Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow

Questions tagged [manpage]

Man pages are the documentation pages that come preinstalled with almost all substantial Unix and Unix-like operating systems

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_page

486 questions
652
votes
7 answers

What does the number in parentheses shown after Unix command names in manpages mean?

For example: man(1), find(3), updatedb(2)? What do the numbers in parentheses (Brit. "brackets") mean?
duckyflip
  • 16,189
  • 5
  • 33
  • 36
90
votes
8 answers

Where are the man pages for C++?

Does documentation for C++ exist in Linux? I want something like the man pages of C. For example, docs for string, stl, iostream, ifstream, etc.?
fpointbin
  • 1,633
  • 3
  • 16
  • 20
69
votes
3 answers

How to read a .man file not on manpath?

How do I read a .man file that's not on my manpath? I know I had a command for this, but now I don't remember, and I can't find the right switch in the man pages for man.
Nagel
  • 2,576
  • 3
  • 22
  • 20
60
votes
4 answers

Set local environment variables in C++

How do I set an environment variable in C++? They do not need to persist past program execution They only need to be visible in the current process Preference for platform independent but for my problem only needs to work on Win32/64 Thanks
Jesse Vogt
  • 16,229
  • 16
  • 59
  • 72
53
votes
2 answers

Linux/Unix 'man' page syntax conventions

In the man pages I came across various syntaxes to write Linux/Unix commands, which include square brackets, angular brackets, hyphens (-) and double hyphens (--) in various combinations. What is the meaning of these syntax conventions? [ ] < > [<…
sam
  • 561
  • 1
  • 5
  • 5
47
votes
2 answers

In Linux, how do I get man pages for C functions rather than for bash commands?

In Linux, how do I get the man pages for C functions rather than shell commands? For example, when I type man bind I get the manual page for the shell command bind and not the man page for socket binding C function.
George
  • 1,027
  • 3
  • 12
  • 20
46
votes
13 answers

Where is the 'man' Program for Windows (Program to open UNIX man pages)?

I'm looking for the windows executable for the linux man (manual reader). I tried googling around, but got frustrated with the kind of results it came up with, owing to 'man' being such a common phrase. I got results that read "man executed in…
jrharshath
  • 25,975
  • 33
  • 97
  • 127
46
votes
4 answers

Python docstrings to GitHub README.md

How do I transcode Python documentation strings to a GitHub readme.md file? Even though it seems like something everyone does, I cannot seem to get a decent solution and I am assuming it should be easy, so it seems unlikely folks are going throw two…
Matteo Ferla
  • 2,128
  • 1
  • 16
  • 27
38
votes
3 answers

Is there a specification for a man page's SYNOPSIS section?

I'm trying to write some specifications to be shared between a small team and getting picky about the format I put some command listings in. Is there any formal definition of the syntax used in the SYNOPSIS section of man pages? From the Wikimedia…
wersimmon
  • 2,809
  • 3
  • 22
  • 35
33
votes
11 answers

What is a way to read man pages in Vim without using temporary files

I want to be able to read man pages in Vim. For some reason, it seems that Vim isn't able to read the output of programs through piping. E.g (man ls) | vi doesn't seem to work, bonus points for somebody who can explain why. To get around this, I've…
MYV
  • 4,294
  • 6
  • 28
  • 24
28
votes
6 answers

How to install custom man (manual) pages on mac os x

I am trying to install a man page for a bash script on Mac OS X 10.9.5. The procedure that I tried to follow is summarised here: man page tutorial. I also summarise the steps that I tried below: cp custom_command.1…
user1391279
26
votes
4 answers

Docker ubuntu image - bash: man: command not found

Am getting started with Docker and just pulled up a basic ubuntu image. I am on a windows 7 box running Docker via docker-machine. Do not know why, I am not able to find the man command on bash. I tried exporting the path of man to $PATH but still…
shrivb
  • 1,511
  • 3
  • 15
  • 20
25
votes
2 answers

Why do programs in Unix-like environments have numbers after their name?

For example, when I run man ioctl the page says IOCTL(2) at the top. What does that mean? Is there an IOCTL(1)? And how does one navigate between these?
Abdullah Jibaly
  • 53,220
  • 42
  • 124
  • 197
25
votes
5 answers

What's the difference between "C system calls" and "C library routines"?

There are multiple sections in the manpages. Two of them are: 2 Unix and C system calls 3 C Library routines for C programs For example there is getmntinfo(3) and getfsstat(2), both look like they do the same thing. When should one use…
Georg Schölly
  • 124,188
  • 49
  • 220
  • 267
25
votes
9 answers

Convert all Linux man pages to text / html or markdown

Is there a way to convert all Linux man pages to either plain text, html or markdown? I need to do this for every man file I have installed on my system.
KJS
  • 345
  • 1
  • 3
  • 7
1
2 3
…
32 33