Man Page Numbers

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

I know this is probably a very basic question, but:

What do the numbers associated with the man pages stand for? For example - cat(1) or random(4).

[Carpetsmoker]

from mdoc(7):

             Under FreeBSD 6.2, the following sections are defined:

                   1        FreeBSD General Commands Manual
                   2        FreeBSD System Calls Manual
                   3        FreeBSD Library Functions Manual
                   4        FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual
                   5        FreeBSD File Formats Manual
                   6        FreeBSD Games Manual
                   7        FreeBSD Miscellaneous Information Manual
                   8        FreeBSD System Manager's Manual
                   9        FreeBSD Kernel Developer's Manual

Sometimes a manpage occurs in two (or more?) sections, for example chmod(1) deals with the chmod command, while chmod(2) deals with the chmod() system call.

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

Thanks! Is that about standard for all *nix systems?

[cajunman4life]

*sigh* I wish UNIX were as standardized as it was meant to be.

For Solaris systems, refer to the following page:
http://developers.sun.com/solaris/ar...man_pages.html

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

Originally Posted by cajunman4life

*sigh* I wish UNIX were as standardized as it was meant to be.

For Solaris systems, refer to the following page:
http://developers.sun.com/solaris/ar...man_pages.html

I was able, using Carpetsmoker's post to find out the numbering system for my two *nix OS's (NetBSD and Slackware). NetBSD's numbering system is very similar to FreeBSD (i.e., replace FreeBSD with NetBSD).

[TerryP]

The layout is mostly the same but slightly different between vendors at times... but they generally follow the style that carpetsmoker qouted.

At least when they are so nice to _not_ intermix letters and number-letter combo's such as 1M, N, or X.


Most times you shouldn't need to worry about what section a command is in to find it. Unless there is a program with the same name as a syscall or file format which you need instead, that is...

Example:

man printf -> man page for /usr/bin/printf
man 1 printf -> same thing
man 3 printf -> the standard C function printf() and related routines
man 9 printf -> the printf() function and related routines used within the FreeBSD kernel.

printf() in unix kernels has been around since at least AT&T UNIX Version 6, the standard library function since before there was a standard library (oldest reference I know is a C tutorial from 1974), and the printf command since 4.3BSD-Reno according to it's manual page.

So most of the worst ambiguities have been with us since the cows came home, went out again, and fell over dead. The ones most people care about however are minor.