Chapter 7. Where to Get Documentation

Table of Contents
7.1. The Documentation Included With Mandrake Linux
7.1.1. The Man Pages
7.1.2. Info Pages
7.1.3. HOWTOs
7.1.4. The /usr/share/doc Directory
7.2. Internet
7.2.1. Web Sites Devoted to GNU/Linux
7.2.2. Mailing Lists
7.2.3. Newsgroups
7.3. General Guidelines For Solving a Problem Under Mandrake Linux
7.3.1. RTFM
7.3.2. Search The Internet
7.3.3. Mailing Lists And Newsgroups Archives
7.3.4. Questions to Mailing Lists And Newsgroups
7.3.5. Directly Contacting The Person in Charge
7.3.6. Mandrake Business Services
7.3.7. Training

Apart from the manuals included with Mandrake Linux, documentation is available from many sources. The next few pages will offer you some suggestions which you might find useful.

7.1. The Documentation Included With Mandrake Linux

7.1.1. The Man Pages

This is a primary source of information on a day-to-day basis. Each command corresponds to a manual page, or almost. Also, certain configuration files, library functions for programmers and others, also possess their own man pages.

Their contents are arranged in different sections. References to these sections are made in the following manner: for example, open(2), fstab(5) will respectively refer to the open page in section 2 and the fstab page in section 5.

To display a manual page, type man. Its syntax will be as follows:
man [options] [section] <manual page>
Even for man itself, a command is available: man man. Manual pages are formatted, then displayed using the less pager by default.

The names of the manual pages and their relevant sections appear at the top of each page. At the bottom are given references to other pages with related subjects (in general in the SEE ALSO section).

You can start by consulting the pages related to the different commands covered in this manual: ls(1), chmod(1), etc.

If you cannot find the right manual page – for example, you want to use the mknod function in one of your programs but you end up on the mknod command page –, make sure you spell out the section explicitly. In our example: mknod(2). If you forgot the exact section, man -a mknod will read through all the sections looking for pages named mknod.

7.1.2. Info Pages

info pages complete the documentation included in the manual pages. The command for accessing info pages is info.

The info pages have a tree structure, the top of which is called dir. From there, you can access all of its info pages.

info may be called up in two ways: either by omitting any argument, which will place you at the very top of the tree structure, or by adding a command or a package name, which will open the relevant page, if it exists. For example:
info emacs
In the info pages:
* Buffers::
will indicate a link. Moving the cursor to this link (using the arrow keys) and pressing Enter will take you to the corresponding info page.

You may use the following keyboard shortcuts:

  • u: for Up, takes you up one level;

  • n: for Next, brings you to the next info page on the same tree-structure level;

  • p: for Prev, takes you back to the previous info page.

A great number of commands may be listed by typing "?".

7.1.3. HOWTOs

HOWTOs, published by the LDP (Linux Documentation Project), and available in many languages, will help you configure many aspects of your system. As long as the proper packages are installed (the howto-html-en package for the English edition), HOWTOs will provide you with an answer to a specific question or a solution to a problem on your hard disk. The documentation is located in the /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/HTML/en/ directory. These are text files in their primary form, although they are also readable in HTML with a web browser, and printable with PostScript.

The list is quite exhaustive. Get an idea of its length by consulting the index from the main menu: Documentation->HOWTOs English. When met with a complex problem, start by reading the corresponding HOWTO (if it exists of course!). Not only will you be given a solution to your problem but you will also learn a great deal at the same time. Among others, examples of what is covered range from networking (NET-3-HOWTO), sound card configuration (Sound-HOWTO), the writing of media CD (CD-Writing-HOWTO) as well as NIS and NFS configuration.

An important step is to check the modification dates of the HOWTO documents – i.e. the publication date located at the beginning of the document – to make sure they are up-to-date. Otherwise, their contents may be invalid. Watch out for old HOWTOs relating to hardware configuration especially, as Linux evolves very fast in that specific area. Remember also that, in the free software world, the term "old" carries even more weight than in IT in general: free software may be considered old after being around for fifteen days!

Note

HOWTOs are available online on the LDP web site and likely to be slightly more up-to-date there. Have a look at the following as well: HOWTOs classified by categories; and FAQs.

7.1.4. The /usr/share/doc Directory

Some packages include their own documentation in one of /usr/share/doc's subdirectories and named after the specific package.


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