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1.3     ! aaron       1: .\"    $OpenBSD: help.1,v 1.2 1999/10/18 06:35:24 deraadt Exp $
1.1       aaron       2: .Dd October 17, 1999
                      3: .Dt HELP 1
                      4: .Os
                      5: .Sh NAME
                      6: .Nm help
                      7: .Nd help for new users and administrators
                      8: .Sh DESCRIPTION
1.2       deraadt     9: This document is meant to familiarize new users and system administrators with
1.1       aaron      10: .Ox
                     11: and, if necessary,
                     12: .Ux
                     13: in general.
                     14: .Pp
                     15: Firstly, a wealth of information is contained within the system manual pages.
                     16: In
                     17: .Ux ,
                     18: the
                     19: .Xr man 1
                     20: command is used to view them.
                     21: Type
                     22: .Ic man man
                     23: for instructions on how to use it properly.
                     24: Pay especially close attention to the
                     25: .Fl k
                     26: option.
                     27: .Pp
                     28: Other
                     29: .Ox
                     30: references include the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) located at
1.2       deraadt    31: .Pa http://www.openbsd.org/faq ,
1.1       aaron      32: which is mostly intended for administrators and assumes the reader possesses
                     33: a working knowledge of
                     34: .Ux .
                     35: There are also mailing lists in place where questions are fielded by
                     36: .Ox
                     37: developers and other users; see
1.2       deraadt    38: .Pa http://www.openbsd.org/mail.html .
1.1       aaron      39: .Pp
                     40: System administrators should have already read the
                     41: .Xr afterboot 8
                     42: man page which explains a variety of tasks that are typically performed
                     43: after the first system boot.
                     44: When configuring any aspect of the system, first consider any possible security
                     45: implications your changes may have.
                     46: .Ss The Unix shell
                     47: After logging in, some system messages are typically displayed, and then the
                     48: user is able to enter commands to be processed by the shell program.
                     49: The shell is a command-line interpreter that reads user input (normally from
                     50: a terminal) and executes commands.
                     51: There are many different shells available;
                     52: .Ox
                     53: ships with
                     54: .Xr csh 1 ,
                     55: .Xr ksh 1 ,
                     56: and
                     57: .Xr sh 1 .
                     58: Each user's shell is indicated by the last field of their corresponding entry
                     59: in the system password file
                     60: .Pf ( Pa /etc/passwd ) .
                     61: .Ss Basic Unix commands
                     62: .Bl -tag -width logout
                     63: .It Cm man
                     64: Interface to the system manual pages.
                     65: For any of the commands listed below, type
                     66: .Ic man <command>
                     67: for detailed information on what it does and how to use it.
                     68: .It Cm pwd
                     69: Print working directory.
                     70: Files are organized in a hierarchy (see
                     71: .Xr hier 7 )
                     72: called a tree.
                     73: This command will indicate in which directory you are currently located.
                     74: .It Cm cd
                     75: Change working directory.
                     76: Use this command to navigate throughout the file hierarchy.
                     77: For example, type
                     78: .Ic cd /
                     79: to change the working directory to the root.
                     80: .It Cm ls
                     81: List directory contents.
                     82: Type
                     83: .Ic ls -l
                     84: for a detailed listing.
                     85: .It Cm cat
                     86: Although it has many more uses,
1.3     ! aaron      87: .Ic cat filename
1.1       aaron      88: will print the contents of a plain-text file to the screen.
                     89: .It Cm mkdir
                     90: Make a directory.
                     91: For example,
1.3     ! aaron      92: .Ic mkdir foobar .
1.1       aaron      93: .It Cm rmdir
                     94: Remove a directory.
                     95: .It Cm rm
                     96: Remove files.
                     97: Files are generally only removable by their owners.
                     98: See the
                     99: .Xr chmod 1
                    100: command for information on file permissions.
                    101: .It Cm chmod
                    102: Change file modes, including permissions.
                    103: It is not immediately obvious how to use this command; please read its manual
                    104: page carefully, as proper file permissions, especially on system files, are
                    105: vital in maintaining security and integrity.
                    106: .It Cm cp
                    107: Copy files.
                    108: .It Cm mv
                    109: Move and rename files.
                    110: .It Cm ps
                    111: List active processes.
                    112: Most
                    113: .Ux Ns -based
                    114: operating systems, including
                    115: .Ox ,
                    116: are multitasking, meaning many programs share system resources at the same
                    117: time.
                    118: A common usage is
                    119: .Ic ps -auxw ,
                    120: which will display information about all active processes.
                    121: .It Cm kill
                    122: Kill processes.
                    123: Used mostly for terminating run-away/unresponsive programs, but also used to
                    124: signal programs for requesting certain operations (i.e., re-read their
                    125: configuration).
                    126: .It Cm date
                    127: Print the current system date and time.
                    128: .It Cm mail
                    129: Access mailbox.
                    130: .It Cm logout
                    131: Log out of the system.
                    132: .El
                    133: .Pp
                    134: When a command is entered, it is first checked to see if it is built-in to the
                    135: shell.
                    136: If not, the shell looks for the command in any directories contained within the
                    137: .Ev PATH
                    138: environment variable (see
                    139: .Xr environ 7 ) .
                    140: If the command is not found, an error message is printed.
                    141: Otherwise, the shell runs the command, passing it any arguments specified on
                    142: the command line.
                    143: .Sh SEE ALSO
                    144: .Xr man 1 ,
                    145: .Xr whatis 1 ,
                    146: .Xr whereis 1 ,
                    147: .Xr afterboot 8
                    148: .Sh HISTORY
                    149: This manual page was written by Aaron Campbell <aaron@openbsd.org> and first
                    150: appeared in
                    151: .Ox 2.6 .