 |
Recent
Articles |
Review: The Linux Programmer's Toolbox
Wow. Regular readers here know I don't say "wow" lightly. I may like a book, I may even think it's useful or even something you really should have, but very few...
Nokia Eases The Pain For C And Linux Developers
For mobile application developers and those creating LBS apps this is huge! If you develop application and program in C or Linux then your gonna love the...
Enderle On Linux
Linux does not exist except as a concept, we can all move on now. No I am not bashing Rob, but I did find his paper "The Five Things you Aren't Allowed to Discuss...
Fighting Analysis Paralysis With Open Source?
I stumbled across this analysis of the Linux Kernel which brought back "fond" memories of my market opportunity forecasting days. In the analysis, the author, kripken, estimates that "at most, 60% of the Linux Kernel...
Novell Could Loose Access To New Linux Versions
Make a deal with a big closed source company and the FSF (Free Software Foundation) may pull your access rights to Linux Distro's. At least that is what Novell...
Invalidating The Linux Buffer Cache
When you write data, it doesn't necessarily get written to disk right then. The kernel maintains caches of many things, and disk data is something where a lot of...
|
|
Recent WebProNews Articles |
SEW Live Recap: This Is Getting Personal
At the end of the day, it's about sales, not traffic. And if it's about sales, then it must also be about people, not clicks. This seemed to be the focus of yesterday's...
NY Board Seeks Google DoubleClick Delay
Concerns about privacy have prompted the New York State Consumer Protection Board to ask the Federal Trade Commission for a delay in approving...
New York Times Third Best At "Sex"?
If you were, by some chance, to search for “sex” on Google, what sort of sites would you expect to see? Perhaps we shouldn’t give explicit examples, but a...
Parents Obsessed With Google Baby Names
Have we really reached a point where people are going to worry about how and where their progeny's names appear in Google's search results? Parental competitiveness has always been with a lot of people. Whether they...
Mom's Guide To Social Marketing
Your mother, if she did her job right, taught you everything you need to know about how to get along in the world and how to get ahead in it. When we were...
Google Finance Cashes In Updates
Some new features arrived in Google's Finance site, with the big addition being content from events like earnings announcements and analyst calls. Ever since...
|
|
|
05.10.07
Getting Help with a Linux Command or Concept
 By Clyde Boom
As part of your Linux training, it is vital that you clearly understand Linux concepts, like: how to boot Linux, the Linux file system, and how to create a Linux user.
Another part of your Linux training needs to involve learning how to use Linux commands. This is because Linux commands - and not Linux GUI utilities - are by far and away the best way to do Linux administration tasks.
Fortunately, Linux has a command named info that allows you to see "info pages" on a Linux concept or Linux command.
Linux Tips: Some Linux distributions (versions) come with lots of info pages installed (over 500) on all kinds of Linux concepts and commands. However, others only have a few info pages. Experiment with your system to see how much Linux "info" you can find!
This Linux command tutorial shows you examples of how to run the Linux info command.
All of the Linux command examples (hands-on labs) shown below have been designed to work with all Linux distributions (versions).
So, if you run the Linux commands shown below yourself, you'll have a mini Linux command tutorial - a great way to get Linux training and lean how to use Linux.
Linux Info Command Tutorial
Some info pages have a Menu of items to choose from and others don't.
For example, the info page for the mkdir (make directory) command is just a single info "page" and doesn't have a Menu. You just read the information on the screen and scroll down as you're reading.
However, some info pages, like the info page for the grep command, do have a menu.
Using the Linux Info Command - To Get Info on a Linux Command
Run the following Linux command as an example of running the info command to get info on the mkdir command.
]$ info mkdir
This is a single page of info on the mkdir command. Press Page Down until you get to the bottom of the page and then press "q" (without the quotation marks) to quit.
Now run the following Linux command to get info the grep command.
]$ info grep
After running the above command, some Linux distributions will display the man page for the grep command rather than the info page.
If you see "File: grep.info" at the top left of the screen, then you are looking at the info page and not the man page. The ".info" in "grep.info" indicates that you are looking at an info page, and the info page for grep has a Menu and multiple pages rather than just a single page.
Linux Tips: To get info on a different command, just replace "grep" in the command above with the name of the Linux command you need to learn.
Using the Info Command to Get Linux Command Examples
Linux Tips: You will be able to do the following steps if you are looking at the info page for grep (which has a Menu and multiple pages), rather than the man page, which is just a single page.
To see examples of using the grep command, move your cursor to the left of the Menu item: "Usage: Examples" and press Enter.
Linux Tips: Linux command examples are rare in free Linux documentation. If you need to learn a Linux command, use the info command and see if there are any examples shown for the command.
One of the most useful things about the info command is that it sometimes shows examples of Linux commands. However, it can be a bit tricky to navigate the info pages if there are multiple pages. Also, Linux concepts and commands are often described in a very technical manner (in Linux "geek-speak").
Beyond This "Linux Commands Tutorials" Article
Here are some other important things to learn about the info command and info pages: how to navigate (move around from page to page) in the info pages that have menus, and how to use the info command to find out more info on a Linux concept.
Another way to get Linux training is to use Linux video tutorials. When you watch a Linux video, you can see everything you need on how to use a Linux command or how to understand a Linux concept. You can also pause a Linux video whenever you need to, and watch it as many times as you like!
About the Author:
Watch Free Sample I Learn Linux Video Tutorials now at http://www.iLearnLinux.com and get over the steep Linux learning curve (goa).
Get I Learn Linux News - Now!
Clyde Boom, Author and Expert Trainer with 20+ Years of Training Successes.
|
