How to Use the Library

This page is intended to help you use the SGI Technical Publications Library.

The following topics are covered:

Side Navigation Bar

At the left-hand side of the window, you will notice a list of common functions. These are also found as a standard footer at the bottom of most pages. Each function is described below.

Topic Areas

You will notice on the home/search page a set of entries above the search box which are labeled to indicate collections or sets of documents. In most cases, these are analogous to the content specific to an operating system release from SGI.

Your currently selected entry will be colored differently than the other members of the set. If you wish to change the topic area setting, click on the Topic Area of your choice from the home/search page at any time. That information will be remembered and used throughout your session while accessing the Technical Publications Library.

When performing a search or browse, this information is used to scope your search to the particular topic area you have chosen.

Searching

The most powerful feature of the Technical Publications Library is its search capability. You can use the various refinements in the search area to control the scope of your search, as well as to control the number of items displayed in reporting the result of your search.

To start a search, type the word(s), phrase(s) or combination of terms you are interested in finding information about and click the "search" button.

By default, the search is limited to the document collection defined by the "Search only in:" option menu. If you browse into a specific area of the Technical Publications Library (e.g. the Developer bookshelf of the IRIX 6.5 Books collection) then by default your search will be limited to those documents found within that particular area. This can be controlled by selecting an entry from the "Search only in:" option menu.

To search only in the titles of documents, click the "Search only titles" checkbox. By default, the full text of the document is searched.

For any particular search, you may dictate to the search engine how many results to present on a page. Controls are given to move through the search result at the bottom of each page containing a set of results. To specify the number to display as a default, select from the "results/page:" option menu. The default number is 20.

You can also tell the search engine to collapse any hits it finds in a particular book to only 1 per book. Normally, you will see multiple hits per book; listing the individual chapters or sections that hits occurred in. The "collapse" feature lists the single most relevant hit found in the book. You can easily navigate around the book (and view other hits) once you select that result item and view the content. Click the "Show only 1 hit/book" checkbox to activate this option.

The search capability supports the standard search syntax used by many popular Internet search engines, as well as providing support for standard boolean search grammar. Note that the search is case insensitive (upper/lower/mixed case is interperted the same).

Examples are shown in the table below:

Note:   The following words are used internally by the search engine (you should avoid using words from this group in your query/search string(s)): DOCUMENT_SET, GROUP, BETWEEN, OUTSIDE, DOCUMENTS, WORDS, ATTRIBUTE, TAG, ALL, IN, DISTANCE.

You can also search using the product/part/document number. This can be done by searching with the entire string, a partial string of components, or any combination thereof. For example, these are considered valid product/part/document number search strings:

Results from a Search

Once a search has been performed, the documents that satisfy the query criteria will be displayed. This is termed the search result. By default, these items are sorted by relevance, which lists the documents that the search believes are closest to what you are looking for. That sorting mechanism can be controlled, see the search help text for further information.

You can navigate through a search result via a set of links found at the bottom of the page (a set of numbers and two arrows). These will appear when the number of entries that comprise the result are greater than the specified "results/pg:".

A sample of a search result (with a description of the fields) is displayed below:

195 documents found  (1 thru 20 listed)
1.	99%	IRIX® Admin: Disks and Filesystems: Maintaining Filesystems IRIX 6.5 - Books (document number: 007-2825-004) table of contents | additional info | download
2.	13%	cfsadmin (1M) - administer disk space used for caching file systems with the Cache File-System (CacheFS) IRIX 6.5 - Man Pages . . .

• The initial line ("X" documents found) states the number of total entries that satisfy your search criteria. In parenthesis are the entries that are currently displayed. This "block" of entries corresponds to the number set for the "results/page:" option menu.

• The first field (1, 2, ...) of an individual entry is simply a counter; relative to the entire set of search results.

• The percentage indicator ("99%") informs you of how closely the particular document matches (according to the search engine) the specified search criteria. This is based on various factors such as the number of keywords found, where they occur, how large the document is, etc. A higher percentage indicates the document is probably a closer match relative to the other documents in the result set.

• The third field is the title/link for the "document". This provides a means for displaying a particular document that satisfies the query/search. For such areas of the Technical Publications Library as the Books collection, this link will take you to a specific area of the book (such as a chapter or section).

• Below the title/document link there is a line that indicates the topic area and collection for the document.

