NAME
man
- display the on-line manual pages
(aka ``man pages'')
SYNOPSIS
man
-acw|-h[.blm Pp]
[-C file]
[-M path]
[-m path]
[-S srch]
section
[[-s]]
name ...
man
[-k]
[-C file]
[-M path]
[-m path]
keyword ...
DESCRIPTION
The
man
utility displays the manual pages named on the command line.
Its options are as follows:
- -a
-
Display all of the man pages for a specified
section
and
name
combination.
(Normally, only the first man page found is displayed.)
- -C
-
Use the specified
file
instead of the default configuration file.
This permits users to configure their own man environment.
See
man.conf(5)
for a description of the contents of this file.
- -c
-
Copy the man page to the standard output instead of using
more(1)
to paginate it.
This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device.
- -h
-
Display only the
``SYNOPSIS''
lines of the requested man pages.
For commands, this is typically the command line usage information.
For library functions, this usually contains the required include
files and function prototypes.
- -k
-
Display the header lines for any man pages matching
keyword(s),
in the same manner as
apropos(1).
- -M
-
Override the list of standard directories which
man
searches for man pages.
The supplied
path
must be a colon
(``:'')
separated list of directories.
This search path may also be set using the environment variable
MANPATH
.
The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order,
is specified by the
``_subdir''
line in the
man
configuration file.
- -m
-
Augment the list of standard directories which
man
searches for man pages.
The supplied
path
must be a colon
(``:'')
separated list of directories.
These directories will be searched before the standard directories or
the directories specified using the
-M
option or the
MANPATH
environment variable.
The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order,
is specified by the
``_subdir''
line in the
man
configuration file.
- -s
-
Restrict the directories that
man
will search to the specified section.
The
man
configuration file (see
man.conf(5))
specifies the possible
section
values that are currently available.
- -S
-
Display only man pages that have the specified string in the directory
part of their filenames.
This allows the man page search process criteria to be
narrowed without having to change the MANPATH or
``_default''
variables.
- -w
-
List the pathnames of the man pages which
man
would display for the specified
section
and
name
combination.
If the
`-s'
option is not specified,
there is more than one argument,
the
`-k'
option is not used, and the first argument is a valid section, then that
argument will be used as if specified by the
`-s'
option.
If
name
is given with a full or relative path then
man
interprets it as a file specification, so that you can do
man
./foo.5
or even
man
/cd/foo/bar.1.gz.
ENVIRONMENT
MACHINE
-
As some man pages are intended only for specific architectures,
man
searches any subdirectories,
with the same name as the current architecture,
in every directory which it searches.
Machine specific areas are checked before general areas.
The current machine type may be overridden by setting the environment
variable
MACHINE
to the name of a specific architecture.
MANPATH
-
The standard search path used by
man
may be overridden by specifying a path in the
MANPATH
environment
variable.
The format of the path is a colon
(``:'')
separated list of directories.
The subdirectories to be searched as well as their search order
is specified by the
``_subdir''
line in the
man
configuration file.
PAGER
-
The pagination command used for writing the output.
If the
PAGER
environment variable is null or not set, the standard pagination program
more(1)
will be used.
FILES
/etc/man.conf
-
default man configuration file.
/usr/{share,X11R6,pkg,local}/man/whatis.db
-
standard whatis/apropos database search path,
set in
/etc/man.conf
.
SEE ALSO
apropos(1),
whatis(1),
whereis(1),
man.conf(5),
mdoc(7),
mdoc.samples(7)
STANDARDS
man
conforms to
X/Open Commands and Utilities Issue 5 (``XCU5'') .
BUGS
The on-line man pages are, by necessity, forgiving toward stupid
display devices, causing a few man pages to be not as nicely formatted
as their typeset counterparts.