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Ask HN: Why is it called an “on-line” man page
Running
$ man man
brings up the manual page for "man", which refers to itself as "on-line" manual pages. What does on-line mean in this context?
man(1) man(1)
NAME
man - format and display the on-line manual pages
- pixpop 10y agoIt means you read it on your computer. You don't need to go find the hardcopy.
- greenyoda 10y agoIn the old days, when I first started using Unix (around 1979), the Unix documentation was also available in printed manuals. I'd guess that the paper version was the "off-line" version and the one output by "man" on the terminal was the "on-line" version. (I still have a set of Version 7 Unix manuals in my basement.)