Man Pages: Resource for UNIX Commands

Man Pages

The Man Pages are not the most easy manual to understand from a new users point of view whereas a general UNIX book from the bookstore is probably the best alternative as a tutorial.

There are two ways to read the man pages:

If you know the command name
If you do not know the specific command name

If you know the command name

If you know the command name, you may simply enter:

man command_name

Example:

socrates% man ls


ls(1)                     User Commands                     ls(1)

NAME
     ls - list contents of directory
SYNOPSIS
     /usr/bin/ls [ -aAbcCdfFgilLmnopqrRstux1 ] [ file...  ]
     /usr/xpg4/bin/ls [ -aAbcCdfFgilLmnopqrRstux1 ] [ file...  ]

AVAILABILITY
  /usr/bin/ls
     SUNWcsu

  /usr/xpg4/bin/ls
     SUNWxcu4

DESCRIPTION
     For each file that is a directory, ls lists the contents  of
     the  directory;  for  each file that is an ordinary file, ls
     repeats its name and any other information  requested.   The
     output  is  sorted alphabetically by default.  When no argu-
     ment is  given,  the  current  directory  is  listed.   When
     several  arguments are given, the arguments are first sorted
     appropriately, but file arguments appear before  directories
     and their contents.

The manpages will give you descriptions of commands as well as special options and flags you may use with each command.

If you do not know the specific command name

If you do not know the specific command name, you can use more general command terms to find the specific command you are looking for.

apropos command_name

Example:

socrates% apropos remove | more


rem_drv         rem_drv (1m)    - remove a device driver from the
system
remove          remove (3c)     - remove file
removef         removef (1m)    - remove a file from software database
remque          insque (3c)     - insert/remove element from a queue
rm              rm (1)          - remove directory entries
rmdel           sccs-rmdel (1)  - remove a delta from an SCCS file
rmdir           rm (1)          - remove directory entries
rmdir           rmdir (2)       - remove a directory
rmdirp          mkdirp (3g)     - create, remove directories in a path
rmvb            rmvb (9f)       - remove a message block from a
message
rmvq            rmvq (9f)       - remove a message from a queue

Please send comments to: calweb_consult@berkeley.edu. For additional questions, see Questions.
Last updated 23 July 1998.