Miscellaneous
man
Display the manual page for a command — the primary Linux documentation system.
Synopsis
syntax
man [OPTION]... [SECTION] PAGE...
Examples
Read the ls manual page
man ls
Read crontab file format (section 5)
man 5 crontab
Search for network-related man pages
man -k network
Show short descriptions for printf
man -f printf
Common options
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
| -k | Search man page descriptions (like apropos) |
| -f | Show short description (like whatis) |
| -a | Display all matching man pages |
| -K | Full-text search all man pages |
About man
The `man` command display the manual page for a command — the primary Linux documentation system. Utility commands cover a broad range of everyday tasks from date manipulation and arithmetic to terminal control and system documentation.
These tools fill in the gaps between major categories and are frequently used in shell scripts, cron jobs, and interactive sessions. The command accepts 4 commonly used flags shown above, though the full set of options is available in the man page (`man man`).
The 4 examples on this page cover typical real-world usage patterns that you can copy and adapt for your own workflows.
Related commands
More Miscellaneous Commands
Other commands in the Miscellaneous category