Commands covered in this section: man
UNIX has a built-in documentation system known as man pages. Since UNIX was originally developed as an environment for programmers, man pages tend to be fairly terse (some might say cryptic!). However, it is possible for novice users to glean an occasional bit of wisdom from them.
Exercise 8.1
Use the man command to find the man page for
the ls command.
% man ls
User Commands ls(1)
NAME
ls - list contents of directory
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/ls [ -aAbcCdfFgilLmnopqrRstux1 ] [ file... ]
/usr/xpg4/bin/ls [ -aAbcCdfFgilLmnopqrRstux1 ] [ file... ]
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
--More--(4%)
If the requested man page is too long to be displayed on a single
screen (usually the case), it will be displayed in a pager (the
default is more). To move forward through the page,
use the space bar. To move backward, press the 'b' key. To quit,
press 'q'.
Notice that you must know the name of a given command to see
the corresponding man page. You can use the "-k" option to
search for man pages related to a specified keyword.
Exercise 8.2
Use man -k to search for man pages related to
"telnet"
% man -k telnet
in.telnetd in.telnetd (1m) - DARPA TELNET protocol server
telnet telnet (1) - user interface to a remote system...
telnetd in.telnetd (1m) - DARPA TELNET protocol server
telnetrc telnetrc (4) - file for telnet default options
"NAME" .IX (3) - Defines constants for the telnet...
.IX .IX (3) - Defines constants for the telnet...
Header .IX (3) - Defines constants for the telnet...
Net .IX (3) - Defines constants for the telnet...
If you were interested in the telnet server
(in.telnetd), you could then enter man
in.telnetd at the shell prompt.
Since man pages are not really aimed at novice users, you may
wish to consult a book. There are many to choose from, but most
are hundreds of pages long and therefore a bit scary! One not
so scary book is:
Learning the UNIX Operating System, 4th ed., Jerry Peek, et al, O'Reilly, 1998.
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