what folder ? please tell me I’m just starting out. So far I’ve tried “man libwacom” (because I’m having trouble with my tablet) but it says there’s no entry for the package. Do most packages usually have a manual entry ?

it is where all the binaries (programs) live (that are not system critical, those would be in sbin). so whenever you execute ls? it is actually /usr/bin/ls and so on and so forth.

then there is the “man” command. basically a manual. you can use it to find out stuff about other commands and such by just typing “man [command]” for example “man ls”

edit: this knowledge has NOT been acquired by RTFM but rather by watching YouTube

Just type in man <your binary> to go through the binary manual, also called man page :)

Yep, I remember fondly the booklets in the disc cases. Some were light, some were thorough. It’s a lost art

Yea I run OpenBsd on my VPS. So much nicer than having to wonder where this particular Linux distro decided to keep this particular config file.

quick everyone, stop RTFM ! save this man’s job !

In many cases you get hired for having the knowledge and experience instead of just having skills.

Many linux CLI tools also tend to have similar names for arguments with similar effects.
That also reduces the re-reading.

I dread the day the users read the manual

Too long and difficult. I’ll let chat gpt tell me instead and read that between adverts on Love Island

Yup.

What even is your problem that you’ll get worked up enough to spend energy spreading misery over some tiny annoyance from some internet stranger? Do you get pleasure out of that? If so, for shame.

When I get annoyed by some internet stranger’s conduct online, I don’t engage. I disengage. Life’s too short to get worked up over the little things I find, and we’ll all feel better when we don’t engage in that negativity.

Yes, I’ve blocked people without ever saying a single word. Sometimes while lurking, I’ll find some conduct (not beliefs, conduct) that I disagree with. I don’t then go on and admonish them, I make them “disappear” from my life, then go on thinking about what I should eat for dinner.

or the manuals now are complete shit.

Yes in the 80s electronic equipment like TVs even came with electrical schematics in the box. Not really intended for most end users (repairing a CRT is quite dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing) but to help the repair guy. No extended warranty scams, no approved dealers get parts only. Just all the help they could offer.

Now there’s a one page leaflet in the box showing where the on button is and for the rest you’ll have to find the pdf.

Software came with thick ring binders describing every feature and updates came with inserts to put at the right places in the binders. Manuals actually were useful.

There’s sometimes a few Ikea style pictures showing how to put it on a table and plug it in. Which is possibly useful to some.

Until you do like step one of taking an appliance apart, and realize that the real manual is marked “for technician use only”, and it’s hidden inside of the appliance.

My washer and dryer both have good manuals complete with circuit diagrams under the top once i take a few screws out. My chest freezer has one taped up under the hatch where the compresser sits. My refrigerator has one hidden in the door hinge.

The actual manual is usually hidden somewhere on it for repair techs to find. For my oven it was taped on the back.

Appliance repair in the 20’s? WTFY (Watch the fucking Youtube)

query:samsung Ice maker stoped working

Hi, I’m jimmy from shadyApplianceParts.com Did your samsung ice box stop making ice? That’s a common problem. What you need to…

Honestly I have to disagree. All my recently purchased appliances: microwave, washing machine, dishwasher and induction cooktop, had detailed instruction manuals that were genuinely useful, especially where the finer details aren’t obvious from the device itself.

Heck, even my wireless earbuds had a little bit of useful info, like how to force them into pairing mode.

Of course, all those manuals contained those nonsense safety warnings too (and I read every word of course! :P) but that’s neither here nor there.

The troubleshooting section of the manual is almost always useless because it only ever covers user error.

My washer threw a drainage error and the manual suggested I blocked the outlet or had done something daft. I looked up the error code online and 90% of the time it was a failed water pump.

I had to replace the water pump. It was an easy job that required less documentation than a lego set for a 5 year old. You just had to know which screws to loosen to get to the pump. Was it documented? Of course not.

And software doesn’t even come with those kinds of manuals anymore.

Leno on the lost are of Owner’s Manuals.

initially when I was learning linux. I had troubles finding the command I needed. I could have first gone and read everything and then come back to try, which I did. But sometimes the man pages, the ubuntu and arch forums weren’t as great of a help as messing up myself.

Could there be a better way to document with slightly more examples: yes. Would it help: tons

But this is just my opinion, and I am just a noob

as a professional sociotechnical problem solver I will join you on this fatal hill

like take the 4 types of documentation in diátaxis

man pages usually fulfill the reference need, and sometimes kind of that of how-to guides if you’re lucky and your local man has examples

but that leaves more than 50% of documentation needs lacking

and discoverability is atrocious – you have to already know that the command (or commands) you need exists and what it’s called

one of the most useful things I learned in a linux sysadmin course was apropos / man -k, which lets you search installed man pages by keyword. but hardly anyone else seems to know about it – I only learned of it because a teaching assistant mentioned it off hand! – and even then it only helps if you guess the right keyword for your problem

I am vexed by this situation

Name calls people who read documentation.

Does not offer any alternative.

“No John, you are the neckbeards!”

There’s other ways to get info. And man pages are a great way to learn how something is expected to work on your system. And it’s offline, without ads, scams, ai generated false info.

deleted by creator

THIS. I feel like linux man pages are as useful as an Analytical mechanics textbook for someone who just wants to drive. Like yes, sure, it’s amazing we have such a detailed documentation but for God’s sake just introduce basic usages first

It’s a good thing there are other resources, then. You can read tldr-pages. You can look at various official and unofficial wikis. You can look at Stackoverflow. You can look at Youtube tutorials. You can ask other people. Hell, you can ask a chatbot.

If the average user is unwilling to do that, maybe it’s better that Linux does not see a wider adoption.

ssh connects and logs into the specified destination, which may be specified as either [user@]hostname or a URI of the form ssh://[user@]hostname[:port]

ssh [admin@]192.168.1.1
ssh: Could not resolve hostname ]192.168.1.1: No address associated with hostname

That’s how I would interpret that part of the man page had I no familiarity with ssh. It doesn’t seem reasonable to expect the reader to know what those brackets mean.

Batman-ual?

OP may be a master of RTFM, but they clearly didn’t read through that passage before posting. Blowing the technician is a good way to save money, but maybe not the best way to learn.