An important part of any operating system is documentation, the technical manuals that describe the operation and use of programs. As part of its efforts to create a high-quality free operating system, the Debian Project is making every effort to provide all of its users with proper documentation in an easily accessible form.
If you are new to Debian we recommend you start first by reading:
Do have these at hand when you make your first Debian installation, it will probably answer many questions and help you work with your new Debian system. Later you might want to go through:
Finally, make sure you print out and have at hand the Debian GNU/Linux Reference Card, a listing of the most important commands for Debian systems.
If you want to start developing packages for Debian we recommend you go through:
There is a fair bit of other documentation listed below.
Most of the documentation included in Debian was written for GNU/Linux in general. There is also some documentation written specifically for Debian. These documents come in these basic categories:
The manuals resemble books, because they comprehensively describe major topics.
The complete list of Debian manuals and other documentation can be found at the Debian Documentation Project web pages.
There are also several user-oriented manuals written for Debian GNU/Linux, available as printed books.
Some of the most popular Linux documents and manuals are Linux Installation and Getting Started, Linux Users' Guide, Network Administrators' Guide, System Administrator's Guide, and others.
Linux documentation is coordinated through the efforts of the Linux Documentation Project (LDP). You can find the full set of LDP manuals at their web pages, along with a lot of other documentation, both in electronic and printed form.
The HOWTO documents, like their name says, describe how to do something, and they usually cover a more specific subject.
Some of the most important Linux HOWTOs are:
They are also available for installation on your machine in the doc-linux-text and doc-linux-html packages.
FAQ stands for frequently asked questions. A FAQ is a document which answers those questions.
The Linux FAQ contains information regarding Linux in general.
Questions specifically related to Debian are answered in the Debian FAQ. There is also a separate FAQ about Debian CD/DVD images.
Please see the LDP FAQ index for more information.
The following documents include quicker, shorter instructions:
Quick reference cards are very short summaries of a certain (sub)system. Usually, such a reference card provides the mostly used commands on a single piece of paper. Some notable reference cards and collections include:
If you have checked the above resources and still can't find answers to your questions or solutions to your problems regarding Debian, take a look at our support page.