Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Name

man

Synopsis

                  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, --local-file

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 this one. preprocessors can be any combination of e for equations, p for pictures, t for tables, and r for bibliographical references. ...