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That’s a variable order. I prefer a more consistent order like a default section structure (which a lot of man pages adopt) and an alphabetical order for flags (which a lot of man pages also adopt).

When I open a manual it’s usually for: flags and argument ordering; argument format (for things like string format or globbing). Some manuals are short enough that it can serve as a guide, but most assumes domain knowledge.

What you want is a cheatsheet. And there’s a lot on the internet and even some tools that collect them. But most practitioners write shell aliases and functions



I believe when people run one of my programs and read the manual, it is my job to not waste their time and respect why they chose to do that.

And that means the first screen they read should cover all the basics if possible.




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