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help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases)

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On 2024-11-27 at 09:28, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 27, 2024 at 02:18:02PM +0000, Eric S Fraga wrote:
> 
>> And, just for the record, should you want to find out more about
>> commands on Linux without leaving your system (i.e. without any
>> interaction with the Internet at all), the man command is available
>> to present the manual pages (dates back to when there was an actual
>> manual in early unix days) for individual commands, e.g.
>> 
>> man bash
>> 
>> which will describe in quite some detail how to use the shell and
>> 
>> man -k somekeyword
>> 
>> will allow to search man pages.
>> 
>> bash itself also has a help system: type "help" :-)
> 
> Good points -- as a tip, turn things around: first try "help foo", 
> then "man foo" whenever you don't know whether what you have is a
> builtin or a command.
> 
> And yes, it's a pity there is no common frontend for both.

There's also 'info foo', which for some values of foo will be more
helpful than either of the above, for others will provide exactly the
same information through a different interface, and for others will
provide no information at all.


This (multiple commands to find the documentation for a command, with no
unified way to look in all the places at once) reminds me of something
that's been in the back of my mind for a long time, and which I've
occasionally gone looking about, but never managed to find an answer on/for.


There is a document which I apparently don't have locally, and don't
remember where I first found, but which is still hosted (in various
formats, none of which are quite what I remember having seen, though the
contents match) in various locations on the current Web. I remember its
having been called "Draft of the UNIX Hierarchy". One location for it
which I find in searching today is:

https://www.cs.earlham.edu/~skylar/humor/Unix/unix.hierarchy.html

Many of the items it lists are obsolete regarding modern usage of,
knowledge of, and familiarity with Linux, and in terms of the
developments in the culture of the use of UNIX and its derivatives over
the time since the document was written, but many of them are still
sufficiently on point to be understandable as reference points. (As a
side note, I would be interested in seeing - and might be interested in
helping to write - an updated version of such a list.)


When I first read this document, there were many references on it which
I did not understand. (One prominent example: I did not know who Dennis,
Bill, and Ken were.) Since then, I have managed to educate myself
sufficiently to be able to understand nearly all of them - with one
prominent exception.

One of the items on the list, under the characteristics of a
"knowledgeable user", is the entry:

* has learned that learn doesn't help

I have never managed to find out what 'learn' is supposed to have been.
No Linux or other *nix-derived system I've ever used has had a command
by that name. I've never managed to find a document which mentions it in
a way that would give a hint as to in what context the term would have
existed, or what it would have been *supposed to* do (whether or not it
actually did it).

Does anyone have an idea what this old reference may be talking about?

-- 
   The Wanderer

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.         -- George Bernard Shaw

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Using terminal commands - corner cases Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-11-27 12:40 +0100
  Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-27 13:00 +0100
    Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-11-27 14:40 +0100
      Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-27 14:40 +0100
        Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-11-27 15:50 +0100
        Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2024-11-27 15:50 +0100
      Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> - 2024-11-27 15:20 +0100
        Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-27 15:30 +0100
          help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm> - 2024-11-27 16:50 +0100
            Re: help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2024-11-27 17:10 +0100
              Re: help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-27 18:10 +0100
            Re: help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-27 18:00 +0100
              Re: help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm> - 2024-11-27 18:30 +0100
                Re: help, man, etc. (was Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-27 18:50 +0100
              Re: help, man, etc. (was: Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-11-28 03:40 +0100
                Re: help, man, etc. (was: Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases) <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2024-11-28 06:40 +0100
        Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Yassine Chaouche <a.chaouche@algerian-radio.dz> - 2024-11-27 16:40 +0100
        Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> - 2024-11-27 17:20 +0100
    Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2024-11-27 15:50 +0100
  Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2024-11-28 05:20 +0100
    Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-11-28 09:40 +0100
    Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-11-28 16:00 +0100
      Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net> - 2024-11-28 16:20 +0100
        Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Erwan David <erwan@rail.eu.org> - 2024-11-28 16:20 +0100
      Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2024-11-29 19:40 +0100
        Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> - 2024-11-30 16:20 +0100
          Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2024-12-02 04:00 +0100
            Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases debian-user@howorth.org.uk - 2024-12-02 13:00 +0100
  Re: Using terminal commands - corner cases Michael Paoli <michael.paoli@berkeley.edu> - 2024-12-02 10:20 +0100

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