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info – Display A Program's Info Entry
The GNU Project provides an alternative to man pages for their programs, called “info.” Info pages are displayed with a reader program named, appropriately enough, info. Info pages are hyperlinked much like web pages. Here is a sample:
File: coreutils.info, Node: ls invocation, Next: dir invocation, Up: Directory listing
10.1 `ls': List directory contents
==================================
The `ls' program lists information about files (of any type, including directories). Options and file arguments can be intermixed arbitrarily, as usual.
For non-option command-line arguments that are directories, by default `ls' lists the contents of directories, not recursively, and omitting files with names beginning with `.'. For other non-option arguments, by default `ls' lists just the filename. If no non-option argument is specified, `ls' operates on the current directory, acting as if it had been invoked with a single argument of `.'.
File: coreutils.info, Node: ls invocation, Next: dir invocation, Up: Directory listing
10.1 `ls': List directory contents
==================================
The `ls' program lists information about files (of any type, including directories). Options and file arguments can be intermixed arbitrarily, as usual.
For non-option command-line arguments that are directories, by default `ls' lists the contents of directories, not recursively, and omitting files with names beginning with `.'. For other non-option arguments, by default `ls' lists just the filename. If no non-option argument is specified, `ls' operates on the current directory, acting as if it had been invoked with a single argument of `.'.
By default, the output is sorted alphabetically, according to the
--zz-Info: (coreutils.info.gz)ls invocation, 63 lines --Top----------
By default, the output is sorted alphabetically, according to the
--zz-Info: (coreutils.info.gz)ls invocation, 63 lines --Top----------
The info program reads info files, which are tree structured into individual nodes, each containing a single topic. Info files contain hyperlinks that can move you from node to node. A hyperlink can be identified by its leading asterisk, and is activated by placing the cursor upon it and pressing the enter key.
To invoke info, type “info” followed optionally by the name of a program. Below is a table of commands used to control the reader while displaying an info page:
Table 5-2: info Commands
Command Action
Command Action
? Display command help
PgUp or Backspace Display previous page
PgDn or Space Display next page
n Next - Display the next node
p Previous - Display the previous node
u Up - Display the parent node of the currently displayed node, usually a menu.
Enter Follow the hyperlink at the cursor location
q Quit
Most of the command line programs we have discussed so far are part of the GNU Project's “coreutils” package, so typing:
[me@linuxbox ~]$ info coreutils
[me@linuxbox ~]$ info coreutils
will display a menu page with hyperlinks to each program contained in the coreutils package.