Second that. :) On my personal SuSE system running here, there are
over 34K possible "commands" on the system, where a command is an
executable program or script. That doesn't include the commands
available inside programs like shells.
As IBMers, we all love our manuals, and don't want to live without the
comfortable little beasties. However, Linux, as with all UNIX flavors,
isn't really as complex as it seems. Here's my general recommendation
to folks just encountering it:
(1) Learn vi.
Sounds awful to new folks, and always results in a enormous amount of
griping. But once you know vi, you have the power to make an awful lot
of things happen- because Linux/Unix is literally riddled with
configuration files - text files that is. You *have* to be able to
edit them with absolutely no effort at all. "vi" is a far more
powerful editor than you might imagine by the way, especially in the
"vim" incarnation that is the modern standard. It is arguably the
equal of ISPF, XEdit, TPU, or others.
(2) Learn about the filesystems, especially in terms of mounts and
mount points and filesystem types. A NFS filesystem is pretty much
going to look just like a local file system, but there are
differences, besides figuring out what exactly an NFS filesystem is, I
mean. The concept of "volumes" exists in Linux/Unix, but *not at the
user level*. Only at the admin level. That takes a little getting used
to. (Especially so in zLinux where you are using Minidisks or 3390-9
volumes, or whatever your particular configuration entails.)
(3) In accomplishing the above, you are automatically going to learn
the basic set of commands, like ls, mv, rm, cat, etc. Also, how pipes
work and how "applications" on a Unix system are really cobbled
together from an almost infinite set of combinations of a very small
set of tools. Think of it like language; English only has 27 letters
in the alphabet, but how many words can be built from those tiny
parts? Same idea in Unix.
(4) Under SuSE, learn how to use YAST. It will *build* complex
commands for you - so copy them down in your notebook and study them.
Like learning assembler from Cobol listings. :)
(5) Most importantly, ask questions, even if they seem elementary;
don't be embarassed! "How do I copy a file up one directory from where
I am at?" is *not* a stupid question. It has a lot of subtle issues
surrounding it! (Relative vs. Absolute directory paths, permissions,
etc. ) Permissions for example, is a whole odd kettle of fish to most
Mainframers, since the permissions are in OCTAL - which a legacy from
the DEC machines Unix was born on I suppose.
It's like feeding the elephant; each peanut of information you glean
will inevitably lead you to many other subjects and pockets of
information. But don't worry, it is like a phase change; one day you
will be frustrated, thinking you will never get it mastered. The next
day, you will realize you just did an incredibly complex thing without
giving it a second thought. :)
Best
-Paul
On Aug 14, 2008, at 7:08 PM, Thomas Kern wrote:
When CMS HELP first came out, the group I was with built a process
to format and print all of the Help files into our own books. It
would be nice if there was a process to format and print all of the
MAN pages that are resident on an arbitrary linux system (z or x86).
/Tom Kern
David Boyes wrote:
That's going to be complicated because every program you install
becomes a
new command, and some commands could be books all to themselves.
There's
also the complication that there are several variations to how
documentation
for Linux commands is prepared and maintained. All packages are
*supposed*
to include man pages, but that can be a bit spotty for some of the
commands
maintained by smaller groups or individuals.
The man command will display summaries for each command and
details. Some
commands use the info command, and some supply HTML pages (which I
personally detest).
Example: 'man ls' will display a manual page for the ls command. If
you're
not sure of the exact command, try 'man -k' and a keyword, eg 'man -
k mail'
will get you all the commands that contain the keyword 'mail'
somehow.
The commands that use 'info' (usually things originating in the GNU
project
like GCC) work with similar syntax, but they bring up a full screen
browser
to navigate the documentation. Info tends to be used for more complex
applications, like emacs. The emacs documentation is a full-scale
book of
it's own. Your best bet is a good Unix book like the O'reilly
sysadmin guides. You can
usually get copies of them at better tech bookstores (alas for
Computer
Literacy....sigh... RIP).
- db On 8/14/08 5:39 PM, "Alyce Austin"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Does a manual exists that has all the SuSE Linux commands listed
running
on the Z series with really good examples?
Thanks for your support,
Alyce
