Questions tagged [documentation]
Manuals or other information for system users detailing software features and functionality.
216
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What is the official 'man' location in the web?
I had the following experience:
ps command: how to know all the headers with their respective descriptions?
The answer is totally valid, the man available by the OS itself is not updated, so the web ...
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1
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1
answer
9
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How to get help on vim's `complete` variable, not vim's `complete' function?
In vim, there is both a function and a variable called complete.
If you do help complete, you get the function's help.
How do you get the help for the variable?
- 113
1
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1
answer
36
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Where are the kernel arguments documented?
I want to read more about the Linux Kernel argument for memtest. Where can I find out more information about the arguments my kernel accepts?
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1
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104
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List of all file command outputs?
The file -b <path> command seems useful for scripting (filtering file types, not necessarily by extension). But for that you have to know the actual string output for your target filetype(s)
If ...
- 113
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1
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50
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How to change the pager for info command
On GNU/Linux is it possible to change the default pager for info command? I would like to use less as the pager (similar to man pages). I have customized less to use colors to make navigation of man ...
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1
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62
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Linux - Where to place manuals and docs for user binaries?
For applications installed via system package manager, binaries, man pages, and docs go in /usr/bin/, /usr/share/man/man<n>/, and /usr/share/doc/<app-name>/ respectively. For example:
...
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1
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449
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Why through man page does not show the complete list of options and through -help yes?
I understood that man <command> is the manual page for any command.
For man groupdel is possible see only two options:
-h --help
-R --root CHRROT_DIR
Until here at a first glance one can assume ...
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3
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1
answer
197
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Installing man pages for section 9 (kernel routines)
I use kernel.org docs to read about kernel functions. Now I am trying to make possible reading manuals for kernel-mode functions, such as printk with man 9 printk. The section 9 is used for this ...
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2
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1
answer
121
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Is there any good documentation on sysfs? [closed]
I'm looking for good documentation for sysfs; the man page is incomplete and even has one sentence that just stops half way through. I've found the Linux kernel documentation but that's a little bit ...
-1
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1
answer
56
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Offline Documentation of kernel.org
i wanted to find a website to download linux kernel documents offline in eother pdf or html or any kind but i dont know where to find and where to download
any help would be appreciated
the link i ...
2
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1
answer
128
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How to get apropos to show only executable programs/shell commands?
Most of the times when I use apropos I don't care about system calls, library calls etc — I'm just trying to find a command I forgot the name of. Is there a way to trim down the output of apropos to ...
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51
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How to find descriptions for exit codes in Linux? [duplicate]
I'm looking for textual explanation of Linux exit codes (like 124 for timeout, 130 for SIGINT received, etc).
I thought errno from moreutils does this but it seems it is for looking for error numbers? ...
1
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1
answer
101
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Where to get offline documentation/descriptions of individual sysctl kernel tunable parameters?
The NOTES section of $ man 5 sysctl.conf states: The description of individual parameters can be found in the kernel documentation.
But is there a way for me to find this kernel documentation offline? ...
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1
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56
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What are the expansions of TUN and TAP acronyms?
Many VPN software use the TUN or TAP kernel driver to create a virtual network interface (mainly for Linux and FreeBSD systems). I know how they work and the differences, this is purely a ...
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2
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60
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Where to Find Linux Kernel Driver Documentation by Filename
Simple, top level question (which, maddeningly has eluded my sorry level of Google-fu):
Poking around in my (admittedly out of date) machine, I find the following file:
/lib/modules/4.9.0-0.bpo.14-...
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1
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1
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117
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Error installing VirtualBox on Kali Linux following the Kali doc
https://stackexchange.com/users/9328287/telcom I found a very useful and meaningful answer of yours about this error:
E: The repository 'http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian n/a ...
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3
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103
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How and where to find out details on which directories and files a package effects?
