Reading manual pages with the man command

So far, you've learned several very useful commands to form the basis of your terminal skills. However, we haven't yet gone over the most important command of all—the man command.

The most important skill that any Linux administrator will ever learn is how to find useful information when in a jam. Being resourceful in the face of disaster is what separates hobbyists from professionals. In today's age, there's a wealth of information available at your fingertips. When faced with a nasty error message, often a quick Google search will find an online posting where someone has already been through the same problem and may have typed a response indicating what the solution is. In the worst case scenario, you may stumble across a bug report instead and discover that your problem is a known issue, and the developers of the software are already working on resolving it.

When you don't have the comfort of an Internet browser by your side or you'd like to quickly...