API docs are confusing -- Node.JS

Question

I got this on fs.rename from the docs -- http://nodejs.org/api/fs.html

fs.rename(oldPath, newPath, callback)

Explanation:

Asynchronous rename(2). No arguments other than a possible exception are given to the completion callback.

However I don't really understand what this is because I am new to programming. Its a 2 word explanation with the explanation containing the word that it needs to explain:

What is fs.rename, Asynchronous rename.

I find this a bit annoying and confusing.

Same goes for this:

fs.ftruncate(fd, len, callback)

Explanation:

Asynchronous ftruncate(2).

A huge amount of the node api docs are like this and its giving me a hard time. Is there a better resource I can use to understand what these mean?

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-20 22:01:28Z

3

It's not "asynchronous rename", it's "asynchronous rename(2)". The number in parens refers to the man page section it is found in, and section 2 is system calls. You are expected to read the man page (man 2 rename in a terminal) in order to learn about the original synchronous function. The same applies to ftruncate(2).

answered Jul 20, 2014 at 22:01

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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2 Comments

slebetman Over a year ago

It would be better if you would note that both rename and fturncate are C functions from the C standard library. While most old-school programmers would immediately recognize fturncate a lot of people starting to learn programming these days don't know C so they won't know what you are talking about.

slebetman Over a year ago

@Zachooz: man is the name of a program. It's the original online documentation system for Unix and is available on Linux and MacOS X. If you are on windows or don't have man installed then yes, use that website

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