I've never used it/them before but just started trying it/them out as it is mentioned as a good source of info (funnily enough). I'm not liking it though so far; it seems really counter-intuitive and difficult to get any useful info out of.

So, does anyone use it/them? Is it worth me taking the time to learn it properly, or is it outmoded and best ignored?

Cheers

spoov

In my experience, the info pages seldom contain more than the man pages. Sometimes I see a man page which says, "for more, see the info page." In that case, the info page is worth checking.

What I miss from both man and info is examples. I like examples. I remind myself that these are not intended as tools for learning Linux; they are reference tools for answering a specific question right now.

It's the difference between a book on how to drive and the owner's manual for a car. The owner's manual doesn't teach you how to drive; it shows you where the manufacturer hid the battery (real life example: I had to look in the manual to find out where the battery was hidden in my girlfriend's Toy Auto).

Agree. I don't even bother to refer to info page whenever I encounter problems
I'd rather check /usr/share/doc/* when I feel confused with man page, or searching for config examples.
The help command (command --help or command -h) is also quite helpful for a quick reference sometimes.

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sibe

I prefer info documentation over man pages. It is far more detailed and goes a long way toward teaching one to use a program effectively.

For example, compare the gawk man page with the gawk info documentation. You might be able to infer much of what is in the info documentation from just the man page, but IMHO learning gawk from the man page only would be very difficult and frustrating.

I used to get documentation by searching the web. After I learned to use info I found myself relying on it much more.

At least on my system Konqueror supports an info protocol. If you don't like the text mode interface of the traditional info program then you can use Konqueror. Just enter info:/TOPIC into the location bar to use it. I always have one Konqueror window open with several tabs of documentation. Here's what's in it right now:

• info:/gawk
• info:/find
• info:/cpio
• info:/coreutils
• info:/bashref

Does that work in Konqueror 4.x??

Yes, see the attachment.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Aha that is good to know, thanks Telengard i'll give it a try.