Specify section number with Unix man (manual) command

Sometimes, there are multiple man pages under the same name, identified by section numbers. For example, there is a MKDIR user command and a MKDIR programming function call. if you just type “man mkdir” at the prompt, it might take you to one but not the other.

You can add a -s flag to specify the section number , e.g.

  • man -S 1 mkdir # shows the manual for MKDIR
  • man -S 2 mkdir # shows the manual for MKDIR
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