MAN
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BSD mandoc
NAME
man
- display manual pages
SYNOPSIS
man
[-
acfhklw
]
[-
C file
]
[-
M path
]
[-
m path
]
[-
S subsection
]
[[-
s section
]
]
name ...
DESCRIPTION
The
man
utility
displays the
manual page entitled
name
Pages may be selected according to
a specific category
(
section
)
or
machine architecture
(
subsection
)
The options are as follows:
- -a
-
Display all matching manual pages.
- -C file
-
Use the specified
file
instead of the default configuration file.
This permits users to configure their own manual environment.
See
man.conf5
for a description of the contents of this file.
- -c
-
Copy the manual page to the standard output instead of using
less(1)
to paginate it.
This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device.
When using
-c
most terminal devices are unable to show the markup.
To print the output of
man
to the terminal with markup but without using a pager, pipe it to
ul(1).
To remove the markup, pipe the output to
col(1)
-b
instead.
- -f
-
A synonym for
whatis(1).
It searches for
name
in manual page names and displays the header lines from all matching pages.
The search is case insensitive and matches whole words only.
- -h
-
Display only the SYNOPSIS lines of the requested manual pages.
Implies
-a
and
-c
- -k
-
A synonym for
apropos(1).
Instead of
name
an expression can be provided using the syntax described in the
apropos(1)
manual.
By default, it displays the header lines of all matching pages.
- -l
-
A synonym for
mandoc(1).
The
name
arguments are interpreted as filenames.
No search is done and
file
path
section
subsection
and
-w
are ignored.
This option implies
-a
- -M path
-
Override the list of directories to search for manual pages.
The supplied
path
must be a colon
(`:'
)
separated list of directories.
This option also overrides the environment variable
MANPATH
and any directories specified in the
man.conf5
file.
- -m path
-
Augment the list of directories to search for manual pages.
The supplied
path
must be a colon
(`:'
)
separated list of directories.
These directories will be searched before those specified using the
-M
option, the
MANPATH
environment variable, the
man.conf5
file, or the default directories.
- -S subsection
-
Only show pages for the specified
machine(1)
architecture.
subsection
is case insensitive.
By default manual pages for all architectures are installed.
Therefore this option can be used to view pages for one
architecture whilst using another.
This option overrides the
MACHINE
environment variable.
Tg s
- [-s section
]
-
Only select manuals from the specified
section
The currently available sections are:
- 1
-
General commands
(tools and utilities)
- 2
-
System calls and error numbers.
- 3
-
Library functions.
- 3p
-
perl(1)
programmer's reference guide.
- 4
-
Device drivers.
- 5
-
File formats.
- 6
-
Games.
- 7
-
Miscellaneous information.
- 8
-
System maintenance and operation commands.
- 9
-
Kernel internals.
- -w
-
List the pathnames of all matching manual pages instead of displaying
any of them.
If no
name
is given, list the directories that would be searched.
The options
-IKOTW
are also supported and are documented in
mandoc(1).
The options
-fkl
are mutually exclusive and override each other.
The search starts with the
-m
argument if provided, then continues with the
-M
argument, the
MANPATH
variable, the
manpath
entries in the
man.conf5
file, or with
/usr/share/man : /usr/X11R6/man : /usr/local/man
by default.
Within each of these, directories are searched in the order provided.
Within each directory, the search proceeds according to the following
list of sections: 1, 8, 6, 2, 3, 5, 7, 4, 9, 3p.
The first match found is shown.
The
mandoc.db5
database is used for looking up manual page entries.
In cases where the database is absent, outdated, or corrupt,
man
falls back to looking for files called
name . section
If both a formatted and an unformatted version of the same manual page,
for example
cat1/foo.0
and
man1/foo.1
exist in the same directory, only the unformatted version is used.
The database is kept up to date with
makewhatis(8),
which is run by the
weekly(8)
maintenance script.
Guidelines for writing
man pages can be found in
mdoc(7).
ENVIRONMENT
- MACHINE
-
As some manual 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,
or with the
-S
option.
MACHINE
is case insensitive.
- MANPAGER
-
Any no-empty value of the environment variable
MANPAGER
is used instead of the standard pagination program,
less(1).
If
less(1)
is used, the interactive
:t
command can be used to go to the definitions of various terms, for
example command line options, command modifiers, internal commands,
environment variables, function names, preprocessor macros,
errno(2)
values, and some other emphasized words.
Some terms may have defining text at more than one place.
In that case, the
less(1)
interactive commands
t
and
T
can be used to move to the next and to the previous place providing
information about the term last searched for with
:t
The
-O tag [= term
]
option documented in the
mandoc(1)
manual opens a manual page at the definition of a specific
term
rather than at the beginning.
- MANPATH
-
Override the standard search path which is either specified in
man.conf5
or the default path.
The format of
MANPATH
is a colon
(`:'
)
separated list of directories.
Invalid directories are ignored.
Overridden by
-M
ignored if
-l
is specified.
If
MANPATH
begins with a colon, it is appended to the standard path;
if it ends with a colon, it is prepended to the standard path;
or if it contains two adjacent colons,
the standard path is inserted between the colons.
- PAGER
-
Specifies the pagination program to use when
MANPAGER
is not defined.
If neither PAGER nor MANPAGER is defined,
less(1)
is used.
FILES
- /etc/man.conf
-
default
man
configuration file
EXIT STATUS
Ex -std man
See
mandoc(1)
for details.
EXAMPLES
Format a page for pasting extracts into an email message -
avoid printing any UT-8 characters, reduce the width to ease
quoting in replies, and remove markup:
$ man-T ascii-O width=65 pledge | col-b
Read a typeset page in a PDF viewer:
$ MANPAGER=mupdf man-T pdf lpd
SEE ALSO
apropos(1),
col(1),
mandoc(1),
ul(1),
whereis(1),
man.conf5,
mdoc(7)
STANDARDS
The
man
utility is compliant with the
St -p1003.-2008
specification.
The flags
[-aCcfhIKlMmOSsTWw ,
]
as well as the environment variables
MACHINE
MANPAGER
and
MANPATH
are extensions to that specification.
HISTORY
A
man
command first appeared in
AT&T System
v2 .
The
-w
option first appeared in
AT&T System
v7 ;
-f
and
-k
in
BSD 4
-M
in
BSD 4.3
-a
in
BSD 4.3 Tahoe
-c
and
-m
in
BSD 4.3 Reno
-h
in
BSD 4.3 Net/2
-C
in
Nx 1.0 ;
-s
and
-S
in
Ox 2.3 ;
and
-I
-K
-l
-O
and
-W
in
Ox 5.7 .
The
-T
option first appeared in
AT&T System
III
and was also added in
Ox 5.7 .
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- ENVIRONMENT
-
- FILES
-
- EXIT STATUS
-
- EXAMPLES
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- STANDARDS
-
- HISTORY
-
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