CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real)  9  Chapter 5: The Linux Operating System       9  The User Model

Starting Up and Shutting Down 1 2 Basic Concepts and Procedures for Creating, Viewing and Editing Files and Directories

Format of Man Pages

Man pages are shown one-page at a time, scrolling to the next page can be accomplished by either depressing the f key on the keyboard or the space bar, scrolling backwards by pressing the b key. The man page can be exited by pressing the q key. A little about the organization of the content of the man pages, which follow a general format:

• The first line contains the name of the command along with the section number where the man page is located (Man pages are organized into separate sections or chapters), followed by the command name and a short description of the command. .
  
  
• Next is the synopsis section, which gives the command options and arguments that the command can take. Options and arguments, which are not required for execution of a command, are placed between [ ].
  
  
• The description section gives a detailed description of the command.
  
  
• Options are listed with descriptions of how they modify the operation of the command.
  
  
• Several other optional sections may be included. One of interest is the see also section which provides reference to other man pages which may contain additional information. There is usually additional information about any known bugs, where to report new bugs, the author, and copyright information.

Some man pages have information in several sections. The section with the lowest number will always be shown unless you specify the section number when invoking the man command. This can be done in the following manner:

man 5 passwd

This instructs the system the man page system to show the page in section 5 for the command passwd.

If one is not sure what command will perform a certain function, the command apropos followed by a single word will return a lists of commands that have that word in their short description, the command whatis will return similar information.

Lastly adding the --help option to most commands will yield a list of all the options available for the command with a very brief description of those options.

Starting Up and Shutting Down 1 2 Basic Concepts and Procedures for Creating, Viewing and Editing Files and Directories