1 00:00:00,460 --> 00:00:02,170 Hello there, you beautiful people. 2 00:00:02,170 --> 00:00:05,500 Now, in the last video, you learned the difference between the terminal and the shell. 3 00:00:05,500 --> 00:00:09,370 And you've also seen how commands are structured on quite a general level. 4 00:00:09,370 --> 00:00:14,680 We mentioned that commands follow a general structure like command name, then some options and then 5 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:15,580 some inputs. 6 00:00:15,580 --> 00:00:20,800 But like we saw, each of the Linux commands is implemented slightly differently, they behave slightly 7 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:21,370 differently. 8 00:00:21,370 --> 00:00:26,200 So other than memorizing a bajillion different implementations of things, how can we actually know 9 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:28,840 how to use each of the Linux commands properly? 10 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:33,790 Well, the answer is to use the manual pages known as man pages for short. 11 00:00:33,820 --> 00:00:38,050 Now Linux comes with an incredible set of manual pages that will detail the workings of pretty much 12 00:00:38,050 --> 00:00:41,140 everything on the system, including commands. 13 00:00:41,140 --> 00:00:45,820 So in this video, we're going to be covering how the manual is structured now because the manual is 14 00:00:45,820 --> 00:00:46,660 massive. 15 00:00:46,660 --> 00:00:51,430 Having an understanding of the structure behind it is going to make it so much easier to navigate because 16 00:00:51,430 --> 00:00:55,660 then you'll know not only what is available in the manual, but also where to look for it. 17 00:00:55,660 --> 00:01:00,010 So by the end of the video you'll have an understanding of the manual structure and which sections are 18 00:01:00,010 --> 00:01:01,810 probably going to be most important to you. 19 00:01:01,810 --> 00:01:05,680 And you'll also have a cool cheat sheet to take away with you that pretty much has all the notes and 20 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:09,130 all the all the top information from this video. 21 00:01:09,130 --> 00:01:10,150 So that's quite exciting. 22 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:12,850 So let's go ahead and jump right into it. 23 00:01:13,630 --> 00:01:14,320 All right. 24 00:01:14,320 --> 00:01:18,610 So the first thing you need to know when you're looking at the manual structure is that the manual is 25 00:01:18,610 --> 00:01:20,440 broken up into eight sections. 26 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:25,630 And each of these sections deals with a specific type of thing that is on your Linux operating system. 27 00:01:25,630 --> 00:01:32,320 Now, the manual is absolutely huge and just it would be impossible to deal with if it was all just 28 00:01:32,320 --> 00:01:35,230 in one big lump by breaking it up into several sections. 29 00:01:35,230 --> 00:01:39,310 That makes it a lot easier for you and I to manage, understand where we're looking so we can actually 30 00:01:39,310 --> 00:01:40,460 find what we're looking for. 31 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:45,640 Okay, so let's go through each of these eight sections and have a bit of a bit more of an understanding 32 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:47,030 of what they do. 33 00:01:47,050 --> 00:01:47,300 Okay. 34 00:01:47,410 --> 00:01:49,570 So let's start with section number one. 35 00:01:49,570 --> 00:01:51,970 So section number one is for user commands. 36 00:01:51,970 --> 00:01:56,140 Now these are commands that can just be run from the shell by any regular user. 37 00:01:56,140 --> 00:02:01,600 You don't need any particular administration privileges or any root privileges to be able to run these 38 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:02,410 commands. 39 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:03,580 Anyone can use them. 40 00:02:03,580 --> 00:02:08,320 So things like the date command, the cow command and so on, these are the kind of commands that would 41 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:13,600 come under user commands and pretty much any command that you'll use day to day will be in there. 42 00:02:14,350 --> 00:02:16,420 Section two is for system calls. 43 00:02:16,420 --> 00:02:18,850 Now, this is a more advanced section. 44 00:02:18,850 --> 00:02:23,740 So this is this contains programming functions that can be used within an application that you write 45 00:02:23,740 --> 00:02:29,110 to make calls to the Linux kernel, which is a very low level part of the operating system that we'll 46 00:02:29,110 --> 00:02:30,940 be discussing actually later on in the course. 47 00:02:30,940 --> 00:02:34,810 But unless you're doing some rather advanced stuff that actually plays with the operating system and 48 00:02:34,810 --> 00:02:39,100 the hardware on your computer, you probably won't use Section two, but it's there and that's what 49 00:02:39,100 --> 00:02:39,700 it's for. 50 00:02:39,820 --> 00:02:43,300 Same kind of goes for Section three, which is about see library functions. 51 00:02:43,300 --> 00:02:50,350 Now these are libraries for the C programming language and these are functions and libraries that provide 52 00:02:50,350 --> 00:02:56,080 interfaces to specific things on your computer, such as graphical user interfaces or other libraries 53 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:56,880 that you might want to use. 54 00:02:56,880 --> 00:03:03,040 So if you're writing some C code that you want to have access to your computer with, then that's the 55 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:06,250 kind of stuff that you'll be looking at in there in Section three. 56 00:03:06,250 --> 00:03:10,450 But if you're just a regular user like me, you probably won't need to do so. 57 00:03:10,450 --> 00:03:13,240 Section four is devices and Special Files. 58 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:19,330 Always got the word special in it, but this is about how the different devices on your computer are 59 00:03:19,330 --> 00:03:19,990 managed. 