xref: /minix/usr.bin/man/man.1 (revision 366d18b2)
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30.\"     @(#)man.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/2/94
31.\"
32.Dd August 14, 2014
33.Dt MAN 1
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm man
37.Nd display the on-line manual pages
38.Pq aka Dq Em man pages
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.Nm
41.Oo Fl acw Ns \&| Ns Fl h Oc
42.Op Fl C Ar file
43.Op Fl M Ar path
44.Op Fl m Ar path
45.Op Fl S Ar srch
46.Oo
47.Op Fl s
48.Ar section
49.Oc
50.Ar name Ar ...
51.Nm
52.Fl k
53.Op Fl C Ar file
54.Op Fl M Ar path
55.Op Fl m Ar path
56.Ar keyword Ar ...
57.Nm
58.Fl p
59.Sh DESCRIPTION
60The
61.Nm
62utility displays the manual pages named on the command line.
63Its options are as follows:
64.Bl -tag -width indent
65.It Fl a
66Display all of the man pages for a specified
67.Ar section
68and
69.Ar name
70combination.
71(Normally, only the first man page found is displayed.)
72.It Fl C
73Use the specified
74.Ar file
75instead of the default configuration file.
76This permits users to configure their own man environment.
77See
78.Xr man.conf 5
79for a description of the contents of this file.
80.It Fl c
81Copy the man page to the standard output instead of using
82.Xr more 1
83to paginate it.
84This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device.
85.It Fl h
86Display only the
87.Dq Tn SYNOPSIS
88lines of the requested man pages.
89For commands, this is typically the command line usage information.
90For library functions, this usually contains the required include
91files and function prototypes.
92.It Fl k
93Display the header lines for any man pages matching
94.Ar keyword Ns Pq s ,
95in the same manner as
96.Xr apropos 1 .
97.It Fl M
98Override the list of standard directories which
99.Nm
100searches for man pages.
101The supplied
102.Ar path
103must be a colon
104.Pq Dq \&:
105separated list of directories.
106This search path may also be set using the environment variable
107.Ev MANPATH .
108The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order,
109is specified by the
110.Dq _subdir
111line in the
112.Nm
113configuration file.
114.It Fl m
115Augment the list of standard directories which
116.Nm
117searches for man pages.
118The supplied
119.Ar path
120must be a colon
121.Pq Dq \&:
122separated list of directories.
123These directories will be searched before the standard directories or
124the directories specified using the
125.Fl M
126option or the
127.Ev MANPATH
128environment variable.
129The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order,
130is specified by the
131.Dq _subdir
132line in the
133.Nm
134configuration file.
135.It Fl p
136Print the search path for the manual pages.
137.It Fl s
138Restrict the directories that
139.Nm
140will search to the specified section.
141The
142.Nm
143configuration file (see
144.Xr man.conf 5 )
145specifies the possible
146.Ar section
147values that are currently available.
148.It Fl S
149Display only man pages that have the specified string in the directory
150part of their filenames.
151This allows the man page search process criteria to be
152narrowed without having to change the MANPATH or
153.Dq _default
154variables.
155.It Fl w
156List the pathnames of the man pages which
157.Nm
158would display for the specified
159.Ar section
160and
161.Ar name
162combination.
163.El
164.Pp
165If the
166.Ql Fl s
167option is not specified,
168there is more than one argument,
169the
170.Ql Fl k
171option is not used, and the first argument is a valid section, then that
172argument will be used as if specified by the
173.Ql Fl s
174option.
175.Pp
176If
177.Ar name
178is given with a full path (beginning with
179.Ql Pa \&/ )
180or a relative path that begins with
181.Ql Pa .\&/
182or
183.Ql Pa .\&./ ,
184then
185.Nm
186interprets it as a file specification, so that you can do
187.Nm
188.Cm ./foo.5
189or even
190.Nm
191.Cm /cd/foo/bar.1.gz .
192If
193.Ar name
194contains
195.Ql Pa /
196but does not match one of the above cases, then the
197search path is used; this allows you to request
198machine-specific man pages, such as
199.Nm Cm vax/boot .
200.Sh ENVIRONMENT
201.Bl -tag -width MANPATHX
202.It Ev MACHINE
203As some man pages are intended only for specific architectures,
204.Nm
205searches any subdirectories,
206with the same name as the current architecture,
207in every directory which it searches.
208Machine specific areas are checked before general areas.
209The current machine type may be overridden by setting the environment
210variable
211.Ev MACHINE
212to the name of a specific architecture.
213Machine-specific man pages may also be requested by
214prepending the relevant subdirectory name to the page name,
215separated by
216.Ql Pa \&/ .
217.It Ev MANPATH
218The standard search path used by
219.Nm
220may be overridden by specifying a path in the
221.Ev MANPATH
222environment variable.
223The format of the path is a colon
224.Pq Dq \&:
225separated list of directories.
226The subdirectories to be searched as well as their search order
227is specified by the
228.Dq _subdir
229line in the
230.Nm
231configuration file.
232.It Ev PAGER
233The pagination command used for writing the output.
234If the
235.Ev PAGER
236environment variable is null or not set, the standard pagination program
237.Xr more 1
238will be used.
239.El
240.Sh FILES
241.Bl -hang -width /etc/man.conf -compact
242.It Pa /etc/man.conf
243default man configuration file.
244.El
245.Sh SEE ALSO
246.Xr apropos 1 ,
247.Xr whatis 1 ,
248.Xr whereis 1 ,
249.Xr man.conf 5 ,
250.Xr mdoc 7 ,
251.Xr mdoc.samples 7
252.Sh STANDARDS
253.Nm
254conforms to
255.St -xcu5 .
256.\"and is expected to conform to
257.\".St -p1003.2-?? .
258.Sh BUGS
259The on-line man pages are, by necessity, forgiving toward stupid
260display devices, causing a few man pages to be not as nicely formatted
261as their typeset counterparts.
262