man page

basically your go-to documentation system in Unix-like operating systems . Think of them as comprehensive instruction manuals built right into your system, accessible anytime without needing internet connectivity.

flowchart TD
    MP["Man Pages"] --> S1["Section 1:
Executable Programs
ls, grep, vim"]
    MP --> S2["Section 2:
System Calls
Kernal Operations"]
    MP --> S3["Section 3:
Library Calls
C Functions"]
    MP --> S4["Section 4:
Special Files
/dev Devices"]
    MP --> S5["Section 5:
File Formats
Config Files"]
    MP --> S6["Section 6:
Games"]
    MP --> S7["Section 7:
Miscellaneous
Conventions"]
    MP --> S8["Section 8:
System Administration
Root Commands"]

    style MP fill:#0072C6,color:#ffffff,stroke:#0072C6
    style S1 fill:#92D050,color:#000000,stroke:#92D050
    style S2 fill:#92D050,color:#000000,stroke:#92D050
    style S3 fill:#92D050,color:#000000,stroke:#92D050
    style S4 fill:#92D050,color:#000000,stroke:#92D050
    style S5 fill:#92D050,color:#000000,stroke:#92D050
    style S6 fill:#92D050,color:#000000,stroke:#92D050
    style S7 fill:#92D050,color:#000000,stroke:#92D050
    style S8 fill:#92D050,color:#000000,stroke:#92D050

Each section serves a specific purpose, and you can access them using commands like man 1 command for executables or man 8 command for system administration tools

Basic Usage

To check out a man page, just throw this in your terminal:

man [command]

For example, to learn about the ls command:

man ls

Pro tip: Use spacebar to page down, 'q' to quit, and arrow keys to scroll line by line.

Most commonly used sections

•Section 1 (manuals for executable commands)
•Section 5 (manuals about file formats)
•Section 8 (manuals for superuser commands)

Modern Relevance

Even though we've got Google nowadays, man pages are important because:

  1. They work offline
  2. They're specific to your exact system configuration
  3. They're updated with your system
  4. They follow a consistent format across all Unix-like systems

Some projects, like Debian, are so serious about documentation that they create man pages for programs that don't even have them.

similarly, info works almost the same way as man

info info