Why newbies don't RTFM

Hi guys. Even though I've used Linux before, I've never had to do any admin tasks until recently when I had to install a dual boot system at home because some programs from college must use Linux. All of a sudden I have to use more commands than cd-ls-cp-rm.

I'm sure you all have been wondering what is it with newbies and not reading manuals...well, an honest answer would be that some people find the manuals just too confusing, long and unhelpful.

In the output of "man cd" below, see how confusing, long and unhelpful it is. I gave up copying and pasting after about line 300. I'm not trying to belittle the author(s) work here, and I'm sure there are people out there who find a use for each paragraph....

But surely you Linux experts could help the beginners by having either separate manuals for advanced users or appending the long bits to the end of an "easy" manual? I have to websurf to find out how to do things in Linux (apart from asking NGs). I find the answers on websites a lot more direct to what I'm looking for (especially if I have specific keywords in Google, like "adsl usb modem installation linux").

A manual I'd clbuttify as easy-helpful: - Is brief and to the point - Gives **examples** (very important!) in descending order of how frequently they're used

Please don't take this as a troll post, instead take it as constructive criticism. Personally I think Linux is the way forward; I loathe having to pay other people for permission + the ability to use my own computer hardware I paid for.

Hope this helps the guys writing the next kernel :)

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BASHBUILTINS(1) BASHBUILTINS(1)

NAME bash, :, ., , alias, bg, bind, break, builtin, cd, command, compgen, complete, con‰ tinue, declare, dirs, disown, echo, enable, eval, exec, exit, export, fc, fg, getopts, hash, help, history, jobs, kill, let, local, logout, popd, printf, pushd, pwd, read, readonly, return, set, shift, shopt, source, suspend, test, times, trap, type, typeset, ulimit, umask, unalias, unset, wait - bash built-in commands, see bash(1)

BASH BUILTIN COMMANDS Unless otherwise noted, each builtin command documented in this section as accepting options preceded by - accepts -- to signify the end of the options. : arguments No effect; the command does nothing beyond expanding arguments and performing any specified redirections. A zero exit code is returned.

. filename arguments source filename arguments Read and execute commands from filename in the current shell environment and return the exit status of the last command executed from filename. If filename does not contain a slash, file names in PATH are used to find the directory con‰ taining filename. The file searched for in PATH need not be executable. When bash is not in posix mode, the current directory is searched if no file is found in PATH. If the sourcepath option to the shopt builtin command is turned off, the PATH is not searched. If any arguments are supplied, they become the posi‰ tional parameters when filename is executed. Otherwise the positional parameters are unchanged. The return status is the status of the last command exited within the script (0 if no commands are executed), and false if filename is not found or cannot be read. alias -p name=value ... Alias with no arguments or with the -p option prints the list of aliases in the form alias name=value on standard output. When arguments are supplied, an alias is defined for each name whose value is given. A trailing space in value causes the next word to be checked for alias subsbreastution when the alias is expanded. For each name in the argument list for which no value is supplied, the name and value of the alias is printed. Alias returns true unless a name is given for which no alias has been defined.

bg jobspec Resume the suspended job jobspec in the background, as if it had been started with &. If jobspec is not present, the shell's notion of the current job is used. bg jobspec returns 0 unless run when job control is disabled or, when run with job control enabled, if jobspec was not found or started without job con‰ trol.

bind -m keymap -lpsvPSV bind -m keymap -q function -u function -r keyseq bind -m keymap -f filename bind -m keymap -x keyseq:shell-command bind -m keymap keyseq:function-name bind readline-command Display current readline key and function bindings, bind a key sequence to a readline function or macro, or set a readline variable. Each non-option argument is a command as it would appear in .inputrc, but each binding or command must be pbutted as a separate argument; e.g., '"-C-x-C-r": re-read-init-file'. Options, if supplied, have the following meanings: -m keymap Use keymap as the keymap to be affected by the subsequent bindings. Acceptable keymap names are emacs, emacs-standard, emacs-meta, emacs-ctlx, vi, vi-move, vi-command, and vi-insert. vi is equivalent to vi-command;

emacs is equivalent to emacs-standard. -l List the names of all readline functions. -p Display readline function names and bindings in such a way that they can be re-read. -P List current readline function names and bindings. -v Display readline variable names and values in such a way that they can be re-read. -V List current readline variable names and values. -s Display readline key sequences bound to macros and the strings they output in such a way that they can be re-read. -S Display readline key sequences bound to macros and the strings they out‰ put. -f filename Read key bindings from filename. -q function Query about which keys invoke the named function. -u function Unbind all keys bound to the named function. -r keyseq Remove any current binding for keyseq. -x keyseq:shell-command Cause shell-command to be executed whenever keyseq is entered.

