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Editor: HenriLeFoll
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Debian is a distribution, it is made of many thousands of (free) software : Debian is a distribution, it is made of many thousands of (free) software.
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This page is about official Debian Documentation.

There are other [[DebianResources|Debian Resources]]


<<Anchor(debian-documentation)>>
= Debian Documentation =

The most famous for Debian users are :
 * The Installation Guide ~-<<BR>>. [[http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#install]]<<BR>>. (or development version, available at [[http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/]]-~
 * The Release Notes ~-<<BR>>. [[http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#relnotes]]-~
 * The Debian reference ~-<<BR>>. [[http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#quick-reference]]-~

Many other Debian Documentation are available at [[http://www.debian.org/doc|www.debian.org/doc]]

At the moment, Debian don't have a ''System Administrtor'' manual.


Most documentation for Debian-developer (and package maintainer) are available from [[http://www.debian.org/devel/|www.debian.org/devel/]]


== Official Websites of the Debian Project ==
On [[http://www.debian.org|Debian.org]] the official Debian site, you can find a section dedicated to documentation.
## By alphabetical order
 * http://www.debian.org/doc - Debian documentation home
 * http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/ - Debian Reference Manual
 * http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual - Installation manual
 * http://www.debian.org/support - support home


<<Anchor(forums)>>
=== Forum ===
## By alphabetical order
 * [[DebianMailingLists|Mailinglists]] are the main way of Debian communication
 * http://lists.debian.org/users.html - User mailinglists
 * http://forums.debian.net - Debian.net Forums
 
=== Advocacy, developers, inside information ===
## By alphabetical order
 * UnofficialRepositories - a list of non official package repositories. They can be very useful.
 * http://alioth.debian.org - Project hosting for Open Source developers
 * http://mentors.debian.net - Public package repository
 * http://planet.debian.org - Planet Debian, aggregating lots of Developer blogs
 * http://planeta.debian.net - Planeta Debian, a blog aggregator in spanish
 * http://release.debian.org - Debian Release Management pages
 * http://snapshot.debian.net - Debian packages archived daily since 2002/06/04
 * http://times.debian.net - Debian Times
 * http://www.backports.org - Backports for the stable distribution
 * http://www.debian.org/News - Official news
 * http://db.debian.org - Debian Developer Database
 * http://udd.debian.org/ - Ultimate Debian Database
 
<<Anchor(wikis)>>
=== Wiki ===
Debian Related Wikis
## By alphabetical order
 * http://wiki.debconf.org - The DebConf Wiki
 * http://wiki.debian.org - The Official Debian Wiki



<<Anchor(books)>>
== Books ==
Many free and non-free books are listed on Debian website.
 * http://www.debian.org/doc/books - Debian Book Library
Extra books could be listed below.
## DO NOT DUPLICATE entries from debian.org/doc/books !

<<Anchor(irc)>>

== Instant Messaging ==
There are official Debian [[IRC]] channels.

You can also use [[Jabber]]
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<<Anchor(debian-docs)>>
= Debian Documentation =

The most famous for Debian users are :
 * The Installation Guide ~-<<BR>>. [[http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#install]]<<BR>>. (or development version, available at [[http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/]]-~
 * The Release Notes ~-<<BR>>. [[http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#relnotes]]-~
 * The Debian reference ~-<<BR>>. [[http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#quick-reference]]-~

Many other Debian Documentation are available at [[http://www.debian.org/doc|www.debian.org/doc]]

At the moment, Debian don't have a ''System Administrtor'' manual. However, there are some books about Debian, see: [[http://www.debian.org/doc/books|www.debian.org/doc/books]].


Most documentation for Debian-developer (and package maintainer) are available from [[http://www.debian.org/devel/|www.debian.org/devel/]]


== Official Websites of the Debian Project ==
On [[http://www.debian.org|Debian.org]] the official Debian site, you can find a section dedicated to documentation.
## By alphabetical order
 * http://www.debian.org/doc - Debian documentation home
 * http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/ - Debian Reference Manual
 * http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual - Installation manual
 * http://www.debian.org/support - support home


<<Anchor(forums)>>
=== Forum ===
## By alphabetical order
 * http://lists.debian.org - [[DebianMailingLists|Mailinglists]], main way of Debian communication
 * http://lists.debian.org/users.html - User mailinglists
 * http://forums.debian.net - Debian.net Forums
 
