Try "UNIX in a Nutshell" published by O'Reilly.  I don't own it, but I've
flipped through it in bookstores; it looks like it lists most UNIX commands
and gives a few details about how to use them.  A good "flipping through"
book is "UNIX Power Tools," also from O'Reilly; that goes into more detail,
but tries to relate unix tools to everyday tasks.

Otherwise, the best source of information I've found is the man pages
(that's a bit like using a dictionary to look up a word that you don't know
how to spell, though; if you don't at least know where to start, you're out
of luck...).


Oh, and I'm sure that by "habitual terseness" you mean "admirable economy,"
right?   :o)

-Matt

> ----------
> From: 	Daniel R. Killoran,Ph.D.[SMTP:drk@shore.net]
> Sent: 	Thursday, August 05, 1999 6:58 AM
> To: 	port-mac68k@NetBSD.ORG
> Subject: 	What do they all do?
> 
	<snip!>
> To be specific, is there anything like a table-of-contents to, say, the
> packages that we have for netbsd? Unfortunately, the habitual terseness of
> Unix people makes the program names uninformative, and I notice that most
> of them seem to lack a statement of purpose in the README.
> 
> Is anything like a "Users' Guide" available?
> 
	<snip!>