man

Table of Contents

1. Learn about section number

Section numbers goes from 1 to 9, see man(1) for more info.

man 8 intro

2. Cycle through program available manpages

man -a passwd

3. Display manpage section number for program

man 5 passwd
man passwd.5
man passwd(5)

4. Search for keyword in manpages name and short description

man -k passwd

4.1. Search for keyword in manpages section number

Search for passwd and filter the output by system administration manpages (section 8).

man -k passwd | grep 8

4.2. If the command returns “user: nothing approriate”

See mandb(8) for more info.

4.2.1. Update the manpages index caches

sudo mandb

4.2.2. Force the recreation of manpages index caches

sudo mandb -c

5. Colorful manpages

Alternative way to make manpages colorful:

export MANROFFOPT='-c'
export MANPAGER='less --color=d+c --color=u+M'

mar. 14 juillet 2026

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