man Linux Command

man

man [options] [section] [title]

Display information from the online reference manuals. man locates and prints the named title from the designated reference section.

Traditionally, manpages are divided into nine sections, where section 1 consists of user commands, section 2 contains system calls, and so forth. By default, all sections are consulted, so the section option serves to bypass the most common entry and find an entry of the same name in a different section (e.g., man 2 nice).

Numerous other utilities—such as info, xman, and the Konqueror browser—can also display manpages.

Options

-7, --ascii
Expect a pure ASCII file, and format it for a 7-bit terminal or terminal emulator.

-a, --all
Show all pages matching title.

-b
Leave blank lines in output.

-d, --debug
Display debugging information. Suppress actual printing of manual pages.

-f, --whatis
Same as whatis command.

-k, --apropos
Same as apropos command.

-l filename, --local-file=filename
Search local files, not system files, for manual pages. If i is given as filename, search standard input.

-m systems, --systems=systems
Search systems' manual pages. systems should be a comma-separated list.

-p preprocessors, --preprocessor=preprocessors
Preprocess manual pages with preprocessors before turning them over to nroff, troff, or groff. Always runs soelim first to read in files to be included in the one currently being processed. preprocessors can be any combination of e for equations, p for pictures, t for tables, and r for bibliographical references.

-r prompt, --prompt=prompt
Set prompt if less is used as pager.

-t, --troff
Format the manual page with /usr/bin/groff -Tgv -mandoc. Implied by -T and -Z.

-u, --update
Perform a consistency check between manual page cache and filesystem.

-w, -W, --path, --where
Print pathnames of entries on standard output.

-D
Display debugging information about how the page was retrieved.

-K directory
A kind of super-k option. Search for a term in all manpages and display the name of each page, along with a prompt asking whether you want to view the page.

-L locale, --locale=locale
Assume current locale to be locale; do not consult the setlocale( ) function.

-M path, --manpath=path
Search for manual pages in path. Ignore -m option.

-Ppager, --pager=pager
Select paging program pager to display the entry.

-S sections
Sections to look in for an entry. Like specifying section on the command line, except that multiple section numbers can be specified, separated by colons.

-T device, --troff-device[=device]
Format groff or troff output for device, such as dvi, latin1, X75, and X100.

-Z, --ditroff
Do not allow postprocessing of manual page after groff has finished formatting it.

Section names

Manual pages are divided into sections for various audiences:

1
Executable programs or shell commands.

2
System calls (functions provided by the kernel).

3
Library calls (functions within system libraries).

4
Special files (usually found in /dev).

5
File formats and conventions (e.g., /etc/passwd).

6
Games.

7
Macro packages and conventions.

8
System administration commands (usually only for a privileged user).

9
Kernel routines (nonstandard).

Linux Commands 8/21/2017 07:31:00 pm