I'm new with Linux and have noticed that there are numbers beside certain commands I look up.
For example I want to look up accept() in the aspect of network programming, but man accept shows this instead:
accept(8) Easy Software Products accept(8)
NAME
accept/reject - accept/reject jobs sent to a destination
So how do you switch between manual pages to other numbers like accept(1) ~ accept(7)?
To find out which sections are available, use whatis manpage. Example:
$ whatis unlink
unlink (2) - delete a name and possibly the file it refers to
unlink (1) - call the unlink function to remove the specified file
To view the manual page in question, use man section manpage, e.g.:
man 2 unlink
Using the -a option, you'll be able to show all sections of a manpage:
man -a unlink
I haven't found a way to "switch" between manpages even though the pager less supports switching (:p and :n), the only supported actions using the -a option are "next", "skip" and "cancel".
When in doubt, you can also read the manual page of man:
man man
The 8 referenced there isn't actually page 8, it is section 8. The sections are split like this:
Section Description
1 General commands
2 System calls
3 C library functions
4 Special files (usually devices, those found in /dev) and drivers
5 File formats and conventions
6 Games and screensavers
7 Miscellanea
8 System administration commands and daemons
So the accept you are reading about is the system admin command.
If a command is in more than one section, you will be prompted for the one you want, or you can use:
man 8 accept
Where "8" is the section. This will target the specific man page section you are after.
FYI, For less-forgiving *NIX environments (Mac/Darwin, Solaris, AIX, ... ) may not accept
man 2 accept
you would need to use -S 2 instead:
man -S 2 accept
The simplest way is to run
man -a name
This will show in sequence all the manual pages for "name" in all volumes where they appear.
