What is the difference between man and --help?

Question

I used both command lines and displayed the same output

Another answer is hinted at here: discrepancy between path for binary and man page. When you say foo --help, you're running the actual foo program, and getting documentation that's written into that program. But if you say man foo, you might be getting documentation for a different version of foo. — G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica', May 21 '16 at 02:55

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 05 '16 at 21:47

2

Some programs and commands implement --help to give a quick usage summary but man pages are usually much more detailed, better formatted and allow navigation through them instead of a plain text output.

answered May 05 '16 at 21:47

Julie Pelletier

7,622

What is the difference between man and --help?

1 Answers1