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Each UNIX command has an on-line manual page that fully describes
its usage and all of the options for it. To see a manual page for
a particular command, use the command man <command>,
where < command> is the name of the
program you need more information on. For example, to see the manual
page on the lpq command, use:
math joe % man lpq
The man program uses more to display the information on
the screen. See the section titled Viewing the Contents of
Files on the Screen for more information about the more
program.
If you aren't sure which command you need to use to accomplish
a certain task, then use the apropos <topic>
command. This command will display a list of manual pages that are
related a certain topic, along with a one-line description
of what each manual page is about. For example, if Joe wants information
about a calculator, he would use:
math joe % apropos calculator
dc (1) - desk calculator
xcalc (1) - scientific calculator for X windows
This explains that there are two commands for access a calculator.
Xcalc is meant only for use with the X Window System and therefore
Joe isn't interested in that one. Joe can read about the desk calculator
with the man dc command.
Tim Kohl
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