<< unix_command

Linux Command man

There are 8 sections in man in standard:

1. Executable program or shell command.
2. System call (function provided by the kernel).
3. Librarary call (function provided within program library).
4. Special file (in /dev ususally).
5. File formats and conventions (e.g. /etc/passwd).
6. Games.
7. Miscellaneous (including macro packages and conventions, e.g. man(7), groff(7)).
8. System administration commands.

When there are manual entries with same names in different sections, man will return the first entry it found. For instance, there are exit command on section 1 (shell), section 2 (system call _exit and _Exit) and section 3 (library function exit). Use man exit gives the first entry about the shell. To select the section explicitly, add a section number after man, such as man 2 exit.