Re: [Sheflug] Linux Servers 101

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <nospam [at] sk.tsukuba.ac.jp>]

>>>>> "Ian" == Ian Wright <Ian [at] iw63.freeserve.co.uk> writes:

    Ian> However, the biggest difficulty I am finding is knowing where
    Ian> to look

As compared to Windows, where everything is in C:\windows, but you may
die before the directory listing stops scrolling ;-)

    Ian> and this is one of the biggest criticisms I would have of
    Ian> linux and its programmers - the naming of programs is both
    Ian> confusing and unhelpful and doesn't give you any clue as to
    Ian> their purpose.

Well there are "hysterical" reasons for this; many of the programs are
ancient, harking back to when there was no command completion and
everything had to be typed character by character.  Also, Unix
"commands" tend to be long strings of filters piped one into another;
short names are helpful then.  Eventually you get used to them :-)

man -k <keyword> may be of some help (you can do say "man -k sound";
can't guarantee that the author of the man page you want didn't decide
to index it on "audio", of course :( )

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