Hunting for Unix Knowledge on the Internet
by Danny Faught

published in the Dallas/Fort Worth Unix User's Group newsletter,
November 1996.  Copyright 1996 Danny Faught.

    
A recent questionnaire indicates that DFWUUG members have a high level 
of interest in the Internet, so I'll try to write a few articles that
will help satisfy the curiosity about the Internet.  Since this
newsletter is distributed electronically, I assume that most everyone
already knows some of the fundamentals, but I need to know more
specifically what everyone wants to learn about the Internet.  So if 
there's something related to the Internet that you haven't found a 
good explanation for, send me email at faught@asqnet.org.

When I think of Unix and the Internet, the first thing that comes to
mind is the various Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) files about Unix
that are available.  There are many FAQs that relate to Unix, some
about particular implementations like AIX, Solaris, etc., and others
about niches such as Unix shells and Unix programming.  I'll mention
some general FAQs that will lead you to the others if you want to dig
further.

First, you need to know where to find FAQs.  There are a multitude of
ways to find FAQs, including Usenet, ftp, and the World Wide Web.  A
fairly reliable and easy to explain place to look is the news.answers
newsgroup.  For more information on finding FAQs, see the
"Introduction to the *.answers newsgroups" FAQ in news.answers.

To learn how to navigate the various unix newsgroups, read the
"Welcome to comp.unix.questions" FAQ.  The comp.unix.questions
newsgroup is a good place to get started.  You won't get ridiculed for
asking a simple question there as long as you follow the FAQ
guidelines.

Then there's the "Unix - Frequently Asked Questions" FAQ.  This FAQ
consists of 8 parts.  There first serves as a table of contents, which
lists the rest of the parts:

      1.*) General questions.
      2.*) Relatively basic questions, likely to be asked by beginners.
      3.*) Intermediate questions.
      4.*) Advanced questions, likely to be asked by people who thought
           they already knew all of the answers.
      5.*) Questions pertaining to the various shells, and the differences.
      6.*) An overview of Unix variants.
      7.*) An comparison of configuration management systems (RCS, SCCS).

(The Unix FAQ is copyright 1994, Ted Timar)

So if you still don't know how to delete a file that begins with "-" in
Unix, take advantage of this free resource.  Then you'll look like a
wizard to the next newbie you run into who hasn't found the Unix FAQ
yet.


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