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When googling for linux commands, I often see a number in parenthesis like this:

mklost+found(8)

What does it mean?
Is it a version number of the program, reference to some standard, or what?

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  • not duplicate, as asker don't know whether it is referring to a man page.
    – TPS
    Commented Sep 28, 2014 at 9:05
  • 1
    @Tejas where else do you see the name of a command followed by a number in parentheses?
    – jasonwryan
    Commented Sep 28, 2014 at 9:44
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    You are right but still I think this question is different.
    – TPS
    Commented Sep 28, 2014 at 10:01
  • Still a reason to close as duplicate, so this closed question will redirect to the one it's duplicating. That prevents duplication of answers and people having to search all over the place and compare answers
    – Anthon
    Commented Sep 28, 2014 at 10:20

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The number refers the section in the system's reference manual in which the corresponding page resides, e.g. for command date, (date(1), in your case), 1 refers to the "user commands" section, which can be accessed by executing the command man 1 date.

See also man man. It lists all the standard sections:

The standard sections of the manual include:

  1      User Commands

  2      System Calls

  3      C Library Functions

  4      Devices and Special Files

  5      File Formats and Conventions

  6      Games et. Al.

  7      Miscellanea

  8      System Administration tools and Deamons

Distributions customize the manual section to their specifics, which often include additional sections.

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