xref: /openbsd-src/usr.bin/mandoc/man.1 (revision 9b9d2a55a62c8e82206c25f94fcc7f4e2765250e)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: man.1,v 1.13 2015/07/17 22:35:36 schwarze Exp $
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993
4.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
5.\" Copyright (c) 2003, 2007, 2008, 2014 Jason McIntyre <jmc@openbsd.org>
6.\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
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32.\"     @(#)man.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/2/94
33.\"
34.Dd $Mdocdate: July 17 2015 $
35.Dt MAN 1
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm man
39.Nd display manual pages
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm man
42.Op Fl acfhklw
43.Op Fl C Ar file
44.Op Fl I Cm os Ns = Ns Ar name
45.Op Fl K Ar encoding
46.Op Fl M Ar path
47.Op Fl m Ar path
48.Op Fl O Ar option Ns = Ns Ar value
49.Op Fl S Ar subsection
50.Op Fl s Ar section
51.Op Fl T Ar output
52.Op Fl W Ar level
53.Op Ar section
54.Ar name ...
55.Sh DESCRIPTION
56The
57.Nm
58utility
59displays the
60manual pages entitled
61.Ar name .
62Pages may be selected according to
63a specific category
64.Pq Ar section
65or
66machine architecture
67.Pq Ar subsection .
68.Pp
69The options are as follows:
70.Bl -tag -width Ds
71.It Fl a
72Display all of the manual pages for a specified
73.Ar section
74and
75.Ar name
76combination.
77Normally, only the first manual page found is displayed.
78.It Fl C Ar file
79Use the specified
80.Ar file
81instead of the default configuration file.
82This permits users to configure their own manual environment.
83See
84.Xr man.conf 5
85for a description of the contents of this file.
86.It Fl c
87Copy the manual page to the standard output instead of using
88.Xr more 1
89to paginate it.
90This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device.
91.It Fl f
92A synonym for
93.Xr whatis 1 .
94It searches for
95.Ar name
96in manual page names and displays the header lines from all matching pages.
97The search is case insensitive and matches whole words only.
98This overrides any earlier
99.Fl k
100and
101.Fl l
102options.
103.It Fl I Cm os Ns = Ns Ar name
104Override the default operating system
105.Ar name
106for the
107.Xr mdoc 7
108.Ic \&Os
109and for the
110.Xr man 7
111.Ic \&TH
112macro.
113.It Fl h
114Display only the SYNOPSIS lines of the requested manual pages.
115Implies
116.Fl a
117and
118.Fl c .
119.It Fl K Ar encoding
120Specify the input encoding.
121The supported
122.Ar encoding
123arguments are
124.Cm us-ascii ,
125.Cm iso-8859-1 ,
126and
127.Cm utf-8 .
128By default, the encoding is automatically detected as described in the
129.Xr mandoc 1
130manual.
131.It Fl k
132A synonym for
133.Xr apropos 1 .
134Instead of
135.Ar name ,
136an expression can be provided using the syntax described in the
137.Xr apropos 1
138manual.
139By default, it displays the header lines of all matching pages.
140This overrides any earlier
141.Fl f
142and
143.Fl l
144options.
145.It Fl l
146A synonym for
147.Xr mandoc 1
148.Fl a .
149The
150.Ar name
151arguments are interpreted as filenames.
152No search is done and
153.Ar file ,
154.Ar path ,
155.Ar section ,
156and
157.Ar subsection
158are ignored.
159This overrides any earlier
160.Fl f ,
161.Fl k ,
162and
163.Fl w
164options.
165.It Fl M Ar path
166Override the list of standard directories which
167.Nm
168searches for manual pages.
169The supplied
170.Ar path
171must be a colon
172.Pq Ql \&:
173separated list of directories.
174This search path may also be set using the environment variable
175.Ev MANPATH .
176The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order,
177are specified by the
178.Dq _subdir
179line in the
180.Nm
181configuration file.
182.It Fl m Ar path
183Augment the list of standard directories which
184.Nm
185searches for manual pages.
186The supplied
187.Ar path
188must be a colon
189.Pq Ql \&:
190separated list of directories.
191These directories will be searched before the standard directories or
192the directories specified using the
193.Fl M
194option or the
195.Ev MANPATH
196environment variable.
197The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order,
198are specified by the
199.Dq _subdir
200line in the
201.Nm
202configuration file.
203.It Fl O Ar option Ns = Ns Ar value
204Comma-separated output options.
205For each output format, the available options are described in the
206.Xr mandoc 1
207manual.
208.It Fl S Ar subsection
209Restricts the directories that
210.Nm
211will search to those of a specific
212.Xr machine 1
213architecture.
214.Ar subsection
215is case insensitive.
216.Pp
217By default manual pages for all architectures are installed.
218Therefore this option can be used to view pages for one
219architecture whilst using another.
220.Pp
221This option overrides the
222.Ev MACHINE
223environment variable.
224.It Xo
225.Op Fl s
226.Ar section
227.Xc
228Restricts the directories that
229.Nm
230will search to a specific section.
231The currently available sections are:
232.Pp
233.Bl -tag -width "localXXX" -offset indent -compact
234.It 1
235General commands
236.Pq tools and utilities .
237.It 2
238System calls and error numbers.
239.It 3
240Libraries.
