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SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration. Chapter 3 Locate and Use Help Resources. Objectives. Objective 1—Access and Use man Pages Objective 2—Use info Pages Objective 3—Access Release Notes and White Papers Objective 4—Use GUI-Based Help Objective 5—Find Help on the Web.
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SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration Chapter 3 Locate and Use Help Resources
Objectives • Objective 1—Access and Use man Pages • Objective 2—Use info Pages • Objective 3—Access Release Notes and White Papers • Objective 4—Use GUI-Based Help • Objective 5—Find Help on the Web SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Objective 1—Access and Use man Pages • man command • The most important command for online help • All manual pages are available in English • And many have been translated into other languages • To display the English version of the man page for the man command • LANG=en_EN man man SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Objective 1—Access and Use man Pages (continued) • The first page of the manual pages SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Objective 1—Access and Use man Pages (continued) • Parts of a manual page Table 3-1 Parts of a manual page SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Objective 1—Access and Use man Pages (continued) • The program man uses the program less to display the manual pages • Within less, the display of text is controlled by the keys shown in Table 3-2 • The manual pages are organized in the sections shown in Table 3-3 • It is especially important to know to which section a command belongs • When the command has more than one manual page SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Table 3-2 less command keys SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Objective 1—Access and Use man Pages (continued) Table 3-3 Sections in manual pages SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Objective 1—Access and Use man Pages (continued) • You can display a brief description of all the available manual pages for a command or utility • By using the whatis command • Manual pages are located in the directory /usr/share/man/ SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Exercise 3-1: Access and Use man Pages • In this exercise, use the whatis and man commands to get information on the info command • In the manual page, look for filename SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Objective 2—Use info Pages • A whole series of programs are no longer provided with manual pages • Instead, info files are used, which can be read with the info command • info files are located in the directory /usr/share/info/ • Advantages of the info file format: • It uses a structured document setup • Specific sections can be reached directly from the table of contents • Specific sections can be linked SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Objective 2—Use info Pages (continued) • The beginning of the info file for the info command SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Table 3-4 Most commonly used key commands for the infocommand SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Exercise 3-2: Access and Use info Pages • In this exercise, use the info command to get information on info and navigate through the info text SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Objective 3—Access Release Notes and White Papers • Release notes, white papers, and other sources of helpful information • Stored in the directory /usr/share/doc/ • This directory contains the following: • Release Notes • Manuals • Help for Installed Packages • HOWTOs SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Release Notes • When you complete the installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server • The release notes appear in a window • See Figure 3-1 • You can find them in various languages in the directory /usr/share/doc/release-notes/SUSE_Linux Enterprise_Desktop__10/ SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Figure 3-1 SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop release notes SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Manuals • A PDF version of the manual is in /usr/share/doc/manual/sled deployment_en/ • If you prefer HTML, an HTML version is available in the manual/subfolder SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Help for Installed Packages • Help files are available in the following directory for most installed packages: • /usr/share/doc/packages/package-name/ • These help files are written by the programmers of the package • Therefore, the format of these files is not standardized SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
HOWTOs • You can find additional information (including background material) in the howtos • A howto is available for almost every imaginable topic in Linux • You can find a list of all current howtos at www.tldp.org SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Objective 4—Use GUI-Based Help • An online help tool is available for graphical applications • See Figure 3-2 • To start the online help, select Computer > More Applications > System > Yelp • Use the links to navigate through the content • You also can use the search function to speed up your search for help • The online help is available in most GNOME applications and can be started by pressing F1 SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Figure 3-2 GUI-based help SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Objective 5—Find Help on the Web • Some of the more frequently used Linux sites: • www.novell.com/linux • www.tldp.org • www.cert.org (especially for security issues) • www.securityfocus.com (especially for security issues) • www.kernel.org (especially for issues in connection with the Linux kernel) • www.novell.com/coolsolutions/ (follow the links on Linux) SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Exercise 3-3: Access Release Notes and Find Help on the Web • In this exercise, you access release notes and find help on the Web • Use the Nautilus file manager to access the release notes in /usr/share/doc/releasenotes/ • Start Firefox and access the Linux Documentation Project at www.tldp.org • Look for updates for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on the Novell support Web site • Then, use the Google Linux search engine to find information on GNOME and SLED10 in the Internet SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration
Summary • There are several help resources available locally on your SUSE Linux system as well as on the Internet • The manual pages contain the syntax and usage of most commands and files on your system • The info pages are an alternative to the man pages that format information differently and can contain links to other sections • The /usr/share/doc directory contains the manual and release notes for the SUSE Linux installation SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration