How do i learn about commands?
 

Hello

If we press esc + down arrow all commands which are known to system appear,and if we type info some information about command usage is provided which is not enough to be able to use all commands,also info Emacs...
If we type some commands followed by --help in terminal in some cases, the out put is: command is not known.
If we type whatis followed by some commands, in many cases the out put is as such:
-nothing appropriate

So! how do i learn about commands?

Thank you

Hi,

You can learn a lot about the commands by reading the man pages on your system;
or by reading them online (easier on the eyes), and organized, on sites like this:
Linux man pages

As another option you can also ask Google. You'll find tons of information and examples when asking Google.

Kind regards,

Eric

Well, the documentation of a program depends quite heavily on the developer of that program. Some have built-in help, which is accessed in the way the programmer made it accessible -- in some cases through a "--help" or "-h" or "-?" switch, in some cases without any arguments, sometimes in other ways. There are man and/or info pages of some programs, but not all. This is because there are many developers for the programs and they are not controlled by one person or company; if you compare to, say, Microsoft, they have guidelines on how programs should act. Not all software makers that make software available for GNU/Linux operating systems work under the same "code". There are some standards, but not just one, and even then not everybody obeys them (i.e. some peope obey some standards, some obey something else, some nothing at all!).

In short, learn the various usual ways of getting help, try them out, buy a book. There is no one way that would work in every single case, except for "trial and error" which (in a bad case) might get you into trouble.

This tutorial from IBM Developerworks should help you out a lot. It requires registration, but that is a pretty painless procedure.

Also try 'info coreutils' you can then press Enter on any of those commands to find out more, this is an easy way to find commands that you might need.

'apropos' and a keyword is another way to find out what command you might need.

As stated above, man pages also also very useful.

Reply to all
 

Hello

First i want to thank you all for your help,then i am going to open the problem more,because this is not only my problem and any beginner in Linux now and in future experiences the same problem that sometimes,gets into trouble, as you said.

-I have installed Mandriva,this software seems to be much better than the previous ones that were available to me,and this is the main reason why i came to ask for help! Because(unlike my previous Linux software which i had to make progress by trial and error)i did not want to ruin that,and i knew that if i give wrong commands,many things might be changed,and considering my week knowledge,i wouldn,t be able to repair in a short time,so there wouldn,t be progress but in a very long period of time,which causes tiredness and becomes boring,otherwise all Linux distributions as i know are capable of becoming the best if an expert works on them.
-I read the documentation very fast but i understood that it was not much helping in my state as a beginner,for example,when i type autoconf,autoupdate,the output is: configure.in or configure...is required which i don,t know what they are,and when i ask: whatis configure.in the answer is:nothing appropriate.
The is also the same about what our friend H TeXMeX H says: Also try 'info coreutils', which although in the past i have used that,but now i do not know where to find them and,besides,as i said i do not want to give wrong commands anymore.Or 'apropos' which i do not know what it is!
-I have installed kde help and yelp also have set a link from kde control center and Mandriva control center on my desktop,also a link of man,but as read the man1 and man2 to me they were not usefull,although previously in other distributions there were many useful informatio found on these manuals,but now i still haven,t been able to install yum ,which i have downloaded,because my software asks me to determine which application should be used to open the(for example) install file,and i don,t know for sure!
I also viewed similar questions and found some URLs that gradually i will use them all,and also your guide lines(you all) to find needed answers to my questions.I also visited the tutorial related site as our friends MTK358 and jmcg say ,but i was not in a registration mode!
There is not a useful book available to me in the country where i live,although i have bought some educational CDs,which were not useful enough(even the main Linux software found here are usually older versions,and very scarce)
Tomorrow i am going to make this question and discussion as solved to be able to spend more time to use those commands related sites,but i think if all these information were available on the Linux software and were automatically installed and accessible right after Linux installation,that could be a great help to users,specially beginners.
Again thank you all.

I'm having trouble following your last post....

One thing not yet suggested: Go to http://tldp.org and get a copy of the Bash Guide for Beginners (free)

Hello,

I agree with pixellany that your post is pretty difficult to follow. As I understand it you're having trouble using Mandriva and not just Linux commands. Maybe this will help you out, since it's specific to Mandriva:
http://doc.mandriva.com/
On the left of that page you have references to a lot of version specific documentation to Mandriva. It even has screenshots in it.

I hope this helps out.

Kind regards,

Eric

Hi,

A few links to help you understand overall;

Linux Documentation Project
Rute Tutorial & Exposition
Linux Command Guide
Utimate Linux Newbie Guide
LinuxSelfHelp
Getting Started with Linux
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
Linux Home Networking
Virtualiation- Top 10

:hattip:
The above links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!