on Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 06:37:25PM +0100, Martin Emrich (debianml@emmes-world.de) wrote:
> Hi All !
>
> When newbies ask something, they are often asked to RTFM...
I consider this acceptable only IITTNTRFMTFR [1]
> But where do I find the Information ? Very often, neiter #man foo nor
> the contents of the /usr/doc/foo are very helpful. Where is aditional
> documentation usually installed ? Or do you know a good
> "getting-documentation-howto" ? (maybe even something in german..
> would be nice)
Assuming you know a command:
$ command --help
$ command -help
$ man command
Rarely:
$ info command
I ***DESPISE*** info. The pinfo alternative helps somewhat, but the
basic concept still sucks. It should be scrapped for a searchable
format based on HTML, XHTML, or preferably something like DocBook
capable of creating multiple output formats.
Local docs would be far more useful with a good search engine _specific
to online help_. AFAIK, there's not a good solution to this for Debian,
RH used to be somewhat better in this regard.
If you don't know the command but have an idea of the problem area
concept:
$ apropos concept | less # often augmented with a grep filter
$ locate concept
Google. Surfraw rocks, and rocks harder with w3m:
$ google <search term>
Ditto: Google groups. I still forget this exists.
HOWTOs. I have these installed locally:
http://localhost/doc/HOWTO/en-html/
http://localhost/doc/HOWTO/en-html/mini
Mailing lists and boards I hang at. Typically debian-user, svlug, and
zIWETHEY: http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/board/show?boardid=1
Occasionally some chats and/or MUDs I hang at.
Books:
http://kmself.home.netcom.com/Linux/FAQs/linux-books.html
My mind. Both for knowledge and to extract clues from the information
available.
Peace.
----------------------------------------
Notes:
1. If it tells the newbie the right fucking manual to fucking read.
--
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? Home of the brave
http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ Land of the free
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