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Installer online help



The online help for the installation system is of course quite limited due
to space limitations. However, the help that is available isn't really
enough for new users who are just being exposed to *nix for the first time.
We can't take on the job of *nix education within the installer, but I think
a few k would really be a good investment for new users. I'm willing to
scrounge a few k from other places if need be...

Let's add a new 'help' command (hard linked to man and info) that just does

nano-tiny -T15 -v /help.txt

My proposed help.txt is attached (it looks best when viewed with the above
command). It's around 6500 bytes uncompressed. We might be able to leave out
some of the help lines and trim a few bytes, probably there are some
commands that new users shouldn't be using anyway. I already left out
commands that would seem to be useful or safe only within scripts. OTOH
maybe having a syntax prompt is helpful even for experienced people, for
infrequently-used system setup commands. This file was compiled from the
commands available in the powerpc installer system, probably there are a few
others needed for i386 etc.

The busybox commands do have a one-line response for --help already, but
often times that one line is less than helpful - try cp, mount, and umount
for example. It would make more sense to dispense with those, or collect any
really valuable information together into one place people can quickly
browse thru or search.

--

Chris Tillman
tillman@azstarnet.com
The installer environment provides limited versions of the following
commands. Additional help may be available by typing "<command> --help".
The ^ in nano's help line means "hold the Control key and type ...".

ae	see nano-tiny
ar	create, modify, and extract from archive files
ash	the shell program initiated by Execute a Shell or
	Ctrl-Alt-F2
cat	list the contents of a directory or file to std output
cd	change the working directory; "cd .." moves up a level,
	"cd /<path>" full path, "cd <path>" relative path 
cfdisk	create or modify Linux partitions with i386-style
	partition tables
chgrp	change the group associated with the file permissions or
	directory; "chgrp <grp> <target>"
chmod	change permissions associated with a file or directory; 
	"chmod 0444 <target>"
chown	change the ownership of a file or directory; 
	"chown <new-owner> <target>"
chroot	make the root directory something other than / on
	the file system; "chroot <root-now> <new-root>"
chvt	change tty (similar to Left-Alt Fn); "chvt5" creates
	tty5 or brings it to the front
clear	clear the terminal screen
cp	copy source file or file-list to target file or 
	directory; "cp <source> <target>" 
cut	show the result of cutting a file vertically; 
	"cut -f 1 <this-file>" gives the first column only	
date	show the system date and time, or set it using 
	"date <MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]>"
dbootstrap	the installation program (runs after installer boot)
dd	copy file converting formats; 
	"dd if=<source filename> of=<target location>"
ddisk	see fdisk
depmod	create a dependency makefile for modprobe
df	show free disk space for all mounted partitions
dhclient-2.2.x	dhcp client
dmesg	show the messages from the most recent system boot
du	show disk usage; "du -h --max-depth=3 <directory>" 
	to list sizes in megabytes up to 3 levels deep
e2fsck	check for and correct ext2 filesystem disk errors
echo	show a line of text
edit	see nano-tiny
eject	eject removable disks; "eject --floppy", 
	"eject --cdrom", "eject /dev/sdb4" 
emacs	see nano-tiny
env	show the environment variables and their values
exit	terminate the shell and return to the installer 
expr	show the result of evaluating an expression
fdisk	create or modify i386-style disk partitions
fgrep	see grep
find	look for files in a directory tree; 
	"find / -name <filename>", "find /bin -name e*" 
free	show used and free system memory and swapped memory
fuser	show the pids of processes using a file or fs
grep	search for a regular expression; -i case insensitive
	"grep <regexp> <file or file-list>"
gunzip	see gzip
gzip	compress/decompress a file in .gz format; 
	-d decompress, -l list only, -c to std output
halt	shut down the computer (only executable by root user)
head	show the first several lines of a file or file-list;
	"head -n 20 <filename>"
help	see man
id	show information about a specified user, or the user of
	the current process
ifconfig	manually configure kernel-resident network interfaces
info 	see man
insmod	dynamically load a kernel module; 
	"insmod <module-filename>" (filename ends with .o)
kill	terminate a specified process; 
	"kill <pid>" (use ps to identify the pid)
killall	terminate all processes executing a given command;
	"killall -HUP <command-name>"
klogd	log kernel error messages to std error or a file
ksyms	show exported kernel symbols (related to loadable
	kernel modules)
lilo	install i386 bootloader
ln	create a hard (or soft) link to an existing file or 
	directory; "ln -s <target> <link-name>"
logger	allow shell command to make entries in the system logs
ls	show the contents of a directory; 
	-l long format, -R recursive, -a show hidden files
lsmod	list all loaded kernel modules
mac-fdisk	create or modify powerpc-style partitions
man	display this mini-manual
md5sum	compute or verify the checksum for a file; -c check
mformat	format a floppy disk with MS-DOS style formatting
mkdir	create a new directory
mke2fs	create a new ext2 filesystem; format partition
mkfs.ext2	see mke2fs
mkofboot	initialize an Apple_Bootstrap HFS partition and
	transfer the configured yaboot bootloader to it
mkswap	initialize a swap partition
modprobe	high level handling of loadable modules; 
	-l list, -t type
more	present output in pages to allow viewing; 
	"more <filename>", "ls -l /etc | more"
mount	mount a disk partition to a directory; 
	"mount -t <filesystem type> /dev/hda3 <directory>"
mv	move or rename a file or file-list; 
	"mv <source> <target file or directory>"
nano	see nano-tiny
nano-tiny	text editor
netstat	show the status of the network
nvsetenv	set nonvolatile RAM environment variables, use 
	alone to show current NVRAM state
ofpath	show the Open Firmware path corresponding to a
	given Linux block device; "ofpath /dev/hda5"
ping	request a number of packets from a network host to
	test the network; "ping -c 4 www.google.com" 
poweroff	shut down the computer
ps	show the list of processes currently running; "ps -A"
pwd	show the current working directory
reboot	restart the computer (only executable by root user)
reset	clear the terminal screen and reset the terminal
rm	permanently remove a file or file-list; 
	use -i to prompt for confirmation
rmdir	remove an empty directory
rmmod	remove a dynamically loadable module from the kernel
route	show or edit the IP routing table
sed	stream editor; "sed -f <script-file> <input-file>"
sh	see ash
sort	sort, merge, or compare the specified files
sync	flush all memory resident changes to disk
tail	show the tail end of a file; 
	"tail <number of lines> <filename>"
tar	store and extract files from/to a tar archive file; 
	"tar -xf <filename.tar>", -c create, -z compress
telnet	login to a remote host computer
touch	update a file's modification date
tr	translate characters from std input to std output
umount	unmount a filesystem device from a directory;
	"umount /instmnt", "umount /dev/sda"
uname	show information about the operating system; 
	type, hostname, system version, version #, hardware
uniq	show the unique lines from a sorted file 
	(discard duplicate lines)
update-modules	generate an automatic update to /etc/modules.conf
uptime	show the amount of time the system has been operational
vi	see nano-tiny
wc	show the character, word and line count of a file or
	file list.
which	show the path to an executable command
whoami	show the login username
yabootconfig	configure yaboot (the powerpc bootloader)
ybin	save the configured yaboot files; must follow any 
	change to powerpc boot configuration
zcat	perform gunzip to standard output

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