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+cellspacing="0">
+<tr>
+<th colspan="3" align="center">Slackware Linux Essentials</th>
+</tr>
+
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+<td width="10%" align="left" valign="bottom"><a href="introduction-opensource.html"
+accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
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+<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="CHAPTER">
+<h1><a id="HELP" name="HELP"></a>Chapter 2 Help</h1>
+
+<div class="TOC">
+<dl>
+<dt><b>Table of Contents</b></dt>
+
+<dt>2.1 <a href="help.html#HELP-SYSTEM">System Help</a></dt>
+
+<dt>2.2 <a href="help-online.html">Online Help</a></dt>
+</dl>
+</div>
+
+<p>Often there are times when you might need help with a specific command, setting up a
+program, or getting a piece of hardware to work. Maybe you simply want to understand a
+given command better, or see what other options are available to use with it. Luckily,
+there are a variety of ways that you can get the help you're looking for. When you
+install Slackware you have the option of installing packages from the &#8220;F&#8221;
+series which includes FAQs and HOWTOs. Programs also come with help about their options,
+configuration files, and usage.</p>
+
+<div class="SECT1">
+<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="HELP-SYSTEM" name="HELP-SYSTEM">2.1 System Help</a></h1>
+
+<div class="SECT2">
+<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="HELP-SYSTEM-MAN" name="HELP-SYSTEM-MAN">2.1.1 <tt
+class="COMMAND">man</tt></a></h2>
+
+<p>The <tt class="COMMAND">man</tt> command (short for &#8220;manual&#8221;) is the
+traditional form of online documentation in Unix and Linux operating systems. Comprised
+of specially formatted files, the &#8220;man pages&#8221;, are written for the vast
+majority of commands and are distributed with the software itself. Executing <tt
+class="COMMAND">man somecommand</tt> will display the man page for (naturally) the
+command specified, in our example this would be the imaginary program <tt
+class="COMMAND">somecommand</tt>.</p>
+
+<p>As you might imagine, the amount of man pages can quickly add up, becoming overly
+confusing and seriously complicated, even for an advanced user. So, for this reason, man
+pages are grouped into enumerated sections. This system has been around for a very long
+time; enough so that you will often see commands, programs, and even programming library
+functions referred to with their man section number.</p>
+
+<p>For example:</p>
+
+<p>You might see a reference to <tt class="COMMAND">man</tt>(1). The numbering tells you
+that &#8220;<tt class="COMMAND">man</tt>&#8221; is documented in section 1 (user
+commands); you can specify that you want the section 1 man page for &#8220;man&#8221;
+with the command <tt class="COMMAND">man 1 man</tt>. Specifying the section that man
+should look in is useful in the case of multiple items with the same name.</p>
+
+<div class="TABLE"><a id="AEN409" name="AEN409"></a>
+<p><b>Table 2-1. Man Page Sections</b></p>
+
+<table border="0" frame="void" width="100%" class="CALSTABLE">
+<col width="25%" />
+<col width="75%" />
+<thead>
+<tr>
+<th>Section</th>
+<th>Contents</th>
+</tr>
+</thead>
+
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td>Section 1</td>
+<td>user commands (intro only)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>Section 2</td>
+<td>system calls</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>Section 3</td>
+<td>C library calls</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>Section 4</td>
+<td>devices (e.g., <tt class="FILENAME">hd</tt>, <tt class="FILENAME">sd</tt>)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>Section 5</td>
+<td>file formats and protocols (e.g., wtmp, <tt class="FILENAME">/etc/passwd</tt>,
+nfs)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>Section 6</td>
+<td>games (intro only)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>Section 7</td>
+<td>conventions, macro packages, etc. (e.g., nroff, ascii)</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>Section 8</td>
+<td>system administration (intro only)</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>In addition to <tt class="COMMAND">man</tt>(1), there are the commands <tt
+class="COMMAND">whatis</tt>(1) and <tt class="COMMAND">apropos</tt>(1) available to you,
+whose shared purpose is to make it easier to find information in the man system.</p>
+
+<p>The command <tt class="COMMAND">whatis</tt> gives a very brief description of system
+commands, somewhat in the style of a pocket command reference.</p>
+
+<p>Example:</p>
+
+<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<pre class="SCREEN">
+<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">whatis whatis</kbd>
