xref: /csrg-svn/usr.bin/man/man.1 (revision 65281)
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	8.2 (Berkeley) 01/02/94
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 C Ar file
18.Op Fl M Ar path
19.Op Fl m Ar path
20.Op Ar section
21.Ar name Ar ...
22.Sh DESCRIPTION
23The
24.Nm man
25utility
26displays the
27.Bx
28manual pages entitled
29.Ar name .
30.Pp
31The options are as follows:
32.Bl -tag -width indent
33.It Fl a
34Display all of the manual pages for a specified
35.Ar section
36and
37.Ar name
38combination.
39(Normally, only the first manual page found is displayed.)
40.It Fl C
41Use the specified
42.Ar file
43instead of the default configuration file.
44This permits users to configure their own manual environment.
45See
46.Xr man.conf 5
47for a description of the contents of this file.
48.It Fl c
49Copy the manual page to the standard output instead of using
50.Xr more 1
51to paginate it.
52This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device.
53.It Fl h
54Display only the
55.Dq Tn SYNOPSIS
56lines of the requested manual pages.
57.It Fl M
58Override the list of standard directories which
59.Nm man
60searches for manual pages.
61The supplied
62.Ar path
63must be a colon (``:'') separated list of directories.
64This search path may also be set using the environment variable
65.Ev MANPATH .
66The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order,
67is specified by the ``_subdir'' line in the
68.Nm man
69configuration file.
70.It Fl m
71Augment the list of standard directories which
72.Nm man
73searches for manual pages.
74The supplied
75.Ar path
76must be a colon (``:'') separated list of directories.
77These directories will be searched before the standard directories or
78the directories specified using the
79.Fl M
80option or the
81.Ev MANPATH
82environment variable.
83The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order,
84is specified by the ``_subdir'' line in the
85.Nm man
86configuration file.
87.It Fl w
88List the pathnames of the manual pages which
89.Nm man
90would display for the specified
91.Ar section
92and
93.Ar name
94combination.
95.El
96.Pp
97The optional
98.Ar section
99argument restricts the directories that
100.Nm man
101will search.
102The
103.Nm man
104configuration file (see
105.Xr man.conf 5 )
106specifies the possible
107.Ar section
108values that are currently available.
109If only a single argument is specified or if the first argument is
110not a valid section,
111.Nm man
112assumes that the argument is the name of a manual page to be displayed.
113.Sh ENVIRONMENT
114.Bl -tag -width MANPATHX
115.It Ev MACHINE
116As some manual pages are intended only for specific architectures,
117.Nm man
118searches any subdirectories,
119with the same name as the current architecture,
120in every directory which it searches.
121Machine specific areas are checked before general areas.
122The current machine type may be overridden by setting the environment
123variable
124.Ev MACHINE
125to the name of a specific architecture.
126.It Ev MANPATH
127The standard search path used by
128.Nm man
129may be overridden by specifying a path in the
130.Ev MANPATH
131environment
132variable.
133The format of the path is a colon (``:'') separated list of directories.
134The subdirectories to be searched as well as their search order
135is specified by the ``_subdir'' line in the
136.Nm man
137configuration file.
138.It Ev PAGER
139Any value of the environment variable
140.Ev PAGER
141will be used instead of the standard pagination program,
142.Xr more 1 .
143.El
144.Sh FILES
145.Bl -tag -width /etc/man.conf -compact
146.It Pa /etc/man.conf
147default man configuration file.
148.El
149.Sh SEE ALSO
150.Xr apropos 1 ,
151.Xr whatis 1 ,
152.Xr whereis 1 ,
153.Xr man.conf 5
154.Sh BUGS
155The on-line manual pages are, by necessity, forgiving toward stupid
156display devices, causing a few manual pages to not as nicely formatted
157as their typeset counterparts.
158.Sh HISTORY
159A
160.Nm
161command appeared in
162.At v6 .
163