1 00:00:00,150 --> 00:00:01,650 In addition to man pages, 2 00:00:01,650 --> 00:00:03,630 there's some other helpful options that are built 3 00:00:03,630 --> 00:00:06,420 into Linux to help you when you need assistance. 4 00:00:06,420 --> 00:00:09,240 The first one we're going to cover is known as apropos, 5 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:10,860 which is the Linux commands that are used 6 00:00:10,860 --> 00:00:13,530 to search the name section of all of the man pages 7 00:00:13,530 --> 00:00:15,900 for a given keyword that you provide. 8 00:00:15,900 --> 00:00:17,760 It's going to be especially useful when you'd like 9 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:19,710 to perform some tasks, but you forgot the name 10 00:00:19,710 --> 00:00:22,260 of the exact command you might need to use. 11 00:00:22,260 --> 00:00:24,310 Another handy command is known as whatis. 12 00:00:25,380 --> 00:00:27,450 Whatis is going to be used to display a brief description 13 00:00:27,450 --> 00:00:30,060 of a given command, including commands that may appear 14 00:00:30,060 --> 00:00:32,880 in multiple sections of the man pages. 15 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:35,220 Another command we have is known as info. 16 00:00:35,220 --> 00:00:36,930 The command info is going to be used 17 00:00:36,930 --> 00:00:39,360 to display the info page of a command. 18 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:41,670 It is generally an alternative to a man page, 19 00:00:41,670 --> 00:00:44,640 but they're not as widely adopted as man pages. 20 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:46,950 Personally, I much prefer a man page 21 00:00:46,950 --> 00:00:49,050 because man pages contain all the information 22 00:00:49,050 --> 00:00:51,120 you need in a single page. 23 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:53,730 Info pages, on the other hand, have more structure, 24 00:00:53,730 --> 00:00:55,590 and they can be composed of multiple pages 25 00:00:55,590 --> 00:00:58,110 interconnected through links but again, 26 00:00:58,110 --> 00:00:59,460 I'm just a bit more old-school, 27 00:00:59,460 --> 00:01:01,980 and I grew up where man pages were the dominant thing. 28 00:01:01,980 --> 00:01:03,450 So this tends to be where I default 29 00:01:03,450 --> 00:01:04,680 to when I need to learn more 30 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:06,150 about a particular Linux command, 31 00:01:06,150 --> 00:01:09,690 but some newer people like to use the info pages too. 32 00:01:09,690 --> 00:01:11,070 Another quick way to get information 33 00:01:11,070 --> 00:01:14,070 on a command is to type it as --help 34 00:01:14,070 --> 00:01:16,830 or -h after the command's name. 35 00:01:16,830 --> 00:01:20,130 For example, you might type in man -h 36 00:01:20,130 --> 00:01:22,650 and get help on the man pages. 37 00:01:22,650 --> 00:01:25,560 Note though, this isn't going to work for all commands. 38 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:27,690 The command has to support this help function 39 00:01:27,690 --> 00:01:29,430 for you to be able to use this method. 40 00:01:29,430 --> 00:01:31,200 If you want to try it out, just go ahead 41 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:35,190 and type man -h or man --help, and it'll show you 42 00:01:35,190 --> 00:01:37,980 a brief list of how to use the man command, 43 00:01:37,980 --> 00:01:39,420 but if you try to do this with something 44 00:01:39,420 --> 00:01:42,480 like the copy command, by typing cp -h 45 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:46,200 or cp --help, you're going to get an error message. 46 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:48,060 Another place to look for assistance is 47 00:01:48,060 --> 00:01:51,810 the /user/share/doc directory 48 00:01:51,810 --> 00:01:53,010 because it contains a directory 49 00:01:53,010 --> 00:01:54,840 with all of the documentation files 50 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:56,820 for the libraries, system utilities 51 00:01:56,820 --> 00:01:58,800 and other software packages that are installed 52 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:00,960 on your particular Linux system. 53 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:02,730 Now, aside from within the system, 54 00:02:02,730 --> 00:02:05,520 you can also go online to find some helpful information. 55 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:06,480 The internet is filled 56 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:08,550 with helpful Linux documentation based 57 00:02:08,550 --> 00:02:11,160 on what type of help you're actually looking for. 58 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:14,010 Official distro documentation will include the release notes 59 00:02:14,010 --> 00:02:17,190 of different versions and updates, an installation guide, 60 00:02:17,190 --> 00:02:19,590 a virtualization guide and much more. 61 00:02:19,590 --> 00:02:21,600 For example, the official documentation 62 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:25,800 for Ubuntu is available at help.ubuntu.com. 63 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:27,900 The Linux Documentation Project is another 64 00:02:27,900 --> 00:02:30,000 great resource online you can use. 65 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,930 You can find this at tldp.org. 66 00:02:33,930 --> 00:02:36,480 This is an all-volunteer project that provides 67 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:39,330 a comprehensive resource for Linux documentation 68 00:02:39,330 --> 00:02:41,130 and includes step by step procedures 69 00:02:41,130 --> 00:02:43,620 for performing certain tasks inside of Linux. 70 00:02:43,620 --> 00:02:45,600 It also has FAQs and, of course, 71 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:48,030 a copy of all the man pages. 72 00:02:48,030 --> 00:02:50,520 If you need to learn more about one of the core utilities, 73 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:54,210 something like move or copy or remove or something else 74 00:02:54,210 --> 00:02:58,260 like that, you can always visit the GNU Coreutils Manual. 