tldr pages

What a page looks like

Every tldr page follows the same format: a one-line description of the command, a link to fuller documentation, and a short list of examples, each with a plain English line saying what it does and the command with placeholder arguments. Running tldr tar shows how to create, list and extract archives; tldr find shows the searches people actually run. That is the whole idea: the five commands you need, not the fifty flags you do not.

The project is maintained on GitHub by contributors; the pages are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 and the helper scripts under MIT. Pages are grouped by platform (common, Linux, macOS, Windows, SunOS and Android) and many have been translated into other languages.

The main repository has about 63.7k stars and 5.4k forks on GitHub and receives commits daily as of September 2026, so pages stay current as tools change.

Getting it on your machine

• The official Python client is the most mature option. Install it with pipx install tldr.
• Many other community clients exist, for Node, Rust, Go and more, as well as desktop and mobile apps. The project wiki lists them.
• A web version runs in the browser if you cannot install anything, and a PDF version exists for offline reading.

Most clients cache pages locally, so after the first update they work offline. Run the update command occasionally to pull new and corrected pages.

Where it fits alongside man pages

tldr is not a replacement for manual pages; it is the step before them. Use it when you know which command you need but not the syntax. When you need an unusual flag, exact behaviour or an edge case, open man or the tool's own --help. A good habit is to run tldr first, and read the man page only for the option you found there.

It also works well while learning Linux. Looking up tldr chmod, tldr ssh or tldr grep as you meet each command builds a working vocabulary quickly, and the examples are safer starting points than random forum snippets.

Contributing is a good first open source step

Pages are small Markdown files with a strict style guide, which makes tldr one of the friendliest places to make a first pull request. If you notice a missing command or an example that could be clearer, the contributing guide explains the format, and reviewers are used to first-time contributors.

Pair it with

• A shell alias such as h for tldr, to remove friction
• explainshell for breaking down a long command you found somewhere
• The Linux Command Line book when you want to understand the shell properly rather than look things up

Common questions

Does it replace man pages? No. It covers the common cases. For anything unusual, the man page or official docs are still the reference.

Does it work on Windows? Yes. There are Windows-specific pages, and several clients run on Windows. The web version works anywhere.

Is it accurate? Pages are reviewed before merging, and the maintainers are strict about style, but always check destructive commands (rm, dd, git reset) before running them.

Is it free? Yes, it is fully open source and community maintained.

Best for: developers and students who use the terminal regularly and keep searching the web for the same commands.