=== Advocacy, developers, inside information ===
## By alphabetical order
 * UnofficialRepositories - a list of non official package repositories. They can be very useful.
 * http://alioth.debian.org - Project hosting for Open Source developers
 * http://mentors.debian.net - Public package repository
 * http://planet.debian.org - Planet Debian, aggregating lots of Developer blogs
 * http://planeta.debian.net - Planeta Debian, a blog aggregator in spanish
 * http://release.debian.org - Debian Release Management pages
 * http://snapshot.debian.net - Debian packages archived daily since 2002/06/04
 * http://times.debian.net - Debian Times
 * http://www.backports.org - Backports for the stable distribution
 * http://www.debian.org/News - Official news

<<Anchor(wikis)>>
=== Wiki ===
Debian Related Wikis
## By alphabetical order
 * http://wiki.debconf.org - The DebConf Wiki
 * http://wiki.debian.org - The Official Debian Wiki



<<Anchor(books)>>
== Books ==
Many free and non-free books are listed on Debian website.
 * http://www.debian.org/doc/books - Debian Book Library
Extra books could be listed below.
## DO NOT DUPLICATE entries from debian.org/doc/books !

<<Anchor(irc)>>

== Instant Messaging ==
=== IRC channel ===
An IRC channel named #debian can be found on irc.debian.org and on irc.freenode.net. To connect, you need an IRC client (see IrcClients). More information can be found on GettingHelpOnIrc and [[IRC]].

The channel has its own [[DebianIRC|FAQ]].

=== Jabber chat rooms ===
There is a chat room dedicated to Debian support on [[http://www.jabber.org/web/Chatrooms|jabber.org]] server. Join the room at '''{{{debian@conference.jabber.org}}}''' with the jabber client of your choice.

## I will add more chat rooms for other languages (french, german and Czech so far) on
## the [Jabber] dedicated wiki page. Feel free the improve.

More information on [[Jabber|Jabber and Debian support chat rooms]] for your own language.




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if you are interested, you can read the mailing lists :
 * http://lists.debian.org/debian-www/recent
 * http://lists.debian.org/debian-doc/recent
 
 .
 
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= See also =

 * [[DebianResources]]

Debian is a distribution, it is made of many thousands of (free) software.

This page is about official Debian Documentation.

There are other Debian Resources

Debian Documentation

The most famous for Debian users are :

Many other Debian Documentation are available at www.debian.org/doc

At the moment, Debian don't have a System Administrtor manual.

Most documentation for Debian-developer (and package maintainer) are available from www.debian.org/devel/

Official Websites of the Debian Project

On Debian.org the official Debian site, you can find a section dedicated to documentation.

Forum

Advocacy, developers, inside information

Wiki

Debian Related Wikis

Books

Many free and non-free books are listed on Debian website.

Extra books could be listed below.

Instant Messaging

There are official Debian IRC channels.

You can also use Jabber

Program documentation

Each software provides has its own documentation.

Under Debian (Unix), a program's documentation typically consist of (one or more of):

  • A manpage (type man followed by a command name).

  • A README file, provided by upstream. (A text file located at /usr/share/doc/pkgname/README)

  • A README.Debian file, provided by the Debian package maintainer. (A text file located at /usr/share/doc/pkgname/README.Debian)

  • Programs with a graphical user interface (Gnome, KDE...) usually comes with help page (accessible through Menu > Help).

  • Some program provide their documentation as html, or info page.

Package Description

In the package description you can find some useful information, like a short description of the package, a link to the original website, a list of files contained, and more. The package description can be accessed at the url http://packages.debian.org/<package-name>. Or, try "aptitude show $PKG" (you may need to "apt-get update && apt-get aptitude && aptitude update" first).

One of the best places to look for help for a single package or application is to read stuff in /usr/share/doc/<package-name> (especially README.Debian). This is documentation written by developers or package maintainers. It is quite concise, but usually mentions most common problems and solutions, and new features and fixed bugs.

Bug tracking system

Many problems' solutions can be found as bug report responses. A search engine for bug reports is found on http://bugs.debian.org. Remember that if you want to search in archived (quite old) bugs you must chose "archived bugs" option. If you want to look at bugs of a specific package use http://bugs.debian.org/<package-name>.

Contribute to documentation

Most of the Debian Documentation is available at http://www.debian.org/doc/ddp

if you are interested, you can read the mailing lists :

See also