Pinfo, CLI tool to color man and information pages

about pinfo

In the next article we are going to take a look at Pinfo. This is a information file viewer. It was created thanks to the fact that its author, Przemek borys, I was very depressed trying to read the gtk inputs using the standard tools. It is well known by all that they are not especially cheerful. This program can be used to read the Information and Man pages in color.

Pinfo is similar in use to lynx browser. It has similar movements and usability. You simply move through information nodes, and select links to follow them ... Who else and who less already knows how it is to see html with lynx. This tool supports as many colors as possible.

Information documents are an important resource on Gnu / Linux systems. Many essential components and utilities, such as the coreutils package and the glibc standard libraries, are developed by the GNU Project or use the information documentation system.

All the man pages, short for man pages, they need no introduction. Man pages are the form of software documentation that is available on almost all Unix-like operating systems by default. Using man pages, we can read the details about the use of any command of Unix. Man pages are great for quick reference. If we need more detailed and better organized information, we can also use the information pages for the command in question.

General characteristics of Pinfo

  • The keyboard and colors are fully configurable.
  • Pinfo supports embedded URLs in information documents and Man.
  • This is a information file viewer. Man pages are in a format useful as command reference, but less useful as general documentation.
  • We can specify which page we want to read passing it as an info page argument. The program will look for it in the current directory and in the directories / usr / share / info, / usr / info, / usr / local / share / info, / usr / local / info y / opt / info.
  • The search path can be adjusted using the INFOPATH environment variable or in the configuration file.
  • The information documentation is structured as hyperlinked information nodes. This format is more flexible than man pages, allowing a comprehensive reading of complex concepts and commands. Like the man pages, information nodes are read from the command line, using the info or pinfo commands.

Pinfo installation in Ubuntu and derivatives

Pinfo is available in the default repositories of most Gnu / Linux distributions, so we can install it using the default package manager of your distribution. In Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives we will only have to open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and write in it:

sudo apt install pinfo

Read Info and Man pages in color using Pinfo

The use is simple. Usually for read the man page for the 'ls' command, we wrote:

man command ls

man ls

To see the information page of the 'ls' command, we wrote:

info command ls

info ls

And here is the command for read man page / info of command 'ls' using pinfo reader:

pinfo ls command

pinfo ls

In the previous screenshot you can see the colors and links under the section «Menu«. We will be able to move through them simply by choosing the link using the up / down arrows (or clicking on the links with the mouse) and pressing the ENTER key. To leave Pinfo, we will only have to press the q key.

For get more details about this tool we can write in the terminal:

pinfo pinfo

pinfo pinfo

o use man page typing in the same terminal:

man pinfo

man pinfo

Uninstall Pinfo

To remove this program from our computer, we will only have to open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and write in it:

sudo apt remove pinfo

In general I like Pinfo and decided to continue using this tool for some time. Convert references to other man pages into links, and I can navigate with the cursor and go back and forth, just like in Lynx / Links. This tool makes navigating man pages much more efficient and comfortable. We will be able to know more about this tool in the project website.


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