xref: /original-bsd/usr.bin/man/man.1 (revision c3e32dec)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff%
5.\"
6.\"     @(#)man.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 06/06/93
7.\"
8.Dd
9.Dt MAN 1
10.Os BSD 4
11.Sh NAME
12.Nm man
13.Nd display the on-line manual pages
14.Sh SYNOPSIS
15.Nm man
16.Op Fl achw
17.Op Fl M Ar path
18.Op Fl m Ar path
19.Op Ar section
20.Ar name Ar ...
21.Sh DESCRIPTION
22The
23.Nm man
24utility
25displays the
26.Bx
27manual pages entitled
28.Ar name .
29.Pp
30The options are as follows:
31.Bl -tag -width indent
32.It Fl a
33Display all of the manual pages for a specified
34.Ar section
35and
36.Ar name
37combination.
38(Normally, only the first manual page found is displayed.)
39.It Fl c
40Copy the manual page to the standard output instead of using
41.Xr more 1
42to paginate it.
43This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device.
44.It Fl h
45Display only the
46.Dq Tn SYNOPSIS
47lines of the requested manual pages.
48.It Fl M
49Override the list of standard directories which
50.Nm man
51searches for manual pages.
52The supplied
53.Ar path
54must be a colon (``:'') separated list of directories.
55This search path may also be set using the environment variable
56.Ev MANPATH .
57The subdirectories to be searched as well as their search order
58is specified by the ``_subdir'' line in the
59.Nm man
60configuration file.
61.It Fl m
62Augment the list of standard directories which
63.Nm man
64searches for manual pages.
65The supplied
66.Ar path
67must be a colon (``:'') separated list of directories.
68These directories will be searched before the standard directories or
69the directories specified using the
70.Fl M
71option or the
72.Ev MANPATH
73environment variable.
74.It Fl w
75List the pathnames of the manual pages which
76.Nm man
77would display for the specified
78.Ar section
79and
80.Ar name
81combination.
82.El
83.Pp
84The optional
85.Ar section
86restricts the directories that
87.Nm man
88will search.
89The
90.Nm man
91configuration file (see
92.Xr man_conf 5 )
93specifies the possible
94.Ar section
95values that are currently available.
96If only a single argument is specified or if the first argument is
97not a valid section,
98.Nm man
99assumes that the argument is the name of a manual page to be displayed.
100.Sh ENVIRONMENT
101.Bl -tag -width MANPATHX
102.It Ev MACHINE
103As some manual pages are intended only for use on certain architectures,
104.Nm man
105searches certain directories applicable to the current machine.
106Man's
107determination of the current machine type may be overridden by setting
108the environment variable
109.Ev MACHINE
110to the name of an architecture (see
111.Xr machine 1 ) .
112Machine specific areas are checked before general areas.
113.It Ev MANPATH
114The standard search path used by
115.Nm man
116may be overridden by specifying a path in the
117.Ev MANPATH
118environment
119variable.
120The format of the path is a colon (``:'') separated list of directories.
121The subdirectories to be searched as well as their search order
122is specified by the ``_subdir'' line in the
123.Nm man
124configuration file.
125.It Ev PAGER
126Any value of the environment variable
127.Ev PAGER
128will be used instead of the standard pagination program
129.Xr more 1 .
130.El
131.Sh FILES
132.Bl -tag -width /etc/man.conf -compact
133.It Pa /etc/man.conf
134man configuration file (see
135.Xr man_conf 5 )
136.El
137.Sh SEE ALSO
138.Xr apropos 1 ,
139.Xr machine 1 ,
140.Xr whatis 1 ,
141.Xr whereis 1 ,
142.Xr man_conf 5
143.Sh BUGS
144The on-line manual pages are, by necessity, forgiving toward stupid
145display devices, causing some manual pages to not be as good as their
146typeset counterparts.
147.Sh HISTORY
148A
149.Nm
150command appeared in
151.At v6 .
152