Installation guide

132 Chapter 12. Managing Files and Directories
A safer alternative to using rm for removing directories is the rmdir command. With this command,
you will not be allowed to use recursive deletions, so a directory which has files in it will not be
deleted.
Warning
The rm command can delete your entire file system! If you are logged in as root and you type the
simple command rm -rf /, you are in trouble; this command will recursively remove everything on
your system.
Read the rmdir man page (man rmdir) to find out more about this command.
12.5. Viewing PDFs
A PDF (Portable Document Format) file is an electronic image of a document. PDF captures format-
ting information from a variety of desktop publishing applications, making it possible to send format-
ted documents and have them appear on the recipient’s monitor or printer as they were intended. To
view a PDF you must have a PDF reader.
An open source application called xpdf is included with Red Hat Linux. To see a list of menu op-
tions, right-click inside the screen. The toolbar at the bottom has navigational tools that let you move
backward and forward through the document, as well as standard zoom, print, and find tools. The
xpdf man page provides useful information on the xpdf options. To view the xpdf man page, at shell
prompt type man xpdf.
To view a PDF with xpdf:
1. In GNOME, go to Main Menu => Programs => Graphics => xpdf.
In KDE, go to Main Menu => Graphics => xpdf.
You can also launch xpdf prompt by typing xpdf at a shell prompt.
2. Right-click in the xpdf screen to display a list of options.
3. Select Open to display a list of files.
4. Select the PDF file you want to view and click on Open.
Note
A quick way to convert PostScript to PDF is to open a shell prompt and type:
ps2pdf input.ps output.pdf
Type man ps2pdf at a shell prompt to view the man page on the ps2pdf tool. This gives you informa-
tion on a variety of conversion options.
Another popular PDF viewer is Adobe Acrobat Reader. While it is not included with Red Hat Linux,
you can download it free of charge at http://www.adobe.com/.