Online Computer Documents

Contents:

Computers in General
The Internet FAQ Archives
frequently asked questions with answers from over 1500 Usenet newsgroups--all kinds of topics, both computer-related and not
Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing
quick and thorough, without clutter
Computer Hope's Computer Dictionary
also quick and uncluttered. Includeds some terms that FOLDOC doesn't.
The Linux Dictionary
extended definitions of Linux/UNIX/POSIX related terms and jargons. Complete HTML and offline versions available from the Dictionary's home (scroll down) at The Linux Documentation project.
General UNIX/Linux
User Guides (narrative text and tutorials)
Learning the shell
a simple guide to working at the *nix command prompt
UNIX commands: A quick guide
quick reference
UNIX Guide II
another quick reference
UNIX Reference Card
pdf printable reference card
UNIXhelp for Users
an excellent beginner's guide to common tasks, developed at the University of Edinburgh.
Introduction to Linux: A Hnads on Guide
part of the excellent Linux Documentation Project. A good thorough introduction with pointers to additional resources.
Introduction to UNIX
another multi-part beginner's guide
Unix is a Four Letter Word... and Vi is a Two Letter Abbreviation
introduction to unix basics and editing with vi
Unix at Fermilab
a very detailed guide to unix commands and utilities
HP-UX Equivalents for BSD Commands
cheat sheet for people converting from BSD-based unix systems to System V-based unix.
Debian Linux User's Guide
introduction to installing and using the Debian flavor of Linux
References (lists of commands with instructions)
GNU Manuals Online
the GNU project's own web site, home of much fundamental software
Info Pages
the GNU project site is more up-to-date for their software, but this page has information on important non-GNU software
LinuxQuestions.org Wiki Commands section
A quick guide to what commands are and how they work, and then an extensive list, arranged both alphabetically and by category, of command-line and console programs. For each command, there is a link to a page explaining what it is and how it is used.
FreeBSD Man (manual) Pages via the WWW
man pages from many different operating systems, including versions of *BSD, Red Hat and SUSE Linux, HP-UX, SunOS, etc., etc., plus the FreeBSD ports collection, which includes a large selection of free/open source software.
UNIX User's Supplementary Documents (USD)
selected documents from this basic reference in PostScript form
Unix Seventh Edition Manual
the original documentation that came with the 1979 Seventh edition release of the Unix operating system; has links to postscript and pdf versions. These documents include early manuals for awk, sed, troff, eqn, and the ms macros, among other things.
Interactive Shells
see user guides above for shell chapters
the Bash article at the LinuxQuestions.Org Wiki
quick guide to the basic working and configuration of bash as an interactive shell.
Bash Reference Manual
all you ever wanted to know and more, the official reference.
Bash Prompt Howto
prompts, xterm title bars, and ANSI colors
The C Shell tutorial

X Windows
Athena Consulting (MIT) Xwindows Stock Answers
Anthony's Hints 'N' Tips -- The X Window System
X11 FAQs
Rice Univ. X Windows info (pdf format)
documents UNIX 02 and UNIX 03.
Security
Programming/Script-Writing
Bourne Shell Programming
Beyond Your First Shell Script
article from Linux Journal, parts may be bash-specific
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
an approximately 300-page tutorial and reference, with over 150 example scripts and even a quick introduction to sed and awk as used in shell scripts
Linux Gazette has an "Introduction to Shell Scripting" series in issues 52-55 and 57-58
Unix Shell Scripting
part of Indiana University's System Administration Education Certification Course class materials
Heiner's SHELLdorado
extensive information, links, and examples for shell scripting
sed tutorials
a sed tutorial ("Do it with sed"), faq, and more

Perl Monks
much perl information, including tutorials and interactive questions and answers.
Picking Up Perl
a detailed tutorial. Also available in pdf and postscript formats.
Take 10 Minutes to Learn Perl
a quick tutorial that also includes links to other perl resources
www.perl.com
the home for perl. Helpful sections of the site include
The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN)
index to perl modules, documentation, perl distributions
PerlfaqPrime
a categorized, searchable collection of questions and answers relating to perl
Perldoc.com
collected perl documentation and FAQs
Cultured Perl: Debugging Perl with ease
An article in the Cultured Perl series by Teodor Zlatanov on IBM's developerWorks site. Many more are available in their Linux articles section.

