Editing Man page (section)

==Manual sections==
The manual is generally split into eight numbered sections. Most systems today (e.g. [[BSD]],<ref name=FBSD>{{man|1|man|FreeBSD}}</ref> [[macOS]], [[Linux]],<ref name=mk/> and [[Oracle Solaris|Solaris]] 11.4) inherit the numbering scheme used by [[Research Unix]].<ref name=v8>{{cite web |title=Manual Pages for Research Unix Eighth Edition |url=http://man.cat-v.org/unix_8th/ |website=man.cat-v.org |access-date=2020-05-06 |archive-date=2020-06-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630215702/http://man.cat-v.org/unix_8th/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=svr4>{{cite web |title=Unix Programmer's Manual - Introduction |url=https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/manintro.html |website=www.bell-labs.com |date=November 3, 1971 |access-date=May 6, 2020 |archive-date=June 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601064923/https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/manintro.html |url-status=live }}</ref> While [[UNIX System V|System V]] uses a different order:<ref>{{cite web |title=System V release 4 manuals |url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/att/unix/System_V_Release_4/ |website=bitsavers.trailing-edge.com |access-date=2020-05-06 |archive-date=2020-08-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803205815/http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/att/unix/System_V_Release_4/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
! Common
! System V
! Description
|-
| 1
| 1
| General [[Command (computing)|command]]s
|-
| 2
| 2
| [[System call]]s
|-
| 3
| 3
|[[library (computing)|Library]] functions, covering in particular the [[C standard library]]
|-
| 4
| 7
| [[Special file]]s (usually devices, those found in /dev) and [[device driver|drivers]]
|-
| 5
| 4
| [[File format]]s and conventions
|-
| 6
| 6
| [[Video game|Game]]s and [[screensaver]]s
|-
| 7
| 5
| Miscellaneous
|-
| 8
| 1M
| System administration [[command (computing)|command]]s and [[Daemon (computer software)|daemon]]s
|}

[[POSIX]] APIs are present in both sections 2 and 3, where section 2 contains APIs that are implemented as system calls and section 3 contains APIs that are implemented as library routines.

On some systems, additional sections may be included such as:
{| class="wikitable"
! Section
! Description
|-
| 0
| [[C library]] [[header file]]s (Unix v6)
|-
| 9
| [[Kernel (operating system)|Kernel]] routines (FreeBSD, SVR4, Linux)<ref name=svr4/><ref name=FBSD/>
|-
| l
| [[LAPACK]] library functions<ref>{{Cite web|title=lapack (l) - Linux Man Pages|url=https://www.systutorials.com/docs/linux/man/l-lapack/|access-date=2021-05-29|website=www.systutorials.com|archive-date=2023-03-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230311130845/https://www.systutorials.com/docs/linux/man/l-lapack/|url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
| n
| [[Tcl]]/[[Tk (computing)|Tk]] commands
|-
| x
| The [[X Window System]]
|}

Some sections are further subdivided by means of a suffix; for example, in some systems, section 3C is for C library calls, 3M is for the math library, and so on. A consequence of this is that section 8 (system administration commands) is sometimes relegated to the 1M subsection of the main commands section. Some subsection suffixes have a general meaning across sections:
{| class="wikitable"
! Subsection
! Description
|-
| p || [[POSIX]] specifications
|-
| x || [[X Window System]] documentation
|}
(Section 3 tends to be the exception with the many suffixes for different languages.)

Some versions of <code>man</code> cache the formatted versions of the last several pages viewed. One form is the ''cat page'', simply piped to the pager for display.