Get help!

There are many Linux commands, and a majority provide documentation for the user to read. But how do you access it?

Man-db

When installing a package via apt-get, you may have noticed a process that seems to take quite a while:

processing triggers for man-db...

This is a super-helpful tool for accessing concise documentation for practically any command, and can be used quite easily. Simply choose a command to read documentation on (ls is a good place to start), and type man followed by the name of the command. For this example, the command is ls:

man ls

An interactive window will then appear, with 3 main headings:

1. NAME

2. SYNOPSIS

3. DESCRIPTION

Keep the following keyboard controls in mind to navigate man-db:

Key	Usage
Up arrow	Scroll up one line
Down arrow	Scroll down one line
Q	Quit
Page up	Scroll one page (this will change based on your window height)
Page down	Scroll one page (this will change based on your window height)
/	Enter search mode (then type your search term and press enter)
n	Go to the next search term (if applicable)
N (shift + n)	Go to the previous search term (if applicable)

Built-in help

If there is no man page for a certain command, you may find it has a built-in help utility. There are generally 2 cases:

1. The program will print basic information when called with the flag --help.

2. The program will print basic information or refer you to its help command when called with no arguments (keep in mind that some commands such as cdjust use default parameters, and omitting them will not call a help utility)

Order of commands/TL;DR

If you are looking for help with a function use this order to find it:

1. Type man followed by the command name

2. Type the command with the flag of --help

3. Type the command and see if it refers you somewhere