Thread: man -k (how to use correctly)

hi all, I know this isn't programming directly but will help indirectly to a program I am writing.
I'm not sure if I am using the manual pages correctly from the terminal. From notes from a lecture the professor has said that a 'man -k uid' - will bring up info such as this:

Code:

struct passwd *getpwnam(const char *name);
       struct passwd *getpwuid(uid_t uid);
       int getpwnam_r(const char *name, struct passwd *pwbuf,
               char *buf, size_t buflen, struct passwd **pwbufp);
       int getpwuid_r(uid_t uid, struct passwd *pwbuf,
               char *buf, size_t buflen, struct passwd **pwbufp);

The lecturer says that you can then exit the screen by pressing 'Q' for quit.
However, when ever i do it all i get is:

Code:

cwaves (6x)          - languid sinusoidal colors
dbus-uuidgen (1)     - Utility to generate UUIDs
fdutilsconfig (8)    - configure the suid bit of fdmount
findfs (8)           - Find a filesystem by label or UUID
Gnome2::Druid (3pm)  - (unknown subject)
Gnome2::DruidPage (3pm) - (unknown subject)
Gnome2::DruidPageEdge (3pm) - (unknown subject)
Gnome2::DruidPageStandard (3pm) - (unknown subject)
Gnome2::UIDefs (3pm) - (unknown subject)
LDP (7)              - Intro to the Linux Documentation Project, with help, guides and documents
mdoc (7)             - quick reference guide for the -mdoc macro package
pam_loginuid (8)     - Record user's login uid to the process attribute
uuidd (8)            - UUID generation daemon
uuidgen (1)          - command-line utility to create a new UUID value
vol_id (8)           - probe filesystem type and read label and uuid

Why isn't the synopsis and explanation of uid displayed? Or am I doing this completely wrong?

So -k gives you all the man pages that reference uid. You can then read those man pages (with just plain man) to see what they have to say. man -K (notice the difference) searches inside the man pages (and at least in my version of Mac OS here, it asks me, for each one it finds, whether I want to read it).

You can get information about man by typing "man --help".