Ubuntu 22.04 Man Pages

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Man pages, short for manual pages, are the standard form of documentation on a Unix-like system like Ubuntu 22.04. They provide detailed information about commands, system calls, library routines, and other components of the system. Man pages serve as a comprehensive reference, explaining the function of these components, their syntax, options, return values, and more.

Accessing Man Pages

To access a man page for a specific command or program, use the man command followed by the name of the command or program. For example, to view the man page for the ls command, you would type:

man ls

This will bring up the man page for ls, which you can scroll through using the arrow keys. To exit, press q.

Sections of Man Pages

In Ubuntu 20.04 and other Linux distributions, man pages are typically stored in several directories under /usr/share/man. These directories are organized by sections, which are represented by numbers. The sections are as follows:

  • 1 User commands (Executable programs or shell commands)
  • 2 System calls (Functions provided by the kernel)
  • 3 Library calls (Functions within program libraries)
  • 4 Special files (Files found in /dev)
  • 5 File formats and conventions
  • 6 Games
  • 7 Miscellaneous (including macro packages and conventions)
  • 8 System administration commands (usually only for root)
  • 9 Kernel routines (Non-standard)


To access a man page in a specific section, you can specify the section number before the topic. For example, to access the system call read, you would type:

man 2 read

Searching Man Pages

If you're not sure what command or program you're looking for, you can search the man pages using the apropos command followed by a keyword. For example, to find commands related to "copy", you would type:

apropos copy

This will return a list of man pages related to the keyword "copy". Conclusion

Man pages are a vital resource for users and administrators of Ubuntu 22.04, providing in-depth information on how to use and understand the system's various components. Understanding how to read and navigate man pages can greatly enhance your proficiency with the system.

Please note that man pages can sometimes be quite technical and may not be the easiest resource for beginners. Other resources, such as online tutorials, guides, and community forums, can often provide more accessible explanations and examples.

Find the License of Man Pages

The man pages in Ubuntu also use a variety of licenses, depending on the specific software and authors' preferences. As mentioned in my previous response, common licenses used for man pages in Ubuntu distributions include the GNU General Public License (GPL), GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), BSD License, MIT License, and Apache License.

To find the specific license for a particular man page in Ubuntu 20.04, you can look at the copyright information typically found at the bottom of the man page or consult the package documentation. Additionally, you can check the /usr/share/doc/<package_name>/copyright file, where <package_name> is the name of the package you are interested in.

Please note that some man pages may use other licenses or have custom licensing terms specified by the authors. Always refer to the documentation and copyright information for the specific man page or software package to determine its licensing terms.

find the location of a specific man page

To find the location of a specific man page, you can use the manpath command to display the search path for man pages, and the man -w <command> command to find the location of a specific man page. Replace <command> with the command or topic you are looking for. For example:

  • The manpath command will show the directories where man pages are stored

manpath

  • The man -w <package> command will display the location of the <package> command's man page.

Example:

man -w ls

Will display the location of the ls command's man page. The output will show the full path to the man page file, such as /usr/share/man/man1/ls.1.gz

Please note that man pages are usually compressed using gzip, so the file extensions will often be .gz. To read the man page, use the man command, as it automatically decompresses the file:

man ls

The License of the ls man page is GPLv3+
The "GPL-3+" means that the man page is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3 or any later version. 

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Example of finding the license of the mc man page

The mc "midnight commander" package is not installed on ubuntu by default:

sudo apt install mc

Check the man mc page for license of the man for mc

man mc 

LICENSE
       This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. See the built-in help for details on the License and the  lack  of
       warranty.

The easiest way to find the license of a man page is to look for the license or copyright information within the man page itself, as you've done with the 'mc' man page. In some cases, the man page may not include the license information, and you will need to look for the copyright information in the package documentation instead.

To find the package documentation, you can check the /usr/share/doc/<package_name>/copyright file, where <package_name> is the name of the package you are interested in. For the 'mc' package, you can find the copyright file using the following command:

cat /usr/share/doc/mc/copyright

This command will display the copyright and license information for the 'mc' package, which should also cover the associated man page.

In the case of the 'mc' man page, the license information is already provided in the man page itself, stating that the program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

OutPut from cat /usr/share/doc/mc/copyright

Format: https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
Upstream-Name: Midnight Commander
Source: http://www.midnight-commander.org/downloads
Copyright: 1996-2021 Free Software Foundation
License: GPL-3+
Comment:
 This package was debianized on Tue Apr 1 14:32:15 1997 by
 Paul Seelig <pseelig@mail.uni-mainz.de>.

Files: *
Copyright: 1991-1992,1994-2021 Free Software Foundation
    1996      andrey joukov <2:5020/337.13@fidonet.org>
    2002      ARJ Software Russia
    2003      Alexander Serkov <serkov@ukrpost.net>
    1992-1998 Andrew Tridgell
    1995      Ian Jackson <iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk>
    2008      Jacques Pelletier <jpelletier@ieee.org>
    1996-1997 Joseph M. Hinkle <jhinkle@rockisland.com>
    1998      John H Terpstra <jht@aquasoft.com.au>
    1990-1998 Karl Auer
    2005-2006 Leonard den Ottolander <leonard den ottolander nl>
    1996-1998 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
    1995-1996 Miguel de Icaza
    2000-2001 Oskar Liljeblad <osk@hem.passagen.se>
    1996      Paul Sheer
    2003      Pavel Roskin
    2002      Petr Kozelka <pkozelka@email.cz>
    1999      Piotr Roszatycki <dexter@debian.org>
    1995-1998 Samba-Team
    2001      Walery Studennikov <despair@sama.ru>
    1997-1998 the University of Minnesota
License: GPL-3+
Comment:
 See list of authors and contributors in file AUTHORS
 Note that all these authors assigned the copyright to FSF.

