39.2 Man Pages
Man pages are an essential part of any Linux system. They explain the
usage of a command and all available options and parameters. Man pages
can be accessed with man followed by the name of the
command, for example, man ls.
Man pages are displayed directly in the shell. To navigate them, move up
and down with PgUp and
PgDn. Move between the beginning and the
end of a document with Home and
End. End this viewing mode by pressing
Q. Learn more about the man command
itself with man man. Man pages are sorted in
categories as shown in Table 39-1 (taken
from the man page for man itself).
Table 39-1 Man Pages—Categories and Descriptions
|
1
|
Executable programs or shell commands
|
|
2
|
System calls (functions provided by the kernel)
|
|
3
|
Library calls (functions within program libraries)
|
|
4
|
Special files (usually found in /dev)
|
|
5
|
File formats and conventions (/etc/fstab)
|
|
6
|
Games
|
|
7
|
Miscellaneous (including macro packages and conventions), for
example, man(7), groff(7)
|
|
8
|
System administration commands (usually only for root)
|
|
9
|
Kernel routines (nonstandard)
|
Each man page consists of several parts labeled
NAME
,
SYNOPSIS
,
DESCRIPTION
,
SEE ALSO
,
LICENSING
, and
AUTHOR
. There may be additional sections available depending on the type of
command.