In the context of adding capabilities to BaseX,I can see some information about a package:
nicholas@mordor:~$
nicholas@mordor:~$ apt show basex
Package: basex
Version: 9.0.1+ds-1
Priority: optional
...
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2
answers
1k
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What is the behaviour of a file-backed memory map when reading from or writing to an address larger than the length of the file?
I'm trying to figure out whether it would be undefined behaviour to open a memory map to a file with a very large length. My use-case is that I want to be able to see new data when the file is ...
0
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2
answers
64
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What is the intention of undocumented option "netserver -D"?
The netserver binary is often used for network performance profiling in conjunction with iperf3. In many contexts including other Stack Exchange questions, the method for launching netserver is shown ...
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2
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50
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Cheatsheat of all standard utilities [closed]
On a fresh installation pressing double tab prints Display all X possibilities? (y or n). X seems to always be above 1000, on my Arch it's 3003.
So the do one thing and do it well philosophy. But how ...
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1
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114
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Are some apt long options undocumented?
I cannot find documentation on some long, double-dash options of
apt, upon which I stumbled with Bash's tab-completion.
$ apt install --<TAB><TAB>
--allow-change-held-packages --fix-...
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1
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1
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1k
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Documentation for the meaning of entries in /proc/meminfo and /proc/vmstat
Where can I find documentation explaining the meaning of entries in /proc/meminfo and /proc/vmstat files? I looked up on the web and the man page of proc but could not find much. Many entries are self ...
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343
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wpa_cli action script example
I have been googling since morning about any wpa_cli actionscript example and the commands but can't any decent one. can someone help me with some info or link please?
Thanks
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1
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48
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Installing Read/Write locks documentation on Debian
I'm trying to write a program that uses read/write locks and would like to install the man pages for this type of lock.
I already have installed the packages
manpages-dev
man-db
glibc-doc
Could you ...
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59
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4
answers
8k
views
Where is the `--` (double dash) argument documented?
There are some utilities that accept a -- (double dash) as the signal for "end of options", required when a file name starts with a dash:
$ echo "Hello World!" >-file
$ cat -- -file
Hello World!
...
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1
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1
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234
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virsh "live" vs "current" domain
From the virsh manpage, under attach-interface:
If --live is specified, affect a running domain. If --config is specified, affect the
next startup of a persistent domain. If --current is ...
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2
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4k
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How does the tftpd-hpa --verbosity option work?
I'm trying to set up a TFTP server using tftp-hpa, and according to the manpage I can use the --verbosity option to get more output.
Unfortunately I can't find anything that explains what I should ...
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8
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1
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569
views
Where is awklib?
I am working my way through GAWK: Effective AWK Programming:
A User’s Guide for GNU Awk, Edition 5.0; March, 2019.
I installed gawk using the following commands:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get ...
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1
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80
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How to read library documentation downloaded as a package (package-doc)
I am coding Qt GUI application for cryptography and want to use OpenSSL library calls for my application logic. Thats why i downloaded libssl-dev and libssl-doc packages via Synaptic package manager (...
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1
answer
3k
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Where is the documentation for the IP variable in initramfs.conf?
Multiple sources, including this one, mention using the IP variable in initramfs.conf to set a static IP address in the pre-boot environment, and I have used this successfully in the past. However, ...
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1
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208
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missing documentation icinga2 installation on gentoo
I need install mariadb, apache2, php, icinga2 and icingaweb2 on gentoo.
According to the documentation, I managed to install mariadb, apache2, (probably) php and icinga2
At the moment (according to ...
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3
answers
805
views
What are the conventional meanings for symbols used to show commands' syntax?
I am looking for some sort of "syntax key" for command line tools on GNU/Linux, something like this document that Microsoft has:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-...
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3
votes
1
answer
378
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Understanding fetching mutiple URLs and documents using curl
It's not clear to me how to fetch multiple documents using curl mainly because I do not fully understand the explanation in the curl documentation
The curl documentation says:
-o, --output <file&...
