On Tue, 2007-10-30 at 15:13 -0500, Les Mikesell wrote: > Dave Burns wrote: > > > On 10/30/07, Karl Larsen <k5di@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> I printed out Maximum RPM in 1997 and I refer to it often. I was > >> told today to use: > >> > >> # rpm -q --whatprovides (complete direction to a file) and it did > >> provide the name of the file that provides /etc/rc.d/init.d/nvideo. > >> > >> Then just now I got to page 51 and there it listed this capability. > >> I have had this capability for 8 years but didn't know it... > >> :-) > > If you learn to read man pages you don't need so many books. They are a > lot faster to read, too. But a lot less convenient on the bus (train, plane, toilet, in the park near the lake, on the couch during commercials, in the waiting room at the doctor's office, etc and so forth). And they just aren't as bloody "sexy" as a nicely printed book, are they? :-) And, as this list and certain of its members have indeed quite recently shown, not every man page is written in a way that Joe Lunchbox can readily assimilate. Heck, let's be blunt here. Some of them are remarkably poorly written. That said, I'm not in complete disagreement with you, Les. RTFM is even today completely apropos and should be the mantra of everybody who's chosen to be part of the Linux experience. But don't knock a book, Maestro. It kind of pisses us scribblers off. ;-) Andy (Every try to loan a great man page to a friend?)
