If you are an experienced Linux user, enter the following commands before proceeding to the next section. If you are a beginner, move swiftly on to the next paragraph!
updatedb
/usr/sbin/makewhatis
If you are a newbie, you will be a little perplexed by all the unfamiliar terminology. If this is the case, don't despair. Linux is very well documented and you can access all this information by taking a few preliminary steps. At the prompt enter the following command:
updatedb
This command updates a database of filenames which you can then search by typing in the locate command with your filename as the command's argument. The experienced user can of course enter special characters - called metacharacters - as opposed to a text string in order to generate a more sophisticated search but a discussion of this technique is outside the scope of this manual. For further details take a look at the updatedb man page as well as the man pages for locatedb, locate, find and xargs. Remember however to update the filename database regularly if you are continually producing new documents. If your machine is left on overnight it will automatically do this itself.
You can of course make use of a further command which you can again enter at the shell prompt (and as root):
/usr/sbin/makewhatis
What you have just done is to build the whatis database which contains information that you can now access to improve your skills. This process may take a few minutes but when it is completed, you can read the UNIX manual pages on any subject that you want. To make use of man, type the man command with the topic area as man's argument at the shell prompt. You can then scroll through the manual by pressing the space bar as a prelude to leaving man by typing q for quit. The following command consequently takes you to that part of the UNIX manual which is concerned with Groff - a document formatting system which many people use as an alternative to a word processor:
man groff
But how can you use man if you don't know the name of the command which would meet your requirements? Well, help is available with the apropos command. To use apropos, simply type the name of a keyword that is applicable to your interests after the apropos command (it is this indexing ability that the whatis database is used for). In order to find out about the editors which are available on your system type:
apropos editor
You may also see man -k mentioned - which is exactly equivalent to apropos (use whichever command you prefer) - as well as the whatis command. Whatis is particularly useful if you have heard about an application and require a simple one line description. If necessary, you may also take advantage of the built-in help facility which comes with many commands by typing the name of a command, a help switch, the pipe character and less to signify the less pager which allows you to view information one screen at a time.
man --help | less
Alternatives to both man and the apropos command include the info pages, the manuals of the Linux Documentation Project which can be downloaded from (http://www.linuxdoc.org/) and a selection of HOWTO documents which are available on the Aleph ARMLinux CD and can be read through a web browser like Lynx.