Python Home Page
software, documentation, user groups, conferences, and all things python
Tutorials and Such from Useless Python
Dive Into Python
a free, in-progress Python book for experienced programmers
Python HOWTO Documents
"Python HOWTOs are documents that cover a single, specific topic, and attempt to cover it fairly completely."
Python Quick Reference
with versions for python 1.5.2, 2.0, and 2.1

Tcl Developer Xchange
Home to all things tcl/tk.
System Administration
LINUX Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition
online system administrators' and advanced users' manual--very thorough; last I checked the online version was from August 2001
Unix Guru Universe
large collection of system administration resources for all things unix, with information on many different varieties of unix
Stokely's Unix System Administrator's Resources
another large collection, including help with hardware like cables and tape backup systems
Unix System Administration
class text from 1996, lots of info
Unix Workstation System Administration Education Certification Course
another class text with a lot of information
UNIX System Manager's Manual (SMM)
postscript versions of some documents from the 4.4 BSD distribution
Specific Platforms
Sun Product Documentation
There's a lot here, all in html, searchable, and available in ten languages.
The Linux Documentation Project
a wide range of documentation, from complete manuals to short, focused how-tos. Be sure to check for a mirror near you.
Tru64 UNIX documentation
Mail
A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email
OCF Help on Electronic Mail
Introduction to MIME
Officially registered MIME types

Setting up a vacation message
Short in-house document on the correct procedure for setting up an auto-reply with the unix vacation program

Pine
Pine Information Center
the people who wrote it
Pine Tutorial and Pine Intermediate
for pine version 3.89, so not the most recent, but good basic information
All About Pine: IMAP, NNTP, & ESMTP for Unix, MS Windows, and Mac OS X
a lot of advocacy to start with, but includes a detailed comparison of pine and mutt and (in the links section) pointers to useful pine information
Mutt
A solid *nix console mail client, more unix-like in its style than pine.
The Mutt homepage
The Mutt FAQ
My first mutt
beginner's guide
A Quick Guide to Mutt
MH and exmh
The MH Mailer--A brief intro
MH for Beginners
MH Message Handler Home Page
the official version, no longer developed (for quite a few years)
nmh - New Message Handler
the successor to mh, with more recent additions and updates
MH & nmh: Email for Users & Programmers
free online version of the O'Reilly MH book, updated from time to time
MH FAQ
EECS Instructional Guide to Using MH
Exmh home page
downloads, wiki, and all sorts of info for exmh, the tcl/tk gui front-end to mh
Elm
predecessor to mutt; no longer maintained for many years, but still available on some systems
E-Mail with the elm mailer
Electronic Mail - Elm
Mail on Unix Using Elm
The Elm Users Guide
The Elm Reference Guide
Unix Mail and mailx
I strongly recommend against this program as a mail reader, but it can come in handy for sending off a quick message from the command line.
EECS Instructional Guide to BSD Mail
Using Tilde Escapes in Mail
helpful in going beyond the basics when creating an outgoing message
Why you should switch to another mail reader
Eudora
Pete Beim's [Unofficial] Eudora FAQs & Links
Eudora tips at About.com
Eudora Tips for Macintosh
Text Editing and Formatting
Identifying and Printing Unfamiliar Unix Files

