Question: I'm looking for the windows executable for the linux man (manual reader).

I tried googling around, but got frustrated with the kind of results it came up with, owing to 'man' being such a common phrase.

I got results that read "man executed in texas..". 

So I look to the SO community now. Any clues?

---

Here's my need: I have Portable Git on windows. It has a bash windows binary. But when it tries to show me help for some commands, the poor thing complains that "there is no manual reader". So if I get a man binary, I'll place it in the bin/ directory and all will be hunky-dory.

Answer: 
If you are looking to open linux style man pages in Windows, then get [Groff for Windows](http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/groff.htm) to view the man pages on your command line as follows:

```
groff -Tascii -mm your_file | more

```
In Windows, the commands that are part of the [command interpreter (`cmd.exe`)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_Prompt_(Windows)), such as the `dir`, `copy`, `ren`, and such commands will display some help information with the `/?` switch.

Some examples:

```
dir /?
rename /?
copy /?

```

This is a hold out from the DOS days when many of the commands and programs used the backslash for the switches, and `?` was used for displaying usage and help information, hence the `/?` switch.

Also, typing `help` at the command interpreter will also display a listing of all the command interpreter's commands. `help <command_name>` will also bring up help information as well.

Microsoft provides a [Command Reference](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754340.aspx) which has usage and options available for each command.