RH124 Ch 4: Finding Help Without the Internet

In the exam you have no web access, so the documentation on the machine is your reference.

man pages are organised in sections: 1 user commands, 5 file formats, 8 administration commands (also 2 system calls, 3 library calls, 7 overviews). - man passwd opens the first match (the command); man 5 passwd opens the file format. - Inside man: /word searches, n/N next/previous match, g/G start/end, q quits. - man -k keyword (same as apropos) searches the one-line summaries; whatis name shows the summary of one page. If they find nothing, root can rebuild the index with mandb. - The EXAMPLES section near the end of many pages is the fastest way to a working command.

Other sources - command --help prints a short usage summary. - /usr/share/doc/<package holds READMEs and example configuration files. rpm -qd package lists a package's documentation. - info pages exist for some GNU tools (when the info package is installed).

Exam tips - Learn the man pages for things you will not remember exactly: man nmcli-examples, man 5 sshdconfig, man chrony.conf, man systemd.unit. - When a config file has a commented example, copy it and edit the copy rather than typing from memory. - Search a man page for the option you need rather than scrolling.