man - format and display the on-line manual pages

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45
votes
5answers
3k views

What do the numbers in a man page mean?

So, for example, when I type man ls I see LS(1). But if I type man apachectl I see APACHECTL(8) and if I type man cd I end up with cd(n). I'm wondering what the significance of the numbers in the ...
23
votes
4answers
2k views

How to follow links in linux man pages?

Is there a way to follow the links mentioned in a man page? For example, here's the man page for ps; how do I access the link marked in red?
19
votes
3answers
546 views

How can I add man page entries for my own power tools?

I have no idea about how I can make my home-grown specialist scripts (written mostly in Bash and Perl) available through the man pages. What procedure would I have to follow, and is there a ...
11
votes
4answers
2k views

Colors in Man Pages

When I look at a man page in my 'console' (not an xterm) I see some coloration, but I don't get this in my xterm's (e.g. konsole) is there any way I can enable this? hopefully a fairly simple ...
16
votes
17answers
1k views

Tricks and tips for finding information in man pages

Does anyone have any tricks and tips for finding information in man pages?
10
votes
2answers
638 views

Can I get individual man pages for the bash builtin commands?

Is there anywhere you can download a manpage for every builtin commands? I know you can just use help or man bash and search to find info about it, but I want them separated, so I can just do man ...
6
votes
2answers
190 views

Understand synopsis in manpage

I have not being able to understand the synopsis in manpage of a command. For example, let's see the manpage of man itself. By man man: SYNOPSIS man [-C file] [-d] [-D] ...
3
votes
2answers
425 views

Can I create a man page for a script? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: How can I add man page entries for my own power tools? Most (if not all) Linux commands have their man pages that describe their usage options etc. Can I create similar ...
2
votes
1answer
67 views

How is the path to search for 'man' pages set?

I'm puzzled by how the path used for finding man pages is set. The "right thing" seems to happen magically. For example, if change my PATH from ...
1
vote
0answers
23 views

How do the various configuration files determine MANPATH on Darwin?

On Darwin (12.2.0, OS X 10.8.2, bash 3.2.48(1)) my MANPATH appears to be determined by my PATH rather than by the various configuration files associated with man and the man path, /etc/manpaths, ...
6
votes
1answer
357 views

Why does `man -k cron` say `vixie-cron (rpm)` for some results, and how do I read those pages?

I'm trying to find out some details regarding cron and /etc/cron.d/ on a RedHat system. Ironically, my answer is viewable within the vixie-cron-*.src.rpm for this package, but the the man pages for ...
5
votes
1answer
194 views

Emacs mode for man pages

I'm translating man pages, and have run in to a few problems with Emacs. How do you specify language? (With man, it looks like this man -Lsv shutdown for the Swedish "sv" subdirectory, if ...
4
votes
3answers
111 views

How do I check man pages for what single parameter of the command does?

Example: I am using tar -zxvf command but I don't know what 'x' stands for. How can I check this single parameter without having to scroll all the way through man tar?