Question

$ apropos mkfifo mkfifo (1)           - make FIFOs (named pipes) mkfifo (1posix)      - make FIFO special files mkfifo (3)           - make a FIFO special file (a named pipe) mkfifo (3posix)      - make a FIFO special file mkfifoat (3)         - make a FIFO (named pipe) relative to a directory file ... 

So I have man pages for Linux Programmer’s Manual and POSIX Programmer’s Manual. Which should I prefer and why? (I’m writing a Linux application, no plans to port it AIX, BSD etc)

Thanks.

Answer 1

Basically, the linux manuals are documentation of the commands/APIs from their writers; The POSIX manuals are from the POSIX standard. Usually, the ‘normal’ ones are shorter and terser, but deal with the specific implementation; the POSIX ones are longer and more detailed (see man 3p read), but only tell what is in the standard.

The best is to look in both.