60 00:03:19,990 --> 00:03:27,940 So things such as CD drives or things such as random number generators or things such as USB ports and 61 00:03:27,940 --> 00:03:28,480 stuff like that. 62 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:33,760 This is how they're managed and how you can access those using using command lines and things like that. 63 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:37,330 So anything to do with the device isn't going to be in section four. 64 00:03:37,660 --> 00:03:39,100 Section five is an interesting one. 65 00:03:39,100 --> 00:03:41,740 Section five is about file formats and conventions. 66 00:03:41,740 --> 00:03:47,320 So if you've ever opened up a file on your computer and just been like, Oh my goodness, what is that? 67 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:48,730 That looks like an absolute mess. 68 00:03:48,730 --> 00:03:50,410 I have no idea what is going on. 69 00:03:50,410 --> 00:03:52,510 How can I possibly use this? 70 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:54,100 That's what Section five is for. 71 00:03:54,100 --> 00:04:00,640 Section five is about all the different formats and the conventions of specific files and on your computer. 72 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:06,970 So, you know, formats for word documents or formats for PDF documents or formats for specific configuration 73 00:04:06,970 --> 00:04:07,300 files. 74 00:04:07,300 --> 00:04:11,110 So if you want to start configuring things on your computer, start customizing stuff. 75 00:04:11,110 --> 00:04:15,160 Section five is what you're going to use often because it will show you how each of the special files 76 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:17,079 works and how they're structured and what, you know, how they're structured. 77 00:04:17,079 --> 00:04:18,100 You can change them, right? 78 00:04:18,100 --> 00:04:19,240 So that's section five. 79 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:21,070 Section six is about games. 80 00:04:21,070 --> 00:04:25,990 So any games that are installed on your computer, they have their own section and different commands 81 00:04:25,990 --> 00:04:27,400 and stuff that are applicable to those. 82 00:04:28,090 --> 00:04:32,170 Section seven is more miscellaneous stuff, more uncategorized stuff. 83 00:04:32,170 --> 00:04:38,710 So it's usually stuff like protocols or file systems and information about those. 84 00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:41,320 If you know what they mean, then maybe you'll want to check it out. 85 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:42,850 If you don't, then don't worry about it. 86 00:04:42,850 --> 00:04:44,110 You'll probably never come across it. 87 00:04:44,110 --> 00:04:49,150 And Section eight is all of all the stuff to do with system administration. 88 00:04:49,150 --> 00:04:51,580 So this is like the reverse of section one. 89 00:04:51,580 --> 00:04:56,350 A Section eight is all the commands that can actually actually require root privileges and administration 90 00:04:56,350 --> 00:04:58,680 privileges to be run on your computer. 91 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:00,580 This is things like changing passwords. 92 00:05:00,580 --> 00:05:07,240 This is things like really editing important stuff on your computer, setting up automation and things 93 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:07,720 like that. 94 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:11,050 Whereas the section one the user commands is stuff that anyone can run. 95 00:05:11,050 --> 00:05:16,420 Section eight requires privileges in order to actually run those functions and run those commands. 96 00:05:16,750 --> 00:05:18,130 So those are the eight sections. 97 00:05:18,130 --> 00:05:22,570 And as I say, this information with more explanation is actually in the cheat sheet that you can get 98 00:05:22,570 --> 00:05:23,470 in the resources section. 99 00:05:23,470 --> 00:05:25,900 So make sure to check that out after this video. 100 00:05:25,900 --> 00:05:30,040 But the main sections that you're actually going to be using are section one, which is the user commands. 101 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:34,870 We'll be using that all the time in this course and you'll be using it all the time pretty much whenever 102 00:05:34,870 --> 00:05:37,810 you use Linux Day today, Section five is usually what you'll use. 103 00:05:37,810 --> 00:05:41,650 If you want to start editing stuff and configuring things, you'll get information on how to edit the 104 00:05:41,650 --> 00:05:46,240 stuff and what to edit in specific configuration files using Section five and Section eight. 105 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:51,430 When you want to set up things like automation or make some rather advanced changes to your computer, 106 00:05:51,430 --> 00:05:54,820 then you'll use Section eight, which is all the system administration stuff. 107 00:05:54,820 --> 00:05:59,680 So that's when you want to do stuff that normal users shouldn't be able to do all the time. 108 00:05:59,920 --> 00:06:03,730 It's like changing, changing other people's passwords and stuff like that, creating users for the 109 00:06:03,730 --> 00:06:04,810 system and things like that. 110 00:06:05,140 --> 00:06:09,970 So Section one, Section five, and Section eight are what you will likely use most often. 111 00:06:09,970 --> 00:06:10,960 So there we are. 112 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:13,060 That's a that's a structure for. 113 00:06:13,150 --> 00:06:14,050 The manual. 114 00:06:14,500 --> 00:06:16,030 Let's take a quick summary of what we've seen here. 115 00:06:16,030 --> 00:06:20,110 We've seen the Linux expanding was broken up into eight sections and more information about each of 116 00:06:20,110 --> 00:06:23,980 the sections is actually in the cheat sheet that you can find in the resources. 117 00:06:23,980 --> 00:06:28,690 But now that we've got an understanding of each of the sections and we see how the manual is structured, 118 00:06:28,690 --> 00:06:30,160 let's start actually using it. 119 00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:33,760 So in the next video, what we're going to do is we're going to take this information about the manual 120 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:38,440 structures and we're going to see how you can actually search the manual and read the manual pages to 121 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:39,970 learn how to use new commands. 122 00:06:39,970 --> 00:06:43,000 So for all that goodness, I'll see you in the next video.