man page

2 definitions found

man page - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  Unix manual page
  man
  man page
  Unix man page
  
     <operating system> (Or "man page") A part of Unix's
     extensive on-line documentation.  To read a manual page, type
  
     	man [-s<section>] <page>
  
     at a shell prompt, e.g. "man ftp" (the section number can
     usually be omitted).  Pages are traditionally referred to
     using the notation "page(section)", e.g. ftp(1).
  
     Under SunOS (which is fairly typical), Section 1 covers
     commands, 2 system calls, 3 C library routines, 4 devices
     and networks, 5 file formats, 6 games and demos, 7
     miscellaneous, 8 system administration.  Each section has an
     introduction which can be obtained with, e.g., "man 2 intro".
  
     Manual pages are stored as nroff source files.  Formatted
     versions are also usually cached.
  
     Unix manual page: man(1).
  
     A Linux man gateway (http://foldoc.org/man.cgi).
  
     A Solaris man gateway (http://medsch.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/pdm/man.pl)
     .
  
     (2000-03-13)
  

man page - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  man page
   n.
  
     A page from the Unix Programmer's Manual, documenting one of Unix's
     many commands, system calls, library subroutines, device driver
     interfaces, file formats, games, macro packages, or maintenance
     utilities. By extension, the term "man page" may be used to refer to
     documentation of any kind, under any system, though it is most likely
     to be confined to short on-line references.
  
     As mentioned in Chapter 11, Other Lexicon Conventions, there is a
     standard syntax for referring to man page entries: the phrase
  "foo(n)"
     refers to the page for "foo" in chapter n of the manual, where
  chapter
     1 is user commands, chapter 2 is system calls, etc.
  
     The man page format is beloved, or berated, for having the same sort
     of pithy utility as the rest of Unix. Man pages tend to be written as
     very compact, concise descriptions which are complete but not
     forgiving of the lazy or careless reader. Their stylized format does
  a
     good job of summarizing the essentials: invocation syntax, options,
     basic functionality. While such a concise reference is perfect for
  the
     do-one-thing-and-do-it-well tools which are favored by the Unix
     philosophy, it admittedly breaks down when applied to a command which
     is itself a major subsystem.