doc/en/handbook/basics/chapter.sgml

    <chapter id="basics">
      <title>Unix Basics</title>
      
      
      <sect1 id="basics-man">
	<title>The Online Manual</title>
	
	<para>The most comprehensive documentation on FreeBSD is in the form
	  of <emphasis>man pages</emphasis>. Nearly every program on the
	  system comes with a short reference manual explaining the basic
	  operation and various arguments. These manuals can be view with the
	  <command>man</command>
	  command. Use of the <command>man</command> command is simple:</para>

	  <informalexample>
	    <screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>man <replaceable>command</replaceable></userinput>
	    </screen>
	  </informalexample>

	<para><replaceable>command</replaceable> is
	  the name of the command you wish to learn about. For example, to
	  learn more about <command>ls</command> command type:</para>
	  <informalexample>
	    <screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>man ls</userinput></screen>
	  </informalexample>
	
	<para>The online manual is divided up into numbered sections:</para>
	
	  <orderedlist>
	    
	    <listitem>
	      <para>User commands</para>
	    </listitem>
	    
	    <listitem>
	      <para>System calls and error numbers</para>
	    </listitem>
	    
	    <listitem>
	      <para>Functions in the C libraries</para>
	    </listitem>
	    
	    <listitem>
	      <para>Device drivers</para>
	    </listitem>
	    
	    <listitem>
	      <para>File formats</para>
	    </listitem>
	    
	    <listitem>
	      <para>Games and other diversions</para>
	    </listitem>
	    
	    <listitem>
	      <para>Miscellaneous information</para>
	    </listitem>
	    
	    <listitem>
	      <para>System maintenance and operation commands</para>
	    </listitem>
	    
	  </orderedlist>

	<para>In some cases, the same topic may appear in more than
	  one section of the on-line manual. For example, there is a
	  <command>chmod</command>
	  user command and a <function>chmod()</function> system call. In
	  this case, you can tell the <command>man</command> command which one you want by
	  specifying the section:</para>

	  <informalexample>
	    <screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>man 1 chmod</userinput></screen>
	  </informalexample>

	<para>This will display the manual page for the user
	  command <command>chmod</command>. References to a
	  particular section of the on-line manual are traditionally placed in
	  parenthesis in written documentation, so <citerefentry><refentrytitle>chmod</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> refers to the
	  <command>chmod</command>
	  user command and <citerefentry><refentrytitle>chmod</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> refers to the
	  system call.</para>
	
	<para>This is fine if you know the name of the command and simply wish
	  to know how to use it, but what if you cannot recall the command
	  name? You can use <command>man</command> to search for keywords in the
	  command <emphasis>descriptions</emphasis> by using the
	  <option>-k</option> switch:</para>
	  
	  <informalexample>
	    <screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>man -k mail</userinput></screen>
	  </informalexample>

	<para>With this command you will be presented with a
	  list of commands that have the keyword &ldquo;mail&rdquo; in their descriptions.
	  This is actually functionally equivalent to using the <command>apropos</command>
	  command.</para>
	
	<para>So, you are looking at all those fancy commands in
	  <filename>/usr/bin</filename> but do not even have the faintest idea
	  what most of them actually do? Simply do a
	  
	  <informalexample>
	    <screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cd /usr/bin; man -f *</userinput></screen>
	  </informalexample>

	  or

	  <informalexample>
	    <screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cd /usr/bin; whatis *</userinput></screen>
	  </informalexample> which does the same thing.</para>
	
      </sect1>
      
      <sect1 id="basics-info">
	<title>GNU Info Files</title>
	
	<para>FreeBSD includes many applications and utilities produced by the
	  Free Software Foundation (FSF). In addition to man pages, these
	  programs come with more extensive hypertext documents called
	  &ldquo;info&rdquo; files which can be viewed with the
	  <command>info</command> command or, if you installed
	  <command>emacs</command>, the info mode of <command>emacs</command>.</para>
	
	<para>To use the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>info</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> command, simply type:</para>

	  <informalexample>
	    <screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>info</userinput></screen>
	  </informalexample>

	  <para>For a brief introduction, type <userinput>h</userinput>. For a quick
	  command reference, type <userinput>?</userinput>.</para>
	
      </sect1>
    </chapter>
    

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