Man Page System and Command help

We’re now acquainted with commands for navigating the file system. Each command has several options and parameters. We covered only the most common ones. What if we need a rare feature that is not covered in this course? We would need official documentation in this case.

All modern OSs and applications have documentation. However, we rarely need it when using the graphical interface because graphic elements are self-explanatory in most cases. Therefore, most PC users don’t care about documentation.

When working with the CLI, the only way to know about available features of the software is by reading documentation. Besides that, we don’t have anything else that gives us a quick hint. When using CLI utility, it’s crucial to know its basics. Negligence can lead to loss or corruption of our data.

Origins of the man page system

The first versions of Unix had paper documentation. Using it was inconvenient and time-consuming. Soon, it became even worse when the documentation volume grew rapidly and exceeded the size of a single book. The Unix developers introduced the system called man page (short for manual page) to solve the issue with documentation. Using this software, we can quickly find our required topic. It contains information about OS features and all installed applications.

The man page system, also known as a man call, is a centralized place to access documentation. Besides using it as a resource, every program in Unix also provides brief information about itself. For example, the Bash interpreter has its own documentation system. It is called help.

Command help