do you have a favourite man page?
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do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk
I like section 7 in general - it can provide a good overview and tie together many different manpages relevant to a single topic that'd otherwise be hard to track down.If I have to pick one, I guess it's
capabilities(7) -
@b0rk @thatandromeda Often I pipe the output of `man` into `less`, then try to search for something like -n, which returns way too many results (e.g. mentions of that option before its definition). I wonder if a better `man` could be made that would let me search through an *index* of options instead of doing a full-text search.
@benjamingeer @b0rk @thatandromeda What improved my experience greatly was configuring neovim as man page viewer.
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do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk I was particularly surprised and happy seeing a code example in xscreensaver-command man page [1], which showcases the way it (xscreensaver-command -watch) can be integrated into the system doing some dynamic stuff.
Despite it's Perl, which I can barely read, but it looked like a really nice addition.
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@b0rk I was particularly surprised and happy seeing a code example in xscreensaver-command man page [1], which showcases the way it (xscreensaver-command -watch) can be integrated into the system doing some dynamic stuff.
Despite it's Perl, which I can barely read, but it looked like a really nice addition.
@b0rk also, man ascii [1]. While being in misc category, puts the most important information into few different tables and a list. For more convenient exploration and search, in oct, hex, dec, and char representation. Which... fits everything in a single screen.
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do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk Such a great page to point out. We all learn in different ways.
I don't just want to be told how something works. Please _show_ me how it works.
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do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk my favourite is the one for `true'. I present it as an example of a documented software. Seriously, how many present day software makers would bother documenting such thing?
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do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk I love `man ascii`.
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do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk I am actually surprised how many people here don't know https://tldr.sh. Or at least, thats a feeling I had while reading the comments on bad manpages.
`$ tldr tar`
It's a user composed tl;dr; printing out commonly used commands.
And recently I learned from https://youtube.com/@breadonpenguins about cht.sh. Its even better. Simply type `$ curl cht.sh/cups` and you get a awesome cheatsheet covering basic Linux printer things.
It somehow aggregates multiple sources. One of the sources is actually the tldr.sh page. -
do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk My bash_history thinks I've used
man gpgthe most lately but that is not an endorsement 😭 -
do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk I see a sibling mentioned ascii(5). urxvt(7) is a great reference to terminal escape codes, broadly applicable even if it's not the terminal you use. There's probably a better reference but it's the one I know to turn to when I have questions.
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do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk `curl` is heads and shoulders above most other man pages I've read. Also, I have a terrible memory when it comes to curl, so it's always useful.
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do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk ffmpeg's seems pretty cool. It has graphs, even.
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@arrjay @aredridel this is awesome, I love `perlcheat`, I've never seen anything like that in a man page
@b0rk @arrjay @aredridel perlre(1) — along with perlretut(1) and perlrequick(1) — are the Complete Beginner's Guide to Regular Expressions. The language is quite gentle, especially for a subject that so many people find difficult.
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do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk I hate to be that nerd, but bash(1). I have had this bookmarked for years and years because it's such a good reference.
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@b0rk Special shout out to the official web address, since it's got hyperlinks on all the options:
@shnizmuffin thanks, will change my link!
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do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
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do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk I like the man page for strace, because it groups the options by categories: General/Startup/Tracing/Filtering/Output. This makes it easier to discover what is available for a specific purpose. Other man pages just list the options strictly alphabetically (let's say for example the GNU ls man page).
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do you have a favourite man page? thinking of writing a short blog post exploring man pages and what makes a good one and I'd love some more examples
my contribution: I think it's cool that `man curl` includes an example for every single option
@b0rk sox(1), for Sound eXchange (the Swiss Army knife of audio manipulation). It's very long, yet gives examples of all of its filters and complicated syntax.
Its sound format conversion section got so long that it ended up in soxformat(7)
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@technicaladept @nabnux i think for bash specifically I might prefer to use the html bash reference manual to reference the docs https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html (which I believe has the same content but with better formatting)
@b0rk @nabnux these day's yes. Back in the day the next best was to send it to the line printer and read it on a fan fold continuous feed printout. Many people I knew kept a copy on their desk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_stationery#/media/File:Endlospapier_fan-fold_paper.jpg
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@b0rk I like the man page for strace, because it groups the options by categories: General/Startup/Tracing/Filtering/Output. This makes it easier to discover what is available for a specific purpose. Other man pages just list the options strictly alphabetically (let's say for example the GNU ls man page).
@raimue ooh that's really cool, I don't know how I never noticed that! I think I always assume man pages will be hard to use and I often don't even bother to check and miss it when they're actually well organized
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