Thread: Questions about using man pages on a linux system.

Hi,

I have been programming in C on a linux computer for almost 2 years (exclusively). I love that I can get the man page for almost any command used in C. But I have questions that don't make sense to me...

When I use a man page, I first use:

Code:

man 3 C_PROGRAMMING_COMMAND

Usually works. But then I need to find the man page for read, but this doesn't work:

Code:

$ man 3 read
No manual entry for read in section 3

So I am forced to try the command again with success:

Code:

man 2 read

Using man 2 and man 3 produce pages with the same header:

Code:

Linux Programmer's Manual

Now the questions...

1) Why aren't they under the same man "number" (ie. all commands are at least listed under 3) if they are part of the Linux Programmer's Manual?

2) Is there an obvious way to determine which man "number" each command would be found under? Is it just older commands that are under man 2?

3) Is there a way to force all man pages listed under man 2 to also be included in man 3 (so I don't have to redo a command with a different number)?

Ty,
Yonut