MAN File Documentation

Overview

Feature Value
File Extension .1, .2, .3, etc.
MIME Type application/x-troff-man
Format Type Text
Primary Usage Software manual pages
Encoding ASCII or UTF-8
Content Type Documentation and help files
Editable Yes, with text editors
Section Numbers 1 to 9, each represents a specific category
Standard Sections Name, Synopsis, Configuration, Description, Options, Exit Status, Return Values, Errors, Files, See Also, References, Authors
Compression Often gzipped in practice
File Location /usr/share/man/, /usr/local/man/
View Command man
Editing Tools Any text editor (e.g., vim, emacs)
Creation Tools Troff, Groff
Search Path Environment Variable MANPATH
Online Viewing man-pages websites, man command with internet querying
Associated Commands man, manpath, groff, troff
Conversion Can be converted to HTML, PDF, and other formats using Groff
Historical Background Developed for Unix documentation
Relevance Remains a crucial part of Linux and Unix documentation