Re: Debian glossary?
On Mon 30 Apr 2018 at 06:46:01 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> Debian documentation NOT written for hoi polloi.
Strong words.
[...]
> Output of "ls -Rdl /media/richard/rco1" is
> "drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Apr 28 23:49 /media/richard/rco1".
>
> { In "drwxr-xr-x 3", what do "d" and "3" tell me? }
At the end of ls(1) it says:
Full documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ls>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) ls invocation'
I think "Full" would imply more detail than in the manual. I'd use
'pinfo ls' for something more friendly than info.
> https://manpages.debian.org/stretch/mount/mount.8.en.html says in part:
> /begin quote
> strictatime
> Allows to explicitly request full atime updates. This makes it possible
> for the kernel to default to relatime or noatime but still allow userspace
> to override it. For more details about the default system mount options see
> /proc/mounts.
> /end quote
>
> { Having used a file manager to look at /proc/mounts without comprehension,
> I interpreted the context of "/proc/mounts" to indicate that there would be
> a reference to it elsewhere in https://manpages.debian.org . Nope. }
'cat /proc/mounts' doesn't necessarily improve your comprehension but it
is probably quicker. For a reference, you want proc(5); that takes you to
fstab(5).
> https://manpages.debian.org/stretch/mount/mount.8.en.html makes several
> references to "block special device".
> { "block special device" ??? }
I thought that was well explained. What does the internet say about it?
> Man pages by their nature/purpose assume a certain level of expertise.
> They can be daunting for the uninitiated.
Not a novel observation - but you are not uninitiated or a newcomer. Then
there is always a search engine at hand or the ever-helpful debian-user.
--
Brian.
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