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<th colspan="3" align="center">Slackware Linux Essentials</th>
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<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>
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