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+Searching from Command Line in Linux
+====================================
+:author: Aaron Ball
+:email: nullspoon@iohq.net
+
+
+== {doctitle}
+
+For those of us learning command line for the first time, it can be a pretty
+intimidating thing. A terminal in the hands of a person with a black belt in
+shell commands can be far more powerful than a GUI (graphical user interface).
+However, becoming a so-called black belt takes a lot of time and practice.
+Unlike a GUI, you have to memorize the commands you need...mostly.
+
+I say mostly because there is a command in Linux that is probably one of the
+singly most used commands out there. That command is known as the *man*
+command. In interviews in response to a question you don't know, "I would just
+read the man pages" is the equivalent of "Jesus is the answer to everything" in
+church. The great thing is both actually work (not to put an obvious religious
+statement in my blog here).
+
+Man is short for manual. It's like reading your car manual, but for a command
+in your shell. For instance, if you run
+
+----
+man mkdir
+----
+
+You see something an explanation of what the command does, how to use the
+command, and the various advanced features you can do with it.
+
+But what ifyou don't know what command to use?
+
+Thankfully, there is a relatively simple solution to this. All you really know
+is how to describe what you want to do in a simplistic way.  Ladies and
+gentlemen, that command is the man -k command. I hope you all didn't pay full
+price for your seats because you'll only be using the edge.
+
+
+[[man--k-command]]
+== man -k <command>
+
+The man -k command/switch searches all of the commands that have man
+pages for what you typed in to search for. It then returns the command
+name with a short explanation of what it does. Let's get some practice
+in.
+
+Say you want to search for how to create a directory. We're going to run
+
+----
+man -k "make directories"
+----
+
+And it will return
+
+----
+mkdir  (1)              make directories
+----
+
+Cool, huh? Now, there is a complication to this. If you want to search
+for something and the exact text you type isn't in the manual exactly as
+you typed it, it will not be returned. For instance...
+
+----
+man -k "create directory"
+----
+
+...will return nothing becuase the manual for mkdir has "make directories" in
+it, not "create directory". How do we get around this?
+
+Wild cards and very simple one word searches.
+
+
+[[wild-cards]]
+== Wild Cards
+
+Now, let's say you're not sure if the manual you're looking for has the word
+directories, directory, or just dir in it. We need a way to search for multiple
+forms of a word. We do this with what is called a wild card character. Run the
+following command: <pre>man -k dir*</pre>
+
+This will search the manuals for any words that start with dir and end with
+anything (including spaces or other words).
+
+Once you've found the command you want, you can simply type <pre>man
+<command></pre> and you can read the manual until you're heart is content, or
+even until it stops!  :)
+
+On a similar note, to get out of reading a manual, **press the letter 'q**'. I
+can't tell you how long it took me to figure that out when I first was learning
+about the man pages. I guess now I should be ashamed of myself.
+
+
+Category:Linux
+
+
+// vim: set syntax=asciidoc: