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For example: man(1), find(3), updatedb(2)?
What do the numbers in parentheses (Brit. "brackets") mean?
625
Parentheses denote a subshell in bash. In your command, the $() is command substitution and if it is like () is a subshell. Both of them run commands, the difference is what happens to the output.
The number corresponds to what section of the manual that page is from; 1 is user commands, while 8 is sysadmin stuff.
Parentheses ( () ) are used to create a subshell. For example: $ pwd /home/user $ (cd /tmp; pwd) /tmp $ pwd /home/user. As you can see, the subshell allowed you to perform operations without affecting the environment of the current shell. (a) Braces ( {} ) are used to unambiguously identify variables.
mean that their content is optional and can either be added to the command or not. Curly brackets containing pipe-separated items { ... | ... } mean that you must specify one of those items.
It's the section that the man page for the command is assigned to.
These are split as
Original descriptions of each section can be seen in the Unix Programmer's Manual (page ii).
In order to access a man page given as "foo(5)", run:
man 5 foo If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
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