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Almost all substantial UNIX and Unix-like operating systems have extensive documentation known as man pages (short for "manual pages"). The Unix command used to display them is man. Each page is a self-contained document. Image File history File links Unix_manual. ...
Image File history File links Unix_manual. ...
Wikibooks has more about this subject: Guide to Unix Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ...
A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. ...
An operating system is a special computer program that manages the relationship between application software, the wide variety of hardware that makes up a computer system, and the user of the system. ...
To read a page from the manual, one can use the command
$ man <page_name> at a shell prompt, for example, "man ftp". Pages are traditionally referred to using the notation "page_name(section)", for example, ftp(1).
The same page name may appear in more than one section of the manual. This can occur when the names of system calls, user commands, or macro packages conflict. Two examples are man(1) and man(7), or exit(1) and exit(3). The syntax for accessing the non-default manual section varies between different man implementations. On Linux, for example, the syntax for reading printf(3) is In computing, a system call is the mechanism used by an application program to request service from the operating system, or more specifically, the operating system kernel. ...
In computing, a command is a directive to a computer program acting as an interpreter of some kind, in order to perform a specific task. ...
The troff typesetting system includes sets of commands called macros that are run before starting to process the document. ...
$ man 3 printf The UNIX Programmer's Manual was first published on November 3, 1971. At the time of its development in the 1970s, the availability of online documentation through the manual page system was regarded as a great advance. To this day, virtually every Unix command line application comes with its man page, and many Unix users perceive the lack of man pages as a sign of low quality. However, the format of a single page for each application, the lack of classification within the sections and the relatively unsophisticated formatting facilities has motivated the development of alternative documentation systems. Few have enjoyed much popularity, with the possible exception of the GNU project's "info" system, a simple hypertext system. November 3 is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 58 days remaining. ...
1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ...
GNU (pronounced ) is a free software operating system. ...
In computing, hypertext is a user interface paradigm for displaying documents which, according to an early definition (Nelson 1970), branch or perform on request. ...
Most Unix GUI applications (particularly those built using the GNOME and KDE development environments) now provide end-user documentation in HTML and include embedded HTML viewers for viewing the help within the application. Gui is short for Guilherme or Guilhermo or an iteration of that, in English it translates to Will. ...
a gnome A gnome is a mythical creature characterized by its small stature and subterranean lifestyle. ...
KDE (K Desktop Environment) is a free desktop environment and development platform built with Trolltechs Qt toolkit. ...
A piece of HTML code with syntax highlighting In computing, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a markup language designed for the creation of web pages with hypertext and other information to be displayed in a web browser. ...
Usually the man pages are written in English. Translations into other languages can be also available on the system, in which case the version best fitting the user preferences is displayed.
The default format of the man pages is troff, with either the macro package man (appearance oriented) or mdoc (semantic oriented). This makes it possible to typeset a man page to PostScript, PDF and various other formats for viewing or printing (although most users still prefer the default terminal interface). Troff is a document processing system developed by AT&T for the Unix operating system. ...
The troff typesetting system includes sets of commands called macros that are run before starting to process the document. ...
PostScript (PS) is a page description language and programming language used primarily in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. ...
PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ...
Manual sections
The manual is generally split into eight numbered sections, organised as follows (on BSD Unix and Linux): BSD redirects here; for other uses see BSD (disambiguation). ...
Tux is the Linux mascot. ...
Note that Unix System V uses a similar numbering scheme, except section 4 is file formats, section 5 is miscellany and section 7 is special files. The sections are further subdivided by means of a suffix letter, such that section 3C is for C library calls, 3M is for the math library, and so on. A consequence of this is that section 8, the system administration commands is relegated to the 1M subsection of the main commands section. In computing, a command is a directive to a computer program acting as an interpreter of some kind, in order to perform a specific task. ...
In computing, a system call is the mechanism used by an application program to request service from the operating system, or more specifically, the operating system kernel. ...
A C library is a collection of libraries used in programming with the C programming language. ...
A file format is a particular way to encode information for storage in a computer file. ...
A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ...
In computing, a command is a directive to a computer program acting as an interpreter of some kind, in order to perform a specific task. ...
In Unix and other computer operating systems, a daemon is a particular class of computer program that runs in the background, rather than under the direct control of a user; they are usually instantiated as processes. ...
AT&T UNIX System V was one of the versions of the UNIX operating system. ...
On some systems some of the following sections are available:
The manual pages are stored as nroff source files. Most versions of man cache the formatted versions of the last several pages viewed. In computer science, the kernel is the fundamental part of an operating system. ...
// Tcl (originally from Tool Command Language, but nonetheless conventionally rendered as Tcl rather than TCL; and pronounced like tickle) is a scripting language created by John Ousterhout that is generally thought to be easy to learn, but powerful in competent hands. ...
In computing, Tk is an open source, cross-platform widget toolkit, that is, a library of basic elements for building a graphical user interface (GUI). ...
KDE 3. ...
The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...
For an example of a man page see chmod. To see other options you can use with command man, enter the command man man. chmod (abbreviated from change mode) is a shell command in Unix-like environments. ...
External links - This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.
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