Lesson 1.11: Locate, read, and use system documentation including man, info, and files in /usr/share/doc


Here are the three documentation sets:

  • Man pages
  • Info pages
  • /usr/share/docs

The Man Page

man ls

What can you discover via the man pages?

  • The command's summary
  • Options and explanations
  • Examples
  • Author and maintainer

Search Capabilities of man page

  • Man pages include a powerful set of search capabilities to help you find exactly what you need.
  • Once the man page is displayed, type a forward slash / to enable keyword searching.
  • Simply enter the word you're looking for after the slash and select Enter.
  • Use the n and N keys to find the next or previous example of the keyword.
  • Use Ctrl+C to end the search.

Organization of man page

Man pages are organized into the following sections:

  • User commands (section 1)
  • System calls (section 2)
  • C library functions (section 3)
  • Devices and special files (section 4)
  • File formats and conventions (section 5)
  • Games (section 6)
  • Miscellanea (section 7)
  • System administration tools and daemons (section 8)

Keys used in man page (manual page)

  • Up, down arrow key to navigate upwards and downwards.
  • G to jump to the bottom of the page.
  • g to jump to the top of the page.
  • q to quit or exit from man page.
  • /text to search a text (Forward Search : Top --> Bottom)
  • ?text to search a text (Reverse Search : Bottom --> Top)
  • n to locate next occurance of the searched text
  • N to locate next occurance of the searched text in reverse direction

The info command

The info pages play a similar role to man pages, though they tend to be a little more user-friendly. The man pages are basically a short, terse reference, while info pages tend more toward readability and deeper explanations. The info page system also supports basic linking between documents for easier cross-referencing. This provides a more structured and readable documentation set.

info ls

Files in /usr/share/doc

[sanjeeb@server ~]$ ls /usr/share/doc/ abattis-cantarell-fonts gsound libssh php-common accountsservice gstreamer1 libstemmer php-fpm adcli gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free libstoragemgmt pigz adobe-mappings-cmap gstreamer1-plugins-base libtasn1 pinentry adobe-mappings-pdf gstreamer1-plugins-good libthai pinfo adobe-source-code-pro-fonts gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free libtheora pipewire alsa-lib gtk3 libtiff pipewire-libs alsa-utils gtk4 libtirpc pixman appstream gtkmm30 libtraceevent-doc pkgconf ... ... ... ...
[sanjeeb@server ~]$ ls /usr/share/doc/bzip2 CHANGES LICENSE README [sanjeeb@server ~]$ cat /usr/share/doc/bzip2/README
All systems normal

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