Recipe 1.7. Using info Pages

1.7.1 Problem

You decide to give info pages a try, so you call up info tar (or any other info page of your choice). But you find that navigating info tar is confusing and difficult. What is the best way to learn your way around?

1.7.2 Solution

Use info's built-in tutorial. Type info at any command line, hit the letter h, then do what it says. It should take 15-30 minutes, and it is time well-spent.

1.7.3 Discussion

Even though some folks think that info pages are unnecessarily complicated to navigate, it is worth getting acquainted with them. Even though they are more difficult to navigate than man pages, they are (usually) easier to understand. Once you get the hang of moving around in them, you can go very fast and find information quickly. Info pages often contain more information than man pages, and they sometimes include tutorials and extensive examples.

There are also a number of nice info viewers, such as pinfo, Konqueror, and Yelp. Pinfo runs in the console, and Konqueror and Yelp need X. Konqueror is especially easy to navigate and to use for printing selected pages.

1.7.4 See Also

• info info