for any one (hopefully you
understood what is explain... :) …).

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help
Most Linux commands can be run with the "--help" option. For example, this command will give
you concise help on the Linux cp (copy) command:

cp --help | less

man
More extensive info is accessed from the command line using the so-called manual pages man
topic. For example:

man cp

will display the manual page for the "cp" (copy) command. The manual pages are the standard
"help" system under Linux, and contain a wealth of detailed, very technical information, but
typically require some effort to be understood by a newbie.

The man command uses a simple utility called less that lets you scroll through a text. Use arrow
keys to scroll, press "q" to quit. Actually, less can do more than this. Press "h" for help when
running less, or learn more about less using the command

man less

info
There is also the info command info topic. For example:

info cp

will give you the help for the "cp" (copy) command. Often info contains information similar to man,
but more up-to-date. Unfortunately, the info navigating utility is not very intuitive, so I use man

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pages more often. There is also pinfo (a substitute for the info interface, perhaps easier to use
than info).

apropos
If you don't remember exactly the name of the command that you need to use, try apropos. For
example, to obtain a list of commands which have something to do with "copy", I execute this
from the command line:

apropos copy

The command whatis is similar to apropos, but matches only keywords, whereas apropos
searches the complete database (keywords and their description). As a result, whatis tends to
produce a shorter (perhaps more relevant) output.

In some menu driven programs, for example when configuring your system services using ntsysv
(or setup, or linuxconf), you may press F1 for info about what the particular service does.

The list of bash built-in commands can be obtained by typing help on the command line. Then
help on any specific bash built-in command can be obtained by issuing, for example:

help cd

Bash is the standard command line "shell", i.e., the Linux equivalent of the DOS command-line
processor "COMMAND.COM".

The KDE environment includes a GUI-based "help browser", which can be started by clicking the
appropriate icon on the "Kpanel" (the system bar, normally at the bottom of the screen). This
browser can be used to access the KDE-specific help as well as the system manual pages. The
Gnome desktop contains a similar help system.

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If you want to learn about the many packages that come on your CDs in rpm format, you may
want to use the GUI-based kpackage (type kpackage in an X-terminal) to browse through the
packages, display the info that they contain, and install them if you wish (the installation has to be
done as root). In place of kpackage, older distributions use glint (RH5.2) or gnorpm (RH6.0),
which are slower and less convenient.

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