using man to find groups of things

susannalc · 02-01-2014, 02:50 PM

I am new to unix am an having trouble with man. I can only access words not sections. I can do this: man man and get the definition of man. I can not get to user commands or other sections.

albinard · 02-01-2014, 03:01 PM

If you are looking for a general list of available commands, I might suggest
oreilly.com/linux/command-directory/#a
As I recall, there is a link to an online version of the list.

astrogeek · 02-01-2014, 03:04 PM

I am not sure what you are trying to do, but my guess is that you are trying to use the section list in man man as a kind of menu. If so, it doesn't work like that.

In general, you use the name of the command that you are looking for to get to a man page, like...

Code:

man man
man ssh
man init

Or to see what is available for certain words (i.e, groups of things)...

man -k word

man -k ssh (for example)

Please tell us in a little more detail what you are looking for, and maybe some examples of what is not working for you and we can help you better.

Also, telling us what GNU/Linux distro you are using might be helpful.

*** ADDED ***

You will also note that man pages have a common format. Near the bottom of most you will find a SEE ALSO section with a list of related man pages, like this from man init...

Quote:

SEE ALSO
getty(1), login(1), sh(1), runlevel(8), shutdown(8), kill(1), inittab(5), initscript(5), utmp(5)

... that will get you quickly into related pages by typing man getty, man login, etc.

syg00 · 02-01-2014, 04:05 PM

If your distro installs it by default, use "info" instead of "man". It supports linking, and is generally better maintained these days.
But it is a different animal - you could use "man info", but a better option is to get into ifo itself, and use H (capital H) to invoke the tutorial. Put aside some time to learn it properly.

markush · 02-01-2014, 04:06 PM

You may take a look at this tutorial about "reading/searching manpages".

Markus