Linux Exercise: Documentation

Finding documentation about a command

1. Run the ls command with the --help option.

   • $ ls --help
     Browse the help.
2. Retrieve the manual page for the ls command. Compare the manual page to the output of the --help option. Which one is more extensive?.

   • $ man ls
     You can scroll forward with space and enter. Scroll backwards with b. Search the page with /. Exit the man command with q.
3. Retrieve the info page for the ls command. Compare the info page to the manual page. Which one is more extensive?.

   • $ info ls
4. Change to the /usr/share/doc directory. Make a list of files. Do you see the directory for ls?

   • $ cd /usr/share/doc
   • $ ls
5. Find out which package contained the command /bin/ls. Switch to this directory. Make a list of files in this directory.

   • $ rpm -qf /bin/ls
     The ls command is most likely contained in the coreutils package.
   • $ cd coreutils-version
   • $ ls -l

Internet-based documentation

1. Visit the following web pages, to see what sort of documentation they contain:
   • https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en/red-hat-enterprise-linux/
   • http://www.tldp.org/
   • https://lwn.net/

End of exercise