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what does crypt(3) and whatnot mean

See portage(5) for more information.

What does the (5) mean? How to see portage(5)?

BTW: Where should I look forward for such questions? This seems well known, but I couldn't find it in most linux document.

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closed as exact duplicate by quack quixote, Troggy♦ Feb 3 '10 at 8:34

This question covers exactly the same ground as earlier questions on this topic; its answers may be merged with another identical question. See the FAQ.

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Section 5 of the man pages is for file formats and conventions. You can see portage(5) by executing man 5 portage. This will tell you how to properly structure a portage file.

You can see documentation for the man page sections in man 7 man.

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man(7) gives details of the formatting macros (as section 7 is the miscellaneous section). man(1) is the more direct version that includes the list of man page sections. (this is on a Debian system; no guarantees for other systems.) – quack quixote Jan 30 '10 at 8:40
@~quack I don't see anything regarding the sections in man 1 man ( linuxmanpages.com/man1/man.1.php ) – John T Jan 30 '10 at 14:52
that's true. that's also got a "last updated" date of September 1995 (man(7) on the same site is from 1999). try this one (looks just like man(1) on my system): man.he.net/?topic=man&section=all .. some systems may list sections under man-pages(7) instead. it will vary on the particular manpage collection being queried. – quack quixote Jan 30 '10 at 18:26
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up vote 3 down vote

Man pages are split up by sections. This allows you to specifically look up an entry for portage in, say, "File Formats and Conventions" (section 5), by selecting the appropriate section from the man command line.

man [section] entry
man portage;          # pull up first occurrence of portage, any section.
man 5 portage;        # pull up occurrence of portage in section 5 only.

Run man man (or man 1 man) for the man manpage, which among other useful features should include a list of all the standard sections.

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