5. ``info'' Pages

Contents of this section

While man is the most ubiquitous documentation format, info is much more powerful. It provides hypertext links to make reading large documents much easier and many features for the documentation writer. There are some very complete info documents on various aspects of Red Hat (especially the portions from the GNU project).

To read info documentation, use the info program without any arguments. It will present you with a list of available documentation. If it can't find something, it's probably because you don't have the package installed that includes that documentation. Install it with RPM and try again.

If you're comfortable using emacs, it has a built in browser for info documentation. Use C-h C-i to see it.

The info system is a hypertext based system. Any highlighted text that appears is a link leading to more information. Use the Tab key to move the cursor to the link, and press Enter to follow the link. Pressing p returns you to the previous page, n moves you to the next page, and u goes up one level of documentation. To exit info, press C-x C-c (that's control-x followed by control-c).

The best way to learn how to use info is to read the info documentation on it. If you read the first screen that info presents you'll be able to get started.


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