xref: /minix/usr.bin/man/man.1 (revision ebfedea0)
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30.\"     @(#)man.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/2/94
31.\"
32.Dd October 7, 2011
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 or relative path then
179.Nm
180interprets it as a file specification, so that you can do
181.Nm
182.Cm ./foo.5
183or even
184.Nm
185.Cm /cd/foo/bar.1.gz .
186.Sh ENVIRONMENT
187.Bl -tag -width MANPATHX
188.It Ev MACHINE
189As some man pages are intended only for specific architectures,
190.Nm
191searches any subdirectories,
192with the same name as the current architecture,
193in every directory which it searches.
194Machine specific areas are checked before general areas.
195The current machine type may be overridden by setting the environment
196variable
197.Ev MACHINE
198to the name of a specific architecture.
199.It Ev MANPATH
200The standard search path used by
201.Nm
202may be overridden by specifying a path in the
203.Ev MANPATH
204environment variable.
205The format of the path is a colon
206.Pq Dq \&:
207separated list of directories.
208The subdirectories to be searched as well as their search order
209is specified by the
210.Dq _subdir
211line in the
212.Nm
213configuration file.
214.It Ev PAGER
215The pagination command used for writing the output.
216If the
217.Ev PAGER
218environment variable is null or not set, the standard pagination program
219.Xr more 1
220will be used.
221.El
222.Sh FILES
223.Bl -hang -width /etc/man.conf -compact
224.It Pa /etc/man.conf
225default man configuration file.
226.El
227.Sh SEE ALSO
228.Xr apropos 1 ,
229.Xr whatis 1 ,
230.Xr whereis 1 ,
231.Xr man.conf 5 ,
232.Xr mdoc 7 ,
233.Xr mdoc.samples 7
234.Sh STANDARDS
235.Nm
236conforms to
237.St -xcu5 .
238.\"and is expected to conform to
239.\".St -p1003.2-?? .
240.Sh BUGS
241The on-line man pages are, by necessity, forgiving toward stupid
242display devices, causing a few man pages to be not as nicely formatted
243as their typeset counterparts.
244