On 2018-05-11 at 07:50, Richard Owlett wrote: > When I search man-pages.debian.org I get only a page in Chinese(?). > The best hit I get doing a web search is > [http://www.tldp.org/LDP/GNU-Linux-Tools-Summary/html/x1712.htm] > There is a plethora questions/answers, but too narrowly focused. > They do display it's potential power. > > Suggestions?
To possibly expand on and/or clarify what others have said: Some commands aren't separate programs (which get man pages), but shell built-in commands (which are documented in the shell's own man page). The easiest way to tell which one a given program is is via the 'type' command (which itself is a shell builtin): $ type history history is a shell builtin $ type man man is hashed (/usr/bin/man) Once you've determined that a particular command is a shell builtin, you can either look it up in the man page of whatever shell you're running, or - at least with bash in a standard installation, and probably in other shells as well - look it up directly with the 'help' command: $ help history [output snipped, its over two dozen lines long] However, that documentation is purely functional; it doesn't delve into the possible ramifications of ways to use the command in various contexts, so it might fall under the same "too narrowly focused" as the Q&A you report having found online. -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
