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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>man page</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../M.html" title="M"/><link rel="previous" href="malware.html" title="malware"/><link rel="next" href="management.html" title="management"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">man page</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="malware.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">M</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="management.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="man-page"/><dt xmlns="" id="man-page"><b>man page</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p>A page from the Unix Programmer's Manual,
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documenting one of Unix's many commands, system calls,
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library subroutines, device driver interfaces, file formats,
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games, macro packages, or maintenance utilities.
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By extension, the term “<span class="quote">man page</span>” may be used to refer to
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documentation of any kind, under any system, though it is most likely to be
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confined to short on-line references.</p><p>As mentioned in <a href="../conventions.html" title="Chapter<65>11.<2E>Other Lexicon Conventions">Chapter<EFBFBD>11, <i>Other Lexicon Conventions</i></a>, there is a
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standard syntax for referring to man page entries: the phrase
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“<span class="quote">foo(n)</span>” refers to the page for “<span class="quote">foo</span>” in chapter
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n of the manual, where chapter 1 is user commands, chapter 2 is system
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calls, etc.</p><p>The man page format is beloved, or berated, for having the same sort
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of pithy utility as the rest of Unix. Man pages tend to be written as very
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compact, concise descriptions which are complete but not forgiving of the
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lazy or careless reader. Their stylized format does a good job of
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summarizing the essentials: invocation syntax, options, basic
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functionality. While such a concise reference is perfect for the
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do-one-thing-and-do-it-well tools which are favored by the Unix philosophy,
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it admittedly breaks down when applied to a command which is itself a major
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subsystem.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="malware.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../M.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="management.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">malware<EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>management</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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