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Searches for "Unix less" or "Linux less" are spot on. Even "less command line" will get you there easily. It's all about context. And of course there are al

Searches for "Unix less" or "Linux less" are spot on. Even "less command line" will get you there easily. It's all about context. And of course there are always the man pages, which is usually the best place to start.

stevebmark 12y ago
I personally find the man pages very dense and poorly organized. `man grep` for example is my own personal nightmare. I think the man pages should introduce a policy of simple usage examples instead of throwing 99% of information you don't care about at you at once. Something like http://bropages.org/ http://bropages.org/
- catern 12y ago
  Perhaps you would find info pages more useful. For example, 'info grep'.
  - uxp 12y ago
    I find that the Man pages on BSD-derived systems are generally quite exceptional, where as GNU-based systems seem to be less so. `info` seems to be their attempt at making a better `man`, but it's pretty hit-or-miss if a Linux-based project thats not from the FSF supports infopages over manpages.
    - a3n 12y ago
      info itself is merely annoying (to me). But the one thing I hate about info is that they often change the "see also" near the end of a man page from a list of similar or related commands that you might want to also read, to an invitation to use the info chapter for that command. Aarrrggghhh! man less ... SEE ALSO lesskey(1) man ls ... SEE ALSO The full documentation for ls is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and ls programs are properly installed at your site, the command info coreutils 'ls invocation' should give you access to the complete manual. Why hijack a useful section? Why not just add a "SEE INFO" section?
  - SwellJoe 12y ago
    I hate info. I have to read the info docs before I can read the docs I wanted to read. They're also divided up into little pieces unnecessarily, so I have to think rather than scroll until my eye catches what I need. info is up there with inkjet printers and trying to make sound work worth a damn in Linux on my list of things that have frustrated me regularly for the past 20 years.
    - rquirk 12y ago
      I have a small script in my ~/bin that pipes `info --subnodes "$@"` into less. That way I don't have to remember all the keys, and the whole output is like a big man page. Although on Debian and Ubuntu the info pages are usually not available by default anyway due to the "GNU docs are non-free"-decision Debian made a few years ago.
- zer0rest 12y ago
  If you want high quality man pages go look at openBSD base, truly exceptional. Even then, man pages nowadays are massive compared to what they were intended to be, complexity is the bane of all software.
  - davidgerard 12y ago
    Seconded. When I was starting out in Solaris sysadmin, I'd read the Solaris man pages for local details, but the OpenBSD pages to see what the hell the command actually thought it was doing.
- appleflaxen 12y ago
  I've started using "bro", and really like it.

stevebmark 12y ago

I personally find the man pages very dense and poorly organized. `man grep` for example is my own personal nightmare. I think the man pages should introduce a policy of simple usage examples instead of throwing 99% of information you don't care about at you at once. Something like http://bropages.org/ http://bropages.org/

catern 12y ago
Perhaps you would find info pages more useful. For example, 'info grep'.
- uxp 12y ago
  I find that the Man pages on BSD-derived systems are generally quite exceptional, where as GNU-based systems seem to be less so. `info` seems to be their attempt at making a better `man`, but it's pretty hit-or-miss if a Linux-based project thats not from the FSF supports infopages over manpages.
  - a3n 12y ago
    info itself is merely annoying (to me). But the one thing I hate about info is that they often change the "see also" near the end of a man page from a list of similar or related commands that you might want to also read, to an invitation to use the info chapter for that command. Aarrrggghhh! man less ... SEE ALSO lesskey(1) man ls ... SEE ALSO The full documentation for ls is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and ls programs are properly installed at your site, the command info coreutils 'ls invocation' should give you access to the complete manual. Why hijack a useful section? Why not just add a "SEE INFO" section?
- SwellJoe 12y ago
  I hate info. I have to read the info docs before I can read the docs I wanted to read. They're also divided up into little pieces unnecessarily, so I have to think rather than scroll until my eye catches what I need. info is up there with inkjet printers and trying to make sound work worth a damn in Linux on my list of things that have frustrated me regularly for the past 20 years.
  - rquirk 12y ago
    I have a small script in my ~/bin that pipes `info --subnodes "$@"` into less. That way I don't have to remember all the keys, and the whole output is like a big man page. Although on Debian and Ubuntu the info pages are usually not available by default anyway due to the "GNU docs are non-free"-decision Debian made a few years ago.
zer0rest 12y ago
If you want high quality man pages go look at openBSD base, truly exceptional. Even then, man pages nowadays are massive compared to what they were intended to be, complexity is the bane of all software.
- davidgerard 12y ago
  Seconded. When I was starting out in Solaris sysadmin, I'd read the Solaris man pages for local details, but the OpenBSD pages to see what the hell the command actually thought it was doing.
appleflaxen 12y ago
I've started using "bro", and really like it.