About Pantry
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## About Pantry

As you can see, this user manual is of some length. Right now you are probably wondering what Pantry does, whether it is right for you, and how it compares to similar programs.

## 1. What Pantry is

Pantry is a command-line oriented nutrient analysis program. That's right, command-line oriented. What's more, Pantry is a true command-line program: there are no menus, there are no prompts. Instead, you simply type commands from your shell prompt, and Pantry does what you ask it to do, displaying results if you have asked it to do that. Thus, Pantry is different from other programs which run in a text-based terminal but which also present the user with menus; Wikipedia calls such programs text-user interface programs.

In addition to using Pantry from your shell prompt, you also interact with it through XML files. Using XML, you can edit Pantry's configuration file. You can also add nutrient information for custom foods (though Pantry includes nutrient information for over 7,000 foods to get you started) and recipes using XML.

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Pantry User Guide | Home | 2. Pantry's advantages