The Unix commands covered in this section:   man 

UNIX has a built-in documentation system known as man pages. Since UNIX was originally developed as an environment for programmers, man pages tend to be fairly terse (some might say cryptic!). However, it is possible for novice users to glean an occasional bit of wisdom from them. 

Exercise 1.1 

Use the man command to find the man page for the ls command. 

          % man ls

          User Commands                                               ls(1)

          NAME
               ls - list contents of directory

          SYNOPSIS
               /usr/bin/ls [ -aAbcCdfFgilLmnopqrRstux1 ] [ file...  ]
               /usr/xpg4/bin/ls [ -aAbcCdfFgilLmnopqrRstux1 ] [ file...  ]

          DESCRIPTION
               For each file that is a directory, ls lists the contents  of
               the  directory;  for  each file that is an ordinary file, ls
               repeats its name and any other information  requested.   The
               output  is  sorted alphabetically by default.  When no argu-
               ment is  given,  the  current  directory  is  listed.   When
               several  arguments are given, the arguments are first sorted
               appropriately, but file arguments appear before  directories

          --More--(4%)

If the requested man page is too long to be displayed on a single screen (usually the case), it will be displayed in a pager (the default is more). To move forward through the page, use the space bar. To move backward, press the 'b' key. To quit, press 'q'. 

Notice that you must know the name of a given command to see the corresponding man page. You can use the "-k" option to search for man pages related to a specified keyword. 

Exercise 1.2 

Use man -k to search for man pages related to "telnet" 

          % man -k telnet
          in.telnetd      in.telnetd (1m) - DARPA TELNET protocol server
          telnet           telnet (1)         - user interface to a remote system...
          telnetd         in.telnetd (1m) - DARPA TELNET protocol server
          telnetrc        telnetrc (4)      - file for telnet default options
          "NAME"     .IX (3)            - Defines constants for the telnet...
          .IX             .IX (3)            - Defines constants for the telnet...
          Header        .IX (3)            - Defines constants for the telnet...
          Net             .IX (3)            - Defines constants for the telnet...

If you were interested in the telnet server (in.telnetd), you could then enter man in.telnetd at the shell prompt. 

Since man pages are not really aimed at novice users, you may wish to consult a book. There are many to choose from, but most are hundreds of pages long and therefore a bit scary! 

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