2.10. Help

Some operating systems are famous for being easy to use and for offering informative help. But I will never tire of repeating that efficiency, reliability, and being easy to use are not always compatible. There are many commands in Linux, and each of them can be used with numerous parameters. It is impossible to remember all of the commands and their parameters, so the developers have provided an extensive help program for the operating system.

To obtain information about how to use a command or a program, enter its name followed by one of the following switches: -h, -help, or -? . Different programs use their own switches and display short information about how to use the program.

More detailed information can be obtained by using the man command as follows :

 man name

Here, name is the name of the command or the program. For example, to view the description of the shutdown command, enter man shutdown in the command line.

To exit a help program, type -e . This will produce the message "Quit at end-of-file (press RETURN)." Press the <Enter> key and then move to the end of the help file, at which point the man program will terminate.

Pressing the <q> key will terminate the man program immediately.

If you are installing a licensed version of the operating system, it may be accompanied by the installation and user 's manual. Most often, the information contained in these manuals is superficial. But some distributions come with detailed documentation or even whole books.