Can I get individual man pages for the bash builtin commands? [duplicate]
This question already has an answer here:
Reading and searching long man pages
9 answers
Is there anywhere you can download a manpage for every builtin commands?
I know you can just use help or man bash and search to find info about it, but I want them separated, so I can just do man read and get the read manpage.
bash man shell-builtin
marked as duplicate by Gilles, Anthon, jasonwryan, Braiam, slm♦ Apr 7 '14 at 22:33
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
add a comment |
This question already has an answer here:
Reading and searching long man pages
9 answers
Is there anywhere you can download a manpage for every builtin commands?
I know you can just use help or man bash and search to find info about it, but I want them separated, so I can just do man read and get the read manpage.
bash man shell-builtin
marked as duplicate by Gilles, Anthon, jasonwryan, Braiam, slm♦ Apr 7 '14 at 22:33
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
It's not quite what you want, but on my Fedora 15 system, these are separated into separate man pages which reference abuiltins (1)man page. This is still a big aggregate document, but at least it's just the builtins and not everything to do with bash.
– mattdm
Aug 4 '11 at 20:45
2
Doesn't work in Mac OS X
– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 20:49
Nor doesman builtinswork on linux mint.
– suspectus
Jan 29 '14 at 11:04
1
If all that you need is to know about a built in, Just usehelp <BuiltinName>-- Hope it helps those people like me annoyed on the failure ofmanandinfowith famous builtins. E.g.help commandto know about the great yet less used commandcommand. Finally as the question also hints, thehelpalone simply lists all possible builtins. (Verified on Ubuntu 16.04).
– Loves Probability
Nov 26 '16 at 5:13
add a comment |
This question already has an answer here:
Reading and searching long man pages
9 answers
Is there anywhere you can download a manpage for every builtin commands?
I know you can just use help or man bash and search to find info about it, but I want them separated, so I can just do man read and get the read manpage.
bash man shell-builtin
This question already has an answer here:
Reading and searching long man pages
9 answers
Is there anywhere you can download a manpage for every builtin commands?
I know you can just use help or man bash and search to find info about it, but I want them separated, so I can just do man read and get the read manpage.
This question already has an answer here:
Reading and searching long man pages
9 answers
bash man shell-builtin
bash man shell-builtin
edited Aug 4 '11 at 20:46
mattdm
28.5k1172114
28.5k1172114
asked Aug 4 '11 at 20:39
TyiloTyilo
2,11873253
2,11873253
marked as duplicate by Gilles, Anthon, jasonwryan, Braiam, slm♦ Apr 7 '14 at 22:33
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
marked as duplicate by Gilles, Anthon, jasonwryan, Braiam, slm♦ Apr 7 '14 at 22:33
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
It's not quite what you want, but on my Fedora 15 system, these are separated into separate man pages which reference abuiltins (1)man page. This is still a big aggregate document, but at least it's just the builtins and not everything to do with bash.
– mattdm
Aug 4 '11 at 20:45
2
Doesn't work in Mac OS X
– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 20:49
Nor doesman builtinswork on linux mint.
– suspectus
Jan 29 '14 at 11:04
1
If all that you need is to know about a built in, Just usehelp <BuiltinName>-- Hope it helps those people like me annoyed on the failure ofmanandinfowith famous builtins. E.g.help commandto know about the great yet less used commandcommand. Finally as the question also hints, thehelpalone simply lists all possible builtins. (Verified on Ubuntu 16.04).
– Loves Probability
Nov 26 '16 at 5:13
add a comment |
It's not quite what you want, but on my Fedora 15 system, these are separated into separate man pages which reference abuiltins (1)man page. This is still a big aggregate document, but at least it's just the builtins and not everything to do with bash.
– mattdm
Aug 4 '11 at 20:45
2
Doesn't work in Mac OS X
– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 20:49
Nor doesman builtinswork on linux mint.
– suspectus
Jan 29 '14 at 11:04
1
If all that you need is to know about a built in, Just usehelp <BuiltinName>-- Hope it helps those people like me annoyed on the failure ofmanandinfowith famous builtins. E.g.help commandto know about the great yet less used commandcommand. Finally as the question also hints, thehelpalone simply lists all possible builtins. (Verified on Ubuntu 16.04).
