Know the man(nual) pages
June 18, 2023
There are many ways to get help as a Linux administrator, manual pages are one of them as they are always close - accessible via the terminal.
The manual pages, called “man pages” is a local documentation and description of software packages, drivers, routines, and libraries on a Linux machine.
To use it run man [command|library|routine|driver] and replace the command with the name of a command to find a manual.
An example man whereis shows the manual pages for the whereis command
Man Pages exist in sections and are supported by both FreeBSD and Linux.
Below is a list of supported sections:
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | User-level commands and applications |
| 2 | System calls and kernel error codes |
| 3 | Library calls |
| 4 | Device drivers and network protocols |
| 5 | Standard file formats |
| 6 | Games and demonstrations |
| 7 | Miscellaneous files and configurations |
| 8 | Obscure kernel specifications and interfaces |
To get help for a keyword at a section run
man [section] keyword
To know about the init kernel call, man 8 init
Ciao
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