The return value is 0 unless an unrecognized option is given or an error occurred.

break n Exit from within a for, while, until, or select loop. If n is specified, break n levels. n must be ‰´ 1. If n is greater than the number of enclosing loops, all enclosing loops are exited. The return value is 0 unless the shell is not exe‰ cuting a loop when break is executed.

builtin shell-builtin arguments Execute the specified shell builtin, pbutting it arguments, and return its exit status. This is useful when defining a function whose name is the same as a shell builtin, retaining the functionality of the builtin within the function. The cd builtin is commonly redefined this way. The return status is false if shell-builtin is not a shell builtin command.

cd -L-P dir Change the current directory to dir. The variable HOME is the default dir. The variable CDPATH defines the search path for the directory containing dir. Alter‰ native directory names in CDPATH are separated by a colon (:). A null directory name in CDPATH is the same as the current directory, i.e., ‰‰.''. If dir begins with a slash (-), then CDPATH is not used. The -P option says to use the physical directory structure instead of following symbolic links (see also the -P option to the set builtin command); the -L option forces symbolic links to be followed. An argument of - is equivalent to $OLDPWD. If a non-empty directory name from CDPATH is used, or if - is the first argument, and the directory change is suc‰ cessful, the absolute pathname of the new working directory is written to the standard output. The return value is true if the directory was successfully changed; false otherwise. caller expr Returns the context of any active subroutine call (a shell function or a script executed with the . or source builtins. Without expr, caller displays the line number and source filename of the current subroutine call. If a non-negative integer is supplied as expr, caller displays the line number, subroutine name, and source file corresponding to that position in the current end call stack. This extra information may be used, for example, to print a stack trace. The current frame is frame 0. The return value is 0 unless the shell is not exe‰ cuting a subroutine call or expr does not correspond to a valid position in the call stack.

command -pVv command arg ... Run command with args suppressing the normal shell function lookup. Only builtin commands or commands found in the PATH are executed. If the -p option is given, the search for command is performed using a default value for PATH that is guar‰ anteed to find all of the standard utilities. If either the -V or -v option is supplied, a description of command is printed. The -v option causes a single word indicating the command or file name used to invoke command to be displayed; the -V option produces a more verbose description. If the -V or -v option is supplied, the exit status is 0 if command was found, and 1 if not. If neither option is supplied and an error occurred or command cannot be found, the exit status is 127. Otherwise, the exit status of the command builtin is the exit status of command.

compgen option word Generate possible completion matches for word according to the options, which may be any option accepted by the complete builtin with the exception of -p and -r, and write the matches to the standard output. When using the -F or -C options, the various shell variables set by the programmable completion facilities, while available, will not have useful values.

The matches will be generated in the same way as if the programmable completion code had generated them directly from a completion specification with the same flags. If word is specified, only those completions matching word will be dis‰ played.

The return value is true unless an invalid option is supplied, or no matches were generated.

complete -abcdefgjksuv -o comp-option -A action -G globpat -W wordlist -P prefix -S suffix -X filterpat -F function -C command name name ... complete -pr name ... Specify how arguments to each name should be completed. If the -p option is sup‰ plied, or if no options are supplied, existing completion specifications are printed in a way that allows them to be reused as input. The -r option removes a completion specification for each name, or, if no names are supplied, all comple‰ tion specifications.

The process of applying these completion specifications when word completion is attempted is described above under Programmable Completion.

