man - format and display the on-line manual pages
9
votes
2answers
169 views
Why do Unix man pages use double backticks in place of double quotes?
I've noticed that man pages and other documents formatted by Unix utilities often use double backticks `` followed by double single quotes '' to wrap quoted phrases instead of the double quote ...
3
votes
2answers
55 views
How do I know which library and man page will be found first?
With binaries, I can always do which foo to know which binary I am invoking with $ foo, but what about man pages? Is there a way to know the path of the man page will be loaded by default?
Similarly, ...
1
vote
1answer
27 views
convert man output to ebook format
I can convert man output to PDF. First, man -t grep >grep.ps (grep is just an example; I am not looking for mobile version of grep man page). Then Adobe Distiller converts PostScript to PDF. ...
2
votes
4answers
72 views
Ctrl-s hang terminal emulator?
I came across a sentence in vimdoc:
Note: CTRL-S does not work on all terminals and might block
further input, use CTRL-Q to get going again.
and this key indeed hangs my vim. I was ...
4
votes
1answer
80 views
How should man pages be installed?
When distributing a custom utility I'll typically write a makefile that installs binaries to /usr/local by default
PREFIX ?= /usr/local
MANPREFIX ?= ${PREFIX}/man
install:
install utility ...
1
vote
1answer
29 views
head command options and reading man files
I have two environments: Mac and Linux.
I wonder about the head command:
it can show just 2 lines of text if I invoke it like so:
vim --version | head -2
I saw this online and ran to the man page ...
1
vote
2answers
98 views
How do I make the 'man' utility as comprehensive as ss64.com?
The 'man' utility that comes with a Debian distro is not as comprehensive as ss64.com, and in environment like cygwin, it is even more so. Is there a software or a script that will make my 'man' more ...
2
votes
0answers
55 views
Using symbolic links and git to manage build versions
In general I follow the following workflow when I build any program (e.g. emacs, tmux, etc.)
/home/opt/[name of the program]/builds/[version]/
bin
lib
share
For example for a program like tmux I ...
1
vote
1answer
60 views
What does the number mean in a man page? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What do the numbers in a man page mean?
If I typeman ls, I seeLS(1) in the top left and top right corners of the manpage.
I also see programs on the internet being ...
2
votes
2answers
48 views
Why does “User Contributed Perl Documentation” show up when I look for 'man' pages
When I
man -f <some string>
in addition to the expected Unix man pages, I get a bunch of odd looking entries that all have the header "User Contributed Perl Documentation". For example
man ...
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, ...
2
votes
1answer
65 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
...
2
votes
3answers
55 views
How do you output an info page to pdf?
If man -t ls | ps2pdf - > ls.pdf is useful for outputting the ls man page via ps2pdf to pdf, what about info pages?
I've tried something like the following but with no success:
info -o info | ...
15
votes
1answer
307 views
How does “man” restore the screen when I quit the program?
If I open a man page of a program like cat or ls, it prints (may not be the appropriate word) the contents of the man page and when I press q, it shows the screen just like before invoking the man ...
1
vote
1answer
124 views
How do I better read man pages?
How do I search man pages for options? I currently do this:
/-<option>
Example:
To see what grep -i does, I do this:
man grep
and then
/-i.
Or, I can do this:
man grep | grep .-i
Is ...
-3
votes
1answer
84 views
How to operate USE flags? Is there a master class on Portage or Gentoo?
What man pages I need to read first?
4
votes
1answer
122 views
What does this tcpdump line means?
Reading the manpage of tcpdump I found this example
tcpdump 'tcp[tcpflags] & (tcp-syn|tcp-fin) != 0 and not src and dst net localnet'
but I don't understand it, especially the last part.
The ...
1
vote
1answer
62 views
What means the “integer argument” in system call descriptions? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What do the numbers in a man page mean?
All system calls described in manpages have an associated number such as exec(3). What is the meaning of this number?
3
votes
1answer
135 views
man gives the error about locale
I have
$ locale
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE=ru_RU.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=ru_RU.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=ru_RU.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=ru_RU.UTF-8
...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
What units of time does “top” use?
If I issue the "top" command and receive results such as:
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
00001 bob 25 0 77380 1212 1200 R 95.8 0.0 89122:13 fee
...
3
votes
1answer
46 views
How can you change the format command used by man?
I'd like to define a new command that prints man pages to PostScript, but using a page size different than the default. For example, on Mac OS X you can run
man -t ls | open -f -a Skim
to open the ...
2
votes
4answers
265 views
how to word wrap, align text like the output of man?
what is the command that word wraps and justifies a text file so that the output looks like that of a man page:
All of these system calls are used to wait for state
changes in a child ...
1
vote
2answers
190 views
Copying man pages from tmux copy mode
I am in xterm on Pangolin, inside a tmux session, in copy mode. I am trying to copy the text of a man page but what I yank into the clipboard by using the simple vi bindings of spacebar/enter is text ...
4
votes
3answers
455 views
On Ubuntu Linux, is it normal for mandb to run continuously (apparently in the background)?
I have access to a Ubuntu Linux node at my institution. The nodes are shared among the group, but typically I am the only person who uses this particular node.
I am running a calculation in parallel ...
4
votes
1answer
98 views
unixODBC documentation / manpage?
