Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition

Online Help

Mac OS X comes with more than 900 Unix programs like the ones described in this chapter. How are you supposed to learn what they all do?

Fortunately, almost every Unix program comes with its own little help file. It may not appear within an elegant, brushed-metal Panther window—in fact, it’s pretty darned plain—but it offers much more material than the regular Mac Help Center.

These help files are called user-manual pages, or manpages, which hold descriptions of virtually every command and program available. Mac OS X, in fact, comes with manpages on about 5,500 topics—almost 10,000 printed pages’ worth.

Figure 15-7. To move on to the next man screen, press the Space bar. To go back, press the up-arrow key or the B key. To close the manual and return to a prompt, press Q. You can also search for a certain phrase by typing a / (to produce the “find what?” prompt); thereafter, type n to find the next occurrence.

Alas, manpages rarely have the clarity of writing or the learner-focused approach you’ll find in the Mac Help Center. They’re generally terse, just-the-facts descriptions. In fact, you’ll probably find yourself needing to reread certain sections again and again. The information they contain, however, is invaluable to new and experienced Unix fans alike, and the effort spent mining them is usually worthwhile.

Using man

To access the manpage for a given command, type man ...