vi
Using the vi editor
very simple tutorial from the UNIXhelp project, broken down into basic tasks. Also available here.
The vi text editor under unix: a quick guide
Using the VI editor (the very basics)
A two-page overview and basic reference; also available in pdf.
Mastering the VI editor a tutorial
Vi For Smarties.
The "world's fastest Vi tutorial." I don't know that I'd recommend this to a new user, but it's a good refresher or introduction for someone comfortable with non-GUI editing concepts, and it had some tips that were new to me.
Feature: The VI Editor
Yet another vi tutorial, with both introductory and advanced information. It even has an index.
Vi 101 and Vi 201.
An introduction and beyond, especially for the vim version of vi. 201 included some useful new features of vim that might be particularly interesting to people only familiar with basic vi.
Unix is a Four Letter Word... and Vi is a Two Letter Abbreviation
Beginner's guide to the Vi editor
Vi documents by Miles O'Neal and Susan Liebeskind.
Introduction and reference manual.
vi Reference.
A bit difficult to understand, but very detailed, so I'd think it would be useful when you need the command for an obscure task.
The Vi/Ex Editor by Walter Alan Zintz.
A very detailed tutorial, including advanced concepts like indenting, macros, and setup commands as well as basic editing functions.
Vim Cookbook by Steve Oualline.
Step-by-step instructions for a variety of editing tasks.
The vi editor (and vim) FAQs
The vi faq includes information on learning and using vi, as well as quick reference guides for vi commands, colon commands, and set options. Vim faq contains information about features of vim that are different from standard vi.
Vi Macros, Abbreviations, and Buffers
Vi Lovers' Home Page
More information than you ever knew existed on vi and its clones.
Vim online at sourceforge.netscripts, documentation, usage tips, plus a download page with versions for several operating systems and links to more
emacs
GNU Emacs
the original
XEmacs
a version of emacs developed by a group of programmers independent of Richard Stallman, the original creator of GNU emacs
Emacs reference materials lots of good stuff
Editing Text with EMACS
from the Brigham Young University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Athena Consulting (MIT) Emacs Stock Answers
emacs for vi users
a quick reference guide for vi users who need to convert to emacs
FrameMaker
FrameMaker Faq

*roff (troff, groff, etc.)
troff.org
all sorts of history and information about troff
UNIX Text Formatting Using the -ms Macros
This document provides an excellent overview of the -ms macros, but some of the information is out of date. You should probably ignore the instructions on how to run the nroff and troff programs, and anything about the typesetter or the Versatec. (This document predates PostScript and groff.)
EECS/COE Groff Overview
Academic Computing Services (UCSD) Troff Help
the Bell Labs Technical Reports archive
includes postscript versions of some early manuals for troff and related tools. See reports 54, 97, and 116 (pic is a graphics language often used with troff).
Troff User's Manual by Joseph F. Ossanna and Brian W. Kernighan.
This manual is for the Plan 9 version of troff, but most information is generally applicable to other versions of troff or to groff. Also available in postscript version.
the Unix Tenth Edition Manual web site from Bell Labs includes postscript and pdf versions of manuals for the -ms macros and the tbl table formatting program.
see also the Unix Seventh edition manuals, above. W. Richard Stevens' Troff Resources page includes links to separate postscript versions of troff and related documentation, helpful since the Bell Labs postscript and pdf versions are for entire volumes, rather than separate articles.

TeX and LaTeX
Official LaTeX documentation, including the user guide LaTeX2e for authors (LaTeX and pdf formats only) and links to third-party documentation and a booklist.
References for TeX and Friends
detailed reference guide for LaTeX. Available in several different formats, including an HTML version suitable for online browsing.
TeX Frequently Asked Questions
also LaTex, BibTex, fonts, conversion, and a whole lot more
LaTeXe help
detailed latex2e users guide, 1996
LaTeX help
detailed latex 2.09 (old version) users guide
Help On TeX and LaTeX
reference guide
TeX and LaTeX Help from U Penn
Macintosh Computing
General Information
About.com Focus on Macs
Macintosh Tips

Networking and Security
Macintosh Internet Security Basics
dated September, 2000; now available only in pdf, unfortunately
Macintosh OS X Security
See also other articles at the same site under the "SecureMac Library" section.
Macintosh Security
broad information for users from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Computer Protection Program; for specific tips, see also their OS X Security Checklists
Threemacs.com
I don't know why it's called threemacs.com, when that's not its domain address, but this site does give basic information for small-scale Mac networks.
Network Trouble Shooting Guide for the Macintosh
from the Kodiak Island Borough School District, good basic troubleshooting steps.
How to Use Fetch for the Macintosh
guide to a popular ftp (file transfer) client

Troubleshooting
Macintosh Troubleshooting
from the Teaching and Learning Academy of the Memphis City Schools. Not all suggestions will be appropriate for all situations, but this is a good overview of ideas.

