PCLinuxOS Magazine

PCLinuxOS

Tip Top Tips: How To Install Man Pages In PCLinuxOS

Editor's Note: Tip Top Tips is a semi-monthly column in The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Periodically, we will feature – and possibly even expand upon – one tip from the PCLinuxOS forum. The magazine will not accept independent tip submissions specifically intended for inclusion in the Tip Top Tips column. Rather, if you have a tip, share it in the PCLinuxOS forum's “Tips & Tricks” section. Occasionally, we may run a “tip” posted elsewhere in the PCLinuxOS forum. Either way, share your tip in the forum, and it just may be selected for publication in The PCLinuxOS Magazine.

This month's tip comes from our PCLinuxOS founder and overlord, Texstar.

Are you unfamiliar with man pages? They are accessed from the command line, by typing man <name-of-program>. They differ from the “help” information accessed by typing the name of the program, followed by either -- help, -h, or -?. Linux man pages are much more comprehensive, and cover the options of a program in much greater depth and detail. You wouldn't be remiss to think of Linux man pages as a comprehensive help file, available from the command line.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Under PCLinuxOS, Linux man pages are no longer packaged for installation from Synaptic. The packagers have many more important things to focus on.

Linux man pages are accessible online from a variety of sources. One of my favorites is from die.net. However, Texstar's tip allows users who want to access man pages on their computer locally the ability to do so, without having to go out onto the internet.

So, below are the steps that Texstar outlined.

Step One: install git from Synaptic.

Step Two: Open a terminal session.

Step Three: Type git clone http://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages at a command line prompt.

Step Four: Type cd man-pages at the command line prompt, and press the Enter key.

Step Five: Switch to the root user.

Step Six: Type make install at the command line prompt.

Now, sit back and wait for the last step to finish.

Your Linux man pages will now be available on your computer, without having to go out onto the internet to read. Not only can this be a time saver, but it can also be a vital “lifeline” should you be unable to get out onto the internet to access the online Linux man pages.

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