Help!

The Unix help facility is strangely named. The help command is shortened from the word "manual" to become "man". The help pages have come to be know as "man pages." So if you need help running a particular command, "ls" for example, you would type

man ls

The response will be a full description of the command. First there is a short synopsis of its use, then there is more detail on the switches (options), and finally, there are often examples of how to use the command.

Of course, this is useful only when you know the command you wish to use and only need more instruction. What do you do when you don't know the command name? There are a couple of ways to get more help. One choice is to type

man intro

This will explain what is available and then give you a list of commands. The list of commands is probably more than you need to see (it is everything, including system administration commands) but you will probably find what you need.

Another technique is to search for relevant man pages using a keyword. You can do this with the command " apropos " as in

apropos keyword

which will list all the commands relating to the keyword you gave with a short description of each. This list of commands can be quite long so a better form of the command would be

apropos keyword | page

which lets you look through the output one page at a time.

Since working through the man pages when you don't know what you are looking for is cumbersome and slow, we have added a Web-based utility to aid your search. You can connect to it through the Unixinfo home page http://bama.ua.edu/~unixinfo

or you can connect directly to the man pages with http://bama.ua.edu/cgi-bin/man-cgi

Much of the software which has been added to Bama comes with man pages also. For instance, to use TeX, the text formatting language, you would type

man tex

There are some exceptions to this. Pine does not have a man page because it has its own internal help pages. The IMSL package (mathematical and statistical subroutine library) does not have a man but put does have its own help viewer (useful only on X-windows) and the software developer has a Web site starting at http://www.vni.com.

In fact, many software packages are now developing their most comprehensive help facilities for use through the Web. We are attempting to bring together links in centralized places. For general help with getting an account on Bama and usage information try http://bama.ua.edu/~helpdesk/bamainfo.

(Editor's Note: The HelpDesk Unix section may now be found at http://helpdesk.ua.edu/unix.)

For information on software which has been loaded onto the system go to http://bama.ua.edu/~unixinfo/software/software.html. This web page has links to all the local sources of information available on the Web for the software we offer, including the editors, compilers, and mail programs.

When all else has failed you can send an email to help.desk@mail.ua.edu.

© 1998, The University of Alabama. The information included here is for the University of Alabama central computing facility as it was configured on the document date. It may or may not apply to other Unix systems.

September 15, 1998 Vol. 2 Index Back to Vol. 2, No. 2 Ahead to Vol. 2, No. 4		Search:

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	Help! The Unix help facility is strangely named. The help command is shortened from the word "manual" to become "man". The help pages have come to be know as "man pages." So if you need help running a particular command, "ls" for example, you would type `man ls` The response will be a full description of the command. First there is a short synopsis of its use, then there is more detail on the switches (options), and finally, there are often examples of how to use the command. Of course, this is useful only when you know the command you wish to use and only need more instruction. What do you do when you don't know the command name? There are a couple of ways to get more help. One choice is to type `man intro` This will explain what is available and then give you a list of commands. The list of commands is probably more than you need to see (it is everything, including system administration commands) but you will probably find what you need. Another technique is to search for relevant man pages using a keyword. You can do this with the command " apropos " as in `apropos keyword` which will list all the commands relating to the `keyword` you gave with a short description of each. This list of commands can be quite long so a better form of the command would be `apropos keyword \| page` which lets you look through the output one page at a time. Since working through the man pages when you don't know what you are looking for is cumbersome and slow, we have added a Web-based utility to aid your search. You can connect to it through the Unixinfo home page http://bama.ua.edu/~unixinfo or you can connect directly to the man pages with http://bama.ua.edu/cgi-bin/man-cgi Much of the software which has been added to Bama comes with man pages also. For instance, to use TeX, the text formatting language, you would type `man tex` There are some exceptions to this. Pine does not have a man page because it has its own internal help pages. The IMSL package (mathematical and statistical subroutine library) does not have a man but put does have its own help viewer (useful only on X-windows) and the software developer has a Web site starting at http://www.vni.com. In fact, many software packages are now developing their most comprehensive help facilities for use through the Web. We are attempting to bring together links in centralized places. For general help with getting an account on Bama and usage information try http://bama.ua.edu/~helpdesk/bamainfo. (Editor's Note: The HelpDesk Unix section may now be found at http://helpdesk.ua.edu/unix.) For information on software which has been loaded onto the system go to http://bama.ua.edu/~unixinfo/software/software.html. This web page has links to all the local sources of information available on the Web for the software we offer, including the editors, compilers, and mail programs. When all else has failed you can send an email to help.desk@mail.ua.edu. © 1998, The University of Alabama. The information included here is for the University of Alabama central computing facility as it was configured on the document date. It may or may not apply to other Unix systems.
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