[Cialug] linux command question

[Colin Burnett]

On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 10:49 PM, Mathew R. Phillips
<mathew.phillips at wartburg.edu> wrote:
>
> I've noticed that alot of commands in linux have numbers in parenthesis
> after them like setarch(8) in one of the recent mail posts. What is the
> significance of those numbers?

8 is the man section.

$ man setarch

The more specific way to get the man page is with the section

$ man 8 setarch

This is necessary for such things as printf

The C function:
$ man 3 printf

vs. the bash function
$ man 1 printf


Colin