Ask HN: Is there a database of Linux commands and their flags

4 points by laumars 8y ago ↗ HN

While the obvious answer is `man`, what I'm after is something parsable so I can convert the contents into a JSON format for a project I'm working on.

Also, same question but for Windows commands (not Powershell).

2 comments

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detaro 8y ago ↗

You probably have to parse the man pages. Explainshell.com does that, you might be able to use some of their code.

laumars 8y ago ↗

Thank you, I'll take a look at Explainshell.com.

It seems weird (to me at least) that there isn't already a modern, machine parsable, format for this.