– Loves Probability
Nov 26 '16 at 5:13
It's not quite what you want, but on my Fedora 15 system, these are separated into separate man pages which reference a
builtins (1) man page. This is still a big aggregate document, but at least it's just the builtins and not everything to do with bash.– mattdm
Aug 4 '11 at 20:45
It's not quite what you want, but on my Fedora 15 system, these are separated into separate man pages which reference a
builtins (1) man page. This is still a big aggregate document, but at least it's just the builtins and not everything to do with bash.– mattdm
Aug 4 '11 at 20:45
2
2
Doesn't work in Mac OS X
– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 20:49
Doesn't work in Mac OS X
– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 20:49
Nor does
man builtins work on linux mint.– suspectus
Jan 29 '14 at 11:04
Nor does
man builtins work on linux mint.– suspectus
Jan 29 '14 at 11:04
1
1
If all that you need is to know about a built in, Just use
help <BuiltinName> -- Hope it helps those people like me annoyed on the failure of man and info with famous builtins. E.g. help command to know about the great yet less used command command. Finally as the question also hints, the help alone simply lists all possible builtins. (Verified on Ubuntu 16.04).– Loves Probability
Nov 26 '16 at 5:13
If all that you need is to know about a built in, Just use
help <BuiltinName> -- Hope it helps those people like me annoyed on the failure of man and info with famous builtins. E.g. help command to know about the great yet less used command command. Finally as the question also hints, the help alone simply lists all possible builtins. (Verified on Ubuntu 16.04).– Loves Probability
Nov 26 '16 at 5:13
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
Try this:
bashman () { man bash | less -p "^ $1 "; }
You may have to hit n a couple of times to get to the actual command instead of a paragraph that happens to have the command name as the first word.
Good idea. Not what I think Tyilo wants, but I'm not convinced I got that right.
– Gilles
Aug 4 '11 at 23:32
2
Works perfect! Adding a space after$1makes it better
– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 23:35
2
You can also useLESS=-p"^ $1 " man bash. That way, you're not stripping any escape sequences.
– user26112
Jul 23 '13 at 1:03
You can also create a function that wraps around the originalmanfunction:function man() { local binman=/usr/bin/man; if ! $binman $1 &>/dev/null; then echo "No man entry for "$1"."; elif $binman bind | grep "BSD General Commands Manual" &>/dev/null; then LESS=-p"^ $1 " $binman bash; else $binman $1; fi; }.
– Luke Davis
Mar 16 '18 at 4:44
As I've explained here too this often does not work. As you stated, you often get to "a paragraph that happens to have the command name as the first word". As such, this question is not completely answered…
– rugk
Jan 23 at 15:23
add a comment |
help read
help read | less
In zsh:
run-help read
or type read something and press M-h (i.e. Alt+h or ESC h).
If you want to have a single man command so as not to need to know whether the command is a built-in, define this function in your ~/.bashrc:
man () {
case "$(type -t "$1"):$1" in
builtin:*) help "$1" | "${PAGER:-less}";; # built-in
*[[?*]*) help "$1" | "${PAGER:-less}";; # pattern
*) command -p man "$@";; # something else, presumed to be an external command
# or options for the man command or a section number
esac
}
type -tgives and empty string for a pattern. How does this work?*[[?*]*?
– balki
Aug 24 '11 at 16:17
@balkitypelooks up an exact name. I don't think there's a way to look up a pattern, short of having a hard-coded list of built-ins and doing some complicated parsing of the output ofalias,typeset -fand$PATHlookups.
– Gilles
Aug 24 '11 at 16:23
@spex No, I meant “i.e.”. It's followed by a complete list, not by some examples.
– Gilles
Jun 1 '17 at 20:05
@Gilles your list is not exhaustive and not universal, they are examples, thus e.g.
– spex
Jun 1 '17 at 21:51
run-help does display help for built-in, if it's not built-in it will open the man-page for that tool. Good tip.
– sdkks
Sep 3 '17 at 2:49
|
show 1 more comment
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Try this:
bashman () { man bash | less -p "^ $1 "; }
You may have to hit n a couple of times to get to the actual command instead of a paragraph that happens to have the command name as the first word.
Good idea. Not what I think Tyilo wants, but I'm not convinced I got that right.
– Gilles
Aug 4 '11 at 23:32
2
Works perfect! Adding a space after$1makes it better
– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 23:35
2
You can also useLESS=-p"^ $1 " man bash. That way, you're not stripping any escape sequences.
– user26112
Jul 23 '13 at 1:03
You can also create a function that wraps around the originalmanfunction:function man() { local binman=/usr/bin/man; if ! $binman $1 &>/dev/null; then echo "No man entry for "$1"."; elif $binman bind | grep "BSD General Commands Manual" &>/dev/null; then LESS=-p"^ $1 " $binman bash; else $binman $1; fi; }.
