function(#) 2

[Kirsle]

I see this all over the place in the Perl community, where a function name and then a number is listed. Example:

getcwd

    my $cwd = getcwd();

Returns the current working directory.

Re-implements the [COLOR=red]getcwd(3)[/color] ([COLOR=red]or getwd(3)[/color]) functions in Perl.

and also from perlopentut

SEE ALSO ^

The open and sysopen functions in [COLOR=red]perlfunc(1)[/color]; the system [COLOR=red]open(2), dup(2), fopen(3), and fdopen(3)[/color] manpages; the POSIX documentation.

I've always been just ignoring the numbers because the function name part of it seems pretty self-explanatory, but what do the numbers mean?

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Kirsle.net | Kirsle's Programs and Projects

 

[ishnid]

They refer to the section in the Unix man pages where those functions can be found.

 

[MillerH]

Ishnid: What unix man pages? What section of these man pages? Can you demonstrate what you're talking about?

 

[MAWarGod]

Please Ishnid, will You demonstrate what you're talking about?

As I am new to Unix. I was a windows user.So I am kinda relearning My way

MA WarGod

I believe if someone can think it, it can be programmed

 

[KevinADC]

http://www.bigbiz.com/cgi-bin/manpage

- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!

 

[MillerH]

http://www.bigbiz.com/cgi-bin/manpage

Ahh ... thanks Kevin.

So by section, what they are really talking about is category of man pages. From that website:

* Section 1 - User Commands
* Section 2 - System Calls
* Section 3 - Subroutines
* Section 4 - File Formats
* Section 5 - Miscellaneous
* Section 6 - Games
* Section 7 - Special Files
* Section 8 - System Administration
* Section l - Local
* Section n - New (TCL)

This is nice to be exposed to, but I can't see how this really is relevant to the navigation of the man pages. Except in a very cursory way.

 

[KevinADC]

Yes, it is broad and general, as you can see lumped into general categories. Mostly for techie types.

- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!

 

[Kirsle]

Aha, this is useful, under Subroutines there are all the Tk_ things, which I've seen a lot of in the Tk module pages, like "takes any valid argument that is accepted by Tk_GetPixels" but couldn't find where Tk_GetPixels was ever talked about anywhere. I think I'm gonna bookmark this, I've seen some Tk_Get* things that are less than self-explanatory.

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[ishnid]

Apologies for the terse reply yesterday - I was just heading home.

It's possible to be looking for a manpage for which there are similarly-named pages in other sections. For example on my system:

man open (brings up openvt(1))
man 1 open (does the same)
man 2 open (brings up open(2), which is C's "open" function)
man 3 open (brings up open(3perl), which is Perl's "open" function).