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What is the use of this switch ?

Terminal - What is the use of this switch ?
manswitch() { man $1 | grep -A5 "^ *\-$2"; }
2011-08-19 08:36:54
User: totti
Functions: grep man
1
Up
Down
What is the use of this switch ?

Find the usage of a switch with out searching through the entire man page.

Usage: manswitch [cmd] [switch]

Eg:

manswitch grep silent

____________________________

In simple words

man <cmd> | grep "\-<switch>"

Eg:

man grep | grep "\-o"

This is not a standard method but works.

Show sample output | Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Alternatives

There is 1 alternative - vote for the best!

Terminal - Alternatives
manswitch () { man $1 | less -p "^ +$2"; }
2011-08-19 16:44:48
User: dbh
Functions: less man
Tags: grep switch
13
Up
Down
What is the use of this switch ?

e.g.

manswitch grep -o

This will take you to the relevant part of the man page, so you can see the description of the switch underneath.

Comments (2) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Know a better way?

If you can do better, submit your command here.

What others think

That doesn't show you the details in several cases; just the line saying it's an option.

Comment by kaedenn 91 weeks and 2 days ago

This will give you only the first line of a switch's description, which may only be the long-form of the same switch. It will also bring up many false positives.

man sed |grep -- -n

Gives you three lines, only one is relevant, and it only tells you that '-n' is the same as '--silent' but doesn't tell you what '--silent' means.

Comment by Mozai 91 weeks and 2 days ago

Your point of view

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