– Luke Davis
Mar 16 '18 at 4:44
As I've explained here too this often does not work. As you stated, you often get to "a paragraph that happens to have the command name as the first word". As such, this question is not completely answered…
– rugk
Jan 23 at 15:23
add a comment |
Try this:
bashman () { man bash | less -p "^ $1 "; }
You may have to hit n a couple of times to get to the actual command instead of a paragraph that happens to have the command name as the first word.
Good idea. Not what I think Tyilo wants, but I'm not convinced I got that right.
– Gilles
Aug 4 '11 at 23:32
2
Works perfect! Adding a space after$1makes it better
– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 23:35
2
You can also useLESS=-p"^ $1 " man bash. That way, you're not stripping any escape sequences.
– user26112
Jul 23 '13 at 1:03
You can also create a function that wraps around the originalmanfunction:function man() { local binman=/usr/bin/man; if ! $binman $1 &>/dev/null; then echo "No man entry for "$1"."; elif $binman bind | grep "BSD General Commands Manual" &>/dev/null; then LESS=-p"^ $1 " $binman bash; else $binman $1; fi; }.
– Luke Davis
Mar 16 '18 at 4:44
As I've explained here too this often does not work. As you stated, you often get to "a paragraph that happens to have the command name as the first word". As such, this question is not completely answered…
– rugk
Jan 23 at 15:23
add a comment |
Try this:
bashman () { man bash | less -p "^ $1 "; }
You may have to hit n a couple of times to get to the actual command instead of a paragraph that happens to have the command name as the first word.
Try this:
bashman () { man bash | less -p "^ $1 "; }
You may have to hit n a couple of times to get to the actual command instead of a paragraph that happens to have the command name as the first word.
edited Aug 5 '11 at 13:18
answered Aug 4 '11 at 23:10
glenn jackmanglenn jackman
51.2k571110
51.2k571110
Good idea. Not what I think Tyilo wants, but I'm not convinced I got that right.
– Gilles
Aug 4 '11 at 23:32
2
Works perfect! Adding a space after$1makes it better
– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 23:35
2
You can also useLESS=-p"^ $1 " man bash. That way, you're not stripping any escape sequences.
– user26112
Jul 23 '13 at 1:03
You can also create a function that wraps around the originalmanfunction:function man() { local binman=/usr/bin/man; if ! $binman $1 &>/dev/null; then echo "No man entry for "$1"."; elif $binman bind | grep "BSD General Commands Manual" &>/dev/null; then LESS=-p"^ $1 " $binman bash; else $binman $1; fi; }.
– Luke Davis
Mar 16 '18 at 4:44
As I've explained here too this often does not work. As you stated, you often get to "a paragraph that happens to have the command name as the first word". As such, this question is not completely answered…
– rugk
Jan 23 at 15:23
add a comment |
Good idea. Not what I think Tyilo wants, but I'm not convinced I got that right.
– Gilles
Aug 4 '11 at 23:32
2
Works perfect! Adding a space after$1makes it better
– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 23:35
2
You can also useLESS=-p"^ $1 " man bash. That way, you're not stripping any escape sequences.
– user26112
Jul 23 '13 at 1:03
You can also create a function that wraps around the originalmanfunction:function man() { local binman=/usr/bin/man; if ! $binman $1 &>/dev/null; then echo "No man entry for "$1"."; elif $binman bind | grep "BSD General Commands Manual" &>/dev/null; then LESS=-p"^ $1 " $binman bash; else $binman $1; fi; }.
– Luke Davis
Mar 16 '18 at 4:44
As I've explained here too this often does not work. As you stated, you often get to "a paragraph that happens to have the command name as the first word". As such, this question is not completely answered…
– rugk
Jan 23 at 15:23
Good idea. Not what I think Tyilo wants, but I'm not convinced I got that right.
– Gilles
Aug 4 '11 at 23:32
Good idea. Not what I think Tyilo wants, but I'm not convinced I got that right.
