WK3 Man pages within the shell

Question 1

man

Answer 1

The man command displays information on other commands and how they work. It’s short for “manual.” To search for information on a command, enter the command after man. For example, entering man chown returns detailed information about chown, including the various options you can use with it. The output of the man command is also called a “man page.”

Question 2

whatis

Answer 2

The whatis command displays a description of a command on a single line. For example, entering whatis nano outputs the description of nano. This command is useful when you don’t need a detailed description, just a general idea of the command. This might be as a reminder. Or, it might be after you discover a new command through a colleague or online resource and want to know more.

Question 3

apropos

Answer 3

The apropos command searches the man page descriptions for a specified string. Man pages can be lengthy and difficult to search through if you’re looking for a specific keyword. To use apropos, enter the keyword after apropos.

You can also include the -a option to search for multiple words. For example, entering apropos -a graph editor outputs man pages that contain both the words “graph” and “editor” in their descriptions.

Key takeaways

There are many resources available for troubleshooting issues or getting support for Linux. Linux has a large global community of users who ask and answer questions on online resources, such as the Unix and Linux Stack Exchange. You can also use integrated support commands in Linux, such as man, apropos, and whatis.