Getting additional help with Unix

NC State provides several other sources of information on the Unix operating system:

• Using the manual pages
• Searching the man pages by key word
• How to look at uninstalled man pages
• NC State Help Desk
• Sysnews
• Guide to the Eos Computing Environment

Using the manual pages

Tthere are reference pages detailing nearly every aspect of the Unix operating system as well as many of the major programs used at NC State. These reference pages are "manual pages," generally referred to as "man pages."

Although information in the man pages is highly detailed, this online reference is the best source for exhaustive information regarding specific Unix commands. When someone suggests you look at the "man pages" they mean you should read the online reference manual.

The xman program can display the complete reference material for a command or program, or one-line summaries selected by keyword.

To view the entire manual type xman at the prompt.

To use the man command to find information on a particular program or command, type

man [program or command name]

For example, typing man more will display the reference pages for the text browser command more. The display should resemble the following:

MORE(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    MORE(1)



NAME
     more, page - browse or page through a text file

SYNOPSIS
     more [ -cdflsu ] [ -lines ] [ +linenumber ] [ +/pattern ]
          [ filename ... ]

     page [ -cdflsu ] [ -lines ] [ +linenumber ] [ +/pattern ]  [
     filename ... ]

DESCRIPTION
     more is a filter that displays the contents of a  text  file
     on  the  terminal,  one  screenful  at  a time.  It normally
     pauses after each screenful, and prints --More-- at the bot-
     tom of the screen.  more provides a two-line overlap between

Searching the man pages by key word

For example, typing man -k lpr displays several one-line summaries of each command containing "lpr" somewhere in them. The example usually results in the following:

mailprint (1)           - filter to strip out mail message attachments
/ncsu/kaputnic/man/whatis: No such file or directory
/usr/afsws/man/whatis: No such file or directory
/usr/local/X11/man/whatis: No such file or directory
/usr/local/man/whatis: No such file or directory
lpr (1)                 - send a job to the printer
lprm (1)                - remove jobs from the printer queue

You don't normally have to worry about the lines which contain the "No such file or directory" messages. Notice, however, that there are three commands which do fit the search pattern: mailprint, which contains "lpr" in the middle of the word, and lpr and lprm, which are print control commands.

Once you have a an idea of the commands that pertain to your keyword, you should look up the full reference page for those commands to see which are best suited to your needs and precisely how to use them.

How to look at uninstalled man pages

Use the nroff command to format these pages for your screen.

For example, the xcalendar program is currently (7/95) in the "bin" directory of the "goodies" locker. The man page is in the "man/man1/" directory of the "goodies" locker. To see the manual page on xcalendar, change to the directory with the man page and type:

nroff -man xcalendar.1 | more

The command is piping the output of the nroff format command through the more page display command.

NC State Help Desk

• email at: help@ncsu.edu
• telephone phone at: 515-HELP (4357)
• campus mail - Campus Box 7109, NC State
• or you may come by to visit them in Room 106 of the Hillsborough Building - #48 campus map/North, just North of the D.H. Hill Library
• there is also an extensive knowledgebase of computer related questions and answers available to you online at www.help.ncsu.edu

Sysnews

Guide to the Eos Computing Environment

Go to the Unix Workstation Guide.