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?

Answer 1

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) .