The Man to Know
Man pages provide essential information but may seem cryptic if you're not familiar with their structure. We explain how they're organized so you can get the most out of them.
Writing and reading man pages
Lead Image ©malchev, 123RF.com
Few features are more closely associated with Unix-like systems than man pages [1]. First used in 1971 [2], man pages quickly became the standard form for online help. Even the GNU Project's preference for help formatted in Texinfo has done little to affect man's popularity, because, more often than not, man pages are available alongside Texinfo files.
Many users have come to take man pages for granted, using only the basic man command and never considering how they are created or structured. However, even if you never write a man page yourself, knowing how they are organized externally and internally, as well as their conventions, can help you both find and read them more efficiently.
Man Sections
Most man pages are organized in sections or chapters (Table 1). To avoid confusion between files of the same name in different sections, man files take the format NAME.SECTION.bz (or .gz). Topics are usually referred to with the file name, followed by the section in parentheses (e.g., mount(8)).
[...]
Use Express-Checkout link below to read the full article (PDF).
Buy this article as PDF
Express-Checkout as PDF
Pages: 4
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)
(incl. VAT)
Buy Raspberry Pi Geek
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Related content
-
Writing and reading man pages
Man pages provide essential information but may seem cryptic if you're not familiar with their structure. We explain how they're organized so you can get the most out of them.
-
Installing a customized Raspbian system with Netinstaller
The standard Raspbian is too bulky for some projects. You can use Netinstaller to set up a pre-defined customized version.
-
Twidge microblog client
The Twidge microblogging tool is easy to learn and provides a much less cluttered environment than Twitter.
-
Print with shell commands courtesy of CUPS
Send documents to a printer and automate many tasks from the command line.
-
Pydio on Raspberry Pi
Pydio transforms the Raspberry Pi into a powerful file sharing and collaboration platform.
