A.1 Kinds of Documentation

On Debian systems, you can find documentation in at least the following places:

• man pages, read with the man command.
• info pages, read with the info command.
• The /usr/doc/package directories, where package is the name of the Debian package.

  Tip:

  zless is useful for reading the files in /usr/doc; see section 8.1 on page 201 for details.

• /usr/doc/HOWTO/contains the Linux Documentation Project’s HOWTO documents, if you’ve installed the Debian packages containing them.
• Many commands have an -h or --help option. Type the command name followed by one of these options to try it.
• The Debian Documentation Project¹ has written some manuals.
• The Debian support page² has a FAQ and other resources. You can also try the Linux web site³.

The confusing variety of documentation sources exists for many reasons. For example, info is supposed to replace man, but man hasn’t disappeared yet. However, it’s nice to know that so much documentation exists!

So where to look for help? Here are some suggestions:

• Use the man pages and the --help or -h option to get a quick summary of a command’s syntax and options. Also use man if a program doesn’t yet have an info page.
• Use info if a program has info documentation.
• If neither of those works, look in /usr/doc/packagename .
• /usr/doc/packagename often has Debian-specific information, even if there’s a man page or info page.
• Use the HOWTOs for instructions on how to set up a particular thing or for information on your particular hardware. For example, the Ethernet HOWTO has a wealth of information on Ethernet cards, and the PPP HOWTO explains in detail how to set up PPP.
• Use the Debian Documentation Project manuals for conceptual explanations and Debian-specific information.
• If all else fails, ask someone. See section A.1.3 on page 286.

Using man pages is discussed above in section 5.1 on page 121. It’s very simple: press the space bar to go to the next page, and press q to quit reading. Using info, viewing files in /usr/doc, and asking for help from a person are all discussed in the remainder of this chapter.