There is a passwd manual page in section 1 (the command) and another in section 5 (the /etc/passwd file format). Which command opens the section 5 page?
LPIC-1 Exam 101-500, objective 103. GNU and Unix commands medium
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The options
Correct man 5 passwd
Correct. The section number goes before the page name, so this opens passwd(5), the file-format page.
Not correct man passwd 5
Wrong. Arguments after the first are treated as further page names, so man shows passwd(1) and then looks for a page literally called 5.
Not correct man -k passwd
Wrong. -k is the apropos search: it lists every page whose name or description mentions the keyword, but opens none of them.
Not correct man -f passwd
Wrong. -f is whatis: it prints the one-line description of each section's passwd page, which tells you section 5 exists but does not display it.
Why
Manual sections that matter for this exam: 1 user commands, 5 file formats and configuration files, 8 system administration commands. When the same name exists in several sections, man shows the first match in its configured section search order (on Debian and Red Hat that order starts 1, 8, 3, 2, 5, ... so passwd(1) wins) unless you name the section first, as in `man 5 passwd`. Use `man -f name` (whatis) to see which sections exist and `man -k keyword` (apropos) to search descriptions.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- LPI exam objective 103.1
- What it says
- Use man and the manual sections to find documentation for commands and file formats.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 103 and space the ones you get wrong.