1.\" $NetBSD: man.1,v 1.31 2024/11/29 07:55:10 lukem Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 14.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 15.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 16.\" without specific prior written permission. 17.\" 18.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 19.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 20.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 21.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 22.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 23.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 24.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 25.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 26.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 27.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 28.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 29.\" 30.\" @(#)man.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 1/2/94 31.\" 32.Dd November 29, 2024 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.Op Fl C Ar file 53.Fl f Ar command 54.Ar \&... 55.Nm 56.Op Fl C Ar file 57.Fl k Ar keyword 58.Ar \&... 59.Nm 60.Fl p 61.Sh DESCRIPTION 62The 63.Nm 64utility displays the manual pages named on the command line. 65Its options are as follows: 66.Bl -tag -width Fl 67.It Fl a 68Display all of the man pages for a specified 69.Ar section 70and 71.Ar name 72combination. 73(Normally, only the first man page found is displayed.) 74.It Fl C Ar file 75Use the specified 76.Ar file 77instead of the default configuration file. 78This permits users to configure their own man environment. 79See 80.Xr man.conf 5 81for a description of the contents of this file. 82.It Fl c 83Copy the man page to the standard output instead of using 84.Xr more 1 85to paginate it. 86This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device. 87.It Fl f Ar command 88Synonym for 89.Xr whatis 1 . 90It searches man pages for 91.Ar command 92in their names and displays header lines from all matching pages. 93.It Fl h 94Display only the 95.Dq Tn SYNOPSIS 96lines of the requested man pages. 97For commands, this is typically the command line usage information. 98For library functions, this usually contains the required include 99files and function prototypes. 100.It Fl k Ar keyword 101Search man pages for 102.Ar keyword Ns Pq s , 103in the same manner as 104.Xr apropos 1 . 105.It Fl M Ar path 106Override the list of standard directories which 107.Nm 108searches for man pages. 109The supplied 110.Ar path 111must be a colon 112.Pq Dq \&: 113separated list of directories. 114This search path may also be set using the environment variable 115.Ev MANPATH . 116The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order, 117is specified by the 118.Dq _subdir 119line in the 120.Nm 121configuration file. 122.It Fl m Ar path 123Augment the list of standard directories which 124.Nm 125searches for man pages. 126The supplied 127.Ar path 128must be a colon 129.Pq Dq \&: 130separated list of directories. 131These directories will be searched before the standard directories or 132the directories specified using the 133.Fl M 134option or the 135.Ev MANPATH 136environment variable. 137The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order, 138is specified by the 139.Dq _subdir 140line in the 141.Nm 142configuration file. 143.It Fl p 144Print the search path for the manual pages. 145.It Fl s Ar section 146Restrict the directories that 147.Nm 148will search to the specified 149.Ar section . 150The 151.Nm 152configuration file (see 153.Xr man.conf 5 ) 154specifies the possible 155.Ar section 156values that are currently available. 157.It Fl S Ar srch 158Display only man pages that have the specified string 159.Ar srch 160in the directory part of their filenames. 161This allows the man page search process criteria to be 162narrowed without having to change the MANPATH or 163.Dq _default 164variables. 165.It Fl w 166List the pathnames of the man pages which 167.Nm 168would display for the specified 169.Ar section 170and 171.Ar name 172combination. 173.El 174.Pp 175If the 176.Ql Fl s 177option is not specified, 178there is more than one argument, 179the 180.Ql Fl k 181option is not used, and the first argument is a valid section, then that 182argument will be used as if specified by the 183.Ql Fl s 184option. 185.Pp 186If 187.Ar name 188is given with a full path (beginning with 189.Ql Pa \&/ ) 190or a relative path that begins with 191.Ql Pa .\&/ 192or 193.Ql Pa .\&./ , 194then 195.Nm 196interprets it as a file specification, so that you can do 197.Nm 198.Cm ./foo.5 199or even 200.Nm 201.Cm /cd/foo/bar.1.gz . 202If 203.Ar name 204contains 205.Ql Pa / 206but does not match one of the above cases, then the 207search path is used; this allows you to request 208machine-specific man pages, such as 209.Nm Cm vax/boot . 210.Sh ENVIRONMENT 211.Bl -tag -width MANPATHX 212.It Ev MACHINE 213As some man pages are intended only for specific architectures, 214.Nm 215searches any subdirectories, 216with the same name as the current architecture, 217in every directory which it searches. 218Machine-specific areas are checked before general areas. 219The current machine type may be overridden by setting the environment 220variable 221.Ev MACHINE 222to the name of a specific architecture. 223Machine-specific man pages may also be requested by 224prepending the relevant subdirectory name to the page name, 225separated by 226.Ql Pa \&/ . 227(See also the 228.Dq _ Ns Aq machine 229line in the 230.Xr man.conf 5 231configuration file, which defines additional supplemental paths related to a 232specific machine type.) 233.It Ev MANPATH 234The standard search path used by 235.Nm 236may be overridden by specifying a path in the 237.Ev MANPATH 238environment variable. 239The format of the path is a colon 240.Pq Dq \&: 241separated list of directories. 242The subdirectories to be searched as well as their search order 243is specified by the 244.Dq _subdir 245line in the 246.Xr man.conf 5 247configuration file. 248.It Ev PAGER 249The pagination command used for writing the output. 250If the 251.Ev PAGER 252environment variable is null or not set, the standard pagination program 253.Xr more 1 254will be used. 255.El 256.Sh FILES 257.Bl -hang -width /etc/man.conf -compact 258.It Pa /etc/man.conf 259default man configuration file. 260.El 261.Sh SEE ALSO 262.Xr apropos 1 , 263.Xr whatis 1 , 264.Xr whereis 1 , 265.Xr man.conf 5 , 266.Xr mdoc 7 , 267.Xr mdoc.samples 7 268.Sh STANDARDS 269.Nm 270conforms to 271.St -xcu5 . 272.\"and is expected to conform to 273.\".St -p1003.2-?? . 274.Sh BUGS 275The on-line man pages are, by necessity, forgiving toward stupid 276display devices, causing a few man pages to be not as nicely formatted 277as their typeset counterparts. 278