What does the "3" in printf(3) denote?

Question

man pages of the printf and online documentations often show printf(3) when explaining the functionality of printf. What does the "3" denote?

It’s a section! See `man man`. – Ry- Nov 16 '18 at 05:54 — Ry-, Nov 16 '18 at 05:54

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 16 '18 at 05:57

3 denotes the section which printf is a part of. Section 3 corresponds to: Library calls (functions within program libraries).

You could also issue man <section number> <keyword>, eg. man 3 printf to look up a keyword in a specific section. man 1 printf will show you the printf shell command.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 16 '18 at 05:57

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According to the man about the man page. 3 referers to Library calls.So 'printf(3)' is a library call.

answered Nov 16 '18 at 05:57

Gunasekar

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 16 '18 at 05:58

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Your printf is a library function so documented in printf(3). See intro(3) but there is a similar command printf(1)

And see man-pages(7) for organization of man pages

answered Nov 16 '18 at 05:58

Basile Starynkevitch

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What does the "3" in printf(3) denote?

3 Answers3