Linux Man Pages

karozans · 02-01-2012, 11:16 AM

Here is a dumb noob question.

When I do a "man exec" I get...

Code:

Man: find all matching manual pages
 * exec (n)
   exec (3)
   exec (1p)
   exec (3p)
Man: What manual page do you want?
Man:

How do I know which one to choose?

Dark_Helmet · 02-01-2012, 11:22 AM

Take a look at this page, which gives a quick description frequently associated with the different sections of man pages.

Or, you can use man itself: as in "man man"

EDIT:
If I'm not mistaken, the 'p' designation for a section identifies it as a perl-based command/utility/whatever.

chrism01 · 02-01-2012, 06:15 PM

That's a good link I use a lot.

To get more info at the cli, try

Code:

man -k exec

although you may get more than you bargained for