Man Page Headings
There are a number of different headings or informational areas in a
typical man page.
The more common ones are:
- name - Contains the name of
the command and other commands that may accomplish the same thing
- synopsis - Shows the syntax
of the command with any allowable options and arguments
- description - Gives an
overview of what the command does
- operands - The target of the
command or what the command will take effect on such as a
directory or a file
- options - Are switches that
can change the function or effect of the command. They are
normally preceded by a dash (-) or minus sign
- see also - Refers you to
other related commands and subjects Name, Synopsis, Description,
Options, Operands and See Also.
These headings are displayed in the man
page output using all capital letters. Depending on the command and
its purpose, the man page may not contain all headings. For instance,
the pwd (Print Working Directory) command does not have an
Options or Operands information heading since there are no options or operands
that can be used with the command. All commands will have at
least a Name, Synopsis and Description. 
Man Page
A very common UNIX command is
cd, which allows you to change
directories. The results of the man page for the
cd command.
Note the different headings previously discussed. Some of the output
has been omitted since the output from the cd man page is normally
about 9 pages long.
Scrolling in Man Pages
The output from some man pages can be as many as 10 to 20 screens of
output. Several keys are helpful in moving around in the man utility
once the pages for a specific command have been located. Use the
following keys to control the scrolling capabilities while using the
man command:
Searching Man Pages by Section
As previously discussed, the SEE ALSO part at the bottom of a man page
lists alternate references that pertain to the topic addressed. When
these references are followed by a number other than 1 in parentheses,
it indicates a section of the man pages which can be accessed using
the -s option with the man command.
For example, executing $ man
passwd will display information
on the passwd
command and give instructions on how to change a password. The SEE
ALSO section of this man page reads in part as follows:
SEE ALSO
finger(1), login(1),
nispasswd(1), crypt(3C), passwd(4)
Executing $ man -s 4 passwd
will display information on the /etc/passwd file and $ man
-s 3C crypt will display
information on password encryption. The other SEE ALSO items listed,
finger and login, are related but do not have a separate section that
can be searched. 
Searching Man Pages by Keyword
The -k option for the man command can also be very helpful. As an
example, if you know you are looking for a command that has to do with
the calendar but are not sure of what commands are available, you can
use the -k option to specify a keyword as a subject. Figure
shows the results of using the -k option with the man command when
looking for commands related to the calendar.
Displaying Man Page Headers with
Whatis
Using the whatis command will display the header line from the manual
section. The man page itself can then be displayed by using the
man command. The whatis
command can be helpful if you can remember the
command name but forget what is does. You can use whatis
to get a
brief definition of the command. The example shows using whatis
to
find out what the grep command does
(grep
will be covered later in the
course). 
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Lab
Activity
(Adobe
Acrobat Reader, 29 kB) |
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Using
Command Line Help
In
this lab, you will work with and access command line
help using the man command. You will use the
man pages to determine the use of various UNIX
commands and you will work with the man pages and
learn to navigate through them. |
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