Conquer The Command Line: The Man Command
How to use the Linux man command plus essential options

In this installment of “Conquer The Command Line,” we talk about how to use the Linux man` command.
`man` is the first Linux command you should learn. It helps you learn all other Linux commands. Let’s get to it.

Memory Aid: Think “manual”

Whenever you want to know how to use a command, type `man` followed by the name of the command. Man will display the first man page it finds. Some commands fall under multiple categories.

Type `man` by itself to get a reminder of how to use the `man` command.

The Different Categories Of Commands

Linux commands are divided into the following groups, identified by a number:

• 1 is USER COMMANDS.
• 2 is kernel SYSTEM CALLS.
• 3 is C LIBRARY FUNCTIONS.
• 4 is DEVICES.
• 5 is FILES FORMATS and FILESYSTEMS.
• 6 is GAMES.
• 7 is MISCELLANEOUS COMMANDS, conventions, and overviews.
• 8 is SUPERUSER AND SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR COMMANDS.

How To Get A More Plain Language Explanation Of Commands

man is the definitive source for every possible option having to do with Linux commands. If you want an easier-to-read explanation of a command and you don’t want to wade through the explanation from `man`, head on over to TLDR Pages. You can type the name of a command right on the site or install one of the clients that have sprung up.

Here is an Explanation of how to read a man page.

What If You Don’t Know Exactly Which Command You Need?

If you forget which command does something, but you know it has something to do with a topic or something you’re trying to do, you can use a command line option -k like this.

man -k <keyword>

Where `<keyword>` is what you want to find.

How To Read Long Man Pages

Man can sometimes produce screens and screens full of information about a command. The content can go by too quickly to read. One way to read long pages is to “pipe” two commands together. Piping is taking the output of a command and feeding it into the input of another. `less` is a program that can display output to the screen, then stop, wait for you to read, then continue.

To pipe a command, use the `|` character. Here is how you would use `less` to display documentation for the `ls` command a screen at a time.

man ls | less

What Now?

Hopefully this post has helped you take one more step in conquering the command line. I welcome any feedback.

This post was originally written at https://www.jimhomme.com.