Locate Read And Use System Documentation Including Man Info And Files In Usr Share Doc

General Information

Using various documentation sources.

Index man page database

mandb

• This is required for search results to be returned correctly (if it has not been done)
• This command replaces the “makewhatis” command in RHEL 4/5/6.

Search man page title and description only

man -k vim

Search man page documentation for keyword (title, description, and pages)

apropos passwd

Open specific man page section

man 5 passwd

• Opens section 5 of the passwd man pages

• info pages ⇒ Texinfo GNU documentation
• Organized like an FTP directory web page (links to other pages, going up/down the hierarchy, etc)
• Searches /usr/share/info/
• If no info pages, it opens up the man page
• A “Node” = the page
• ? ⇒ to see command keys for info
  • Arrow Up ⇒ Up one line
  • Arrow Down ⇒ Down one line
  • Tab ⇒ Next hyperlink
  • Return ⇒ Follow hyperlink
  • l ⇒ Go back to the last/previous node
  • Space ⇒ One screenful forward
  • Delete ⇒ One screenful backward
  • s ⇒ Search for a pattern
  • } ⇒ Next pattern match
  • { ⇒ Previous pattern match
  • n ⇒ next node on this level
  • p ⇒ previous node on this level
  • u ⇒ up one level
• Two commands:
  • info = original command
  • pinfo = menu items are clearly indicated (use this one)

Search Info Pages for “tee”

pinfo --apropos tee
 
"(coreutils)tee invocation" -- tee

Open the tee section of coreutils

pinfo coreutils tee

Documentation store for installed programs

• /usr/share/doc

Search system for keywords

updatedb
locate passwd

• updatedb ⇒ updates the search index, usually done via cron

Show location of binary

which passwd

Search man page descriptions only

whatis passwd

Find binary, source files, config files, and man page locations

whereis passwd

Search documenation installed

rpm -qd packagename

• Only if installed via a rpm package (either via rpm or yum)

Search cache database for patterns, very fast, but simple pattern searching.

Install package

yum install mlocate

Update cache database

updatedb

Find files/folders called “syslog”

locate syslog

Real time searching. Slower, but more flexible.

Find files/directories with motd in the name

find / -name motd

Find, starting in /, all files (type f) owned by rjones

find / -user rjones -type f

Remove all files owned by rjones

find / -user rjones -type f -exec rm '{}' \;

Find all files modified in the last 3 days

find / -mtime -3 -type f