Course/Terminal Foundations/Getting Help

Getting Help

Learn how to look up what any command does without leaving the terminal.

One of the biggest misconceptions about the terminal is that experts memorize everything.
They don’t!
The real skill is knowing _how_ to look things up quickly. The terminal includes built-in documentation, and learning to use it will save you countless trips to a search engine.
There are two main ways to get help.

Quick Help: --help

Most modern commands support a --help option. This prints a short summary of how the command works, including available options and arguments.
ls --help
From earlier lessons, this follows the normal command structure:
command [options] [arguments]
Here:
  • ls → command
  • --help → option that asks the command to explain itself
Use this when you want a fast overview!

Detailed Help: man

The man command (short for manual) opens a full manual page for a command.
man ls
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When you're inside a manual page, you can use the arrow keys to scroll, and press q to quit:

Manual pages usually include:
  • Full descriptions
  • All available options
  • Examples
  • Related commands
  • Edge cases

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When you’re unsure about a command: Try --help first for a quick overview. Use man when you need deeper detail.

Building this habit early makes learning new commands dramatically faster.
⚡

Inside a man page: Press / to search Type a word and press Enter Press n to jump to the next match


Try It

Using one of the methods described above, look up how the ls command works. Explore the output and see what information is available.
Practice