• Finally, if a document is part of the Books collection, a set of additional links will be available (as shown in the example for the first entry). This will allow you to go directly to page(s) that:

  • display the table of contents for the given book
  • display a summary for the book, including links to different versions of the book (if applicable/available)
  • allow you to download a copy of the particular book in PDF or HTML format

Browsing Information

Browsing information found on the Technical Publications Library can be easily done by simply clicking on an item/area of interest from the list of entries found below the "Keyword search" box on the home/search page. Note that when a new Topic area is chosen, the list of browse-able entries can change, based on the content available for that Topic area. The currently chosen topic area is part of the label for the browse-able entries, and is also shown in a different color on the set of buttons designated as the Topic area.

You can continue to click-through entries until you find the item(s) you are interested in. At any point you may perform a search, which (by default) is limited to the set of documents that make up the current area you have browsed into. This "search scope" can be controlled through the use of the "Search only in:" option menu. See the section on search for further details.

The header links (e.g. "IRIX 6.5 : Man Pages : Device Driver (D)") found above the area that shows the current set of items corresponding to a browse request, can be used to quickly navigate back up to a particular browse-able category/hierarchy.

Books - Table of Contents

In browsing or searching information in the Books collection, you may encounter various links to a book's table of contents. That particular page allows you to examine the structure of the book and navigate to various areas found within.

Each entry in the book's table of contents is a link that will allow you to display the document that corresponds to a particular entry (ie. a chapter, section, sub-section, etc.). Simply click on one of the available entries to perform this function.

Preceding a table of contents entry, you may find the following graphic:   clicking on that arrow will allow you to expand that entry to display areas relevant to that chapter/section/etc.

If this graphic precedes a table of contents entry:   you can collapse the entry (which will hide any areas currently shown for that chapter/section/etc.) by clicking on that arrow.

Next to the table of contents label, there are various links that are provided as a convenience. They perform the following functions:

• expand all table of contents entries; show the entire available entries
• collapse all table of contents entries; back to the initial state
• displays a summary page for the book, including links to different versions of the book (if applicable/available)
• displays a page that allows you to download a copy of the particular book in PDF or HTML format

Books - Additional Information

The "Additional Information" page provides you with a concise summary for the given book. Information shown on this page includes:

• The title, topic area and document (part) number for the book.

• Where applicable, links to:

  • display a page that allows you to download a copy of the particular book in PDF or HTML format

• If the book is currently online as part of the Technical Publications Library, then link(s) to this current version ("table of contents") will be shown.

• Finally, alternate versions (older/newer) of the book are shown. These may or may not be currently available online. If a link to the "table of contents" is shown, then that particular version is available online. Otherwise, a link to the "Additional Information" page may allow you to download the particular version specified.

Books - Download Information

The "Download Information" page provides you with the ability to download a copy of the particular book in PDF or HTML format. Follow the instructions on the download page (for a particular book) for further details.

Books - Printing

To obtain hard-copy output of SGI books, you may use one of the following methods:

• Download the PDF file for the book, which should be available for virtually every book. Print this file to an available printer using the print function of your PDF reader (e.g., Adobe® Acrobat or ghostview).

• If you are interested in printing a book for which a PDF file is not available, please contact us and we will do our best to make the PDF file available.

• Download the PDF file for the book and bring it to a local copy store that has the means to print electronic (PDF) files.

• Download the PDF file for the book and use an online print service. These services/websites often allow you to upload the PDF directly, as well as specify binding, shipping, and various other options.

What's New

This page allows you to see what has been added to the Technical Publications Library over a given timeframe. At this time, only entries from the Books collection are shown.

Use the option menu to control the timeframe and hit the "Update timeframe" button to produce an alphabetized list of books.

If a book is currently available online, then a link to its "table of contents" will be shown. Otherwise, the link to the "Additional Info" page may allow you to download the particular version specified.

Find Books by Product

To examine content from the Books collection by "product", access the "Find Books by product" link off the main (Home) page for the given topic area.

The query form allows for you to select from a set of product categories (multiple entries can be "checked"), OR from a list of products/versions which are specific to that operating system release (Topic area). Multiple products may be selected from the list. Upon making your selection(s), click the Submit button.

NOTE:   Selections from the Products/Versions list take precedence and override any entries chosen from the product categories area! Selections from the products/versions list are purposely reset after each submittal is done, to avoid any confusion over what is in a selected state.

The result will be a list of manuals/books that correspond to the provided query information. Click the entry's additional info link to navigate to the "Additional Information" page which allows you to download and examine the particular version specified.

Web Shortcuts

Some shortcuts to use for accessing the Technical Publications Library are indicated below: