Documentation

AlekseišNovodvorsky, AlexanderšProkoudine

If you have just begun to become acquainted with the Linux operating system and do not have any experience working in UNIX-like systems, you need to get a Linux guidebook. Nevertheless, electronic manuals should not be neglected, either. On the contrary, they should be the first source to address wherever you have a question. You may certainly ask your question in our mailing lists, but reading documentation is always more effective because this way you are getting a more complete, and, more importantly, absolutely precise information on the subject that interests you, while the points of view of subscribers of a particular mailing list may differ from reality.

The “native” and most often used electronic documentation system in UNIX is based on manual pages. Execution of the man command will show a manual page for the majority of programs (primarily for console applications), and for many system configuration files. For instance, the man command can output information about the use of man itself. If the exact name of the man page you need is unknown, a string search may be executed using the apropos and whatis commands. The difference between these is the following: whatis, in contrast to apropos, searches only for whole-word matches in man page descriptions, which allows to avoid unwanted matches and to limit the output information volume to relevant matches only.

Documentation for the GNU project and for many other applications exists in the form of info pages, which can be viewed with the console info command. Access to info and man pages is possible through KDE Help Center, an integrated collection of documentation viewing tools that is a part of the KDE graphical environment. KDE Help Center has its own help resources that can be easily accessed from the Desktop or through the Documentation menu.

The directory /usr/share/doc is the main location of various documentation. Special attention should be paid to the “HOWTO” documents, a collection of practical recommendations on the widest variety of subjects related to the use of Linux. These files are kept in the howto package. Each package also contains certain documentation supplied with software that it contains, usually located in /usr/share/doc/package_name directory. For instance, documents for foo-1.0-alt1 are stored in /usr/share/doc/foo-1.0-alt1 directory. To obtain a full list of documentation files pertaining to a package, use the following command: rpm -qld package_name.

In documentation for each package, you will find such files as README, FAQ, TODO, ChangeLog, and others. In README, the main information about a program is stored, including its developers' names and contact information, its purpose, useful advices, etc. FAQ contains answers to frequently asked questions. This file should be the first one to read if you have encountered problems or have questions on using the program, because most problems and difficulties are typical, and, in many cases, you will be able to find a complete solution right away in FAQ. The TODO file contains developers' plans for implementation of certain features. You should read this file if are going to contact developers offering them a detailed account of what you think is wrong with their program. In the ChangeLog file, a version-to-version history of changes in the program is recorded.

And finally, the freshest information can be obtained on the Internet on such sites as http://www.linuxdoc.org. URL's of sites devoted to individual software products can be seen in the headers of the relevant packages. They may be obtained using the command rpm -qi.

An electronic version of our documentation can be found in the docs directory on the distribution CD.

Recommended Literature

  1. Matt Welsh, Matthias Kalle Dalheimer, Terry Dawson, Lar Kaufman. Running Linux. O'Reilly Publishers. 4th Edition.