Linux: Man Page Keys
Command to Display Man Page
To show the manual page for the command cd, type
man cd
Man Pages Keys
Here's the most important keys when viewing man page.
- f = page down.
- b = page up.
- h = show help.
- q = exit/quit.
- type
/str= to search. - n = next occurrence.
- N = previous occurrence.
Type man bash and try these keys.
These keys are similar to vi's keys. (not exactly compatible. For example, page down in vi is Ctrl + f, not f.) [see vi tutorial]
See also: Linux: Bash/Terminal Keys
View Man Page in Emacs
How to get text output of man page?
man ls | col -b
The “col -b” formats the man page to plain text. (It removes control chars. (Control chars are used to make text bold, etc.)).
How to read a non-compressed man page without the “man” command?
nroff -man n43921.man | col -b
This is convenient when you need to read a man-page file once without adding the dir to your $MANPATH.
How to read a compressed man page without the “man” command?
cat n43921.1 | compress -cd - | nroff -man | col -b
How to read a unformatted man page?
nroff -man ftpshut.8
The “man” command is essentially
nroff -e -man filename | more -s