  thumb|the man page on man a man page (short for manual page) is a form of online software documentation usually found on a unix or unix-like operating system. topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and even abstract concepts. a user may invoke a man page by issuing the man command. == usage == to read a manual page for a unix command, type: man pages are traditionally referred to using the notation "name(section)": for example, . the same page name may appear in more than one section of the manual, such as when the names of system calls, user commands, or macro packages coincide. examples are  and , or  and . the syntax for accessing the non-default manual section varies between different man implementations. on solaris, for example, the syntax for reading  is: man -s 3c printf on linux and bsd derivatives the same invocation would be: man 3 printf which searches for printf in section 3 of the man pages. ==history==   the unix programmer's manual was first published on november 3, 1971. the first actual man pages were written by dennis ritchie and ken thompson at the insistence of their manager doug mcilroy in 1971. aside from the man pages, the programmer's manual also accumulated a set of short papers, some of them tutorials (e.g. for general unix usage, the c programming language, and tools such as yacc), and others more detailed descriptions of operating system features. the printed version of the manual initially fit into a single binder, but as of pwb/unix and the 7th edition of research unix, it was split into two volumes with the printed man pages forming volume 1. originally published in microsystems 5(11), november 1984. the man pages were formatted using the troff typesetting package and its set of -man macros (which were completely revised between the sixth and seventh editions of the manual, but have since not drastically changed). at the time, the av
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