Mastering Linux Man Pages - A Definitive Guide

Read the full blog post here:
www.linuxtrain...
Do you want to know where to find the answer to just about any Linux question you may ever have? Well…
All the answers are in the built-in man pages on a Linux system!
That’s probably not what you wanted to hear. 🙁
When you’re trying to figure something out or have a Linux question it can be annoying to get a reply like this:
“Just read the man page!”
It’s actually good advice, but it has one fatal flaw: It assumes you know how to read a man page. Scratch that. It assumes you know how to understand and use what you read in a man page.
When you first start looking at man pages they might appear to contain a bunch of random punctuation. You might wonder…
Why are some things enclosed in brackets and others aren’t?
Why are there three little periods after some things?
Why do some options have one dash and others have two?
To get the answers to all those questions and more, watch this video. It will have you reading man pages like an old pro. You’ll finally understand all those man page hieroglyphics and you’ll never feel lost again. 😉
You’ll learn…
How to search through man pages to find the help (or command) you’re looking for.
How to decipher all the man page conventions such as underlined words, options enclosed in brackets, and more.
What to do when man doesn’t work. (IE, the “other” man command.)
How to mix and match multiple options (and option types) to make the command do exactly what you want.
And more…
If you’ve ever seen anything in a man page that you didn’t understand, this will definitely help you out.
Download your free Linux man page cheat sheet here:
www.linuxtrain...

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

What did you learn from this tutorial?

[@1337x1337x]

Linux Training Academy I've never even used man pages just looked things up on the arch/manjaro/gentoo wikis, so really there's no limit to what I learned from this video.

[@AnilBind]

Linux Training Academy Awesome clip thnx, this helps allot!

[@Esparzamx]

that you might or might not be related to derek banas!, love you man, pretty usefull... all you need is man and the world of gnu is at your feet!!!! mmm that came out gay, but you know what I meant

[@jonivan1014]

Thanks! Great video!

[@jonivan1014]

Linux Training Academy I learned that I should have watched this video before I started learning Linux! Lol!

[@avisekssarma5592]

how could people even dislike this video? This is the most detailed video on using man pages

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@janglestick]

needs more about grepping within pages, and using Tags to move around

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

If you mean searching within a man page, then watch 6:11. If you mean searching all the man pages, then watch 25:46.

[@rzwnhmd]

The people who disliked wanted the Blondie 😂

[@mossfoobar8322]

Clicked for the blonde woman, stayed for the MAN

[@Chiramisudo]

🤣 Well played.

[@Neo-dv4oi]

Me too!😁

[@adhoccerswings]

NICE

[@AndrzejPioroMM]

MAN that was good

[@karanb2067]

That moment you became a MAN from a boy.

[@in_experience6383]

Bam ! Yesterday only I have started learning Linux and was unable to understand Man, Options. Glad I found this video so early in my Linux Journey, Thanks a lot for the explanation. I learned a lot from your video.

[@mattlawyer3245]

I have been looking for that information on sections for years. No joke. Thanks so much!

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

Glad I could help!

[@YoIntangible]

Hey Matt what are you currently working on when it comes to tech. I'm new to this space and I really wanna learn about linux and become a software developer with the help of the internet

[@l5386]

Awesome tutorial. I've been a linux hobbyist for 20 years and now I finally know what all this stuff I always gloss over mean

[@stevenz9364]

This should be the very first tutorial every student should see FIRST whent starting in programming, mannnnnnn its such a hugh amount of information and everything seems way fuckup, cryptic and hidden. Thanks so much!

[@bakedpotato4441]

this man got us into study man page

[@aleksasdaujotas6279]

Very informative. Clean and clear vocabulary. Great video!

[@shanemhartley]

GOATED man page tutorial sir

[@Kamal_M_Abed_ElRazek]

Brilliant! This video is a hidden gem ; very useful, concise, and definitely will make my life so much easier. Much love for this channel and thank you so much :)

[@heahct]

Good pace. Providing context helps in understanding. I love your tutorial videos. Keep them coming.

[@adolphperales5469]

Just what I was looking for nobody ever explains these helpful tools I could have been using

[@deserve_it]

Jason Canon somehow builds his courses as most useful for my usage. They aren't bloated, in the first glance lack topics, but at the end the information received during the courses with time revealed as most useful.

[@kpavan4]

Comprehensive, good coverage and explanation. Appreciate the content and presentation.

[@johnmcl100]

This is still the best explanation that I have seen, thank you very much.

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

You're very welcome!

[@abhijitpaul7683]

Cleared my doubts about man in general. thanks a lot! keep up the great work

[@sai007ful]

This is one such video which enables to learn more, thank you!

[@PBandECHO]

This is a perfect tutorial format for me.

[@jonathanwarner2420]

One of the best tutorials of a really helpful topic, thx mate!

[@Ash_Industries]

This video changed my life.

[@gouravbharti4024]

really nice. never described by anyone before.

[@dassyareg7587]

Thank you. You are such a great teacher, great job.

[@bestehefueralle]

I love how your terminal renders text from the manpages and less' help!

[@bilalahmed5971]

Sir u deserve millions of likes

[@enlightened8591]

tons of help here, i´m so glad i found this

[@e00d20]

Thank you for keeping it post!

[@trevorturner7236]

thanks for the help, i'm going through a course right now and this really helped!

[@CalvinMCole]

Cool video, great details and hidden gems about less and vim. I was really hoping to find a definitive guide on creating your own man pages. :(

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

I would just write the man page in markdown and use pandoc to convert it into the man page format.

[@OvaTar]

Amazing tutorial! Thank you so much! :)

[@tainoroyal6585]

Brilliant video! Thanks for making this!

