Introduction:
There are several resources available to get the information you need to use and configure your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. Linux documentation manual pages, documents that detail usage of important applications and files; Info pages which break information about an application down by menus; and help files that are included in the main menu bar of graphical applications. You can choose any method of accessing documentation that best suits your needs, all these resource are either already installed on your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system or can be easily installed.
Get Help Using Man Command:
man command, short for manual, provides help for the commands, utilities or function in Linux systems. The manual pages are a set of pages that explain every command available on system. To navigate the man page, you can use the “arrow” keys. To exit the man page, type [Q]. To search a man page for keywords type [/] and then a keyword or phrases and press [Enter].
Get Help Using info Command:
info is another command to provide documentation same as man command but info contains lot more than Man does. info page is more structured and is composed of multiple pages that you can browse through using links.
Get Help Using pinfo Command:
pinfo is an info file viewer or a program for viewing info files. The man pages have a formal format useful as a command reference. The pinfo info reader is more advance than the original info command it also adds color.
Get Help Using whatis Command:
The whatis command shows a one-line summary of a command, taken from its man page. It’s a quick way of seeing what a command actually does.
Get Help Using which Command:
The “which” program shows the full path of shell commands means “which” command is used to find the location of a program.
Get Help Using Documentation:
Many software packages installed on system have documentation files residing in the /usr/share/doc directory. Most of these are stored in plain text format and can be viewed with “less” command. Some of the files are in HTML format and can be viewed with your web browser. Location of package specific documentation files. These directories contain useful information that might not be in the man pages. They may also contain templates and configuration files for certain utilities making configuration that much easier.
Getting Help from Red Hat:
Getting help online from Red Hat website using these given links https://docs.redhat.com and https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en/
Get Help from GUI:
Get help from GUI go to Application>Documentation>help or type yelp command in terminal to take you GUI help pages.
| #man <command> man passwd | show you full help of the keyword |
| #man -k <command> man -k passwd | Show list of keyword matching |
| #man man-pages | show man main pages |
| #pinfo <command> pinfo passwd | show you full help of the keyword |
| #info <command> info passwd | show you help of the keyword |
| #whatis <command> whatis passwd | what is this command |
| #which <command> which passwd | where is this command |
| #cd /usr/share/doc | All the help documentation directory |
| #<command>–help passwd –help | Help about command |
| #whereis <command> | where is this command |
| #locate <command> locate passwd | where is command located |
[champ@localhost Desktop]$ man –help
| Usage: man [OPTION…] [SECTION] PAGE… -C, –config-file=FILE use this user configuration file -d, –debug emit debugging messages -D, –default reset all options to their default values –warnings[=WARNINGS] enable warnings from groff |
| [champ@localhost Desktop]$ whereis passwd passwd: /usr/bin/passwd /etc/passwd /usr/share/man/man1/passwd.1.gz /usr/share/man/man5/passwd.5.gz |
| [champ@localhost Desktop]$ which passwd /usr/bin/passwd |
| [champ@localhost ~]$ which mkdir /bin/mkdir |
| [champ@localhost Desktop]$ man passwd NAME passwd – update user’s authentication tokens SYNOPSIS passwd [-k] [-l] [-u [-f]] [-d] [-e] [-n mindays] [-x maxdays] [-w warndays] [-i inactivedays] [-S] [–stdin] [username] DESCRIPTION The passwd utility is used to update user’s authentication token(s). |
| View the cp man page [root@localhost ~]# man cp |
| Viem the man of own [root@localhost ~]# man man |
| [champ@localhost Desktop]$ man man-pages |
| View the gedit man page [champ@localhost Desktop]$ man 1 gedit |
| Research the su man page [champ@localhost Desktop]$ man 1 su |
| Research the passwd man page [champ@localhost Desktop]$ man 1 passwd |
| How to lock a user [only root can do] [root@localhost ~]# passwd -l champ Locking password for user champ. passwd: Success |
| How to unlock a user [only root can do] [root@localhost ~]# passwd -u champ Unlocking password for user champ. passwd: Success |
| How to find two principle of man passwd page authors? [root@localhost ~]# man passwd type “/principle” [‘/’ is used for search] search for the word “principle” protect your password. Choose a hard-to-guess password. |
| View Man page documentation [root@localhost ~]# man /etc/passwd |
| View man page of zip [root@localhost ~]# man zip |
| View man page of lvm [root@localhost ~]# man lvm |
| Difference between info and Pinfo [root@localhost ~]#info [It will give you black and white output] |
| [root@localhost ~]#pinfo [It will give you colorfull output] |
| Try this also: [root@localhost ~]# info mkdir [root@localhost ~]# pinfo mkdir View all Documentation [champ@localhost ~]$ cd /usr/share/doc [champ@localhost ~]$ ls |