+whatis (1) - search the whatis database for complete words
+</pre>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The command <tt class="COMMAND">apropos</tt> is used to search for a man page
+containing a given keyword.</p>
+
+<p>Example:</p>
+
+<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<pre class="SCREEN">
+<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">apropos wav</kbd>
+cdda2wav (1) - a sampling utility that dumps CD audio data into wav sound files
+netwave_cs (4) - Xircom Creditcard Netwave device driver
+oggdec (1) - simple decoder, Ogg Vorbis file to PCM audio file (WAV or RAW)
+wavelan (4) - AT&amp;T GIS WaveLAN ISA device driver
+wavelan_cs (4) - AT&amp;T GIS WaveLAN PCMCIA device driver
+wvlan_cs (4) - Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 device driver
+</pre>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>If you'd like further information on any of these commands, read their man pages for
+the details. ;)</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="SECT2">
+<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="HELP-SYSTEM-DOC" name="HELP-SYSTEM-DOC">2.1.2 The <tt
+class="FILENAME">/usr/doc</tt> Directory</a></h2>
+
+<p>The source for most packages that we build comes with some sort of documentation:
+README files, usage instructions, license files, etc. Any sort of documentation that
+comes with the source is included and installed on your system in the <tt
+class="FILENAME">/usr/doc</tt> directory. Each program will (usually) install its own
+documentation in the order of:</p>
+
+<p><tt class="FILENAME">/usr/doc/<var
+class="REPLACEABLE">$program-$version</var></tt></p>
+
+<p>Where <var class="REPLACEABLE">$program</var> is the name of the program you are
+wanting to read about, and <var class="REPLACEABLE">$version</var> is (obviously) the
+appropriate version of software package installed on your system.</p>
+
+<p>For example, to read the documentation for the command <tt class="COMMAND">man</tt>(1)
+you would want to <tt class="COMMAND">cd</tt> to:</p>
+
+<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<pre class="SCREEN">
+<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">cd /usr/doc/man-<var
+class="REPLACEABLE">$version</var></kbd>
+</pre>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>If reading the appropriate man page(s) doesn't provide you with enough information, or
+address what you're looking for in particular, the <tt class="FILENAME">/usr/doc</tt>
+directory should be your next stop.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="SECT2">
+<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="HELP-SYSTEM-HOWTO" name="HELP-SYSTEM-HOWTO">2.1.3 HOWTOs and
+mini-HOWTOs</a></h2>
+
+<p>It is in the truest spirit of the Open Source community that brings us to the
+HOWTO/mini-HOWTO collection. These files are exactly what they sound like - documents and
+guides describing how to do stuff. If you installed the HOWTO collection, the HOWTOs will
+be installed to <tt class="FILENAME">/usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs</tt> and the mini-HOWTOs to
+<tt class="FILENAME">/usr/doc/Linux-mini-HOWTOs</tt>.</p>
+
+<p>Also included in the same package series is a collection of FAQs, which is an acronym
+which stands for</p>
+
+<div class="INFORMALTABLE"><a id="AEN497" name="AEN497"></a>
+<table border="0" frame="void" class="CALSTABLE">
+<col />
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">F</i></span>requently</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">A</i></span>sked</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">Q</i></span>uestions</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>These documents are written in a &#8220;Question and answer&#8221; style for
+(surprise) Frequently Asked Questions. The FAQs can often be a very useful place to look
+if you're just looking for a &#8220;Quick Fix&#8221; to something. If you decide to
+install the FAQs during setup, you will find them installed to the <tt
+class="FILENAME">/usr/doc/Linux-FAQs</tt> directory.</p>
+
+<p>These files are well worth reading whenever you're not quite sure how to proceed with
+something. They cover an amazing range of topics, more often than not in a surprisingly
+detailed manner. Good stuff!</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="NAVFOOTER">
+<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" />
+<table summary="Footer navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0"
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+<tr>
+<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top"><a href="introduction-opensource.html"
+accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
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+
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