6

What's the difference between Documentation(doc), Manuals(man), Help, and Information(info)?

I've seen these four different words used across different system but mostly in Ubuntu. for the most part they seem to be interchangeable, but what is the difference between them or are they all the same?

This question might not belong here, if that's the case please tell me and I'll remove it.

guntbert
  • 13,475
zeitue
  • 2,226

1 Answers1

6

  1. Documentation

    wiki on documentation

    In regard with Ubuntu, docs are located in /usr/share/*/doc. They can contain almost anything (html, txt, css ,png) the developers(or documentors) seem appropriate. Examples are licenses, tutorials, examples etc.

  2. Info

    Wiki on Texinfo
    GNU textinfo page
    manpage for the info command Manpage icon

    This command is invoked as

    info utility/function/program

    which will show the texinfo page for utility in info format.

  3. Man

    Wiki on man page.
    manpage for the man command Manpage icon

    It is invoked as 

    man utility/function/program

    This one is similar to info, but it has sections(1 to 9) and shows some colourful information.Unlike info, many options are available to man in order to give as much flexibility as possible to the user. Note that man may have less information than info.

  4. Help

    Wiki on help

    It displays information about builtin commands in bash.It is very short description of the function/command.More on help in help help

Registered User
  • 9,761