All that Will said about the man pages is true, and I completely agree
about the need for examples; I to have wasted hours fighting syntax
errors, all the while with an ugly feeling that I might not even be
trying the right command or option.

General advice based on things I've done:

1. Use less as you man pager, learn the search tools.
2. Start by searching manpages for 'example'.
3. Use info -- it will run man-pages for programs that don't have info
pages, and programs that do have info pages usually have good 
documentation.
4. Remember to check the HowTos and the contents of
/usr/doc/exasperating_command... some of the programs with the worst man
pages have excellent manuals. Use zless to read .gz files.
5. Check out the Newbiedoc manual.
6. Invest in some good Linux reference books, I like the Oreilly series 
a lot.

Night before last I ran 'find /usr/doc -name "index.html" >foo.txt' and
then spent 2 hours adding links from foo.txt to my local home/start
page. I found answers to 3 random trivial questions that have been 
bugging me; I'll never regret spending the time on this.

HTH, Paul

Reply via email to