CODEWITHSUNDEEP
git
hasanghaforian
hasanghaforian

Reputation: 14042

Numerical suffix after entry name in Git's docs

In Git docs you can see a numerical suffix after entry name, for example:

What do those suffix mean?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 35

Answers (1)

zedfoxus
zedfoxus

Reputation: 37129

This number suffix is the manual section. Notice Introduction to Volume 1 in http://plan9.bell-labs.com/7thEdMan/v7vol1.pdf. There are different sections of which:

  • 1 is commands
  • 5 is file format and convention and
  • 7 is macro packages and language conventions

git(1) indicates that git manual/doc relates to section 1. gitrepository-layout(5) indicates that gitrepository-layout manual/doc relates to section 5.

On GNU/Linux (Ubuntu 14.04) when I do man git, Git Manual shows GIT(1). I could also write man 1 git to get to the same page.

There are some commands such as info that may appear in multiple sections such as section 1 and section 5. In such cases info(1) and info(5) can be used for clarification and based on that one could find information about info using man 1 info and man 5 info. I don't know if any git commands fall in multiple section but the convention is still followed.

Also see this answer: What does the number in parentheses shown after Unix command names mean?

Upvotes: 2

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