Questions tagged [documentation]
Manuals or other information for system users detailing software features and functionality.
194
questions
49
votes
4answers
5k 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!
...
1
vote
1answer
33 views
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 ...
0
votes
1answer
67 views
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 ...
8
votes
1answer
226 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 ...
0
votes
1answer
23 views
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 (...
0
votes
1answer
205 views
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, ...
0
votes
1answer
68 views
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 ...
1
vote
3answers
94 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-...
1
vote
1answer
69 views
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&...
2
votes
0answers
548 views
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 /...
0
votes
2answers
2k views
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? ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views
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 ...
0
votes
0answers
37 views
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 ...
0
votes
0answers
14 views
What are the defined paths for systemctl to find new services [duplicate]
I've been working with services but have had trouble searching the docs.
A co-worker explained me that I should create my service file under /lib/systemd/system/example.service, then enable it with # ...
0
votes
2answers
987 views
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 ...
1
vote
1answer
113 views
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 ...
0
votes
0answers
72 views
How to convert xqx files into actual text using a command like xqxdecode?
Let's say I have an XQX file (A printer stream file) that I got from LibreOffice Writer, how can I extract the text from that that file using xqxdecode?
After reading the documentation for the ...
4
votes
5answers
3k views
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 ...
1
vote
1answer
66 views
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?
0
votes
1answer
107 views
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?
...
1
vote
0answers
55 views
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 ...
1
vote
0answers
174 views
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 ...
0
votes
1answer
134 views
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 ...
0
votes
1answer
16 views
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 ...
3
votes
2answers
702 views
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 ...
9
votes
3answers
1k views
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 ...
0
votes
2answers
2k views
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
...
1
vote
0answers
41 views
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 ...
1
vote
1answer
38 views
How can I view a cheatsheet/summary of a syntax construct of zsh in zsh itself? [closed]
I want something like the doc function in Clojure; I want to type cheat for and be shown some example usages of for in zsh. I don't mind installing an app for this, and I hope something like this has ...
16
votes
2answers
3k views
What does C@t{++} mean in the gdb man page?
I was reading the manpage for gdb and I came across the line:
You can use GDB to debug programs written in C, C@t{++}, Fortran and Modula-2.
The C@t{++} looks like a regex but I can't seem to decode ...
1
vote
1answer
109 views
'find' -perm example in doc
I was reading the official documentation of find online here. And I came across the following part (and I'm bolding the bolded part):
‘-perm -444 -perm /222 ! -perm /111’
Match files that are ...
0
votes
3answers
380 views
Reading Linux kernel documentation in terminal
Is there a way to read Linux Kernel documentation offline in the terminal? For exmple, I am reading this document online: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/cgroup-v1/cgroups.txt
If I use Linux ...
1
vote
1answer
46 views
How to know if man pages are written in my language?
I know my language hindi is in my locale. I have tried to access the hindi man page using this command-
man -Lhi man
But it returns english man pages. So I want to find out how to know if man pages ...
2
votes
1answer
2k views
Some documentation for the “ext4-rsv-conver” process?
$ pgrep -a -f ext4-rsv-conver
153 ext4-rsv-conver
161 ext4-rsv-conver
7451 ext4-rsv-conver
$ dpkg -S ext4-rsv-conver
dpkg-query: no path found matching pattern *ext4-rsv-conver*
Also I can't find ...
0
votes
1answer
111 views
Documentation about tmux TPM plugins
I'm wanting to build a TPM based plugin but the example provided is extremely minimal, doesn't explain how to do things (like creating commmands that can be used in the tmux status bar, or how to have ...
1
vote
1answer
485 views
Where is the “group-separator” option listed in the grep documentation?
My flavor of grep supports --group-separator and --no-group-separator but I only discovered this by googling how to solve a problem:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2168065/how-do-i-get-rid-of-...
0
votes
1answer
152 views
Finding a man page with a standard C or POSIX type? [duplicate]
Is there a way to find a man page given a Standard-C-type or POSIX-type? Such as man size_t or man uintptr_t. This kind of thing can get confusing because uintptr_t is defined in stdint.h, and size_t ...
-1
votes
1answer
358 views
What Debian/Ubuntu package has the documentation for the standard C headers?
On the back of this question, but Debian/Ubuntu specific that has C-standard library headers like (taken from Wikipedia)
assert.h , complex.h , ctype.h , errno.h , fenv.h
, float.h , inttypes.h , ...
0
votes
0answers
27 views
Looking up docs for C header files? [duplicate]
On Ubuntu if I type man 2 time I get,
NAME
time - get time in seconds
SYNOPSIS
#include <time.h>
time_t time(time_t *tloc);
...
I get that this works because time is the ...
2
votes
1answer
409 views
Is this considered an argument? [duplicate]
Some binaries in Unix-Linux systems like ping or mount have a long argument. For example if we write ping -h in the terminal, one of the options is:
Usage: ping [-aAbBdDfhLnOqrRUvV64]
Is this long ...
0
votes
1answer
85 views
Incomplete documentation for FreeBSD ipfw
When I see the official documentation of ipfw or the man pages it seems that it is sometimes incomplete. Specifically, there are a lot of options like,
firewall_myservices
firewall_allowservices
...
0
votes
0answers
67 views
Is there C language documentation on Linux? [duplicate]
Is there a package on Debian or some other Linux media that provides documentation for the C language? I mean in particular man pages. Eg. so that I can check docs for typedef or other basics (and ...
1
vote
0answers
425 views
Kernel man pages, make: *** No rule to make target 'installmandocs'
As a follow up to this question, How to make the kernel section 9 manpages which document functions, data structures, and headers?. I downloaded the kernel source code and in the source dir execute
...
1
vote
1answer
67 views
Where is official documentation about locking mechanisms for etckeeper, apt, and/or dpkg?
Context:
Want to put a lock on etckeeper/apt hook activity during special backup.
Objective is to preserve whole package integrity, e.g., wait until any package installation is complete, and then ...
1
vote
1answer
173 views
LibreOffice placeholder fields documentation
I have to modify a LibreOffice template with a number of conditional statements.
I managed to figure out one can add such statements through Insert > Fields > More fields, tab Functions, type ...
2
votes
2answers
5k views
Is there documentation for /proc/net/netstat and /proc/net/snmp?
There is a long list of stats in /proc/net/netstat and /proc/net/snmp, both of which I think come from the net-tools project. Is there any official or unofficial documentation about these fields? Or ...
0
votes
1answer
35 views
The difference between Documentation Methods
I am confused about a three Documentation techniques used, I have The following questions concerning man , pinfo , /usr/share/doc
Does the man command Display the same content like pinfo and just ...
0
votes
1answer
43 views
Where does bash's 'help' builtin source its documentation? [duplicate]
On MacOS, the default bash on the OS is 3.2.
If I run help trap it says that if the signal_spec is DEBUG, that the command is run after each command, but the bash manpage says it is run before each ...
6
votes
2answers
11k views
Using ls command with symbolic links
I currently do not understand what is going on when I try to find the contents of or information for a symbolic link to a directory when using the ls command. I understand there is an option -H for ...
3
votes
3answers
114 views
How to access man pages as structured content
I'm building a resource that references man pages, and I'm wondering if anyone knows of a way to access man pages as structured data? My current approach is to do a lot if REGEXing, but this is ...
