Unix Advanced [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Learning More

To be accepted among hard-core Unix users, you need to be able to learn about the system and its programs on your own, using whatever resources are available. These days, there's a wealth of information installed with every Unix system, so learning how to do something usually means reading and putting your new information to use.

The Internet makes available even more information, in the form of FAQ (lists of frequently asked questions, with answers), how-to documents, and mailing lists and Web forums for more interactive help.

To find out what command to use:

Sometimes you know what you need to do, but you aren't sure how to do it, or you know that there's a command you want to use, but you can't remember its name.

apropos keyword

or

whatis keyword

Search the online list of command keywords for keyword. The whatis command usually displays better results (Code Listing A.1), because it limits its output to complete word matches.

Code listing A.1. The whatis output only matches complete words, which focuses your search. The apropos output includes partial matches.

bender:~ chrish$ whatis mount
amd(8)                   - automatically mount file systems
automount(8)             - automatic NFS mount / unmount daemon
exports(5)               - define remote mount points for NFS mount requests
fixmount(8)              - fix remote mount entries
mount(2), unmount(2)     - mount or dismount a filesystem
mount(8)                 - mount file systems
mount.cifs(8)            - mount using the Common Internet File System (CIFS)
mount_afp(8)             - mount an afp (AppleShare) filesystem
mount_cd9660(8)          - mount an ISO-9660 filesystem
mount_cddafs(8)          - mount an Audio CD
mount_fdesc(8)           - mount the file-descriptor file system
mount_ftp(8)             - mount a FTP filesystem
mount_hfs(8)             - mount an HFS/HFS+ file system
mount_msdos(8)           - mount an MS-DOS file system
mount_nfs(8)             - mount nfs file systems
mount_ntfs(8)            - mount an NTFS file system
mount_udf(8)             - mount a UDF filesystem
mount_webdav(8)          - mount a WebDAV filesystem
mountd(8)                - service remote NFS mount requests
bender:~ chrish$ apropos mount
Tcl_FSRegister(3), ... Tcl_AllocStatBuf(3) - procedures to interact with any filesystem
amd(8)                   - automatically mount file systems
amq(8)                   - automounter query tool
automount(8)             - automatic NFS mount / unmount daemon
exports(5)               - define remote mount points for NFS mount requests
fixmount(8)              - fix remote mount entries
getfsstat(2)             - get list of all mounted file systems
getmntinfo(3)            - get information about mounted file systems
hdik(8)                  - lightweight in-kernel disk image mounting tool
mount(2), unmount(2)     - mount or dismount a filesystem
mount(8)                 - mount file systems
mount.cifs(8)            - mount using the Common Internet File System (CIFS)

To find out more about commands or configuration files

Once you know which command or configuration file you're interested in, you can consult the online manual, or man pages, for more information.

• man name

  Display the online manual for name, which can be a command or configuration file, among other things.

  Remember that this is piped into more or less (depending on your OS), so you can search, move forward and backward, and so on, while viewing the information.

Tips

• info name

  If you're using GNU software (such as EMACS), online manuals are installed using the GNU info system, which is a bit like a hypertext version of the traditional man pages. You invoke info the same way as with man, but it brings up an interactive display (Figure A.1). Press Q to quit.

  Figure A.1. The GNU info program gives you access to hypertext online manuals.

  
  

  

• pinfo name

  There's an excellent combined man and info viewer called pinfo (http://freshmeat.net/projects/pinfo) that automatically searches the info pages, and then the man pages, for name. Press Q to quit.