If you have a graphics workstation, you may find it convenient to use the System Manager, which is described in the Personal System Administration Guide. That guide should be your first resource for administering graphics workstations. Regardless of whether you use the System Manager or the IRIX command-line interface, the results are the same. The System Manager does not create any new files on your system, unlike applications such as WorkSpace(TM).
If you have a server, this book and the other books in the IRIX Admin suite are your primary guides to system administration, since without graphics, you cannot use the System Manager. This guide does not describe the System Manager in great detail. Instead, it covers the traditional shell command approach to administering peripherals with the IRIX operating system.