man
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 3 documentation viewers
Recommended for its useful, searchable reference pages, including man -k for finding the right section. Common caveat: arcane and frustrating to use.
Recommended for its useful, searchable reference pages, including man -k for finding the right section. Common caveat: arcane and frustrating to use.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Finds the right section with man -k
“man -k crontab is the real trick here. shows both sections so you don't have to already know the number exists.”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Number in man page titles e.g. sleep(3)” “Man -k is often good for this”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Wayland desktop for Linux with skeuomorphic design” Detailed, thorough documentation
“For actual documentation man pages and info documents are pretty awesome.”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “Way AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills” “Both tell you in detail what the flag and utility do.”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Number in man page titles e.g. sleep(3)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Search limited to literal strings
“it's paged content in a terminal which can search only for literal strings”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: Has anyone replaced Claude/GPT with a local model for daily coding?” “Silently destroying our ability to grep it should NOT be the default.”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “SSH Secret Menu” Too complex, assumes prior knowledge
“you have to already know about the existence of eui-64 to know that is what you want”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “What Killed Perl?” “the official docs (man pages for POSIX, MSDN for Win32 etc.) are way too complex”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “The Junior Hiring Crisis”
Other documentation viewers people recommend
The two most recommended other documentation viewers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 3 documentation viewers, rankedWhat people said
19 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Man -k is often good for this”
“it's paged content in a terminal which can search only for literal strings”
“imo the best treatise on this idea”
“man was designed at a time you likely can't conceive of.”
“Programs these old are controlled by people who are very strongly opposed to change”
“Both tell you in detail what the flag and utility do.”
“man --help on my machine shows "-k, --apropos equivalent to apropos", which isn't very useful”
“man -k crontab is the real trick here. shows both sections so you don't have to already know the number exists.”
“A documentation system designed by someone who doesn't understand how people use documentation.”
“man pages are great examples here”
“they're terrible, just an endless catalogue of incomprehensible options scrolling past”
“Silently destroying our ability to grep it should NOT be the default.”
“Man pages are at the same time really useful, while being arcane and frustrating to use.”
“For actual documentation man pages and info documents are pretty awesome.”
“I do use '/FILES' or PgUp from the bottom of the manpage, so the length of the manpages is irrelevant.”
“the official docs (man pages for POSIX, MSDN for Win32 etc.) are way too complex”
“i prefer info in there to any online docs”
“you have to already know about the existence of eui-64 to know that is what you want”
“you need to read `man man` first!”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.