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Locate Read And Use System Documentation Including Man Info And Files In Usr Share Doc
General Information
Using various documentation sources.
man pages
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 utility
- 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
Other locations for documentation
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)
Finding Files With Locate And Find
Locate
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
Find
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