PC/80x86 Computing
PC Lube and Tune
the name's a little odd, but this site has a lot of great nuts & bolts pc info
Microsoft Windows
Tips/Tutorials from Linda's Computer Stop.
Info for Windows in general and MS Office, both from Linda herself and on others' sites.
The PC-Friendly Internet Guide has a big Win95 section under 'Computing Supjects'
Windows 3.1 FAQ
from Logical Sky Corporation
Online Support for Microsoft Windows
from Microsoft themselves
ITrain: Internet Training Materials downloadable manuals for general (windows) computer use, web browsing, web searching, e-mail, and related topics
Windows XP User Guide
iNformaTion NT site with pointers to all sorts of info
Windows-NT.com
Windows NT 3.5 Frequently Asked Questions
Windows NT Security FAQ
The Internet
General
Internet Web Text (a meta-guide to all sorts of internet information--very thorough)
Helpweb: Getting Started on the Internet
Learn The Net also in Français, Italiano, Español, and Deutsch
The Teaching Library Internet Guides
University at Albany (SUNY) Libraries Internet Tutorials
Living Internet
an in-depth guide to the history and use of the Internet, including the World Wide Web, Email, and other common internet applications. Fun to browse through and get a feel for the context.
Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
a more advanced guide to the technology of the Internet, apparently not actively updated since June 2001
EFF's (Extended) Guide to the Internet (formerly Big Dummy's) (1994)
ancient and probably obsolete now, but interesting for the historical view it provides
Internet basics, by Roy Tennant (1992)
Privacy
The Center for Democracy and Technology's Guide to Online Privacy

The World Wide Web (WWW)
The World Wide Web Consortium
World Wide Web FAQ
A Beginner's Guide to URLs
The Lynx Help Page
Lynx is a text-based world wide web browser, available for unix/linux and win32. It can be quicker and less distracting than graphical browsers for reading through pages where textual information is the primary goal.
Guide to Using Lynx
Introduction to World Wide Web: Getting Started especially for beginners at UC Berkeley
World Wide Web Overview from the UC Berkeley Library
see also the WWW section of my bookmarks

Newsgroups/Usenet
Reading Usenet News (from the OCF. Includes pointers to help with rn/trn, nn, and tin)
The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Usenet
good overview of etiquette and customs
Google Groups Help
Google Groups is a searchable archive of Usenet newsgroup postings. It can also be used as a web-based front end to read postings in a particular group, by navigating to the group from the main page.
GNUS (the emacs news reader)
newzbot!
A guide/index to publicly accessibly usenet servers.

Gopher
Unix gopher help
Security
General
Choosing a good password
EECS Kerberos Help
Kerberos Users' Frequently Asked Questions
Kerberos Reference Page
Computer Security Frequently Asked Questions
Unix Security Information
Netsurfer Focus: Computer and Network Security
Cryptography, PGP, and Your Privacy page from the WWW virtual library. I've looked only at the PGP stuff, but it's very thorough.

UNIX Computer Security Primer
from the dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley
X Windows Security
Securing X Windows from CIAC, a U.S. Department of Energy computer security agency
Crash Course in X Windows Security
Macintosh Security
For security professionals
Nat'l Inst. of Standards and Technology's Computer Security Resource Clearinghouse
CERT Coordination Center
Jan Pardoe
janp@eecs.berkeley.edu
last modified 1 September 2005