Re: info pages WHERE? -- was [Re: OT: minimum bs for dd?]
On Mon, May 17, 2021 at 03:03:22PM +0200, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> Try typing in a terminal `info dd' and see what happens :)
unicorn:~$ info dd
bash: info: command not found
;-)
GNU's info pages are a highly debated thing, in some circles. Many
people despise them, some people love them, and the vast majority are
simply confused.
The primary issue is the user interface for actually reading the damned
things. You're supposed to be using emacs, and you're supposed to hit
some bizarre hand-mutilating key chord to invoke the info page reader
inside of emacs.
If you're *not* an emacs user, then there's a standalone tool called
"info" that they provide which is supposed to emulate the experience
for you, somewhat. The problem here is that if you're not an emacs
user, then the experience is *completely alien* and makes no sense at all.
There's an alternative tool called "pinfo" that provides a different
interface for reading info pages, which is a bit more comfortable for
non-emacs users. It resembles lynx. But it has limitations and does
not reproduce all of the features of the official tool.
So, feel free to try both "info" and "pinfo" (some installation required)
and see which one you can tolerate better. Or use the online web version
of the pages, if that works better for you.
Now, as for the info pages themselves: unlike traditional man pages,
where all of the documentation is on one page, in which you can scroll
up and down and search, info pages are chopped up into tiny little
sections, and you only see one section at a time. This may be an
advantage if you're actually looking for a specific feature that you
suspect may exist, but you don't know what it's *called*. Navigating
the hierarchical structure may lead you to a place that describes the
feature you're looking for, although you'll have to do a lot of reading
along the way.
On the other hand, if you *do* know what something is called, or at least
you have a few reasonable guesses, the inability to *search* within the
info page to find occurrences of your keyword can be maddening.
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