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1
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3k
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Configure static values in /etc/dhcpcd.conf
What are the valid values (and what are they used for) for the static option in /etc/dhcpcd.conf file?
I'm configuring a network interface of a Raspberry (running raspbian stretch) by editing the /...
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2
answers
8k
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What does grep -w do?
In here grep is used with the option -w. I did man grep and grep --help to try to find what the aforementioned option does. Neither output says anything about a -w option.
What does that option do? ...
10
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2
answers
5k
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What packages the man pages for GCC on Debian 10 Buster / Testing?
I just installed build-essential, which installed gcc-8 but the man pages seem to be unavailable.
$ man gcc
No manual entry for gcc
See 'man 7 undocumented' for help when manual pages are not ...
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0
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0
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43
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Examples of common programs
Is there a some man-like program (or site/book) that can show me simple examples of common tools usage?
So i can type in terminal show-example grep and it will output
...
For matching multiple ...
4
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2
answers
4k
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Using Heredoc in a Makefile. Is it Possible?
I'm using Makefile such that the default step is to print out a help document for the other options. It would be great if I could add an EOF section instead of multiple echos. Is it possible to use ...
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1
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370
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What's the default value of the admin_reserve_kbytes kernel parameter?
Many of the kernel parameters have default values assigned. But some of them aren't really clear. I'm reading the proc manual and in the case of admin_reserve_kbytes we can read the following:
The ...
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5
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4k
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Is grep documentation about ignoring case wrong, since it doesn't ignore case in filenames?
The man page for grep reads
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions in both the PATTERN and the input files.
(-i is specified by POSIX.)
However, if I change case on a filename, it won't ...
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215
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Getting help on Bash's reserved words
Is there a way to get the information in this link (it's an index with all (?) the keywords) a and within the first level links in the command line with something like man or help?
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2
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427
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Accessing function documentation
Is there a way to access docstrings in Bash? How does one include a docstring in a function's definition in Bash?
More specifically how do I add and access docstrings to the following function?
...
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0
answers
62
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Where to look for data type definitions?
Is there any reference material like man pages that informs on C datatypes? I thought this would give me something, but not:
$ man size_t
No manual entry for size_t
$ man -k size_t
size_t: nothing ...
user147505
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0
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615
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Where to find more infos about Xwayland command line options?
My gnome-session starts a Xwayland instance which I can find
$> pgrep -a Xwayland
995 /usr/bin/Xwayland :0 -rootless -terminate -accessx -core -listen 4 -listen 5 -displayfd 6
which shows that ...
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1
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320
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Auto Refresh qpdfview
I am writing documents in latex that I compile to produce a pdf file opened with qpdfview (with the --unique option).
Once compiled after a modification on the tex .document, I would like qpdfview to ...
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22
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Why does the help for some applications open in Seamonkey composer?
I am running Linux in the form of openSuse Leap 15.0 with KDE Plasma 5.12.6 and have applied patches regularly. If I run some applications, for example Gimp (2.8.22), and ask for help, it starts ...
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Where is the official documentation (Debian package iproute-doc)?
Manpage of ss says:
FILTER := [ state TCP-STATE ] [ EXPRESSION ]
Please take a look at the official documentation (Debian package iproute-doc) for details regarding filters.
What does that mean? I ...
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11
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3
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3k
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Is there any documentation for udev builtins?
The man page for udev mentions in several places that certain rules options can be used to invoke 'builtin' commands, which are apparently built in to the udev program itself. However, I haven't been ...
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2
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What exactly does `ps -p PID` do that `ps -q PID` does not?
According to man ps:
-p pidlist
Select by PID. This selects the processes whose process ID
numbers appear in pidlist. Identical to p and --pid.
-q pidlist
...
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70
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The standard mechanism to switch GPUs isn't undocumented, is it?
My laptop is a normal, uninteresting machine with two standard, unmultiplexed GPUs and an ordinary Debian stretch installation. The secondary GPU (a Radeon) is usually powered down but I can activate ...
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