man
man provides manual pages for terminal commands
$ man git
# displays git man page
q # to quit
Useful Options / Examples
man -f <command> shows a list of related commands that match the
$ man -f git
perlgit(1) - Detailed information about git and the Perl repository
git(1) - the stupid content tracker
git-add(1) - Add file contents to the index
git-am(1) - Apply a series of patches from a mailbox
git-annotate(1) - Annotate file lines with commit information
git-apply(1) - Apply a patch to files and/or to the index
git-archimport(1) - Import an Arch repository into Git
git-archive(1) - Create an archive of files from a named tree
git-bisect(1) - Use binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug
...
Manual sections
The numbers in parentheses next to the commands correspond to the manual section they are in:
The standard sections of the manual include:
1 User Commands
2 System Calls
3 C Library Functions
4 Devices and Special Files
5 File Formats and Conventions
6 Games et. al.
7 Miscellanea
8 System Administration tools and Daemons
e.g. man -f printf lists printf(1), and printf(3):
$ man 1 printf
# displays printf (as a command) man page
q
$ man 3 printf
# displays printf (as a stdlib fn) man page
q
Sections within a manual page:
NAME Name of manual page
SYNOPSIS A brief summary of the command or function's interface
CONFIGURATION Configuration details for a device [Normally only in Section 4]
DESCRIPTION An explanation of what the program, function, or format does
OPTIONS [Normally only in Sections 1, 8]
EXIT STATUS [Normally only in Sections 1, 8]
RETURN VALUE [Normally only in Sections 2, 3]
ERRORS [Typically only in Sections 2, 3]
ENVIRONMENT
FILES
VERSIONS [Normally only in Sections 2, 3]
ATTRIBUTES [Normally only in Sections 2, 3]
CONFORMING TO
NOTES
BUGS
EXAMPLE
SEE ALSO
Man pages reference
$ man man
# displays the man pages for man
q
$ man man-pages
# displays information of manual sections and descriptions
q