Getting Help by Using man in Linux/Unix Platform

Using ‘man’ Page

• ‘man’ page displays commands objective, syntax and their option list.
• It also displays typical examples

Syntax:

Example:

This command will show the list of available options in the cp(copy) command.

The list will be sufficiently long, so you might require to search text in the man page.

/text is used to search the text in forward direction and then you can press, n : to locate next occurrence of the searched text in forward direction, if you feel that the text has been left behind, use N : to locate next occurrence of the searched text in reverse direction.

Cursor Movement:

g : to move to the top of the ‘man’ page.

G : to move to the bottom of the ‘man’ page.

q : to exit from the ‘man’ page.

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For example: If you need to look for the available options with ls

There will be following output:

[NOTE: The options can be combined and the effect is combined effect of the commands.]

Sometimes the name of a command might match with the name of a file, for e.g. Assuming I have copied the /etc/passwd file in the home directory.

will not be able to provide exactly what we are looking for.

Use, 1 to represent command and 5 to represent the filename.

For example: