xref: /netbsd-src/usr.bin/man/man.1 (revision b1c86f5f087524e68db12794ee9c3e3da1ab17a0)
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30.\"     @(#)man.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/2/94
31.\"
32.Dd October 6, 2009
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 k
53.Op Fl C Ar file
54.Op Fl M Ar path
55.Op Fl m Ar path
56.Ar keyword Ar ...
57.Sh DESCRIPTION
58The
59.Nm
60utility displays the manual pages named on the command line.
61Its options are as follows:
62.Bl -tag -width indent
63.It Fl a
64Display all of the man pages for a specified
65.Ar section
66and
67.Ar name
68combination.
69(Normally, only the first man page found is displayed.)
70.It Fl C
71Use the specified
72.Ar file
73instead of the default configuration file.
74This permits users to configure their own man environment.
75See
76.Xr man.conf 5
77for a description of the contents of this file.
78.It Fl c
79Copy the man page to the standard output instead of using
80.Xr more 1
81to paginate it.
82This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device.
83.It Fl h
84Display only the
85.Dq Tn SYNOPSIS
86lines of the requested man pages.
87For commands, this is typically the command line usage information.
88For library functions, this usually contains the required include
89files and function prototypes.
90.It Fl k
91Display the header lines for any man pages matching
92.Ar keyword Ns Pq s ,
93in the same manner as
94.Xr apropos 1 .
95.It Fl M
96Override the list of standard directories which
97.Nm
98searches for man pages.
99The supplied
100.Ar path
101must be a colon
102.Pq Dq \&:
103separated list of directories.
104This search path may also be set using the environment variable
105.Ev MANPATH .
106The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order,
107is specified by the
108.Dq _subdir
109line in the
110.Nm
111configuration file.
112.It Fl m
113Augment the list of standard directories which
114.Nm
115searches for man pages.
116The supplied
117.Ar path
118must be a colon
119.Pq Dq \&:
120separated list of directories.
121These directories will be searched before the standard directories or
122the directories specified using the
123.Fl M
124option or the
125.Ev MANPATH
126environment variable.
127The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order,
128is specified by the
129.Dq _subdir
130line in the
131.Nm
132configuration file.
133.It Fl s
134Restrict the directories that
135.Nm
136will search to the specified section.
137The
138.Nm
139configuration file (see
140.Xr man.conf 5 )
141specifies the possible
142.Ar section
143values that are currently available.
144.It Fl S
145Display only man pages that have the specified string in the directory
146part of their filenames.
147This allows the man page search process criteria to be
148narrowed without having to change the MANPATH or
149.Dq _default
150variables.
151.It Fl w
152List the pathnames of the man pages which
153.Nm
154would display for the specified
155.Ar section
156and
157.Ar name
158combination.
159.El
160.Pp
161If the
162.Ql Fl s
163option is not specified,
164there is more than one argument,
165the
166.Ql Fl k
167option is not used, and the first argument is a valid section, then that
168argument will be used as if specified by the
169.Ql Fl s
170option.
171.Pp
172If
173.Ar name
174is given with a full or relative path then
175.Nm
176interprets it as a file specification, so that you can do
177.Nm
178.Cm ./foo.5
179or even
180.Nm
181.Cm /cd/foo/bar.1.gz .
182.Sh ENVIRONMENT
183.Bl -tag -width MANPATHX
184.It Ev MACHINE
185As some man pages are intended only for specific architectures,
186.Nm
187searches any subdirectories,
188with the same name as the current architecture,
189in every directory which it searches.
190Machine specific areas are checked before general areas.
191The current machine type may be overridden by setting the environment
192variable
193.Ev MACHINE
194to the name of a specific architecture.
195.It Ev MANPATH
196The standard search path used by
197.Nm
198may be overridden by specifying a path in the
199.Ev MANPATH
200environment
201variable.
202The format of the path is a colon
203.Pq Dq \&:
204separated list of directories.
205The subdirectories to be searched as well as their search order
206is specified by the
207.Dq _subdir
208line in the
209.Nm
210configuration file.
211.It Ev PAGER
212The pagination command used for writing the output.
213If the
214.Ev PAGER
215environment variable is null or not set, the standard pagination program
216.Xr more 1
217will be used.
218.El
219.Sh FILES
220.Bl -hang -width /etc/man.conf -compact
221.It Pa /etc/man.conf
222default man configuration file.
223.It Pa /usr/{share,X11R6,pkg,local}/man/whatis.db
224standard whatis/apropos database search path,
225set in
226.Pa /etc/man.conf .
227.El
228.Sh SEE ALSO
229.Xr apropos 1 ,
230.Xr whatis 1 ,
231.Xr whereis 1 ,
232.Xr man.conf 5 ,
233.Xr mdoc 7 ,
234.Xr mdoc.samples 7
235.Sh STANDARDS
236.Nm
237conforms to
238.St -xcu5 .
239.\"and is expected to conform to
240.\".St -p1003.2-?? .
241.Sh BUGS
242The on-line man pages are, by necessity, forgiving toward stupid
243display devices, causing a few man pages to be not as nicely formatted
244as their typeset counterparts.
245