Just wondering if there is any official documentation for unixODBC, e.g. how the configuration files have to look like and what parameters they expect? (I am using only a shell, no GUI) Even ...
4
votes
2answers
91 views
How to print (part of) a man page?
The question is: how do you print only part of a man page?
Currently I do zcat manpage.1.gz | vim - and just remove everything I don't want to print. Then I pass that through groff and lpr. Are there ...
4
votes
3answers
107 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?
5
votes
1answer
188 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
98 views
Where is tcl-doc man page stored?
I installed tcl-doc. Prior to installation "man tcl" gave nothing. Now it gives a page.
When I do
"dpkg -L tcl-doc" I get
/.
/usr
/usr/share
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/tcl-doc
...
7
votes
2answers
206 views
How do you output a list of all man pages in a particular section?
A man page for fork, for example, is in the System Calls section that has number 2:
man 2 fork
How do you see what else is section 2 without resorting to Google?
3
votes
3answers
531 views
localization of man pages on Linux (Ubuntu)
Is there an option to output a manual page in a different language? I don't want to change the computer language completely, but only specific manual pages.
For example
$ man -English man
Man is a ...
7
votes
2answers
293 views
Find and install man file manually
I seem to be missing some man pages, notably gcc and g++. It doesn't help that I specify the section. whereis doesn't list man pages for those two, so I think they are simply not there.
With Google I ...
1
vote
1answer
90 views
How do I localize man pages for chinese?
Doing the prerequisite google search didn't turn up anything: I'm looking for a way to install and use localized chinese versions of the man pages (assuming there is some localized package somewhere).
...
6
votes
4answers
263 views
View man page of not installed package?
On Debian based systems, can one view the man page of packages that aren't yet installed? I want to check what they are capable first, before installing them. Thanks for any hint :-)
1
vote
1answer
79 views
attr man page missing?
How does one search for certain manpages (such as http://linux.die.net/man/5/attr)? Trying:
man attr
and
man -K attr
don't seem to work.
Any ideas why?
2
votes
2answers
103 views
Archive of QNX's use messages?
Context
I do not know all standard linux/unix commands, so I need manpages.
I found QNX's manuals (invoked by "use [command name]") terse; I prefer them to linux manpages.
I can get them from QNX ...
5
votes
1answer
92 views
Nested lists in man page
I have a command line parameter that takes a number of flags afterwards, which I would like to have as a list inside the parameter list in the man page.
Currently I am simply making lines of Flag - ...
-1
votes
1answer
52 views
About the command and the number in the man [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What do the numbers in a man page mean?
such as:
http://www.postfix.org/qmgr.8.html
The qmgr(8) daemon awaits t
what's the meaning of 8?
just don't know it.
3
votes
2answers
373 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 ...
3
votes
2answers
249 views
Why “man CMD” shows nothing?
After I ran man ls, it shows:
Man: find all matching manual pages
* ls (1)
ls (1p)
Man: What manual page do you want?
Man:
After I entered "1", it shows nothing but "Manual page ls(1) ...
3
votes
2answers
113 views
National characters in manpages
I am trying to get a proper display of national characters with FreeBSD man.
I have tried running the following on 8.1 and 9.0:
# PAGER=less LANG="pl_PL.UTF-8" man -d -M. ./man.1
-- Using ...
-5
votes
2answers
2k views
The most brutal man page [closed]
What is the most brutal man page that ever exists? Some man pages are hard to read / understand since they aren't well written / complete in term of details but some exist although they are ...
1
vote
2answers
232 views
How do I find the relevant command for something in linux?
For example, say I'm trying to find the command that displays the routing table (like route) or to run a traceroute, but I don't actually know the commands that accomplish this. My understanding is ...
7
votes
3answers
506 views
manpages for my kindle?
I'd like to read unix manpages on my kindle. I know I can just redirect the man output to a file and give it a .txt extension. But is there a convenient way to convert them en masse to a format with ...
2
votes
4answers
250 views
On Unix how do I get the output from the diff command to look like a man page? Where I can press 'b' or 'f' to read further or back?
You know how when you use the man command to read the manual (e.g. man ls) and you get output that is paginated that you can read from top to bottom by pressing 'f' to go read further down and 'b' to ...
3
votes
3answers
222 views
Linux's man alternatives
Are there any alternatives to linux's man? I know many users used to man and for them it's useful and best way to find what they want, but i'm looking for something which is focused on examples. Is ...
15
votes
3answers
800 views
How can I use man without less?
By default, man uses less to output text. How can I tell it to just output to stdout? My terminal emulator has a scroll bar and search function and I want to use those instead of the arrow keys.
1
vote
1answer
42 views
Reading the man pages in my system with hyperlinks on a browser [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How to follow links in linux man pages?
I can read man pages online, but they are not necessarily the same that I have installed on my system (i.e. for the same ...
1
vote
2answers
122 views
Differences between man pages
I often find myself reading man pages online instead of from the command line on my system. Part of the reason is because I find it easier to browse this information on a browser on the Internet than ...
6
votes
1answer
204 views
Call man in bash shell for command under cursor
In zsh I can do Esc h for any command, get man page for this command, quit from the man pager and get my command back with all arguments. For example in my shell is entered:
zsh# tar -czvf docs.tgz ...
