tldr

Website: github.com/tldr-pages/tldr

tldr (Too Long; Didn’t Read) is a community-maintained collection of simplified, practical help pages for command-line tools. Unlike traditional man pages which can be dense and overwhelming, tldr provides concise, real-world examples showing exactly how to use common commands. It is available as a command-line client and a web application.

Key Features

• Practical Examples — Shows real-world usage examples instead of exhaustive documentation
• Multi-Language Support — Pages translated into dozens of languages
• Multiple Clients — Official Python, Rust, and Node.js clients plus community-built alternatives
• Broad Coverage — Thousands of pages covering Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, and more
• Open Collaboration — Community-driven with thousands of contributors adding and improving pages

Installation

# Python client (recommended)
pipx install tldr

# Rust client
cargo install tldr --locked

# Node.js client
npm install -g tldr

# Or use the web client at https://tldr.inbrowser.app

Usage

Once installed, just run tldr <command> to get helpful examples. For instance, tldr tar shows practical archive examples instead of the hundreds of flags in the man page.

Platform

Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, SunOS, Android

Licence

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Website

github.com/tldr-pages/tldr