@Andrew: It's definitely a thick one, but rsync is twice as long and with fewer "signposts". man find is about the same length as man mdadm.

Perhaps we should have a series of questions regarding comprehending documentation (not "understanding" it, rather "using it comprehensively" if that makes any sense). More generally, regarding the role of SF, I certainly see it as a site for professional problem solving, but I very strongly think that it can serve as a source of education as well.

@Warner: Despite the mumblety-something years I've been doing this, every day I'm a rank beginner at some new thing. Otherwise, it's no fun. Regarding documentation: Man pages are like child's-play for me (except for rsync ;-) ). For others they are a wall of disorganized gibberish. I find Python documentation to be very well done, but a bit overly formal. Now I'm dabbling a bit in Ruby. Its documentation is organized in an entirely different manner. I'm struggling a bit to find what I'm looking for, but I'm good at parsing docs. Not everyone is.