Julia EvansFeb 20

when do you usually use the man page for a complex command line tool to answer a question you have? (like git, openssl, rsync, curl, etc)

(edit: no need to say "i use --help then man")

I’d look there first
57.6%
Only after trying other options first
33.2%
Never
6.4%
Other / not sure
2.8%
Poll ended at .
Show threadJulia EvansFeb 20

i'm very curious about everyone who says "I'd look there first", if I want to figure out how to do something new I think I'll usually google how to do it rather than look at the man page, and then maybe later look at the man page to look up the details

(I've gotten enough of these answers:
- "I like that man pages don't require changing context"
- "with the man page I know I have the right version of the docs")

Show threadStewart Russell
@b0rk I use apropos first to find the manual pages around the subject. If it doesn't turn up anything, I hit the web (or 'apt-cache search' to see if there are packages that might help me)
Feb 20 at 2:32pmWeb