Modern Replacements for man
Replace man with tldr, tealdeer or eg: example-first command help instead of full manuals. Compare clients, offline use and customization.
Updated
short verdict
Pick tldr if you want the community page collection with a choice of Python, Rust or Node.js clients. Pick tealdeer if you want a single Rust binary that caches pages for offline lookups. Pick eg if you want to edit the example files yourself and route output through your own pager.
man prints the full reference for a command, which is accurate but long when you only need the tar flags for extracting an archive. The tools below show short, example-based help instead. tldr and tealdeer share one community page collection, while eg keeps its own markdown files that you can extend. None of them lists every flag the way a man page does, so they complement man more than they remove it.
this page is for
- Developers who forget common flags for tar, find or grep
- Sysadmins who want quick examples across Linux, macOS and Windows commands
- Users who want offline lookups from a local page cache
- People who want to maintain their own example files
A community-maintained set of Markdown help pages for Unix, Linux, macOS and Windows commands, queried with `tldr tar`.
best for
- Reading practical examples for thousands of commands
- Choosing a client in Python, Rust or Node.js
- Reading pages in community translations
strengths
- Pages show the most frequently used options with real examples, not full reference text
- Official clients exist for Python (pipx), Rust (Homebrew, Cargo) and Node.js (npm)
- Covers several operating systems, not only Linux
- Content is Markdown on GitHub, so you can contribute or fix a page
weaknesses
- It is a page collection plus clients, so you have to pick and install a client first
- Pages are short examples and do not list every flag like man
A Rust tldr client that downloads the pages once and serves them from a local cache.
best for
- Offline lookups after the first download
- Fast repeated lookups from the terminal
- Users who want highlighting and configuration options
strengths
- Caches pages locally and updates the cache independently of lookups
- Reported average run time of about 13.2ms in its benchmarks
- Follows the official tldr client specification and adds highlighting and configuration options
- Uses the same command-line interface as other tldr clients, so `tealdeer`-style usage carries over
weaknesses
- Needs an initial download before pages are available
- Install path documented is `cargo install tealdeer`, which requires a Rust toolchain
Shows example files named after each command, such as `find.md`, through your pager with `eg find`.
best for
- Customizing or writing your own example sets
- Users who want control over colors and paging
strengths
- Examples live in per-command markdown files, so editing one is a file edit
- Supports custom example directories alongside the default collection
- Respects the `PAGER` environment variable and accepts a custom pager command
- Configurable colors, regex-based output transformations and squeezing of blank lines
weaknesses
- Covers common utilities such as find, tar and grep rather than a broad multi-platform page set
- Installs through pip or Homebrew (`eg-examples`), and language and license are not listed by the project
What changes compared to man
All three tools trade completeness for short, practical output.
- Output is a list of common usage examples, not a full description of every flag and option
- tldr and tealdeer pull from a community collection of pages covering Unix, Linux, macOS and Windows commands
- tealdeer caches pages locally, so everyday lookups work without a network connection
- eg prints a per-command markdown file through a pager and honors the `PAGER` environment variable
- eg lets you add custom example directories and apply regex-based output transformations
When not to use these
- You need the complete list of flags and exact semantics for a command, which only its full manual provides
- You need documentation for an internal or niche tool that has no page in these collections and you don't want to write one
FAQ
- Can tldr, tealdeer or eg replace man in scripts?
- Script compatibility with man is not documented by any of the three projects. They print example-oriented help rather than the full manual, so scripts that parse man output or depend on specific flags should keep using man.
- Do these tools work offline?
- tealdeer downloads and caches tldr pages locally, so lookups work offline after the first download. Offline behavior for the other tldr clients is not documented. eg reads local markdown example files.
- What is the difference between tldr and tealdeer?
- tldr is the community page collection with official clients in Python, Rust and Node.js. tealdeer is a Rust client for those pages, with local caching, highlighting and configuration options, and it uses the same command-line interface as other tldr clients.
- Can I write my own examples?
- With eg, yes: it supports custom example directories and user-defined collections next to the defaults. tldr pages are Markdown on GitHub, and you can contribute new pages or improvements there.