Getting Help

Question 1

The first layer of help is often provided by commands themselves, in the form of “usages”, or short summaries of syntax that are produced when the command is invoked with the…?

Answer 1

-h, -? or –help command line switch.

Question 2

_________ ________, more often abbreviated “man pages”, are the traditional source of reference info of Unix systems. A documentation page for most commands, file formats, programming calls, and general topics can be viewed using the man command. (For example, man ls generates documentation for the ls command.

Answer 2

Manual Pages.

Question 3

Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses the _____ pager for viewing man pages. When viewing files (including man pages) in less, navigation is provided by single letter keystrokes: space is used to view the next page, b is used to go back a page, q is used to quit. /text RETURN, searches for word text and n is for finding the next occurrence of the previously used search term.

Answer 3

less.

Question 4

Man pages are organized into…?

Answer 4

eight standard chapters. (some pages share identical names in different chapters. For example, pages exist for both the passwd command, found in chapter one on user commands, but also the /etc/passwd file, found in chapter five on file formats. Unfortunately for user trying to find documentation on the /etc/passwd file format, man passwd only displays the first page it finds, in this case the entry from chapter one. In order to view the man page from chapter five, the chapter must be explicitly specified, as in man 5 passwd.)

Question 5

Man Chapters:
Chapter 1 (Standard users) Topic...?

Answer 5

Commands

Question 6

Man Chapters:
Chapter 2 (Developers) Topic...?

Answer 6

System Calls

Question 7

Man Chapters:
Chapter 3 (Developers) Topic...?

Answer 7

Library Calls

Question 8

Man Chapters:
Chapter 4 (Administrators) Topic...?

Answer 8

Device Files

Question 9

Man Chapters:
Chapter 5 (Standard users)...?

Answer 9

File Formats

Question 10

Man Chapters:
Chapter 6 (Standard users)...?

Answer 10

Games.

Question 11

Man Chapters:
Chapter 7 (Standard Users)...?

Answer 11

General Information

Question 12

Man Chapters:
Chapter 8 (Administrators)...?

Answer 12

Administrator Commands.

Question 13

In Unix, references to man pages customarily include the chapter number in the parentheses after…?

Answer 13

The name of the page, such as passwd(1) or psswd(5). Each chapter contains an introductory page called intro, so the command man 5 intro would produce an introduction to chapter 5.

Question 14

Two switches commonly used with the man command include…?

Answer 14

-k, for performing keyword searches, and -a for viewing “all relevant” pages for an argument.

Question 15

Complicated commands are more fully documented in…?

Answer 15

Hyperlinked “info” pages.

Question 16

Info pages predate the days of..?

Answer 16

Web browsers and clickable links.

Question 17

Info pages are viewed using either the traditional info command, or Red Hat Linux provides a similar command with an easier interface called…?

Answer 17

pinfo.

Question 18

Info pages are primarily used by the…?

Answer 18

Software developed by the GNU project.

Question 19

The command pinfo, without arguments, will list…?

Answer 19

a table of contents for all installed info pages.

Question 20

Basic navigation is similar to the less pager. Links among the info pages can be traversed using the…?

Answer 20

Four arror keys.

Question 21

pinfo Navigation:

SPACE…?

Answer 21

Next page

Question 22

pinfo Navigation:

b…?

Answer 22

Previous Page.

Question 23

pinfo Navigation:

q…?

Answer 23

Quit

Question 24

pinfo Navigation:

/text RETURN…?

Answer 24

search for word “text”

Question 25

pinfo Navigation:

RIGHT ARROW…?

Answer 25

Follow Link

Question 26

pinfo Navigation:

LEFT ARROW…?

Answer 26

Back

Question 27

pinfo Navigation:

UP ARROW…?

Answer 27

Previous Link.

Question 28

pinfo Navigation:

DOWN ARROW…?

Answer 28

Next Link.

Question 29

One of the design principles behind open source software is often summarized…?

Answer 29

“Release early, release often”

Question 30

Red Hat Documentation Guides…?

Answer 30

• Deployment Guide
• Installation Guide
• Release Notes
• Virtualization Guide.

Question 31

The Linux Documentation Project has adopted the…?

Answer 31

Unenviable task of documenting all of the fast paced developments associated with teh Linux OS. Documentation a this site follows formats developed in the early days of Linux development.

Question 32

FAQs…?

Answer 32

FAQs are compilations of Frequently Asked Questions about a particular topic, such as the Linux-RAID FAQ.

Question 33

HOWTOs…?

Answer 33

HOWTOs provide step by step instructions about how to set up or configure a particular facet of Linux, such as the CD-Writing-HoOWTO, or the ETHERNET-HOWTO.

Question 34

GUIDES…?

Answer 34

Guides provide more in depth coverage of broad topics, such as System Administration, or even Linux Kernel Module Programming.

Question 35

yelp: The Gnome Help Browser…?

Answer 35

Can be started by choosing “Help” from the System Menu. It provides the primary documentation for many GNOME specific graphical applications, including the Nautilus File Manager and GNOME applets, there are also subtle entries referring to “Manual Pages” and “GNU Info Pages” at the bottom of the table of contents. These provide a “clickable” front end to the man pages and info pages, respectfully, and the wealth of info contained therein.