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Online Documentation
The underlying philosophy behind the Unix system is "Build small,
independent tools and make them work together." It is this design
philosophy which leads to the misconception that Linux is a difficult
environment to use. It isn't. There is simply a lot to learn.
But this complexity is the power of Linux, not it's Achille's heel.
More than any other operating system, Unix fosters the notion that what
the user needs is a rich toolbox. The typical car owner may have no need
to own a brake tool, or an oil filter wrench or even a spark plug socket.
Most drivers never work on their automobiles themselves. They place their
trust in someone else to maintain their vehicle's integrity.
Linux users are the computer world's equivalent of the shade tree
mechanic. It's assumed that you want access to powerful tools and know
how to use them. But what if you don't? If this is your first foray into
a Unix-like environment, you may be overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of the
Linux environment. Where do you turn for help?
There is a wealth of information available for the novice user.
And much of this information is right at your finger tips. We will
provide a quick overview of the on-line help available on your computer
and explain how to begin accessing it.
- Man Pages
The man pages are one of the oldest forms of on-line help. That
doesn't mean that they are out of date! They are simply the original
format for documentation. The man pages can be accessed in a variety
of ways. The classic way to read the man page for man itself, type
man man
on the command line. The on-line help will be sent to the screen one
page at a time. Use the space bar to advance one page. Press return
to advance one line. Press 'b' to back up a page. Press 'q' to quit.
If you are running the X Window System, a graphical user interface, then
there are several applications which can help you read man pages, such as
xman and kdehelp.
- Info Pages
Before there was HTML, there was info. Info is a hypertext documentation
system developed as part of the GNU project. Most of the GNU project
software is documented in info pages. These files can be found in the
directory /usr/info. To learn how to use info, type
info info
on the command line. Info can also be accessed within Emacs, a powerful
(some would say unwieldy) text editor. Info pages can also be read from
kdehelp. An extra package called tkinfo is also available for browsing
and searching info pages.
- HOWTOs
The Linux HOWTOs should probably be subtitled "A Guide for the Perplexed."
They provide extensive documentation on the use and configuration of the
Linux operating system. For the most part, they are just as applicable to
MkLinux on a Macintosh as they are to the monolithic Linux systems on
Intel based PCs. If you installed the howto-html package, you will find
plain text and html versions of most of the HOWTO documents in
/usr/doc/HOWTO/ and /usr/doc/HOWTO/other-formats/html/
respectively.
Other directories in /usr/doc which you may find useful are
- Linux Programmer's Guide
Located in /usr/doc/LDP/lpg/lpg.html, the programmer's guide
provides an introduction to writing programs which take advantage of
the Linux Operating System.
- System Administrator's Guide
For the Linux newcomer, learning to administer your own system can
be an intimidating task. The Linux Documentation Project has prepared
the System Administrator's Guide to help you learn the essentials of
system administration. An HTML version of the guide is available
in /usr/doc/LDP/sag/sag.html if you installed the sag package.
- Network Administrator's Guide
The Linux Documentation Project's introduction to Network
Administration is installed in /usr/doc/LDP/nag/nag.html. This
is where you should turn for information about connecting your computer
to a network.
- The Official RedHat Linux Installation Guide
The MkLinux DR3 distribution is based upon the Official RedHat 5.0
distribution. RedHat's original installation instructions can be
found in /usr/doc/rhl-install-guide-en-5.0/manual.
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Contact the web team at [email protected].
Copyright (©) 2001 MkLinux Developers Association. Permission to freely
distribute this document is hereby granted, provided that it is distributed at
no charge other than normal connect-time charges. All rights other than those
specifically granted above are reserved.
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