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107 lines
6.0 KiB
Markdown
107 lines
6.0 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Getting Help on Linux"
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date: "2021-07-01"
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categories:
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- "general-tech"
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- "linux"
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---
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## Man
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The **man** command is short for **man**ual. It allows you to read the instruction manual for almost every command in Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. Don't know how to use an application? The first thing to do is to run the man command and then the name of the application.
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Below is an excerpt of the manual for the man command itself.
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\> **man** man
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Man: find all matching manual pages (set MAN\_POSIXLY\_CORRECT to avoid this)
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\* man (1)
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man (7mp)
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man (1p)
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Man: What manual page do you want?
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Man: 1
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NAME
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man - an interface to the on-line reference manuals
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SYNOPSIS
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man \[-C file\] \[-d\] \[-D\] \[--warnings\[=warnings\]\] \[-R encoding\] \[-L locale\] \[-m system\[,...\]\] \[-M path\] \[-S list\] \[-e extension\] \[-i|-I\]
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\[--regex|--wildcard\] \[--names-only\] \[-a\] \[-u\] \[--no-subpages\] \[-P pager\] \[-r prompt\] \[-7\] \[-E encoding\] \[--no-hyphenation\] \[--no-justification\] \[-p
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string\] \[-t\] \[-T\[device\]\] \[-H\[browser\]\] \[-X\[dpi\]\] \[-Z\] \[\[section\] page\[.section\] ...\] ...
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man -k \[apropos options\] regexp ...
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man -K \[-w|-W\] \[-S list\] \[-i|-I\] \[--regex\] \[section\] term ...
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man -f \[whatis options\] page ...
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man -l \[-C file\] \[-d\] \[-D\] \[--warnings\[=warnings\]\] \[-R encoding\] \[-L locale\] \[-P pager\] \[-r prompt\] \[-7\] \[-E encoding\] \[-p string\] \[-t\] \[-T\[device\]\]
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\[-H\[browser\]\] \[-X\[dpi\]\] \[-Z\] file ...
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man -w|-W \[-C file\] \[-d\] \[-D\] page ...
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man -c \[-C file\] \[-d\] \[-D\] page ...
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man \[-?V\]
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DESCRIPTION
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man is the system's manual pager. Each page argument given to man is normally the name of a program, utility or function. The manual page associ-
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ated with each of these arguments is then found and displayed. A section, if provided, will direct man to look only in that section of the manual.
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The default action is to search in all of the available sections following a pre-defined order ("0 1 n l 8 3 2 5 4 9 6 7 1x 3x 4x 5x 6x 8x 1bind
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3bind 5bind 7bind 8bind 1cn 8cn 1m 1mh 5mh 8mh 1netpbm 3netpbm 5netpbm 0p 1p 3p 3posix 1pgsql 3pgsql 5pgsql 3C++ 8C++ 3blt 3curses 3ncurses 3form
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3menu 3db 3gdbm 3f 3gk 3paper 3mm 5mm 3perl 3pm 3pq 3qt 3pub 3readline 1ssl 3ssl 5ssl 7ssl 3t 3tk 3tcl 3tclx 3tix 7l 7nr 8c Cg g s m" by default,
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unless overridden by the SECTION directive in /etc/manpath.config), and to show only the first page found, even if page exists in several sections.
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Why is it that I was given a list of options for the man command? That's because there are more than one manuals written for "man". One is the manual application. One is the a macro. Another is a reference in the programmer's dictionary. Sometimes you have to read them in order to find the one that you need.
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## Apropos
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Apropos searches manuals called manuals. The search function searches both name names and descriptions. If you run something like "apropos the", you're going to get pretty much every manual in the English language, so it's good to keep your search specific. If you need to know how to use x11, then
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\> **apropos** apropos
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apropos (1) - search the manual page names and descriptions
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> **apropos** x11
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firefox (1) - a Web browser for X11 derived from the Mozilla browser
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fonts-config (1) - configures installed X11 fonts.
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icewm (1) - lightweight X11 window manager
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pax11publish (1) - PulseAudio X11 Credential Utility
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pbmtox10bm (1) - convert a PBM image to an X11 bitmap
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pbmtoxbm (1) - convert a PBM image to an X11 bitmap
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pnmtoxwd (1) - convert a PNM into an X11 window dump
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ppmtopuzz (1) - convert a PPM image to an X11 "puzzle" file
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ppmtoxpm (1) - convert a PPM image to an X11 pixmap
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start-pulseaudio-x11 (1) - PulseAudio Sound Server X11 Startup Script
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x11-ssh-askpass (1x) - an X11-based pass-phrase dialog for use with OpenSSH
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X11::Auth (3pm) - Perl module to read X11 authority files
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X11::Keysyms (3pm) - Perl module for names of X11 keysyms
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X11::Protocol (3pm) - Perl module for the X Window System Protocol, version 11
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X11::Protocol::Connection (3pm) - Perl module abstract base class for X11 client to server connections
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X11::Protocol::Connection::FileHandle (3pm) - Perl module base class for FileHandle-based X11 connections
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X11::Protocol::Connection::INETFH (3pm) - Perl module for FileHandle-based TCP/IP X11 connections
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X11::Protocol::Connection::INETSocket (3pm) - Perl module for IO::Socket::INET-based X11 connections
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X11::Protocol::Connection::Socket (3pm) - Perl module base class for IO::Socket-based X11 connections
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X11::Protocol::Connection::UNIXFH (3pm) - Perl module for FileHandle-based Unix-domain X11 connections
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X11::Protocol::Connection::UNIXSocket (3pm) - Perl module for IO::Socket::UNIX-based X11 connections
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X11::Protocol::Ext::BIG\_REQUESTS (3pm) - Perl module for the X11 protocol Big Requests extension
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X11::Protocol::Ext::DPMS (3pm) - Perl module for the X11 Protocol DPMS Extension
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X11::Protocol::Ext::RENDER (3pm) - Perl module for the X Rendering Extension
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X11::Protocol::Ext::SHAPE (3pm) - Perl module for the X11 Protocol Nonrectangular Window Shape Extension
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X11::Protocol::Ext::XC\_MISC (3pm) - Perl module for the X11 Protocol XC-MISC Extension
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X11::Protocol::Ext::XFree86\_Misc (3pm) - Perl module for the XFree86 Misc Extension
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x11perf (1) - X11 server performance test program
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x11perfcomp (1) - X11 server performance comparison program
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xbmtopbm (1) - convert an X11 or X10 bitmap to a PBM image
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xfontsel (1) - point and click selection of X11 font names
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xkbctrl (1) - get X11 keyboard data according to console keyboard mapname
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xli (1x) - load images into an X11 window or onto the root window
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xloadimage (1x) - load images into an X11 window or onto the root window
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Xmark (1) - summarize x11perf results
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Xorg (1) - X11R7 X server
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xpmtoppm (1) - convert an X11 pixmap to a PPM image
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xrestop (1) - monitor server resources used by X11 clients
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xwdtopnm (1) - convert an X11 or X10 window dump file to a PNM image
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## Whatis
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Whatis gives just a brief description of what a command does.
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\> whatis whatis whatis (1) - display one-line manual page descriptions
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Help on the web
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