While man pages are great sources of information about a command or concept, the fact that it provides one long page means that longer documents are hard to read. The info format was developed as a way to store more comprehensive instructions on your system. If a particular command is more complicated than a man page can document, the author commonly writes both a man page and an info page. While the man page will be a simple reference to the command and its options, the info page will be a longer reference, like a manual.
To make it easier to read longer documents, info pages are split up into sections, with links between them, much like a web site. You should feel comfortable very quickly when using info because it is so similar to a web browser.
You can start the info program the same way as the man program. For example, to get help on the info command itself, type
bash$ info info |
You should get a screen which looks something like this:
File: info.info, Node: Top, Next: Getting Started, Up: (dir)
Info: An Introduction
*********************
Info is a program for reading documentation, which you are using now.
To learn how to use Info, type the command `h'. It brings you to a
programmed instruction sequence.
* Menu:
* Getting Started:: Getting started using an Info reader.
* Advanced Info:: Advanced commands within Info.
* Creating an Info File:: How to make your own Info file.
|
The text you see at the bottom of the screen followed by :: are the links to other pages in this document. You can use your keyboard to put the cursor anywhere on the words of the link, and enter to select it. You may have some trouble navigating the pages, so here's a quick list of important keys:
Table 1. Important keys and their functions
| Key | Result |
|---|---|
| SPACE | Page Down (To next page, if needed) |
| PAGE DOWN | Page Down (Until end of page) |
| BACKSPACE | Page Up (To last page, if needed) |
| PAGE UP | Page Up (Until beginning of page) |
| B | Beginning of page |
| E | End of page |
| TAB | Next link |
| N | Next page in document |
| P | Previous page in document |
| L | Previous page you visited |
| T | Beginning of document (The Menu) |
| Q | Quit the info program |
You can also use a mouse to navigate the info pages. Just click on a link to follow it.
If you'd rather use a graphical interface to browse your info files, you can use the program xinfo if it is installed. It is very similar to xman, except for info pages instead of man pages.