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1.9     ! jmc         1: .\"    $OpenBSD: help.1,v 1.8 2007/05/31 19:20:13 jmc Exp $
1.4       jmc         2: .\"
                      3: .\" Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron Campbell
                      4: .\" All rights reserved.
                      5: .\"
                      6: .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
                      7: .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
                      8: .\" are met:
                      9: .\"
                     10: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
                     11: .\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
                     12: .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
                     13: .\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
                     14: .\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
                     15: .\"
                     16: .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
                     17: .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
                     18: .\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
                     19: .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
                     20: .\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
                     21: .\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
                     22: .\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
                     23: .\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
                     24: .\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
                     25: .\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
                     26: .\"
1.9     ! jmc        27: .Dd $Mdocdate: May 31 2007 $
1.1       aaron      28: .Dt HELP 1
                     29: .Os
                     30: .Sh NAME
                     31: .Nm help
                     32: .Nd help for new users and administrators
                     33: .Sh DESCRIPTION
1.2       deraadt    34: This document is meant to familiarize new users and system administrators with
1.1       aaron      35: .Ox
                     36: and, if necessary,
                     37: .Ux
                     38: in general.
                     39: .Pp
                     40: Firstly, a wealth of information is contained within the system manual pages.
                     41: In
                     42: .Ux ,
                     43: the
                     44: .Xr man 1
                     45: command is used to view them.
                     46: Type
                     47: .Ic man man
                     48: for instructions on how to use it properly.
                     49: Pay especially close attention to the
                     50: .Fl k
                     51: option.
                     52: .Pp
                     53: Other
                     54: .Ox
                     55: references include the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) located at
1.2       deraadt    56: .Pa http://www.openbsd.org/faq ,
1.1       aaron      57: which is mostly intended for administrators and assumes the reader possesses
                     58: a working knowledge of
                     59: .Ux .
                     60: There are also mailing lists in place where questions are fielded by
                     61: .Ox
                     62: developers and other users; see
1.2       deraadt    63: .Pa http://www.openbsd.org/mail.html .
1.1       aaron      64: .Pp
                     65: System administrators should have already read the
                     66: .Xr afterboot 8
                     67: man page which explains a variety of tasks that are typically performed
                     68: after the first system boot.
                     69: When configuring any aspect of the system, first consider any possible security
                     70: implications your changes may have.
                     71: .Ss The Unix shell
                     72: After logging in, some system messages are typically displayed, and then the
                     73: user is able to enter commands to be processed by the shell program.
                     74: The shell is a command-line interpreter that reads user input (normally from
                     75: a terminal) and executes commands.
                     76: There are many different shells available;
                     77: .Ox
                     78: ships with
                     79: .Xr csh 1 ,
                     80: .Xr ksh 1 ,
                     81: and
                     82: .Xr sh 1 .
                     83: Each user's shell is indicated by the last field of their corresponding entry
                     84: in the system password file
                     85: .Pf ( Pa /etc/passwd ) .
                     86: .Ss Basic Unix commands
1.9     ! jmc        87: .Bl -tag -width "chmodXXX"
1.1       aaron      88: .It Cm man
                     89: Interface to the system manual pages.
                     90: For any of the commands listed below, type
                     91: .Ic man <command>
                     92: for detailed information on what it does and how to use it.
                     93: .It Cm pwd
                     94: Print working directory.
                     95: Files are organized in a hierarchy (see
                     96: .Xr hier 7 )
                     97: called a tree.
                     98: This command will indicate in which directory you are currently located.
                     99: .It Cm cd
                    100: Change working directory.
                    101: Use this command to navigate throughout the file hierarchy.
                    102: For example, type
                    103: .Ic cd /
                    104: to change the working directory to the root.
                    105: .It Cm ls
                    106: List directory contents.
                    107: Type
                    108: .Ic ls -l
                    109: for a detailed listing.
                    110: .It Cm cat
                    111: Although it has many more uses,
1.3       aaron     112: .Ic cat filename
1.1       aaron     113: will print the contents of a plain-text file to the screen.
                    114: .It Cm mkdir
                    115: Make a directory.
                    116: For example,
1.3       aaron     117: .Ic mkdir foobar .
1.1       aaron     118: .It Cm rmdir
                    119: Remove a directory.
                    120: .It Cm rm
                    121: Remove files.
                    122: Files are generally only removable by their owners.
                    123: See the
                    124: .Xr chmod 1
                    125: command for information on file permissions.
                    126: .It Cm chmod
                    127: Change file modes, including permissions.
                    128: It is not immediately obvious how to use this command; please read its manual
                    129: page carefully, as proper file permissions, especially on system files, are
                    130: vital in maintaining security and integrity.
                    131: .It Cm cp
                    132: Copy files.
                    133: .It Cm mv
                    134: Move and rename files.
                    135: .It Cm ps
                    136: List active processes.
                    137: Most
                    138: .Ux Ns -based
                    139: operating systems, including
                    140: .Ox ,
                    141: are multitasking, meaning many programs share system resources at the same
                    142: time.
                    143: A common usage is
                    144: .Ic ps -auxw ,
                    145: which will display information about all active processes.
                    146: .It Cm kill
                    147: Kill processes.
                    148: Used mostly for terminating run-away/unresponsive programs, but also used to
1.7       jmc       149: signal programs for requesting certain operations (e.g., re-read their
1.1       aaron     150: configuration).
                    151: .It Cm date
                    152: Print the current system date and time.
                    153: .It Cm mail
                    154: Access mailbox.
1.9     ! jmc       155: .It Cm exit
1.1       aaron     156: Log out of the system.
                    157: .El
                    158: .Pp
                    159: When a command is entered, it is first checked to see if it is built-in to the
                    160: shell.
                    161: If not, the shell looks for the command in any directories contained within the
                    162: .Ev PATH
                    163: environment variable (see
                    164: .Xr environ 7 ) .
                    165: If the command is not found, an error message is printed.
                    166: Otherwise, the shell runs the command, passing it any arguments specified on
                    167: the command line.
                    168: .Sh SEE ALSO
                    169: .Xr man 1 ,
                    170: .Xr whatis 1 ,
                    171: .Xr whereis 1 ,
                    172: .Xr afterboot 8
                    173: .Sh HISTORY
1.6       jmc       174: This manual page was written by
                    175: .An Aaron Campbell Aq aaron@openbsd.org
                    176: and first appeared in
1.1       aaron     177: .Ox 2.6 .