Linux is an extensive OS. As a result, Linux help facilities are also extensive. There are also third-party solutions. For example:
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man <command> # standard help for bash shell info <subject> # info format used by Debian whatis <subject> # get 1 line bash help help <subject> # format for bash shell commands yelp man:<subject> # open bash help in yelp GUI ##-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------## |
man shows the standard Linux help manual page. The resulting output often fills the terminal and requires paging through the result (use q or ctrl-C to exit man if it doesn’t terminate at the end of the text).
A lot of Debian Linux help documentation is provided in info format. This is similar to a hypertext format, in that you can jump to other sections of the documentation by following links embedded in the text.
whatis provides a quick-n-dirty description of a command in one line
Use help to learn about a subset of bash’s built-in commands. Unfortunately, the number of subjects covered is limited. Type help in the absence of a subject will print a list of all subjects for which help is available.
Yelp is a third party help view. The GUI is very appealing, but still significantly more appealing than reading text in a shell or terminal. To install Yelp:
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sudo apt-get install yelp |
An example of the GUI appears below for the mv command:
