Chapter 15. Where to get documentation

Table of Contents
15.1. The documentation included in Linux-Mandrake
15.1.1. The manual pages
15.1.2. info pages
15.1.3. HOWTOs
15.1.4. The directory /usr/doc
15.2. Internet
15.2.1. Websites dedicated to GNU/Linux
15.2.2. Newsgroups

In addition to the manuals included with Linux-Mandrake, many other sources of documentation are available. On the following pages we'll offer some suggestions which you may find useful.

15.1. The documentation included in Linux-Mandrake

15.1.1. The manual pages

This is a primary source of information on a day-to-day basis. Practically every command has its own manual page, but there are also manual pages on the format of certain configuration files, on the library functions for programmers, and others.

The manual pages are arranged in different sections, and you will often see in documents references to "man 2 open", "man 5 fstab" or others, which means respectively the manual page of open in section 2 and the manual page of fstab in section 5.

The command for displaying a manual page is man, and its syntax is as follows:

man [options] [section] <manual page>

There is even a manual page for man itself: man man. Manual pages are formatted then displayed using the less pager by default. So you already know how to browse through and quit a manual page :-)

At the top of each manual page you will see the name of the page and the section of the manual which this page belongs to; at the bottom of the manual page (in general in the SEE ALSO section) you'll see references to other manual pages related to the one you are looking at.

You can start by consulting the manual pages for the different commands which have been covered in this manual: man ls, man chmod, etc.

If you don't find the right manual page (for example, if you want to use the function mknod in one of your programs but end up on the manual page for the mknod command), you need to mention the section explicitly: in this case it is man 2 mknod, or if you can no longer remember the exact section, man -a mknod will go through all the sections looking for manual pages named mknod.

15.1.2. info pages

info pages are another source source of documentation which are more complete than manual pages. The command for accessing info pages is info.

The info pages are arranged in the form of a tree structure with its top called dir. From the top, you can access all existing info pages.

You can call up info in two ways: either with no argument, in which case you will find yourself at the top of the tree structure, or followed by a command or package name, in which case the corresponding page, if it exists, will be opened. For example:

info emacs

In the info pages, text like this:

* Buffers::

indicates a link. If you move the cursor to this link (using the arrow keys) and press Enter, you will then be taken to the corresponding info page.

The following keyboard shortcuts exist:

  • u: for Up, goes to the level above;

  • n: for Next, goes to the next info page in this level of the tree structure;

  • p: for Prev, goes to the previous info page.

There are a large number of commands, which you can list by typing ?.

15.1.3. HOWTOs

HOWTOs are documents published by the LDP (Linux Documentation Project), dedicated to the configuration of many aspects of your system. HOWTOs exist in many languages and you are likely to find a document that answers your specific question or problem on your hard disk, as long as you have installed the corresponding packages (this is the howto-html-en package for the English edition). They are located in the directory /usr/doc/HOWTO/HTML/en/. Their primary form is text files, but they are also available in HTML for reading with a web browser, and PostScript for printing.

The list is very long: to get an idea, consult the index from the main menu: Documentation->Howtos English. If you encounter a problem which you are unable to resolve, finding and reading the corresponding HOWTO if it exists is the best way to start, and it is very likely that not only will you find your solution, but also that you will learn a great deal at the same time. Amongst other things they cover networking (NET-3-HOWTO), sound card configuration (Sound-HOWTO), the writing of CD media (CD-Writing-HOWTO), NIS and NFS configuration and a whole lot more.

However, you need to check the modification dates of HOWTO documents. Some have not been updated recently and it is possible that their contents are no longer accurate... So check the publication date, which is always at the beginning of the document, and watch out especially for old HOWTO relating to hardware configuration: this is an area where GNU/Linux evolves very fast. Also remember that the term "old" in the world of free software is even more significant than in IT in general: free software is sometimes considered old when it's been around for fifteen days.

15.1.4. The directory /usr/doc

Some packages also come with their own documentation, located in a subdirectory of /usr/doc, which will have the same name as the package.


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