How to Use the Digital UNIX Documentation Library

(To return from this page to the location you came from, use the browser's [Back] button.)

This page discusses the following topics:

    *  Finding books on the Documentation Library bookshelves
    *  Navigating between books
    *  Navigating within a book
    *  Viewing reference pages

Finding books on the Documentation Library bookshelves

The online books are arranged into "bookshelves" on the Digital UNIX Documentation Library page. Each bookshelf is represented by a bulleted list beneath a colored bar. The colors are as follows:

    *  Blue indicates the General User Documentation subkit.
    *  Purple indicates the Programming Documentation subkit.
    *  Maroon indicates the System and Network Administration Documentation subkit.
    *  Orange indicates the Driver Documentation subkit.
    *  Silver indicates Supplementary Documentation that is not part of any kit.

The organization of the bookshelves is similar to the kit structure of the printed documentation set except that books meeeting the needs of different audiences appear on several bookshelves. For example, you will find the Security book on the General User, Programming, and System and Network Administration bookshelves because it serves each of those audiences.

To guide you more quickly to the books you want to read, the colored bar above each of the bookshelf listings matches the color coding for the subkit corresponding to the bookshelf. Because some books appear on more than one shelf, the bullets in the lists match the colors on the individual books' spines. For example, the Security book is actually part of the General User subkit, so its bullet is blue () in all of the bookshelves in which it appears.

For complete information on all the books, see the Documentation Overview, Glossary, and Master Index. The descriptions in the Documentation Overview include order numbers for the full printed documentation kit, for the various subkits, and for individual books. Supplementary Documentation is not part of any kit or subkit and cannot be ordered from Digital.

Navigating between books

Except for links to the various books from the Master Index, there is no way to go directly from one book to another. To change books, return to the library and choose a new book. As described below, books with a Digital UNIX title page have a library button to take you directly to the library. To get to the library from a book without a Digital UNIX title page, you might be able to find the library page in the list under the browser's Go menu; if it is not in this list, you must navigate to the library by some other path, such as returning to the Digital UNIX home page and clicking on the Digital UNIX Documentation item again. You might find it useful to create a bookmark for the Documentation Library page.

Navigating within a book

Because the books in this library come from several different sources, navigation aids differ between books. These are the different kinds of books:

    *  Books with a Digital UNIX title page
    *  Books without a Digital UNIX title page

Navigating in books with a Digital UNIX title page

Books with a Digital UNIX title page are currently being produced with two different tools, and there are slight differences in behavior. The following description is for the more common type; any differences from this behavior will be fairly obvious.

When you open a book with a Digital UNIX title page, you will find a navigation button bar below the book's title on the title page. In all of the books except one, this button bar looks like the following illustration; in that one book, only six of the eight buttons are present. (The buttons in this illustration are not active.)

These buttons also appear at the top of the table of contents, each chapter and section, and the index. There are eight different buttons in the button bar. The entire button bar always appears, but some buttons might be blank to show that they are disabled. Note that the buttons in this button bar do not have borders to indicate whether you have already visited the places to which they will take you.

The following table describes what the buttons do:

This button takes you to the library bookshelf page.
This button takes you to the table of contents in the book you are reading.
This button searches backward for the first chapter marker earlier in the book than your present location. If you are at the beginning (before the first numbered section) of any chapter except the first, you will go to the beginning of the preceding chapter. If you are at the beginning of the first chapter, this button is disabled. If you are in one of the numbered sections within a chapter, you will go to the beginning of the chapter you are in.
This button searches backward for the first section marker earlier in the book than your present location. If you are at the beginning (before the first numbered section) of a chapter, this button is disabled. If you are in one of the numbered sections within a chapter, you will go to the beginning of the preceding section.
This button searches forward for the first section marker later in the book than your present location. If you are in the last section of a chapter, this button is disabled. To go to the next chapter, use the next button to the right.
This button searches forward for the first chapter marker later in the book than your present location. If you are in the last chapter, this button is disabled.
This button takes you to the index of the book you are reading.
This button brings you to the page you are reading now. To return from this page to the location you came from, use the browser's [Back] button.

Navigating in books without a Digital UNIX title page

When you open a book without a Digital UNIX title page, you will find a navigation button bar above the book's title at the top of the title and copyright page. This button bar looks like the following illustration. (The buttons in this illustration are not active.)

These buttons also appear at the top and bottom of the table of contents, each chapter, and the index. There are five different buttons in the button bar, but only buttons that are active appear. Note that the buttons in this button bar have borders to indicate whether you have already visited the places to which they will take you.

The following table describes what the buttons do:

This button searches forward for the first chapter marker later in the book than your present location. If you are in the last chapter, this button does not appear.
This button searches backward for the first chapter marker earlier in the book than your present location. If you are in the first chapter, this button does not appear.
This button takes you to the title and copyright information at the beginning of the book. If you are in the title and copyright section, this button does not appear.
This button takes you to the table of contents for the book you are reading. If you are in the table of contents, this button does not appear.
This button takes you to the index for the book you are reading. If you are in the index, this button does not appear.

Viewing reference pages

The reference pages are displayed by an automated tool called webman. This tool might not be installed on your system. If it is installed, webman works in the following way:

  1. When you open webman, webman presents a page that lists the available reference page directories. The list can include custom locations established by your system administrator and enabled by your MANPATH environment variable. The standard locations are:

    /usr/share/man
    Base system reference pages, present if installed. Might not include all of the reference pages, depending on what selection of subsets is installed. Might also include reference pages for layered products if any are installed.

    /usr/dt/share/man
    Common Desktop Environment reference pages, present if installed. Might not include all of the reference pages, depending on what selection of subsets is installed.

    /DOCUMENTATION/HTML/usr/share/man
    Base system reference pages (duplicate of the complete set of files that Digital supplies for /usr/share/man), present if the documentation CD-ROM is installed.

    /DOCUMENTATION/HTML/usr/dt/share/man
    Common Desktop Environment reference pages (duplicate of the complete set of files that Digital supplies for /usr/dt/share/man), present if the documentation CD-ROM is installed.

    The order of this list is determined by webman.

    This display also includes a field into which you can enter a keyword for which you want a list of related reference pages. The listing includes hypertext links to the pages in the display.

  2. When you click on a directory from the list, webman presents an alphabetical listing of the contents of that directory. If a given reference page is listed twice, the two files are:

    1. First, an uncompressed file. Typically, this file has been edited by your system administrator to reflect local information.

    2. Second, a compressed file. This file is the original file supplied by Digital.

  3. When you choose a file from the directory listing, webman displays the selected reference page.

Within a reference page display, cross-references to other reference pages are hypertext links. A given hypertext link can resolve to more than one possible file. The search order is as follows:

  1. Directories are searched in the order defined by the initial list. As soon as a file is found that matches the cross-reference, the search ends and webman displays that file.

  2. Within a given directory, if there are both an uncompressed file and a compressed file, the uncompressed file is given preference.