Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
In the Man and Info Pages. you frequently see references to alternative pages that you can look up, but nowhere does it say how to get to those pages.
For instance, in a terminal window I can enter on the command line the following command:
man man
Turns out, man can do a lot. Near the bottom though, you find this:
SEE ALSO
apropos(1), groff(1), less(1), manpath(1), nroff(1), troff(1), whatis(1), zsoelim(1), setlocale(3), manpath(5), ascii(7), latin1(7), man(7), catman(8), mandb(8), the man-db package manual, FSSTND
The ones that have (1) after them are easy to reach, as that is the default. But how about ascii(7), latin1(7), catman(8) and mandb(8)? How do I get to them?
The way man works is that it goes through all the sections in numerical order until it finds a match for what you entered. So in most cases man foo will get you the man page on foo, whatever section it's in.
Sometimes though that doesn't work. In particular there are a lot of very basic Linux commands that have the same names as the library functions that actually do their work.
Now if this is a general user command, there is no problem because user commands in section 1 take precedence over functions in sections 2-3. But if it is a housekeeping command in section 8, man foo will display the function and not the command. In such cases you just need to include the section number: man 8 foo.
Thanks! Put the number first. I would never have thought of that. Pays to ask questions sometimes. Let me give it a try. Yep, it works. Found that the number references a section in the document that is being referred to. Not every section is involved. And man 1 man does not work to bring up Section 1, the default. A final curio is that I can put in a really large number like man 999 catman, and it seems to return the highest section it can find a match in. Handy to know.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.