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Where can I find system documentation?
How do I know a problem has been reported?
How can I get human help?
What if there is nobody in Olsen 312?
When will I get a reply to email sent to admin@cs.uml.edu
How do I know a problem has been reported?
How can I get human help?
What if there is nobody in Olsen 312?
When will I get a reply to email sent to admin@cs.uml.edu
Where can I find system documentation?
There is the GNU info system. For example if you are curious about the less lame alternatives to scanf try:
info libc
Note: The info pages on Mercury and the other LINUX machines are much more complete than on Saturn and Venus.
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
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
How do I know a problem has been reported?
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.
How can I get human help?
1. Ask the person sitting at the desk in the OS308 Linux lab.
2. Stop by Olsen 312A.
3. Send email to admin@cs.uml.edu.
Generally you'll get quicker results by asking the folks in 308 and 312A first. If you want help at 3 a.m., or want more than one person to attempt a solution, try sending email to admin@cs.uml.edu. This address is for the entire admin staff.
What if there is nobody in Olsen 312?
If it is 3 AM, you probably have a pretty good idea as to why there is nobody there. If it is 3 p.m., it is likely that staff is in a lab or office working a on a problem. Try sending email to admin@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 admin@cs.uml.edu.
When will I get a reply to email sent to admin@cs.uml.edu?
If you haven't heard back from somebody in 36 hours, send another message asking about the status of your problem.