Use the Unix man command to read manual pages
In Unix, most programs, and many protocols, functions, and file formats, have accompanying manuals. With the man
command, you can retrieve the information in the manual and display it as text output on your screen. To use the man
command, at the Unix prompt, enter:
man topic
Replace topic
with the name of the manual item about which you want more information. For example, to find out more about the FTP command, at the Unix prompt, enter:
man ftp
If you are unsure which manual item you want to read, you can do a keyword search. At the Unix prompt, enter:
man -k keyword | more
On some systems, you need to replace man -k
with apropos
. For example, at the Unix prompt, enter:
apropos keyword | more
In both of the examples above, replace keyword
with a specific topic (for example, ftp
, mail
).
For more information about the man
command, at the Unix prompt, enter:
man man
At Indiana University, for personal or departmental Linux or Unix systems support, see Get help for Linux or Unix at IU.
This is document afjm in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2019-06-18 14:45:19.