Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 21:09:00 -0800 From: "Sally Hines" <shines@smaller.net> To: "'Scott Emerson Longley'" <emerson@WPI.EDU> Cc: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: RE: Manpage interpreter Message-ID: <000101c4e976$ae538b60$6400a8c0@musal32mpxlg> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0412232257200.11364-100000@ccc1.wpi.edu>
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Hi Scott, Thank you for the tips. This will be very helpful. I've instintively tried some of this, scanning through, seeing if anything in the detailed sections looks like it addresses any or my issues. Sally Hines -----Original Message----- From: Scott Emerson Longley [mailto:emerson@WPI.EDU] Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2004 8:42 PM To: Sally Hines Cc: 'Tyler Gee'; 'Mervin McDougall'; freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: RE: Manpage interpreter On Thu, 23 Dec 2004, Sally Hines wrote: > I want to thank everyone for offering me good information on > automating the ports update. My real question, though, is how to read > and understand manpages. Where is the interpreter? I know I am not the > only noob to ever have this problem? I can solve my own problems much > better if I can interpret the instructions. > > Thank you again, > > Sally Hines Finding good documentation can be a really big challenge. I've had success with a multi-pronged approach involving many sources. However, for those times when manpages are best, I've found that there are certain sections that are immediately useful, and they're mostly near the bottom. If there's an "examples" section, it's likely to prove relevant to simple queries. If you're not sure you're looking at the right page, skip straight to the "see also" section to get your bearings. --generally, if I don't see see something at the top that seems immediately relevant, I skip straight to all the little sections at the bottom before digging into the middle. Even a one-liner "history" section has occasionally given me some context that I needed. Also, try searching the manpage for words relevent to your question (type "/", then a word). Different Unix-derived sytems have similar commands, so it might also be useful to check out their manpages, if you have access to them. Having said all that, often, the right book will save lots of time. I figure that when someone has bothered to put a cohesive chapter together that covers the subject of your question, that's worth an awful lot. The FreeBSD Handbook is the obvious choice for a book (and a good choide, I believe). If you like examples (and have non-FreeBSD-specific questions), I highly reccomend "Unix Power Tools". Also, "Absolute BSD" provides a nice refrain from the often overly-detail-oriented nature of manpages. I hope my scatter-brained answer is helpful :-) -Scott Longleyhelp
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