Format of the Man Page Sections

The following reference information describes the contents of each man page section, the information that is in each section, and the standard layout that is used for all Oracle Solaris man pages.

Description of the Man Page Sections

The following table describes each man page section and the information that each man page references.

Table 1-1 Description of Man Page Sections

Man Page Section	Description
1	Describes general commands that are available with the operating system.
1M	Describes commands and daemons that are primarily used for system maintenance and administrative purposes.
2	Describes all of the system calls.
3	Describes functions that are found in various libraries.
4	Outlines the various file formats and conventions.
5	Contains miscellaneous documentation, such as standards, environments, and macros.
6	Contains games and demos. Note that this section no longer exists.
7	Describes special files that refer to specific hardware peripherals and device drivers.
9	Provides reference information that is required to write device drivers in the kernel environment.

Man Page Format

Man pages use a standard format that includes some or all of the following subsections. The order of the subsections here matches the order in which the information appears in the individual man page sections.

NAME: Provides the name of the command, library function, file, or device driver, including a brief description of what the construct does.
SYNOPSIS: Shows the syntax of the command, library function, file, or device driver.
DESCRIPTION: Defines the functionality and behavior of the service.
IOCTL: Used for a particular class of devices, all of which have an io ending, such as mtio(7I). This section appears on pages in Section 7 only.
OPTIONS: Lists the command options, including a concise summary of what each option does.
OPERANDS: Lists the command operands and describes how the operands affect the actions of the command.
OUTPUT: Describes the output, standard output, standard error, or output files that are generated by the command, library function, file, or device driver.
RETURN VALUES: Lists values and describes the conditions under which they are returned (applies only to man pages that document functions that return values).
ERRORS: Lists alphabetically all error codes that a function library can generate and describes the conditions that cause each error.
USAGE: Lists special rules, features, and commands that require in-depth explanations.
EXAMPLES: Provides examples of usage or how to use a command, library function, file, or device driver.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES: Lists any environment variables that the command, library function, file, or device driver affects, followed by a brief description of the effect.
EXIT STATUS: Lists the values that the command returns to the calling program or shell, and the conditions that cause these values to be returned.
FILES: Lists all file names that are referred to by the man page, including files of interest, and files that are created or required by commands.
ATTRIBUTES: Lists characteristics of commands, utilities, and device drivers by defining the attribute type and its corresponding value. See the attributes(5) man page.
SEE ALSO: Includes any related commands or library functions.
DIAGNOSTICS: Lists diagnostic messages with a brief explanation of the condition causing the error.
WARNINGS: Lists warnings about special conditions that could seriously affect working conditions. This is not a list of diagnostics.
NOTES: Lists additional information that does not belong anywhere else on the page.
BUGS: Describes known bugs and, wherever possible, suggests a workaround.

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