– Gilles
Aug 4 '11 at 23:32
2
2
Works perfect! Adding a space after
$1 makes it better– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 23:35
Works perfect! Adding a space after
$1 makes it better– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 23:35
2
2
You can also use
LESS=-p"^ $1 " man bash. That way, you're not stripping any escape sequences.– user26112
Jul 23 '13 at 1:03
You can also use
LESS=-p"^ $1 " man bash. That way, you're not stripping any escape sequences.– user26112
Jul 23 '13 at 1:03
You can also create a function that wraps around the original
man function: function man() { local binman=/usr/bin/man; if ! $binman $1 &>/dev/null; then echo "No man entry for "$1"."; elif $binman bind | grep "BSD General Commands Manual" &>/dev/null; then LESS=-p"^ $1 " $binman bash; else $binman $1; fi; }.– Luke Davis
Mar 16 '18 at 4:44
You can also create a function that wraps around the original
man function: function man() { local binman=/usr/bin/man; if ! $binman $1 &>/dev/null; then echo "No man entry for "$1"."; elif $binman bind | grep "BSD General Commands Manual" &>/dev/null; then LESS=-p"^ $1 " $binman bash; else $binman $1; fi; }.– Luke Davis
Mar 16 '18 at 4:44
As I've explained here too this often does not work. As you stated, you often get to "a paragraph that happens to have the command name as the first word". As such, this question is not completely answered…
– rugk
Jan 23 at 15:23
As I've explained here too this often does not work. As you stated, you often get to "a paragraph that happens to have the command name as the first word". As such, this question is not completely answered…
– rugk
Jan 23 at 15:23
add a comment |
help read
help read | less
In zsh:
run-help read
or type read something and press M-h (i.e. Alt+h or ESC h).
If you want to have a single man command so as not to need to know whether the command is a built-in, define this function in your ~/.bashrc:
man () {
case "$(type -t "$1"):$1" in
builtin:*) help "$1" | "${PAGER:-less}";; # built-in
*[[?*]*) help "$1" | "${PAGER:-less}";; # pattern
*) command -p man "$@";; # something else, presumed to be an external command
# or options for the man command or a section number
esac
}
type -tgives and empty string for a pattern. How does this work?*[[?*]*?
– balki
Aug 24 '11 at 16:17
@balkitypelooks up an exact name. I don't think there's a way to look up a pattern, short of having a hard-coded list of built-ins and doing some complicated parsing of the output ofalias,typeset -fand$PATHlookups.
– Gilles
Aug 24 '11 at 16:23
@spex No, I meant “i.e.”. It's followed by a complete list, not by some examples.
– Gilles
Jun 1 '17 at 20:05
@Gilles your list is not exhaustive and not universal, they are examples, thus e.g.
– spex
Jun 1 '17 at 21:51
run-help does display help for built-in, if it's not built-in it will open the man-page for that tool. Good tip.
– sdkks
Sep 3 '17 at 2:49
|
show 1 more comment
help read
help read | less
In zsh:
run-help read
or type read something and press M-h (i.e. Alt+h or ESC h).
If you want to have a single man command so as not to need to know whether the command is a built-in, define this function in your ~/.bashrc:
man () {
case "$(type -t "$1"):$1" in
builtin:*) help "$1" | "${PAGER:-less}";; # built-in
*[[?*]*) help "$1" | "${PAGER:-less}";; # pattern
*) command -p man "$@";; # something else, presumed to be an external command
# or options for the man command or a section number
esac
}
type -tgives and empty string for a pattern. How does this work?*[[?*]*?
– balki
Aug 24 '11 at 16:17
@balkitypelooks up an exact name. I don't think there's a way to look up a pattern, short of having a hard-coded list of built-ins and doing some complicated parsing of the output ofalias,typeset -fand$PATHlookups.
– Gilles
Aug 24 '11 at 16:23
@spex No, I meant “i.e.”. It's followed by a complete list, not by some examples.
– Gilles
Jun 1 '17 at 20:05
@Gilles your list is not exhaustive and not universal, they are examples, thus e.g.
– spex
Jun 1 '17 at 21:51
run-help does display help for built-in, if it's not built-in it will open the man-page for that tool. Good tip.
– sdkks
Sep 3 '17 at 2:49
|
show 1 more comment
help read
help read | less
In zsh:
run-help read
or type read something and press M-h (i.e. Alt+h or ESC h).
If you want to have a single man command so as not to need to know whether the command is a built-in, define this function in your ~/.bashrc:
man () {
case "$(type -t "$1"):$1" in
builtin:*) help "$1" | "${PAGER:-less}";; # built-in
*[[?*]*) help "$1" | "${PAGER:-less}";; # pattern
*) command -p man "$@";; # something else, presumed to be an external command
# or options for the man command or a section number
esac
}
help read
help read | less
In zsh:
run-help read
or type read something and press M-h (i.e. Alt+h or ESC h).
