Using the DIGITAL UNIX Documentation Library

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This page discusses the following topics:

    *   Locating items you want
    *   Navigating between books
    *   Navigating within a book
    *   Viewing reference pages

Locating items you want

The online books are arranged into "bookshelves" on the DIGITAL UNIX Documentation Library page. Each bookshelf is represented by a bulleted list, with the bullet for each book colored to indicate the subkit to which the book belongs:

    *   Blue indicates the General User Documentation subkit.
    *   Purple indicates the Programming Documentation subkit.
    *   Maroon indicates the System and Network Administration 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. Because it is part of the General User subkit, 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, some books have a library button to take you directly to the library. To get to the library from a book without the library button, 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 several different tools, and there are slight differences in behavior.

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 some books, you might have to scroll downward in the window to find the button bar.) This button bar looks like the following illustration. (The buttons in this illustration are not active.)

The button bar appears at the top of the table of contents, each chapter and section, and the index. It includes seven different buttons, but one book has only five. In some books with seven buttons, the bar also appears at the bottom of each file. The entire button bar always appears, but some buttons might be blank to show that they are disabled. Note that the buttons 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 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 and the corresponding fast-forward button are missing from the bar in one book.
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 and the corresponding fast-reverse button are missing from the bar in one book.
This button takes you to the index of the book you are reading.
This button brings you to the page you are reading now. You can leave this page open for reference. To return to the location you came from, do not use the browser's [Back] button. Instead, use the browser's Window or Go menu to find the window in which you clicked the button.

Navigating in books without a DIGITAL UNIX title page

There are two types of books without DIGITAL UNIX title pages:

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.