Linux Training Help - Popular Linux Help Commands to Learn How to Do Linux System Administration

Learning how to use Linux commands is key to understanding how to do administer a system.

When you are new to the OS (operating system) and need help with your Linux training, you are able to use these commands.

Linux Commands Training Tips: The Linux System Administration commands, concepts, and tasks covered here utilize to: Red Hat, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Slackware, Debian, Fedora, SUSE and openSUSE - and ALL other Linux distributions.

3 Popular Linux Commands you are able to Use to Get Help

1. The Linux Help Command

The help command is used to get help on Linux builtin (one word) commands, such as the cd (alteration directory) and echo commands.

Run the following command example:



$ help cd

The output of the above command shows help (online documentation) on running the Linux cd command.



Linux Training Tips: The $ in the above example is the command line prompt, that appears when you are at a Linux console (also known as a terminal). You do not need to type in the $ characters, just type in the command at the right!



2. The Linux Info Command

The info command is used to display help "pages" on a command or on a concept.

Linux Info Command Example

$ info grep

The command above shows help on running the Linux grep command.

among the best parts of using the info command is that some of the pages show examples of using a command.



Linux Training Tips: Examples of Linux commands provide an excellent manner to learn a command. The man pages (describe below) and lots of other free documentation rarely shows command examples.



3. The Linux Man Command

This command is used to display man page that provide help on a Linux concept, such as booting a system, or on a command, such as the find command.

Linux Man Command Example

$ man find

This command shows the man page(s) for the find command.



Linux Training Tips: The man pages are quite cryptic and hard to understand for someone new. Try using the info command first and also look to see if you are able to find a good example of how to use the command.



Using the --help Option of a Linux Command to Get Help

a lot of commands have a --help option that shows a description of the command and its options. To use this option, just type in the name of the command followed by --help, as shown below.

Linux --help Option Example

$ mkdir --help

This shows help on the mkdir command.

All of the above commands and options can be hard to understand for someone who is new. One manner to get easy Linux training is to get a popular book (or ebook) or to watch training videos.

Linux training videos can really help you - by hearing and watching a concept being described or seeing how a command is run step-by-step.