If you want to have a single man command so as not to need to know whether the command is a built-in, define this function in your ~/.bashrc:
man () {
case "$(type -t "$1"):$1" in
builtin:*) help "$1" | "${PAGER:-less}";; # built-in
*[[?*]*) help "$1" | "${PAGER:-less}";; # pattern
*) command -p man "$@";; # something else, presumed to be an external command
# or options for the man command or a section number
esac
}
edited Jun 1 '17 at 20:02
answered Aug 4 '11 at 20:50
GillesGilles
533k12810731594
533k12810731594
type -tgives and empty string for a pattern. How does this work?*[[?*]*?
– balki
Aug 24 '11 at 16:17
@balkitypelooks up an exact name. I don't think there's a way to look up a pattern, short of having a hard-coded list of built-ins and doing some complicated parsing of the output ofalias,typeset -fand$PATHlookups.
– Gilles
Aug 24 '11 at 16:23
@spex No, I meant “i.e.”. It's followed by a complete list, not by some examples.
– Gilles
Jun 1 '17 at 20:05
@Gilles your list is not exhaustive and not universal, they are examples, thus e.g.
– spex
Jun 1 '17 at 21:51
run-help does display help for built-in, if it's not built-in it will open the man-page for that tool. Good tip.
– sdkks
Sep 3 '17 at 2:49
|
show 1 more comment
type -tgives and empty string for a pattern. How does this work?*[[?*]*?
– balki
Aug 24 '11 at 16:17
@balkitypelooks up an exact name. I don't think there's a way to look up a pattern, short of having a hard-coded list of built-ins and doing some complicated parsing of the output ofalias,typeset -fand$PATHlookups.
– Gilles
Aug 24 '11 at 16:23
@spex No, I meant “i.e.”. It's followed by a complete list, not by some examples.
– Gilles
Jun 1 '17 at 20:05
@Gilles your list is not exhaustive and not universal, they are examples, thus e.g.
– spex
Jun 1 '17 at 21:51
run-help does display help for built-in, if it's not built-in it will open the man-page for that tool. Good tip.
– sdkks
Sep 3 '17 at 2:49
type -t gives and empty string for a pattern. How does this work? *[[?*]* ?– balki
Aug 24 '11 at 16:17
type -t gives and empty string for a pattern. How does this work? *[[?*]* ?– balki
Aug 24 '11 at 16:17
@balki
type looks up an exact name. I don't think there's a way to look up a pattern, short of having a hard-coded list of built-ins and doing some complicated parsing of the output of alias, typeset -f and $PATH lookups.– Gilles
Aug 24 '11 at 16:23
@balki
type looks up an exact name. I don't think there's a way to look up a pattern, short of having a hard-coded list of built-ins and doing some complicated parsing of the output of alias, typeset -f and $PATH lookups.– Gilles
Aug 24 '11 at 16:23
@spex No, I meant “i.e.”. It's followed by a complete list, not by some examples.
– Gilles
Jun 1 '17 at 20:05
@spex No, I meant “i.e.”. It's followed by a complete list, not by some examples.
– Gilles
Jun 1 '17 at 20:05
@Gilles your list is not exhaustive and not universal, they are examples, thus e.g.
– spex
Jun 1 '17 at 21:51
@Gilles your list is not exhaustive and not universal, they are examples, thus e.g.
– spex
Jun 1 '17 at 21:51
run-help does display help for built-in, if it's not built-in it will open the man-page for that tool. Good tip.
– sdkks
Sep 3 '17 at 2:49
run-help does display help for built-in, if it's not built-in it will open the man-page for that tool. Good tip.
– sdkks
Sep 3 '17 at 2:49
|
show 1 more comment
It's not quite what you want, but on my Fedora 15 system, these are separated into separate man pages which reference a
builtins (1)man page. This is still a big aggregate document, but at least it's just the builtins and not everything to do with bash.– mattdm
Aug 4 '11 at 20:45
2
Doesn't work in Mac OS X
– Tyilo
Aug 4 '11 at 20:49
Nor does
man builtinswork on linux mint.– suspectus
Jan 29 '14 at 11:04
1
If all that you need is to know about a built in, Just use
help <BuiltinName>-- Hope it helps those people like me annoyed on the failure ofmanandinfowith famous builtins. E.g.help commandto know about the great yet less used commandcommand. Finally as the question also hints, thehelpalone simply lists all possible builtins. (Verified on Ubuntu 16.04).– Loves Probability
Nov 26 '16 at 5:13