␡
- Find Out About Commands with man
- Search for a Command Based on What It Does
- Quickly Find Out What a Command Does Based on Its Name
- Rebuild man's Database of Commands
- Read a Command's Specific Man Page
- Print Man Pages
- Learn About Commands with info
- Navigate Within info
- Locate the Paths for a Command's Executable, Source Files, and Man Pages
- Read Descriptions of Commands
- Find a Command Based on What It Does
- Find Out Which Version of a Command Will Run
- Conclusion
This chapter is from the book
Quickly Find Out What a Command Does Based on Its Name
man -f
If you know a command's name but don't know what it does, there's a quick and dirty way to find out without requiring you to actually open the man page for that command. Use the -f option (or --whatis), and the command's synopsis appears.
$ man -f ls ls (1) - list directory contents