the man pages are split into 9 basic sections. the sections define what type of man page it is. ections are as follows: 1 Commands 2 System calls 3 Library calls 4 Special files (/dev's) 5 File formats and conventions (config files) 6 Games 7 Macro packages and conventions 8 System management commands 9 Kernel routines ok, so why? example is "smbpasswd". smbpasswd is both a command, and a config/passwd file. "man 8 smbpasswd" loads the man page for the command, while "man 5 smbpasswd" load the man page for the passwd file of the same name. all this and more can be found with "man man"..:) Long Live Man Pages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- ======================================================================== Rocky McGaugh Atipa Linux Solutions Product Development www.atipa.com rocky@smluc.org rmcgaugh@atipa.com ======================================================================== On Mon, 24 Apr 2000, Jason wrote:
Hi there.
I've been reading man pages for a while now, but I've never understood what the portion in parenthesis - like in apache(3) - represents. My initial thought was that it's a section reference in the relevant manpage.. If it is, then call me an idiot for asking.
Can someone provide a solution? I've raced throught the Man mini-howto, but it doesn't explicitly state what this is (ok, someone tell me i'm illiterate...)
Regards, Jason.
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