Manual Pages

Unix comes with a preloaded documentation, also known as "man pages".

Anatomy of a man page

Each page is a self-contained document consisting of the following sections:

• NAME: the name and a brief description of the command.

• SYNOPSIS: how to use the command, including a listing of the various options and arguments you can use with the command. Square brackets ([ ]) are often used to indicate optional arguments. Any arguments or options that are not in square brackets are required.

• DESCRIPTION: a more detailed description of the command including descriptions of each option.

• SEE ALSO: References to other man pages that may be helpful in understanding how to use the command in question.

View man pages

To view a manual page, use the command man.

man command_name

When viewing a man page, use the following keys to navigate the pages:

• spacebar- view the next screen;

• b (for "back") - view the previous screen;

• arrow keys - navigate within the pages;

• q (for "quit") - quit and return to the shell prompt.

For example, to view the man page associated with the command cp, type the following:

man cp

Search man pages

When you are not sure of the exact name of a command, you can use the apropos command to see all the commands with the given keyword on their man page.

apropos keyword 

For example, to see which commands are relevant to the task of copying, type the following:

apropos copy