Explainshell
lastmod 2026-11-10created 2022-11-103 edits
explainshell is a web tool that takes a one-line shell command and shows what each command and option means by excerpting the text of the man pages. It looks up the description for each argument in a database of pre-parsed manual pages and displays it mapped onto the command. It is used as a reference when interpreting unfamiliar pipelines or long combinations of options, and since its source is public, it can also be installed yourself.
match command-line arguments to their help text
See also
- shell
- bash
- sh
- ShellSpec - full-featured BDD unit testing framework
- shellcheck - ShellCheck, a static analysis tool for shell scripts
- shfmt - A shell parser, formatter, and interpreter with bash support
- Explainshell - match command-line arguments to their help text