svn commit: r43024 - head/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/basics
Dru Lavigne
dru at FreeBSD.org
Wed Oct 23 01:15:21 UTC 2013
Author: dru
Date: Wed Oct 23 01:15:20 2013
New Revision: 43024
URL: http://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/doc/43024
Log:
Minor edits to the sections on Shells and Manual Pages. These sections are correct, though a bit on the light side.
Modified:
head/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/basics/chapter.xml
Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/basics/chapter.xml
==============================================================================
--- head/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/basics/chapter.xml Tue Oct 22 20:37:06 2013 (r43023)
+++ head/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/basics/chapter.xml Wed Oct 23 01:15:20 2013 (r43024)
@@ -3143,7 +3143,7 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
<indexterm><primary>shells</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>command line</primary></indexterm>
- <para>&os; provides a command line interface called a shell. A
+ <para>A <firstterm>shell</firstterm> provides a command line interface for interacting with the operating system. A
shell receives commands from the input channel and executes
them. Many shells provide built in functions to help with
everyday tasks such as file management, file globbing, command
@@ -3162,8 +3162,8 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
<para>One common shell feature is filename completion. After a
user types the first few letters of a command or filename and
- presses <keycap>Tab</keycap>, the shell will automatically
- complete the rest of the command or filename. Consider two
+ presses <keycap>Tab</keycap>, the shell automatically
+ completes the rest of the command or filename. Consider two
files called <filename>foobar</filename> and
<filename>foo.bar</filename>. To delete
<filename>foo.bar</filename>, type <command>rm
@@ -3177,7 +3177,7 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
is more than one match. Both <filename>foobar</filename> and
<filename>foo.bar</filename> start with <literal>fo</literal>.
By typing <literal>.</literal>, then pressing
- <keycap>Tab</keycap> again, the shell would be able to fill in
+ <keycap>Tab</keycap> again, the shell is able to fill in
the rest of the filename.</para>
<indexterm><primary>environment variables</primary></indexterm>
@@ -3186,10 +3186,13 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
variables. Environment variables are a variable/key pair stored
in the shell's environment. This environment can be read by any
program invoked by the shell, and thus contains a lot of program
- configuration. Here is a list of common environment variables
- and their meanings:</para>
+ configuration. Table 4.3 provides a list of common environment variables
+ and their meanings. Note that the names of environment
+ variables are always in uppercase.</para>
+
+ <table frame="none" pgwide="1">
+ <title>Common Environment Variables</title>
- <informaltable frame="none" pgwide="1">
<tgroup cols="2">
<thead>
<row>
@@ -3253,7 +3256,8 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
<row>
<entry><envar>PAGER</envar></entry>
- <entry>The user's preferred text pager.</entry>
+ <entry>The user's preferred utility for viewing text one
+ page at a time.</entry>
</row>
<row>
@@ -3263,7 +3267,7 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
- </informaltable>
+ </table>
<indexterm><primary>Bourne shells</primary></indexterm>
@@ -3294,9 +3298,9 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
meta-character is <literal>*</literal>, which represents any
number of characters in a filename. Meta-characters can be
used to perform filename globbing. For example,
- <command>echo *</command> is equivalent to &man.ls.1; because
+ <command>echo *</command> is equivalent to <command>ls</command> because
the shell takes all the files that match <literal>*</literal>
- and &man.echo.1; lists them on the command line.</para>
+ and <command>echo</command> lists them on the command line.</para>
<para>To prevent the shell from interpreting a special character,
escape it from the shell by starting it with a backslash
@@ -3306,13 +3310,13 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
string <literal>$TERM</literal>.</para>
<sect2 id="changing-shells">
- <title>Changing Your Shell</title>
+ <title>Changing the Shell</title>
<para>The easiest way to permanently change the default shell is
to use <command>chsh</command>. Running this command will
open the editor that is configured in the
<envar>EDITOR</envar> environment variable, which by default
- is set to &man.vi.1;. Change the <quote>Shell:</quote> line
+ is set to &man.vi.1;. Change the <literal>Shell:</literal> line
to the full path of the new shell.</para>
<para>Alternately, use <command>chsh -s</command> which will set
@@ -3332,7 +3336,7 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>echo <replaceable>/usr/local/bin/bash</replaceable> >> /etc/shells</userinput></screen>
- <para>Then rerun &man.chsh.1;.</para>
+ <para>Then, rerun &man.chsh.1;.</para>
</note>
</sect2>
</sect1>
@@ -3362,7 +3366,7 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
<replaceable>filename</replaceable> is the name of the file to
be edited. Once inside the editor, all of the commands for
manipulating the editor's functions are listed at the top of the
- display. The caret <literal>^</literal> represents
+ display. The caret (<literal>^</literal>) represents
<keycap>Ctrl</keycap>, so <literal>^e</literal> expands to
<keycombo
action="simul"><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>e</keycap></keycombo>.
