Which command should you run to view the file format information for /etc/fstab?

• A. man 5 crontab
• B. man 5 passwd
• C. man 5 group
• D. man 5 fstab

Answer: (D)

You view a file’s documented format by using the manual pages in the section that covers file formats and conventions. For /etc/fstab, the relevant page is the file-format description, so you should run the manual command with the appropriate section number: man 5 fstab. This pulls up the fstab page that explains the six fields per line, their meaning, and the allowed values, which is exactly what you need to understand the file’s structure and how to edit it safely. The other options point to manual pages about unrelated topics (like the cron table, password file, or group file), so they won’t describe the /etc/fstab file format.