Getting Help
Often, when working on the system, it is necessary to find out how something
works, or to look up a certain command. There are many ways to find help
when on the system.
-
Within most of the frequently used interactive programs (elm
and
trn,
for example) there
is help available within the program itself. ?
and
h
or
help
are the
usual commands to find this help. For command-line based programs and
commands, try invoking the program with the flag "-h" or "-help" to
find the correct syntax to use. However, this is the most basic kind
of help, and not always broad enough to be useful.
-
The
man (1)
command should give thorough help on any program installed on the system.
It also will give information on the commands available.
The manual pages are sometimes quite long, and so skimming to find the
information you need is a necessary skill. The manual page gives
information on the purpose of a command or program, how it is supposed
to be used, and lists the different options or ways to use it. The
manual page also contains a section with notes on usage, as well
as a more detailed list of features (and bugs).
% man progname
is the way to use man to find help for prgname.
-
Manuals are also available in the terminal room and the OS lab.
These contain all of the information available from the
man (1)
command, as well as some more
in-depth papers and other information on common topics and questions. Look
in UNIX : The Basics (described
below) or at the introduction to each manual for more information.
-
If you know that you need a certain command, but don't know what it is
called, or want help on a certain topic,
% man -k topic
will give suggestions for commands or programs with the name or
description topic. It matches your topic against a database
about the manual pages, and prints out any entries that contain
topic in them. This means you should avoid using man
-k on topics that are very common, such as remove, or
short, such as vi, as it will spit out line after line of
irrelevant topics. If you supply multiple words, the words will be
used one after another rather than together.
man -k
will sometimes give multiple references for the same topic that differ only
by the number in parentheses after the program name, such as
uuencode (1) and uuencode (5). This number refers to
the section of the manual. To specify which section, use
% man -s n topic
where n is the number of the section.
Sometimes several tries are necessary before the right keyword is found.
Have patience and continue trying until you find the answer.
-
For some of the Free Software Foundation's GNU products (like gcc,
gnu-emacs, and so forth), there are "info" pages. The
info program uses its own brand of hypertext, so it takes some
learning. However, it holds the complete manuals to gcc and Emacs,
among other things. Invoke this program with info gcc, for
example, or just info if you aren't sure that the program you
need is listed or to get the info program's own help.
-
Introductions to specific programs and other topics can also be found
in the Frequenctly Asked Questions and Quick
Reference Guides (also known as FAQ's and QRef's)
Type faq or qref at the command line to get to the
guides.
-
If you don't know where to start, the system staff has written a basic
document called UNIX: The Basics to
help. Read it carefully. It is also available in hardcopy from the
department secretary and the CS sys admin.
Often there is a consultant on duty in Beckman 102.
You can:
- Go there and ask questions
- Call the room at x73442
- Send email to consult@cs.hmc.edu (this will reach all
consultants and staff)
- type talk consult
You can also try talking to the CS sys admin across the
hall from the consultant (Beckman 101). If he is in, he can
generally help you.
Please note that he is busy and should be referred to only in
emergencies.
See the qref on request at the
command line.
Notes:
Read the
system notices that appear on your screenwhen you log in carefully--
they sometimes contain explanations for problems that are occurring on
the system, and will explain the solutions to these problems when
possible.
Information is often available on the boards in the terminal rooms.
If you know that a problem is common, this might be a place to
look. These boards also contain commonly used procedures, and the
names of the people to contact in case of emergency.
Copyright (c) HMC Computer Science Department.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with the no Invariant Sections, with no
Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.
A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License.''
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