man - simple question on how to use it.

[Leon Allen]

If I do man tar, the following is returned:

-->man tar

tar(4) tar(4)

NAME
tar - format of tar tape archive

DESCRIPTION
The header structure produced by tar (see tar(1)) is as follows (the
array size defined by the constants is shown on the right):

What I really want of course is man tar(1).

How do I do this???

[Arunvijai_4 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

You can simply do # man 1 tar which will invoke tar from section 1.

-Arun

[Ajitkumar Rane]

Leon,

Use $man 1 tar , to learn about man use
$man man



Rgds,

Ajit

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Many words in UNIX have overloaded meanings (in C++) speak. For example, "mount" is both a command and a system call. Which one do you want? If the case of ambuiguity, man choose one but there may be many. In order to request a more specific man request, you need to precede the request with a UNIX Manuals section Number.

The sections are:

1) Commands
1m) Admin Commands
2) System Calls
3) Library Function
4) File Formats
5) Misc
7) Drivers

Theere are sometimes other sections as well. 6 --> games 8 --> networking commands, additional data

On various flavors of UNIX, the section meanings may vary, but generally sections 1, 2, 3, and 4 are constant.

In your specific case, man 4 tar will detail the file layout of a tar image and man 1 will describe the command itself.

[Leon Allen]

Thank you Arunvijai and Ajitkumar Rane for your prompt, accurate and helpful replies.

"man man" leads me on to query the following output:

If section is not specified (see next argument
description), man searches all sections of the
manual in order: man1, man2, man1M, man3, man4,
man5, man6, man7, man8, man9, manlocal, mannew,
manold, then manpublic; and printing the first
matching entry it encounters.

I guess with "man 1 tar" - the "1" is the section.

The search order above indicates tar(1) should be returned first? Not tar(4) as I have seen. Just an observation.

[Arunvijai_4]

Hello,

It should be related to your MANPATH. Checkout, # echo $MANPATH. In my system, it searches correctly (section1, section 2, etc..)

-Arun

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi leon,

see also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_page


kind regards
yogeeraj

[Leon Allen]

Thank you for all your valued contributions.

Cheers for now!