Trying to create a shared directory using only manpages as helpsystem.

chomwitt · Today 08:33:52

intention (goal) :
Trying to create a shared directory but with the constraint of not using the most accessible help in my system (internet search!!) . And if you have installed the most popular distros that is Firefox / google (by default). (so no web-search, no irc , no im , no forums, no emailists ... funny how most help systems need the net!) .. so that leaves us with 'good??' old manpages and possibly info.

User profiles:I approach the task from the perspective of either a sysadm that forgets always the details of a task or a naive user that is not afraid of tty.

Possible steps:
First: How do i search for related commands ? But that could be a wrong approach. Maybe our intention can be accomplished with a bunch of various commands.
So initially we could need help both in how we use the help inside our offline system and what commands could help me.

Possitble steps / search for commands / help
Know how to search for commands related to your intention. So if we dont remember how to ask our system for help we could go:

   $ help 
   ....These shell commands are defined internally. ...
       cd [-L|[-P [-e]] [-@]] [dir]     // interestingly there is no #man cd  
                                                // or #man alias but there is #man pwd                                                
   $ help share files  
bash: help: no help topics match `sharing'.  Try `help help' or `man -k sharing' or `info sharing'.  
    //cool.help states that as far it knows  'man' and 'info' are the help systems to look at !

Possitble steps / search for commands / man
So my system dont seem it can help me unless i know $ man
But that still would help us! We need also $ man man

Indeed $ man man is a good start . (as @blackhole reminded me)
It explains that the system docs it can access and present to us are organized in sections and pages . And a page is structured in sections.
Also its opens the road to $ man -a intro and $ man -k and it refers also to apropos.

Possitble steps / search for commands / man -k (apropos)
But i think even that wont help us. For sharing a folder we must know about groups. That is a basic knowledge for even a forgetfull sysadm. (we already assume that the system has more than one users!!)

Possitble steps / search for commands / searching for groups
1. Search for group related commands (# apropos group)

$ apropos group | wc 
    122    1077    7284
$ apropos groups | wc 
     23     214    1425

Lets narrow a list of commands that seem related: addgroup(8) , adduser(8) , getgroups(2)!! (how could a user know what '2' means?) , groups(1), setgroups(2)
Having already learned about man section we can narrow our list to sections 1 (Executable programs or shell commands),5(File formats and conventions),7(misc), 8 (System administration commands (usually only for root)).

$ apropos -s 1,5,7,8  groups | wc
   17     157    1037

Interstingly (for me!) root will give us the same :

# apropos -s 1,5,7,8  groups | wc
     17     157    1037

Still 17 commands are a lot. In worst case the forgetfull admin should read all the man pages ! (i wonder if i could pipe apropos results to man or another pager...)

Last edited by chomwitt (Today 17:38:17)

blackhole · Today 08:49:02

The first step is:

% man man

Last edited by blackhole (Today 08:49:18)

chomwitt · Today 08:52:35

@blackhole thanks . noted . But what if my forgetfull - naive sysadm (or daring user)dont remeber that ?
So a forgetfull sysadm should first (as you propose) remember how to use the help system.

That seem correct. But how could (s)he remember that $ man man works ?
I think most propably s(he) would try $ help $ get-help ( :-) )

Last edited by chomwitt (Today 08:58:04)

rolfie · Today 12:20:55

What I miss in the man pages are examples for at least standard applications. manpages usually just list the options.

chomwitt · Today 14:34:39

@rolfie At least in my stated goal man pages dont seems to help. Although the task could seem rather trivial (create a shared dir) . Debian has online a basic user guide @ (They now offer it also in a deb package (debian-beginners-handbook-en_13.3_all.deb) .But i dont think is in the repos yet. I think it'd be a good idea install images to have such a package.

Maybe the Devuan user installation guide @ could also be included in such a package.

Last edited by chomwitt (Today 14:52:09)

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · Today 15:34:57

mostly out of curiosity as to the quality and format of offline materials...

went to link @chomwitt provided:

https://debian-beginners-handbook.arpinux.org/index-en.html

and then further:

https://debian-beginners-handbook.arpinux.org/trixie-en/index.html

and downloaded the 17MB 267page pdf(warning: direct link to pdf download)

*ttps://debian-beginners-handbook.arpinux.org/trixie-en/download/the_beginners_handbook.pdf

fun read so far.

ymmv.

chomwitt · Today 17:06:11

As for the .deb packaged guide. I downloaded and installed it.

$ sudo dpkg -i debian-beginners-handbook-en_13.3_all.deb 

$ dpkg -L debian-beginners-handbook-en 
/.
/usr
/usr/bin
/usr/bin/debian-beginners-handbook-en
/usr/share
/usr/share/applications
/usr/share/applications/debian-beginners-handbook-en.desktop
/usr/share/debian-beginners-handbook-en
/usr/share/debian-beginners-handbook-en/the_beginners_handbook.pdf
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/debian-beginners-handbook-en
/usr/share/doc/debian-beginners-handbook-en/README.Debian
/usr/share/doc/debian-beginners-handbook-en/changelog.gz
/usr/share/doc/debian-beginners-handbook-en/copyright
/usr/share/man
/usr/share/man/man1
/usr/share/man/man1/debian-beginners-handbook-en.1.gz
/usr/share/pixmaps
/usr/share/pixmaps/debian-beginners-handbook-en.png

It basically a pdf. It has a nice touch though. It installs a script command that open the pdf:

#!/bin/sh
xdg-open /usr/share/debian-beginners-handbook-en/the_beginners_handbook.pdf &
exit 0

Also as for the guide's history i found here the older versions @ and a 2017 version on the internet archives @

As for the authors he has the nick arpinux .(website: @) and the guide is released under the WTFPL @

Last edited by chomwitt (Today 17:25:49)

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#1 Today 08:33:52

Trying to create a shared directory using only manpages as helpsystem.

#2 Today 08:49:02

Re: Trying to create a shared directory using only manpages as helpsystem.

#3 Today 08:52:35

Re: Trying to create a shared directory using only manpages as helpsystem.

#4 Today 12:20:55

Re: Trying to create a shared directory using only manpages as helpsystem.

#5 Today 14:34:39

Re: Trying to create a shared directory using only manpages as helpsystem.

#6 Today 15:34:57

Re: Trying to create a shared directory using only manpages as helpsystem.

#7 Today 17:06:11

Re: Trying to create a shared directory using only manpages as helpsystem.

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