
Ask HN: Why is it called an “on-line” man page - nishs
Running<p><pre><code>  $ man man
</code></pre>
brings up the manual page for &quot;man&quot;, which refers to itself as &quot;on-line&quot; manual pages. What does on-line mean in this context?<p><pre><code>  man(1)                                           man(1)

  NAME
         man - format and display the on-line manual pages</code></pre>
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greenyoda
In 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.)

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pixpop
It means you read it on your computer. You don't need to go find the hardcopy.

