From chris at bennettconstruction.biz Sun Aug 2 02:08:59 2009 From: chris at bennettconstruction.biz (Chris Bennett) Date: Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:08:59 -0500 Subject: Read the man pages, even better, Re-Read them, later Message-ID: <4A74D91B.9080704@bennettconstruction.biz> A good while ago, learning step by step how to do new, useful things, I added spamd. I was very pleased with the results. I had carefully read the man pages and some other pages about spamd. At the time, I got most of it, but I did not really understand a few points. Oh, well. It worked anyway. Over time, incoming spam has gotten worse. I have spent lots of time watching stuff passing through spamd. Kept seeing the same, no longer existing, email address being hit. So I had new, extra interest in problem. Finally I wanted to make a change, needed to read man page to remember how. Lo and Behold! Those things I did not understand earlier, now with some experience, were quite clear! Not only did I make the change I was trying to do, but I immediately saw I had messed up my setup originally (only slightly, but still not the best). Lesson: (my particular example is not really important) Not only are the man pages very complete, there is a real value in a second or third glance at some later date. The man pages however, are not always the best tutor, but they are the first stop and occasionally a real bonus to look at again, even a few years later. Chris Bennett -- A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -- Robert Heinlein From danjel at jungersen.dk Tue Aug 11 07:47:04 2009 From: danjel at jungersen.dk (Danjel Jungersen) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:47:04 +0200 Subject: Read the man pages, even better, Re-Read them, later In-Reply-To: <4A74D91B.9080704@bennettconstruction.biz> References: <4A74D91B.9080704@bennettconstruction.biz> Message-ID: <4A8121F8.17187.5CE25@danjel.jungersen.dk> Good point!! I try to read them, but are still not experienced enough to make sense of them (some times), but I have actually had the same feeling a few times :-) I find that the biggest problem is to find the correct man-page, if I want to "see how my resources are used", thats very hard to find in man (IMHO), but once you found "top", they are great... :-) Danjel On 1 Aug 2009 at 19:08, Chris Bennett wrote: > A good while ago, learning step by step how to do new, useful things, > I added spamd. I was very pleased with the results. I had carefully > read the man pages and some other pages about spamd. At the time, I > got most of it, but I did not really understand a few points. Oh, > well. It worked anyway. > > Over time, incoming spam has gotten worse. I have spent lots of time > watching stuff passing through spamd. Kept seeing the same, no longer > existing, email address being hit. > > So I had new, extra interest in problem. Finally I wanted to make a > change, needed to read man page to remember how. Lo and Behold! Those > things I did not understand earlier, now with some experience, were > quite clear! Not only did I make the change I was trying to do, but I > immediately saw I had messed up my setup originally (only slightly, > but still not the best). > > Lesson: (my particular example is not really important) > Not only are the man pages very complete, there is a real value in a > second or third glance at some later date. > > The man pages however, are not always the best tutor, but they are the > first stop and occasionally a real bonus to look at again, even a few > years later. > > Chris Bennett > > -- > A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, > butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance > accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, > give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new > problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight > efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. > -- Robert Heinlein > > _______________________________________________ > Openbsd-newbies mailing list > Openbsd-newbies at sfobug.org > http://mailman.theapt.org/listinfo/openbsd-newbies From chris at bennettconstruction.biz Thu Aug 13 20:21:23 2009 From: chris at bennettconstruction.biz (Chris Bennett) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:21:23 -0500 Subject: Read the man pages, even better, Re-Read them, later In-Reply-To: <4A8121F8.17187.5CE25@danjel.jungersen.dk> References: <4A74D91B.9080704@bennettconstruction.biz> <4A8121F8.17187.5CE25@danjel.jungersen.dk> Message-ID: <4A8459A3.5020108@bennettconstruction.biz> Danjel Jungersen wrote: > Good point!! > > I try to read them, but are still not experienced enough to make > sense of them (some times), but I have actually had the same feeling > a few times :-) > > I find that the biggest problem is to find the correct man-page, if I > > want to "see how my resources are used", thats very hard to find in > man (IMHO), but once you found "top", they are great... > > :-) > Danjel > Finding things is a BIG problem sometimes. I was recently working in psql (for PostgreSQL), when I accidentally hit Cntrl-R instead of Shift-R. Up pops a cursor with reverse-i-search! I searched the web for what this was. Turns out that in both psql AND in shell, this brings up a search through past command history. Hit the right letters and old commands pop up. Very useful. (says I-search at prompt in ksh). I have not found anything about this in man pages at all. man -k gives nothing. I guess a good question would be how to find out stuff like this systematically. I'm glad I found this, I often need to repeat commands that are way back in the history. Very quick solution for this. Chris Bennett -- A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -- Robert Heinlein