Other options, if specified, have the following meanings. The arguments to the -G, -W, and -X options (and, if necessary, the -P and -S options) should be quoted to protect them from expansion before the complete builtin is invoked. -o comp-option The comp-option controls several aspects of the compspec's behavior beyond the simple generation of completions. comp-option may be one of: bashdefault Perform the rest of the default bash completions if the compspec

generates no matches. default Use readline's default filename completion if the compspec gener‰ ates no matches. dirnames Perform directory name completion if the compspec generates no matches. filenames Tell readline that the compspec generates filenames, so it can perform any filename-specific processing (like adding a slash to directory names or suppressing trailing spaces). Intended to be used with shell functions. nospace Tell readline not to append a space (the default) to words com‰ pleted at the end of the line. -A action The action may be one of the following to generate a list of possible completions: alias Alias names. May also be specified as -a. arrayvar Array variable names. binding Readline key binding names. builtin Names of shell builtin commands. May also be specified as -b. command Command names. May also be specified as -c. directory Directory names. May also be specified as -d. disabled Names of disabled shell builtins. enabled Names of enabled shell builtins.

export Names of exported shell variables. May also be specified as -e. file File names. May also be specified as -f. function Names of shell functions. group Group names. May also be specified as -g. helptopic Help topics as accepted by the help builtin. hostname Hostnames, as taken from the file specified by the HOSTFILE shell variable. job Job names, if job control is active. May also be specified as -j. keyword Shell reserved words. May also be specified as -k. running Names of running jobs, if job control is active. service Service names. May also be specified as -s. setopt Valid arguments for the -o option to the set builtin. shopt Shell option names as accepted by the shopt builtin. signal Signal names. stopped Names of stopped jobs, if job control is active. user User names. May also be specified as -u. variable Names of all shell variables. May also be specified as -v. -G globpat The filename expansion pattern globpat is expanded to generate the possi‰ ble completions. -W wordlist The wordlist is split using the characters in the IFS special variable as delimiters, and each resultant word is expanded. The possible comple‰ tions are the members of the resultant list which match the word being completed. -C command command is executed in a subshell environment, and its output is used as the possible completions. -F function The shell function function is executed in the current shell environment. When it finishes, the possible completions are retrieved from the value of the COMPREPLY array variable. -X filterpat filterpat is a pattern as used for filename expansion. It is applied to the list of possible completions generated by the preceding options and arguments, and each completion matching filterpat is removed from the list. A leading ! in filterpat negates the pattern; in this case, any completion not matching filterpat is removed. -P prefix prefix is added at the beginning of each possible completion after all other options have been applied. -S suffix suffix is appended to each possible completion after all other options have been applied.

The return value is true unless an invalid option is supplied, an option other than -p or -r is supplied without a name argument, an attempt is made to remove a completion specification for a name for which no specification exists, or an error occurs adding a completion specification.

continue n Resume the next iteration of the enclosing for, while, until, or select loop. If n is specified, resume at the nth enclosing loop. n must be ‰´ 1. If n is greater than the number of enclosing loops, the last enclosing loop (the ‰‰top- level'' loop) is resumed. The return value is 0 unless the shell is not execut‰ ing a loop when continue is executed.

declare -afFirtx -p name=value ... typeset -afFirtx -p name=value ... Declare variables and-or give them attributes. If no names are given then dis‰ play the values of variables. The -p option will display the attributes and val‰ ues of each name. When -p is used, additional options are ignored. The -F option inhibits the display of function definitions; only the function name and attributes are printed. If the extdebug shell option is enabled using shopt, the source file name and line number where the function is defined are displayed as well. The -F option implies -f. The following options can be used to restrict output to variables with the specified attribute or to give variables attributes: -a Each name is an array variable (see Arrays above). -f Use function names only. -i The variable is treated as an integer; arithmetic evaluation (see ARITH‰ METIC EVALUATION ) is performed when the variable is buttigned a value. -r Make names readonly. These names cannot then be buttigned values by subse‰ quent buttignment statements or unset. -t Give each name the trace attribute. Traced functions inherit the DEBUG trap from the calling shell. The trace attribute has no special meaning for variables. -x Mark names for export to subsequent commands via the environment.

