man is your friend. It shows you the manual for a command. Like man pacman will show you the manual for pacman. You can exit it with q.
this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
21 points (95.7% liked)
linux4noobs
1689 readers
1 users here now
linux4noobs
Noob Friendly, Expert Enabling
Whether you're a seasoned pro or the noobiest of noobs, you've found the right place for Linux support and information. With a dedication to supporting free and open source software, this community aims to ensure Linux fits your needs and works for you. From troubleshooting to tutorials, practical tips, news and more, all aspects of Linux are warmly welcomed. Join a community of like-minded enthusiasts and professionals driving Linux's ongoing evolution.
Seeking Support?
- Mention your Linux distro and relevant system details.
- Describe what you've tried so far.
- Share your solution even if you found it yourself.
- Do not delete your post. This allows other people to see possible solutions if they have a similar problem.
- Properly format any scripts, code, logs, or error messages.
- Be mindful to omit any sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, IP addresses, etc.
Community Rules
- Keep discussions respectful and amiable. This community is a space where individuals may freely inquire, exchange thoughts, express viewpoints, and extend help without encountering belittlement. We were all a noob at one point. Differing opinions and ideas is a normal part of discourse, but it must remain civil. Offenders will be warned and/or removed.
- Posts must be Linux oriented
- Spam or affiliate links will not be tolerated.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I think this simple tip is exactly what I wanted - straight in there! Thanks pal!
As a general refrence, there's also the tldr command line program/command which gives a simplified version of the man page entry for all sorts of common commands :)
Good luck in your Linux ventures! ❤️
Yes, was literally just recommended this and looks useful!
I’ve been someone people would consider a “Mac expert” for years…
But giving Linux a go I realised how little I actually knew and understood about the underpinnings of operating systems.
Definitely interesting learning all the things that macOS was just doing for me or even hiding from me.
You can also use tldr for quick guide
There is a linked command apropos that searches the man page database for keywords. It can be very helpful if you forget the exact command you're looking for.
Oh nice, thank you!
You can push it even futher with wikiman, an offline interface to search and view manpages and the Arch wiki.
You can also use tldr for quick guide
pacman and yay are basically the only "Arch terminal commands".
Everything else is just bash/Linux.
yay options are identical to pacman options, plus some extra.
If something you're used to from Debian doesn't work on Arch (like update-grub), just google the command plus Arch to find the non-specific Linux equivalent.
This is good to know, thanks.
So much of what you do early on is installing packages and updating. I guess it felt more different than it really is!
Install the tldr package. It's a help utility that briefly describes a command and lists several examples of common operations.
Interesting. I’ll check this out!
tiny sidenote: just don’t get discouraged, you are probably starting a lifetime journey not a one afternoon hike
I like to read info files when there is one (there are only hundreds of info files vs. thousands of man pages). Many are on your computer already in /usr/share/info folder. To read them, either use M-x info inside emacs, or console app info which is part of the texinfo package, or tkinfo from the AUR. The console app will show you the man page if there is no info file.
Info files tend to be organized hierarchically and be more extensive and tutorial in nature than man pages.
But the moment I don’t know what yay, -s etc actually mean haha…
$ man yayThey are just program names. Some of them make clear sense, some less so.
yay is Yet Another Yogurt. Which is a pun on yaourt, the program it was based on.
I should have guessed!
As obscure as stuff like that is, I do appreciate the quirky humour at the same time… once you know.
TLDP bash guide, or something like that.
Why did you switch from using Debian? You've gone from having a system you to know to griding to a halt. An obviously worse-off situation.
Because it’s purely for learning / messing about, so nothing is of any real consequence.
This is all on my old, now spare and otherwise redundant 2012 MacBook Pro. My everyday computer is an M1 Pro 14”.
I had Mint running happily for ages, and basically knew everything I would need to know to rely on Mint if I ever needed to.
But with its HiDPI retina display I wanted to be 100% wayland, and I also wanted to use KDE Plasma… And also I own a Steam Deck, and wanted to be more familiar with Arch based distros because of that.
So to tick those boxes and learn something new I switched. There’s no photos, documents, music or anything on it so if it suddenly won’t boot one day it wouldn’t really matter.
The Ivy Bridge intel/Nvidia graphics on that Mac are an absolute nightmare for Linux though haha. On every distro I’ve ever tried up to and including this one…