241.It 3f
242Fortran programmer's reference guide.
243.It 3p
244.Xr perl 1
245programmer's reference guide.
246.It 4
247Device drivers.
248.It 5
249File formats.
250.It 6
251Games.
252.It 7
253Miscellaneous.
254.It 8
255System maintenance and operation commands.
256.It 9
257Kernel internals.
258.It X11
259An alias for X11R6.
260.It X11R6
261X Window System.
262.It local
263Pages located in
264.Pa /usr/local .
265.It n
266Tcl/Tk commands.
267.El
268.Pp
269The
270.Nm
271configuration file,
272.Xr man.conf 5 ,
273specifies the possible
274.Ar section
275values, and their search order.
276Additional sections may be specified.
277.It Fl T Ar output
278Select the output format.
279The default is
280.Cm locale .
281The other output modes
282.Cm ascii ,
283.Cm html ,
284.Cm lint ,
285.Cm man ,
286.Cm pdf ,
287.Cm ps ,
288.Cm tree ,
289and
290.Cm utf8
291are described in the
292.Xr mandoc 1
293manual.
294.It Fl W Ar level
295Specify the minimum message
296.Ar level
297to be reported on the standard error output and to affect the exit status.
298The
299.Ar level
300can be
301.Cm warning ,
302.Cm error ,
303or
304.Cm unsupp ;
305.Cm all
306is an alias for
307.Cm warning .
308By default,
309.Nm
310is silent.
311See the
312.Xr mandoc 1
313manual for details.
314.It Fl w
315List the pathnames of the manual pages which
316.Nm
317would display for the specified
318.Ar section
319and
320.Ar name
321combination.
322.El
323.Pp
324Guidelines for writing
325man pages can be found in
326.Xr mdoc 7 .
327.Pp
328If both a formatted and an unformatted version of the same manual page,
329for example
330.Pa cat1/foo.0
331and
332.Pa man1/foo.1 ,
333exist in the same directory, and at least one of them is selected,
334only the newer one is used.
335However, if both the
336.Fl a
337and the
338.Fl w
339options are specified, both file names are printed.
340.Sh ENVIRONMENT
341.Bl -tag -width MANPATHX
342.It Ev MACHINE
343As some manual pages are intended only for specific architectures,
344.Nm
345searches any subdirectories,
346with the same name as the current architecture,
347in every directory which it searches.
348Machine specific areas are checked before general areas.
349The current machine type may be overridden by setting the environment
350variable
351.Ev MACHINE
352to the name of a specific architecture,
353or with the
354.Fl S
355option.
356.Ev MACHINE
357is case insensitive.
358.It Ev MANPAGER
359Any non-empty value of the environment variable
360.Ev MANPAGER
361will be used instead of the standard pagination program,
362.Xr more 1 .
363If
364.Xr less 1
365is used, the interactive
366.Ic :t
367command can be used to go to the definitions of various terms, for
368example command line options, command modifiers, internal commands,
369and environment variables.
370.It Ev MANPATH
371The standard search path used by
372.Nm
373may be overridden by specifying a path in the
374.Ev MANPATH
375environment
376variable.
377The format of the path is a colon
378.Pq Ql \&:
379separated list of directories.
380The subdirectories to be searched, as well as their search order,
381are specified by the
382.Dq _subdir
383line in the
384.Nm
385configuration file.
386.It Ev PAGER
387Specifies the pagination program to use when
388.Ev MANPAGER
389is not defined.
390If neither PAGER nor MANPAGER is defined,
391.Xr more 1
392.Fl s
393will be used.
394.El
395.Sh FILES
396.Bl -tag -width /etc/man.conf -compact
397.It Pa /etc/man.conf
398default man configuration file
399.El
400.Sh EXIT STATUS
401.Ex -std man
402.Sh SEE ALSO
403.Xr apropos 1 ,
404.Xr intro 1 ,
405.Xr whatis 1 ,
406.Xr whereis 1 ,
407.Xr intro 2 ,
408.Xr intro 3 ,
409.Xr intro 4 ,
410.Xr intro 5 ,
411.Xr man.conf 5 ,
412.Xr intro 6 ,
413.Xr intro 7 ,
414.Xr mdoc 7 ,
415.Xr intro 8 ,
416.Xr intro 9
417.Sh STANDARDS
418The
419.Nm
420utility is compliant with the
421.St -p1003.1-2008
422specification.
423.Pp
424The flags
425.Op Fl aCcfhIKlMmOSsTWw ,
426as well as the environment variables
427.Ev MACHINE ,
428.Ev MANPAGER ,
429and
430.Ev MANPATH ,
431are extensions to that specification.
432.Sh HISTORY
433A
434.Nm
435command first appeared in
436.At v3 .
437.Pp
438The
439.Fl w
440option first appeared in
441.At v7 ;
442.Fl f
443and
444.Fl k
445in
446.Bx 4 ;
447.Fl M
448in
449.Bx 4.3 ;
450.Fl a
451in
452.Bx 4.3 Tahoe ;
453.Fl c
454and
455.Fl m
456in
457.Bx 4.3 Reno ;
458.Fl h
459in
460.Bx 4.3 Net/2 ;
461.Fl C
462in
463.Nx 1.0 ;
464and
465.Fl s
466and
467.Fl S
468in
469.Ox 2.3 .
470