Getting Help

There is the GNU info system. For example if you are curious about libc try:

info libc

For quick answers the man pages are sometimes better.

man printf

The most useful man command is "q" (to quit)

The most useful man option is "-k" for "keyword" For example

man -k passwd | more

...gives you

chage (1) - change user password expiry information
chpasswd (8) - update password file in batch
crypt (3) - password and data encryption
d_passwd (5) - The dialup shell password file
dpasswd (8) - change dialup password
endpwent (3) - get password file entry
expiry (1) - check and enforce password expiration policy
fgetpwent (3) - get password file entry
getpass (3) - get a password
getpw (3) - Re-construct password line entry
getpwent (3) - get password file entry
getpwnam (3) - get password file entry
getpwuid (3) - get password file entry
grpconv (8) - convert to and from shadow passwords and groups.
grpunconv (8) - convert to and from shadow passwords and groups.
mmsitepass (8) - Set the Mailman site password, prompting from the terminl.
passwd (1) - change user password
passwd (1ssl) - compute password hashes
passwd (5) - The password file
pg_passwd (1) - change a secondary PostgreSQL password file
putpwent (3) - write a password file entry

Reading through this info, you realize that:

passwd (1) - change user password

has the info you want, so you type:

man passwd

Generally it is better to assume that a problem has not been reported. This is especially true with stuff that has been broken for a couple days. If you'd expect that something could be fixed quickly and it hasn't been, then odds are nobody has reported the problem.

1. Stop by Olsen 312.

3. Send email to help AT cs.uml.edu.

Generally you'll get quicker results by asking the folks in 312 first. If you want help at 3 a.m., or want more than one person to attempt a solution, try sending email to help AT cs.uml.edu.

If it's between 9am and 5pm it is likely that staff is in a lab or office working on a problem. Try sending email to help AT cs.uml.edu with your location for the next hour or so, or check back in 30 minutes. If it is after 5 PM or on the weekend, e-mail help AT cs.uml.edu .

You will get an automated answer saying the request was delivered, an email when it is solved and possibly another email explaining things further if needed.