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Perhaps apropos is your friend here? :$ apropos umask pam_umask (8) - PAM module to set the file mode creation maskAs I said in the original, I found it almost immediately. However, doesn't the Debian policy manual require a man page for every program?
Not being a DD or DM I cannot possibly comment on this. However: $: which umask $:So umask is _not_ a program (in the sense that there is no binary called umask on the system)
I guess because they are not programs (in the above sense). However this is but a guess.Wouldn't that lead users to try the man system to get help on every command, since a new or non-technical user would have no way to know that umask or read or fg is not a "program" but a personality of Bash? So why _not_ have a man page for them?
IMO the man system needs you to know what you are looking for. If you do not know umask is a shell builtin then I guess the man system can let you down. Hence apropos, as this, at least, will search for appropriate man pages. One more command to learn perhaps?
Cheers Iain