We assume that most users of the Princeton CS computers have already had some experience with the UNIX operating system. However, if you need help getting started or have questions on how to use the system, help is readily available.
The command apropos keyword will give you a one-line description of UNIX commands having to do with "keyword". For example, apropos terminal will give you one-line descriptions of all UNIX programs having something to do with terminals.
To get more information about a particular command, type man command. man is a program for viewing UNIX "manual" pages). For example, by typing man ls, you will get information about the UNIX command ls.
On-line manual page entries reside in various directories on the system. By default, for new users, the man program looks in /usr/man, /usr/cat/man, /usr/local/man, and /usr/gnu/man for these entries. If you are working with a specific application, you will want to add that application's manual page path to your MANPATH environment variable. For example, if you use graphics-related software, add /usr/graphics/man to your MANPATH variable to access manual pages for programs relating to graphics.