@@ -3372,33 +3376,28 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
modified.</para>
<indexterm>
- <primary>&man.vi.1;</primary>
+ <primary><command>vi</command></primary>
</indexterm>
<indexterm>
<primary>editors</primary>
- <secondary>&man.vi.1;</secondary>
</indexterm>
<indexterm>
<primary><command>emacs</command></primary>
</indexterm>
- <indexterm>
- <primary>editors</primary>
- <secondary><command>emacs</command></secondary>
- </indexterm>
<para>&os; also comes with more powerful text editors, such as
&man.vi.1;, as part of the base system. Other editors, like
<filename role="package">editors/emacs</filename> and
<filename role="package">editors/vim</filename>, are part of the
&os; Ports Collection. These editors offer more functionality
- at the expense of being a more complicated to learn. Learning a
+ at the expense of being more complicated to learn. Learning a
more powerful editor such as <application>vim</application> or
<application>Emacs</application> can save more time in the long
run.</para>
<para>Many applications which modify files or require typed input
- will automatically open a text editor. To alter the default
- editor used, set the <envar>EDITOR</envar> environment
+ will automatically open a text editor. To change the default
+ editor, set the <envar>EDITOR</envar> environment
variable as described in <xref linkend="shells"/>.</para>
</sect1>
@@ -3423,10 +3422,7 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
</sect1>
<sect1 id="basics-more-information">
- <title>For More Information</title>
-
- <sect2 id="basics-man">
- <title>Manual Pages</title>
+ <title>Manual Pages</title>
<indexterm><primary>manual pages</primary></indexterm>
@@ -3444,8 +3440,9 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>man ls</userinput></screen>
- <para>The online manual is divided into numbered
- sections:</para>
+ <para>Manual pages are divided into sections which represent the type of topic. In &os;,
+ the following
+ sections are available:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
@@ -3481,13 +3478,13 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Kernel developers.</para>
+ <para>System kernel interfaces.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>In some cases, the same topic may appear in more than one
section of the online manual. For example, there is a
- &man.chmod.1; user command and a
+ <command>chmod</command> user command and a
<function>chmod()</function> system call. To tell &man.man.1;
which section to display, specify the section number:</para>
@@ -3499,8 +3496,8 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
written documentation, so &man.chmod.1; refers to the user
command and &man.chmod.2; refers to the system call.</para>
- <para>If the command name is unknown, use <command>man
- -k</command> to search for keywords in the command
+ <para>If the name of the manual page is unknown, use <command>man
+ -k</command> to search for keywords in the manual page
descriptions:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>man -k <replaceable>mail</replaceable></userinput></screen>
@@ -3509,19 +3506,17 @@ Swap: 2048M Total, 2048M Free
keyword <quote>mail</quote> in their descriptions. This is
equivalent to using &man.apropos.1;.</para>
- <para>To determine what the commands in
- <filename class="directory">/usr/bin</filename> do,
+ <para>To read the descriptions for the commands in
+ <filename class="directory">/usr/bin</filename>,
type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cd /usr/bin</userinput>
-&prompt.user; <userinput>man -f *</userinput></screen>
+&prompt.user; <userinput>man -f * | more</userinput></screen>
<para>or</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cd /usr/bin</userinput>
-&prompt.user; <userinput>whatis *</userinput></screen>
-
- </sect2>
+&prompt.user; <userinput>whatis * |more</userinput></screen>
<sect2 id="basics-info">
<title>GNU Info Files</title>
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