Files:
    doc/doxygen-include.am
    m4.include/dx_doxygen.m4
Copyright:
    2004,2007 Oren Ben-Kiki
License: Apache-2.0

Files:
    misc/syntax/nemerle.syntax
Copyright:
    2004      the University of Wroclaw
License: BSD-3-Clause

Files:
    misc/syntax/meson.syntax
Copyright:
    2018 Vitold S
License: Expat

Files: debian/*
Copyright:
    2002-2004  Adam Byrtek <alpha@debian.org>
    2011       Andreas Tille <tille@debian.org>
    2002       Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>
    2008-2015  Denis Briand <debian@denis-briand.fr>
    2012-2021  Dmitry Smirnov <onlyjob@debian.org>
    1997       Fernando Alegre <alegre@debian.org>
    2004-2007  Ludovic Drolez <ldrolez@debian.org>
    1999-2001  Martin Bialasinski <martinb@debian.org>
    1999       Martin Bialasinski <mc@internet-treff.uni-koeln.de>
    1998-1999  Michael Bramer <grisu@debian.org>
    2008-2009  Patrick Winnertz <winnie@debian.org>
    1998       Paul Seelig <pseelig@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de>
    2004-2007  Stefano Melchior <stefano.melchior@openlabs.it>
    1997       Vincent Renardias <vincent@waw.com>
    2008-2010  Yury V. Zaytsev <yury@shurup.com>
License: GPL-2+

Files: src/vfs/smbfs/helpers/*
Copyright: 2011       Free Software Foundation
           1992-1998  Andrew Tridgell
           1995-1998  Samba-Team
           1998       John H Terpstra <jht@aquasoft.com.au>
License: GPL-3+

Files:
    m4.include/gnulib/fsusage.m4
    m4.include/gnulib/sys_types_h.m4
    m4.include/gnulib/windows-stat-inodes.m4
Copyright: 1997-2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License: FSFULLR
 This file is free software; the Free Software Foundation
 gives unlimited permission to copy and/or distribute it,
 with or without modifications, as long as this notice is preserved.

Files:
    m4.include/ax_gcc_func_attribute.m4
Copyright: 2013 Gabriele Svelto <gabriele.svelto@gmail.com>
License: FSF-Install
 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are
 permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and
 this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is, without any
 warranty.

License: Apache-2.0
 Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
 contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
 this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
 The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
 the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 .
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 .
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 limitations under the License.
 ․
 On Debian systems, the complete text of the Apache License,
 Version 2.0 can be found in "/usr/share/common-licenses/Apache-2.0".

License: BSD-3-Clause
 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
 are met:
    1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
       notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
    2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
       notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
       documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
    3. The name of the University may not be used to endorse or promote
       products derived from this software without specific prior
       written permission.
 .
 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE UNIVERSITY ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
 IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
 OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN
 NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
 SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
 TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
 PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
 LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
 NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
 SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

License: Expat
 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
 of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
 in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
 to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
 copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
 furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 ․
  The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
  copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 ․
 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
 IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
 AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
 LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
 OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
 SOFTWARE.

License: GPL-2+
 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
 (at your option) any later version.
 ․
 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 GNU General Public License for more details.
 ․
 On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public
 License Version 2 can be found in "/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2".

License: GPL-3+
 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 (at your option) any later version.
 ․
 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 GNU General Public License for more details.
 ․
 On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public
 License Version 3 can be found in "/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3".

Based on the information from the /usr/share/doc/mc/copyright file, the license for the Midnight Commander man page would be "GPL-3+", as indicated in the following section of the file: 

Files: *
Copyright: 1991-1992,1994-2021 Free Software Foundation
...
License: GPL-3+

The "GPL-3+" means that the man page is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3 or any later version.


Export a 'man' page

To export a man page in a readable format for copy and paste, you can use the man command with the -P flag to output the content to a specific pager, such as cat.

To export a man page in a readable format for copy and paste, you can use the man command with the -P flag to output the content to a specific pager, such as cat. Alternatively, you can use man with the col command to remove any formatting characters.

The -P flag in the man command allows you to specify a pager to view the manual page. A pager is a program that helps you read and navigate through text, such as less (default pager), more, or cat. To use the man command with the -P flag, follow this syntax:

man -P <pager> <command>

Replace <pager> with the pager you want to use (e.g., cat, less, more) and <command> with the command you want to view the manual page for.

For example, if you want to view the ssh man page using the cat pager:

man -P cat ssh

This will output the ssh man page without any pagination, making it easy to copy and paste the content. Keep in mind that using cat as the pager will output the entire man page at once, which might be overwhelming for very long pages. To navigate through the content, you may want to use less or more instead.

Alternatively, you can use man with the col command to remove any formatting characters.

For example, to view the ssh man page in a plain text format:

man ssh | col -bx

If you want to save the output to a file for easy copy and paste, you can redirect the output to a file:

man ssh | col -bx > ssh_man_page.txt

Now you can open the ssh_man_page.txt file with a text editor.

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