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Comment by jweese | Hacker News Reader

I didn't know either. Per "man ab":

> ab - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool

Without having to open the man page:

    $ whatis ab
    ab (1)               - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool

Or with bsd-games installed:

    $ wtf ab
    ab: ab (1)               - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool

Is there a similar tool to see what a certain option in a command does, without opening the man page?

If you just type the command in you should see a list of options and what they do.

Probably best not to try this on any systems you care about if the command is completely unknown. killall on Solaris might have some unintended consequences.

You probably know, but try -h or --help behind the command.

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