Using ‰+' instead of ‰-' turns off the attribute instead, with the exception that +a may not be used to destroy an array variable. When used in a function, makes each name local, as with the local command. If a variable name is followed by =value, the value of the variable is set to value. The return value is 0 unless an invalid option is encountered, an attempt is made to define a function using ‰‰-f foo=bar'', an attempt is made to buttign a value to a readonly variable, an attempt is made to buttign a value to an array variable without using the compound buttignment syntax (see Arrays above), one of the names is not a valid shell vari‰ able name, an attempt is made to turn off readonly status for a readonly vari‰ able, an attempt is made to turn off array status for an array variable, or an attempt is made to display a non-existent function with -f.

dirs -clpv +n -n Without options, displays the list of currently remembered directories. The default display is on a single line with directory names separated by spaces. Directories are added to the list with the pushd command; the popd command removes entries from the list. +n Displays the nth entry counting from the left of the list shown by dirs when invoked without options, starting with zero. -n Displays the nth entry counting from the right of the list shown by dirs when invoked without options, starting with zero. -c Clears the directory stack by deleting all of the entries. -l Produces a longer listing; the default listing format uses a tilde to denote the home directory. -p Print the directory stack with one entry per line. -v Print the directory stack with one entry per line, prefixing each entry with its index in the stack.

The return value is 0 unless an invalid option is supplied or n indexes beyond the end of the directory stack.

disown -ar -h jobspec ... Without options, each jobspec is removed from the table of active jobs. If the -h option is given, each jobspec is not removed from the table, but is marked so that SIGHUP is not sent to the job if the shell receives a SIGHUP. If no jobspec is present, and neither the -a nor the -r option is supplied, the current job is used. If no jobspec is supplied, the -a option means to remove or mark all jobs; the -r option without a jobspec argument restricts operation to running jobs. The return value is 0 unless a jobspec does not specify a valid job.

echo -neE arg ... Output the args, separated by spaces, followed by a newline. The return status is always 0. If -n is specified, the trailing newline is suppressed. If the -e option is given, interpretation of the following backslash-escaped characters is enabled. The -E option disables the interpretation of these escape characters, even on systems where they are interpreted by default. The xpgecho shell option may be used to dynamically determine whether or not echo expands these escape characters by default. echo does not interpret -- to mean the end of options. echo interprets the following escape sequences: a alert (bell) b backspace c suppress trailing newline e an escape character f form feed n new line r carriage return t horizontal tab v vertical tab backslash 0nnn the eight-bit character whose value is the octal value nnn (zero to three octal digits) nnn the eight-bit character whose value is the octal value nnn (one to three octal digits) xHH the eight-bit character whose value is the hexadecimal value HH (one or two hex digits)

enable -adnps -f filename name ... Enable and disable builtin shell commands. Disabling a builtin allows a disk command which has the same name as a shell builtin to be executed without speci‰ fying a full pathname, even though the shell normally searches for builtins before disk commands. If -n is used, each name is disabled; otherwise, names are enabled. For example, to use the test binary found via the PATH instead of the shell builtin version, run ‰‰enable -n test''. The -f option means to load the new builtin command name from shared object filename, on systems that support dynamic loading. The -d option will delete a builtin previously loaded with -f. If no name arguments are given, or if the -p option is supplied, a list of shell builtins is printed. With no other option arguments, the list consists of all enabled shell builtins. If -n is supplied, only disabled builtins are printed. If -a is supplied, the list printed includes all builtins, with an indication of whether or not each is enabled. If -s is supplied, the output is restricted to the POSIX special builtins. The return value is 0 unless a name is not a shell builtin or there is an error loading a new builtin from a shared object. eval arg ... The args are read and concatenated together into a single command. This command is then read and executed by the shell, and its exit status is returned as the value of eval. If there are no args, or only null arguments, eval returns 0.

exec -cl -a name command arguments If command is specified, it replaces the shell. No new process is created. The arguments become the arguments to command. If the -l option is supplied, the shell places a dash at the beginning of the zeroth arg pbutted to command. This is what login(1) does. The -c option causes command to be executed with an empty environment. If -a is supplied, the shell pbuttes name as the zeroth argument to the executed command. If command cannot be executed for some reason, a non- interactive shell exits, unless the shell option execfail is enabled, in which case it returns failure. An interactive shell returns failure if the file cannot be executed. If command is not specified, any redirections take effect in the current shell, and the return status is 0. If there is a redirection error, the return status is 1.

exit n Cause the shell to exit with a status of n. If n is omitted, the exit status is that of the last command executed. A trap on EXIT is executed before the shell terminates.

export -fn name=word ... export -p The supplied names are marked for automatic export to the environment of subse‰ quently executed commands. If the -f option is given, the names refer to func‰ tions. If no names are given, or if the -p option is supplied, a list of all names that are exported in this shell is printed. The -n option causes the export property to be removed from each name. If a variable name is followed by