See The MAN page for the last command $ man !! $ man !!:0 This works in bash. The "!!:0" limits the argument to man to be only the first word of the last command. "!!:1" would be the second, etc. EX: arul@arul-desktop:~$ ls | wc 17 17 153 arul@arul-desktop:~$ man !!:0 man ls arul@arul-desktop:~$ ls | wc 17 17 153 arul@arul-desktop:~$ man !!:1 man | arul@arul-desktop:~$ ls | wc 17 17 153 arul@arul-desktop:~$ man !!:2 man wc -- Regards, Tha.Suresh My experiences with Linux are here, http://thasulinux.wordpress.com