[@martagacayanvlog8662]

This tutorial is very useful to me

[@JT-pc5kp]

What I was looking for: man page conventions 8:32

[@AndrzejPioroMM]

Wonderful video. Thanks a lot!

[@simonjohnade]

Very helpful video. Thank you.

[@omerjawhar]

informative and straightforward... thx

[@alizolghadr1528]

AMAZING video! I did not expect the girl in the thumbnail to have such a manly voice though - no pun intended.

[@giridharan635]

Sir You Missed the 2 brackets Symbols that is angle and curly what does that mean in linux

[@veterantruthtube3298]

will it teach me how to run or open a program in linux command line? because i don't know how?

[@mohammedkaram8606]

That was really helpful, thank you so much

[@johnnguyen64]

Thank you so much, it is very helpful

[@SomethingOrganic-m7e]

Alright. Man pages are still a PITA to read, but I do have a better idea of how to read them now.

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

I love that when I'm looking at a man page on a specific system, I *know* the documentation is correct and will work as described. That's unlike searching on the internet, where you'll quite possibly find documentation for a different version or implementation of the command.

[@crabbypinchy]

Hello. As a tech writer, what am I supposed to document? Standards?

[@nicholascousar4306]

Why didn't 'man arp' bring up arp(7) by default?

[@ganesh_nama]

very good information sir , thank you a lot..

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

You're very welcome!

[@UnknownSend3r]

It says 10M is 10*1024*1024, I don't fully understand. How is that so ? What does M represent ? And Mb ? Can't be right ?

[@aksuited4471]

Quality stuff, thank you!

[@CybaRJ]

Really helpful, thanks

[@Neo-dv4oi]

Awesome! I love this youtube! Thanks a lot!

[@nonenone2760]

Thank you this is really great vedio I learnt a lot

[@aderibigbeomisore7103]

Thanks for the videos. I have learnt a lot from your courses on udemy too. i wanted to use the kill -p command and i tried with: kill -p and I got this error message : -bash: kill: p: invalid signal specification the synopsis for kill is : kill [-s signal|-p] [-q sigval] [-a] [--] pid... please, what am I doing wrong?

[@VideosRichy]

Thank you!

[@hongtaoyang3759]

Great video, but your white background has blinded me

[@OuasselELHABTI-qb2xp]

great job, everything well explained but : emacs is better than vim , change my mind.

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! If emacs works for you, then there's no need to change your mind. ;-)

[@rempairamore]

/etc/passwd IS NOT the password file /etc/shadow contains the passwords

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

In my experience, when someone says "the password file" they are indeed talking about /etc/passwd, even if the actual encrypted passwords are stored in /etc/shadow. The /etc/shadow file is typically called "the shadow password file" or "the shadow file," for short. Using your logic, you would have to know if shadow passwords were being used in advance. For example, if the sysadmin were to run "pwunconv" on a system and actually forced passwords to be stored in /etc/passwd, then, by your logic, it would be the password file. Running "pwconv" would then make the /etc/shadow file the password file, using your logic. Very confusing. It would be like having a red cooler and a blue cooler and me telling you to look inside the milk container. You don't know if the milk is in the red cooler or the blue cooler so you don't know which one to look at. However, if I said look inside the red cooler then you know where to look.

[@abdullahalsawalmeh3524]

Such a great tutoring

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@mohammedabdirahman3112]

Thank you very much

[@ClaudioParraGonzalez]

Nice, I just learned ls, lets learn man, now...

[@NikhilSehgal21]

Perfect Video

[@MrDouglasXD]

Thanks so much!

[@engalipak]

Can you/anyone please let know the exact difference between a ; - - help and 'man' done for a command ?

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

The "--help" or "-h" option for a command typically displays command usage information such as the available options as well as optional and required arguments. A man page for a command typically includes additional information such as an extended description of the command, exit statuses, examples, environment variables that alter the behavior of the command, and more. In short, man is more detailed.

[@mukhtaaraziz5070]

thank you very much.

[@rickcontreras59]

Thank you

[@1337x1337x]

Thank you for these videos.

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching. ;-)

[@daminduliyanage]

Thank you really useful..

[@134552Adnan]

Me: Sees channel title.... Subscribes.

[@Perciwell]

How handicapped you must be if you give this video tutorial a thumb down!? Yes it's possible to make it in another way and also very good, even better, but this tutorial is without doubt above par.

[@louggy2000]

Great!

[@jackofnotrades15]

AAAnd, thats how its done.... 😎👍

[@Tatalberto]

thx for video. you can activate subtitle plz.

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

Subtitles are now available...

[@janlochman1985]

The strings in bold are hard to recognize both on your vid or my black background console.

[@philiprea8540]

i gotta say, you almost lost me with a white terminal background, hmm, good comments ill stick around

[@hibatica]

clicked because woman, skipped ahead to find woman, found quality so I went back to the beginning to watch it

[@alyssoncodelearning3909]

review: 34:52

[@rickcontreras59]

More commands its awesome

[@mdhvdubey]

using a woMAN thumbnail for teaching MAN guarantees MEN watching this video.

[@Asterisk-]

Who are you? I know I knew you

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

Who are you?

[@B-mang]

clickbait no blonde girl

[@veterantruthtube3298]

lol i also clicked for the blond woman to. that was click bate lol.

[@Hephasto]

Thanks Linux for help tutorial about help pages🤡🤡🤡

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

man man :-D

[@dianaromo9422]

.

[@alloycipher4528]

i was promised hot linux lady in thumbnail, disliked.

[@LinuxTrainingAcademy]

She saw you and left.

[@MohammadBarghamadii]

Thanks a lot