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Annotated edit history of ManNotes version 10, including all changes. View license author blame.
Rev Author # Line
3 BenStaz 1 !Must Read
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4 BenStaz 3 I think a lot of people use the man command without knowing they can specify a section number to get more relevant information.
3 BenStaz 4
5 For example a person without the knowledge of man sections may want to know the structure of the 'passwd' file and type 'man passwd'. They receive a page telling them all about the 'passwd' command and they assume the information they seek is not available using man, when really it is.
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7 Thanks to : http://www.linux-tutorial.info
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9 When referring to a particular command in Linux documentation, you very often will see the name followed by a letter or number in parenthesis, such as ls(1). This indicates that the ls command can be found in section 1 of the man-pages. This dates back to the time when man-pages came in books (as they often still do). By including the section, you could more quickly find what you were looking for.
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11 For a list of what sections are available, see the table below or the man man-page. If you are looking for the man-page of a particular command and know what section it is in, it is often better to specify the section. Sometimes there are multiple man-pages in different sections. For example, the passwd man-page in section 1 lists the details of the passwd command. The passwd man-page in section 5, lists the details of the /etc/passwd file. Therefore,if you wanted the man-page on the passwd file, you would use:
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13 *man 5 passwd
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15 Here is a list of the sections and a brief description of what can be found in each section:
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17 1) Commands, Utilities and other executable programs, which are typically user-related
18 2) System calls
19 3) Library calls
20 4) Special files, typically device files in /dev
21 5) File formats and their respective conventions, layout
22 6) Games
23 7) Macro packages
24 8) System administration commands
25 9) Kernel routines
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2 BenStaz 27 !Not happy with your default man viewer?
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29 Then change it! This is easily done by setting the 'PAGER' environment variable.
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31 I am using Debian Etch which by default uses 'less' as the man viewer.
32 But say I want to use 'more' to view man pages instead.
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34 *export PAGER="/path/to/more"
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36 Now type 'man ls' for example, and notice the man viewer has changed :)
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38 If you regret the change simply do:
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40 *unset PAGER
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42 to revert back to the default man page viewer.
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44 Remember, to make changes to an environment variable permanent you will have to add the export command to your shell initialization script.
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1 BenStaz 46 !You can Search a man Document
2 BenStaz 47
48 Note: This only applies when using 'less' to view man pages.
1 BenStaz 49
50 When viewing a man for a particular application, you can search for a keyword you are after by typing:
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52 */<search>
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54 The man will scroll down to the first match, and any matches will be highlighted!
2 BenStaz 55
8 PerryLorier 56 To search [backwards|WhosOnFirst]:
2 BenStaz 57
58 *?<search>
5 BenStaz 59
60 !Help I forgot the name of a command!
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62 In the man command you can specify a keyword to search for inside the description of the command you are looking for.
63 For example if you remembered the application had something to do with partitioning:
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65 *man -k partition
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67 Results in:
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6 BenStaz 69 <verbatim>
5 BenStaz 70 cfdisk (8) - Curses based disk partition table manipulator for Linux
71 fdisk (8) - Partition table manipulator for Linux
72 parted (8) - a partition manipulation program
73 partprobe (8) - inform the OS of partition table changes
74 sfdisk (8) - Partition table manipulator for Linux
6 BenStaz 75 </verbatim>
5 BenStaz 76
77 With a bit of luck you will find the name of the application you are after :)
9 BenStaz 78
79 !Manual pages about using GNU/Linux for development
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81 Forgotten the syntax for that c function? Not to worry!
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83 *sudo aptitude install manpages-dev
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85 Now you can do something like:
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87 *man 3 printf
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89 and receive a man page providing comprehensive information about how to use the printf function.
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91 Note : man section 3 = Library calls (functions within program libraries)
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10 BenStaz 93 ! MANSECT Environment Variable
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95 Its value is a colon-delimited list of sections and it is used to determine which manual sections to search and in what order.
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97 For example :
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99 *export MANSECT="3:1:5:2:4:8:9:7:6"
9 BenStaz 100
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7 IanMcDonald 103 ----
104 CategoryNotes