The man Command

Linux Information Project ^ | 22 July 2006 | LINFO

[ShadowAce]

Posted by request

[thoughtomator]

meanwhile the woman command remembers every compilation error and reminds you constantly about it for the next forty years

[sasquatch]

50

[dynachrome]

Would man:beer:pizza work?

[dayglored]

$ man dildo
No manual entry for dildo

Somebody had to say it.

[zeugma]

meanwhile the woman command remembers every compilation error and reminds you constantly about it for the next forty years

You owe me a new keyboard.

[zeugma]

Many years ago, the first Unix system that I ever supported was DEC-Unix running on an 8810. We actually had a full printed man set. I don't know why. At the time I didn't know much of anything about Unix. In order to find a command, (even using the 'man' program), I first had to know what the command was. I remember the first time I found the 'apropos' command. Suddenly, I could actually search man pages for what I was looking for! OMG, it was like a revelation from God.

I'll admit that man is useful, but it was apropos that finally turned Unix into something other than a bashing-head-on-keyboard event for me.

For Unix virgins, the 'apropos' command searches the titles of man pages for keywords for you. So, if you want to know what commands have something to do with "swap", you might say something like this...

$ apropos swap
all-swaps (7)        - event signalling that all swap partitions have been activated
ecryptfs-setup-swap (1) - ensure that any swap space is encrypted
mkswap (8)           - set up a Linux swap area
swaplabel (8)        - print or change the label or UUID of a swap area
swapoff (8)          - enable/disable devices and files for paging and swapping
swapon (8)           - enable/disable devices and files for paging and swapping

'man -k' will do the same thing, but I still use apropos to this day.

$ man -k swap
all-swaps (7)        - event signalling that all swap partitions have been activated
ecryptfs-setup-swap (1) - ensure that any swap space is encrypted
mkswap (8)           - set up a Linux swap area
swaplabel (8)        - print or change the label or UUID of a swap area
swapoff (8)          - enable/disable devices and files for paging and swapping
swapon (8)           - enable/disable devices and files for paging and swapping

[zeugma]

$ man woman
No manual entry for woman
$ apropos woman
woman: nothing appropriate.

[W.]

It’s The Man Show!

It was fun...

[zeestephen]

Ping

[Paal Gulli]

"$ man woman"
"No manual entry for woman"
"$ apropos woman"
"woman: nothing appropriate."

$> man woman
$> Segmentation fault (dumped core)

$> cd /pub
$> more beer

There's no place like 127.0.0.1

[disclaimer]

Mansplaining?

[Openurmind]

Hilarious! Even my wife chuckled at this one. lol

[Openurmind]

Thanks Ace! While one with Linux can go hit the help button while online, this could help greatly when offline.

[Openurmind]

Thanks for the bonus “apropos” command here! I have mentioned this before, but the cool thing about the command line is it interacts back with a explanation reply of some kind like it did for you here. As where a DOS prompt doesn’t help at all, just starts flashing again leaving you guessing.

[Tunehead54]

Please add me to your Linux list.

Quick question: With Ubuntu loaded is there an Fdisk (Windows) equivalent so I can delete ANY partition on an IDE/ATA? Hard Drive (Not SATA).

Thanks for the add to your list in advance - I’ve been lurking for too long. You’re really doing a good job.

Thanks!

[ShadowAce]

You've been added. Welcome!

With Ubuntu loaded is there an Fdisk (Windows) equivalent so I can delete ANY partition on an IDE/ATA? Hard Drive (Not SATA).

I'm not sure I understand you question. Are you looking for a Windows program that will perform the equivalent of fdisk? or are you looking for a GUI fdisk frontend for Ubuntu?

[Tunehead54]

"Are you looking for a Windows program that will perform the equivalent of fdisk? or are you looking for a GUI fdisk frontend for Ubuntu? "

---

Either-Or?

My bench/test PC had Win 10 for testing but I did not like the forced upgrades.

I skipped the "free" upgrade and it just plugged along with occasional notices to upgrade but then the boot drive failed.

Having a box of some 25 drives I just wanted one to boot with Win98SE, just for fun, Win ME or Win 7.

A 250GB drive looked good but the install with Win 98SE removed the partition but then could not proceed.

Win 7 or ME are baffled as well.

I thought Ubuntu might have an Fdisk equivalent to remove a partition and leave a completely clean drive as WIN 98 doesn't understand larger drives and partitioning the drive failed.

I'd probably just go with Win 7 and then set up a multiple boot system options so I could learn Linux.

Short story: I can boot off an Ubuntu USB thumb drive but want a command line (or GUI) method to remove any partition on the SATA drive.

Thanks for putting me on your list.

Charlie

[ShadowAce]

Sure--just run "fdisk "