The sysadmin guides were originally written as text files intended to be read and modified with a standard text editor. They were recently adapted for display on a web browser by embedding HTML directives in the text. However, this was done with the objective of still being easily readable in a standard text editor, which meant keeping down HTML code. In some cases, in order to retain HTML compliance, certain characters could not be entered literally. For instance when presenting a command line such as
$ grep "user" file.txt > userinfo.txt,
the redirection symbol, ">", is a character that when not part
of an HTML command, should normally be escaped (i.e. entered as >).
Thus, when viewed in a text editor the reader should be aware that HTML
directives may appear in command lines, and the proper substitution must be
made before invoking the command.
If you wish to maintain a text version of the guides that show the command
lines correctly in a text editor, you can easily convert the html directives
to the literal characters they represent with utilities such as
SED or
AWK.
For example, to reintroduce the literal symbols ">"
and "<", invoke the sed program as such:
$ sed -e "s/>/>/g" -e "s/</</g" uniman.html > uniman.txt
If downloaded and viewed as a text file, some text editors come recommended more than others. I use Vim to both view and modify these files. Vim implements context highlighting for many programming and scripting languages including HTML. Therefore, it will correctly render bold and emphasized text on a capable terminal, as well as facilitate distinguishing between the HTML code and the body of the text.
Each guide comes with a table of contents (TOC). You can advance straight to a topic by pressing the link in the TOC.
The "$" symbol at the beginning of a command line is usually used to indicate a shell prompt and is not part of the command itself. Following the prompt is a command with its arguments (as in the examples above.)
The "#" symbol is the standard comment symbol amongst Unix shells. The "%" sysmbol is often used to begin a comment in some software (e.g. Tex/Latex/Metafont, Matlab/Octave), although Unix shells use it for other purposes, and, therefore, you may encounter it in other contexts.
I often use the colon symbol ":" to separate items in a
navigation sequence.
For example, to navigate to the advanced properties dialog box
I'll write something like:
Edit Menu : Properties : Advanced button
This reads "select edit menu and then submenu properties,
and in the properties dialog box that appears press the advanced button."
Bear in mind that this compilation includes material that spans a couple of decades. As such, some material may seem outdated or irrelevant to newer systems or current hardware. Also, my documentation style has evolved over time, and as such, styles may differ from one section to another.