75 00:02:58,260 --> 00:03:00,450 This is the official source of documentation 76 00:03:00,450 --> 00:03:02,640 for the GNU Core Utilities. 77 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:07,640 This is available at www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual. 78 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:13,500 Now, while searching through the documentation is 79 00:03:13,500 --> 00:03:16,440 an essential skill, for a Linux certified professional, 80 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:18,660 sometimes there's going to be instances where 81 00:03:18,660 --> 00:03:21,600 online documentation is not going to be the best source 82 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:24,630 for finding answers to your specific Linux questions, 83 00:03:24,630 --> 00:03:26,970 especially if those questions are complex 84 00:03:26,970 --> 00:03:28,020 and may need to be answered 85 00:03:28,020 --> 00:03:30,000 by interacting with other people. 86 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:33,090 In these cases, you may want to go and get interactive help 87 00:03:33,090 --> 00:03:34,950 with somebody online by using something 88 00:03:34,950 --> 00:03:37,410 like a Usenet newsgroup, a mailing list, 89 00:03:37,410 --> 00:03:41,190 a Q&A website, a forum or even social media. 90 00:03:41,190 --> 00:03:44,250 Usenet newsgroups are an online discussion repository 91 00:03:44,250 --> 00:03:46,320 similar to the old-school bulletin board systems 92 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:48,120 we used to grow up with, and these are some 93 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:51,450 of the oldest forms of internet-based discussions online. 94 00:03:51,450 --> 00:03:53,880 Users post text or files to a newsgroup, 95 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:55,590 and other members of the group can view 96 00:03:55,590 --> 00:03:57,660 or respond to those posts, which are organized 97 00:03:57,660 --> 00:03:59,100 in a threaded manner. 98 00:03:59,100 --> 00:04:00,420 Newsgroups tend to be focused 99 00:04:00,420 --> 00:04:02,550 on specific subject matter as well. 100 00:04:02,550 --> 00:04:04,170 For example, you can subscribe 101 00:04:04,170 --> 00:04:05,430 to a newsgroup that's centered 102 00:04:05,430 --> 00:04:07,020 on a specific Linux distribution 103 00:04:07,020 --> 00:04:09,600 or just one for embedded Linux systems 104 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:12,510 or maybe one that's just focused on Linux security. 105 00:04:12,510 --> 00:04:14,550 There are many of these Usenet newsgroups out there 106 00:04:14,550 --> 00:04:17,370 for you to join if you're interested in that kind of thing. 107 00:04:17,370 --> 00:04:20,279 Another option is joining an internet-based mailing list, 108 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:21,720 which is similar to a newsgroup 109 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:23,280 in that they involve threaded discussions 110 00:04:23,280 --> 00:04:25,350 among members of a specific community. 111 00:04:25,350 --> 00:04:28,080 These posts, though, are essentially email messages 112 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:31,140 that are going to be sent to every user on a distribution list. 113 00:04:31,140 --> 00:04:33,090 You can find distro-specific mailing lists 114 00:04:33,090 --> 00:04:35,880 for several major distros, or you can subscribe 115 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:37,860 to a more general Linux mailing list. 116 00:04:37,860 --> 00:04:40,410 Fair warning though, you're going to find yourself drowning 117 00:04:40,410 --> 00:04:42,780 in emails if you join a busy mailing list. 118 00:04:42,780 --> 00:04:43,890 So you need to make sure you set up 119 00:04:43,890 --> 00:04:45,900 some filtering rules to your inbox to put 120 00:04:45,900 --> 00:04:48,300 those messages directly into a sub-folder, 121 00:04:48,300 --> 00:04:50,790 so you don't miss an important email from your boss. 122 00:04:50,790 --> 00:04:53,160 Now, Q&A or question and answer websites 123 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:54,690 are another good option. 124 00:04:54,690 --> 00:04:57,180 These Q&A sites enable users to post a question 125 00:04:57,180 --> 00:04:59,610 on some topic, and other users can answer 126 00:04:59,610 --> 00:05:01,980 or otherwise comment on that question. 127 00:05:01,980 --> 00:05:04,590 Many of these sites have a functionality for users to like 128 00:05:04,590 --> 00:05:07,530 or up-vote questions that they feel are extremely useful 129 00:05:07,530 --> 00:05:10,590 or to select an answer as the best solution. 130 00:05:10,590 --> 00:05:12,900 The most popular Q&A site for this is known 131 00:05:12,900 --> 00:05:14,850 as Stack Exchange, which has a Unix 132 00:05:14,850 --> 00:05:18,810 and Linux category available at unix.stackexchange.com. 133 00:05:18,810 --> 00:05:22,110 Now, Reddit is another great example of a Q&A website, 134 00:05:22,110 --> 00:05:27,110 and you can find the Linux part at reddit.com/r/linux. 135 00:05:27,210 --> 00:05:28,740 Internet forums are another form 136 00:05:28,740 --> 00:05:30,840 of social knowledge sharing, and these typically 137 00:05:30,840 --> 00:05:33,960 use threaded posts, similar to newsgroups or mailing lists, 138 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:37,290 but they're using web protocols to deliver that content. 139 00:05:37,290 --> 00:05:39,450 Some forums encourage users to post questions 140 00:05:39,450 --> 00:05:41,850 to the community, and other users will then respond 141 00:05:41,850 --> 00:05:43,440 to those posts with guidance. 142 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:44,880 There are distro-specific forums 143 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:46,440 and general Linux forums as well, 144 00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:48,210 depending on which one you want to join. 145 00:05:48,210 --> 00:05:51,360 Personally, I find that LinuxQuestions is a great forum 146 00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:53,460 and is quite popular for Linux support. 147 00:05:53,460 --> 00:05:57,453 You can find it at www.linuxquestions.org.