RTFM function

rtfm() { help $@ || $@ -h || $@ --help || man $@ || $BROWSER "http://www.google.com/search?q=$@"; }

Sometimes you don't have man pages only '-h' or '--help'.

By: karol

2011-01-05 17:36:26

man man google

5 Alternatives + Submit Alt

RTFM function

RTFMFTW.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
42

rtfm() { help $@ || man $@ || $BROWSER "http://www.google.com/search?q=$@"; }

hunterm · 2011-01-05 02:53:38 282
Extended man command

This microscript looks up a man page for each word possible, and if the correct page is not found, uses w3m and Google's "I'm feeling lucky" to output a first possible result. This script was made as a result of an idea on a popular Linux forum, where users often send other people to RTFM by saying something like "man backup" or "man ubuntu one". To make this script replace the usual man command, save it as ".man.sh" in your home folder and add the following string to the end of your .bashrc file: alias man='~/.man.sh' Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ ~/.man.sh backup
Backup

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses of "Backup", see Backup (disambiguation).

In information technology, a backup or the process of backing up refers to
making copies of data so that these additional copies may be used to restore
the original after a data loss event. The verb is back up in two words, whereas
the noun is backup (often used like an adjective in compound nouns).^[1]
```
9

/usr/bin/man $* || w3m -dump http://google.com/search?q="$*"\&btnI | less

d1337r · 2010-10-05 13:51:39 4
RTFM function

Some commands have more information on 'info' than in the man pages
This is sample output - yours may be different.
9

rtfm() { help $@ || info $@ || man $@ || $BROWSER "http://www.google.com/search?q=$@"; }

seattlegaucho · 2011-01-05 21:26:51 14
RTFM function

Simple edit to work for OSX. Now just add this to your ~/.profile and `source ~/.profile`
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

rtfm() { help $@ || man $@ || open "http://www.google.com/search?q=$@"; }

vaporub · 2011-01-26 06:23:42 4
RTFM function

Same as the other rtfm's, but using the more correct xdg-open instead of $BROWSER. I can't find a way to open info only if the term exists, so it stays out of my version.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

rtfm() { help $@ || man $@ || xdg-open "http://www.google.com/search?q=$@"; }

KlfJoat · 2014-04-25 04:17:03 69

What Others Think

rahimhh21 · 30 weeks and 1 day ago

Perfecthomepugs · 21 weeks and 1 day ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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Instead of saying RTFM!

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Cute, but we already had this figured out when the Linux kids were still slurping down log-sized spliffs in the back of the microbus.

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