xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/man/man.1 (revision 2008043f386721d58158e37e0d7e50df8095942d)
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26.Dd January 26, 2022
27.Dt MAN 1
28.Os
29.Sh NAME
30.Nm man
31.Nd display online manual documentation pages
32.Sh SYNOPSIS
33.Nm
34.Op Fl adho
35.Op Fl t | w
36.Op Fl M Ar manpath
37.Op Fl P Ar pager
38.Op Fl S Ar mansect
39.Op Fl m Ar arch Ns Op : Ns Ar machine
40.Op Fl p Op Ar eprtv
41.Op Ar mansect
42.Ar page ...
43.Nm
44.Fl K
45.Ar regexp ...
46.Nm
47.Fl f
48.Ar keyword ...
49.Nm
50.Fl k
51.Ar keyword ...
52.Sh DESCRIPTION
53The
54.Nm
55utility finds and displays online manual documentation pages.
56If
57.Ar mansect
58is provided,
59.Nm
60restricts the search to the specific section of the manual.
61.Pp
62The sections of the manual are:
63.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact
64.It
65.Fx
66General Commands Manual
67.It
68.Fx
69System Calls Manual
70.It
71.Fx
72Library Functions Manual
73.It
74.Fx
75Kernel Interfaces Manual
76.It
77.Fx
78File Formats Manual
79.It
80.Fx
81Games Manual
82.It
83.Fx
84Miscellaneous Information Manual
85.It
86.Fx
87System Manager's Manual
88.It
89.Fx
90Kernel Developer's Manual
91.El
92.Pp
93Options that
94.Nm
95understands:
96.Bl -tag -width indent
97.It Fl K Ar regexp
98Does a full text search in all manual pages.
99.Ar regexp
100is a regular expression as understood by
101.Dq Li "grep -E" .
102This option requires
103.Xr mandoc 1 .
104This is a slow operation.
105.It Fl M Ar manpath
106Forces a specific colon separated manual path instead of the default
107search path.
108See
109.Xr manpath 1 .
110Overrides the
111.Ev MANPATH
112environment variable.
113.It Fl P Ar pager
114Use specified pager.
115Defaults to
116.Dq Li "less -sR"
117if color support is enabled, or
118.Dq Li "less -s" .
119Overrides the
120.Ev MANPAGER
121environment variable, which in turn overrides the
122.Ev PAGER
123environment variable.
124.It Fl S Ar mansect
125Restricts manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list.
126Defaults to
127.Dq Li 1:8:2:3:3lua:n:4:5:6:7:9:l .
128Overrides the
129.Ev MANSECT
130environment variable.
131.It Fl a
132Display all manual pages instead of just the first found for each
133.Ar page
134argument.
135.It Fl d
136Print extra debugging information.
137Repeat for increased verbosity.
138Does not display the manual page.
139.It Fl f
140Emulate
141.Xr whatis 1 .
142.It Fl h
143Display short help message and exit.
144.It Fl k
145Emulate
146.Xr apropos 1 .
147.It Fl m Ar arch Ns Op : Ns Ar machine
148Override the default architecture and machine settings allowing lookup of
149other platform specific manual pages.
150See
151.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
152for how this option changes the default behavior.
153Overrides the
154.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
155and
156.Ev MACHINE
157environment variables.
158.It Fl o
159Force use of non-localized manual pages.
160See
161.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
162for how locale specific searches work.
163Overrides the
164.Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE ,
165and
166.Ev LANG
167environment variables.
168.It Fl p Op Cm eprtv
169Use the list of given preprocessors before running
170.Xr nroff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
171or
172.Xr troff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff .
173Valid preprocessors arguments:
174.Pp
175.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
176.It Cm e
177.Xr eqn 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
178.It Cm p
179.Xr pic 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
180.It Cm r
181.Xr refer 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
182.It Cm t
183.Xr tbl 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
184.It Cm v
185.Xr vgrind 1
186.El
187.Pp
188Overrides the
189.Ev MANROFFSEQ
190environment variable.
191.It Fl t
192Send manual page source through
193.Xr troff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
194allowing transformation of the manual pages to other formats.
195.It Fl w
196Display the location of the manual page instead of the contents of
197the manual page.
198.El
199.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
200.Ss Locale Specific Searches
201The
202.Nm
203utility supports manual pages in different locales.
204The search behavior is dictated by the first of three
205environment variables with a nonempty string:
206.Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE ,
207or
208.Ev LANG .
209If set,
210.Nm
211will search for locale specific manual pages using the following logic:
212.Pp
213.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
214.It
215.Va lang Ns _ Ns Va country Ns . Ns Va charset
216.It
217.Va lang Ns . Ns Va charset
218.It
219.Li en Ns . Ns Va charset
220.El
221.Pp
222For example, if
223.Ev LC_ALL
224is set to
225.Dq Li ja_JP.eucJP ,
226.Nm
227will search the following paths when considering section 1 manual pages in
228.Pa /usr/share/man :
229.Pp
230.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
231.It
232.Pa /usr/share/man/ja_JP.eucJP/man1
233.It
234.Pa /usr/share/man/ja.eucJP/man1
235.It
236.Pa /usr/share/man/en.eucJP/man1
237.It
238.Pa /usr/share/man/man1
239.El
240.Ss Platform Specific Searches
241The
242.Nm
243utility supports platform specific manual pages.
244The search behavior is dictated by the
245.Fl m
246option or the
247.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
248and
249.Ev MACHINE
250environment variables.
251For example, if
252.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
253is set to
254.Dq Li aarch64
255and
256.Ev MACHINE
257is set to
258.Dq Li arm64 ,
259.Nm
260will search the following paths when considering section 4 manual pages in
261.Pa /usr/share/man :
262.Pp
263.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
264.It
265.Pa /usr/share/man/man4/aarch64
266.It
267.Pa /usr/share/man/man4/arm64
268.It
269.Pa /usr/share/man/man4
270.El
271.Ss Displaying Specific Manual Files
272The
273.Nm
274utility also supports displaying a specific manual page if passed a path
275to the file as long as it contains a
276.Ql /
277character.
278.Sh ENVIRONMENT
279The following environment variables affect the execution of
280.Nm :
281.Bl -tag -width ".Ev MANROFFSEQ"
282.It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
283Used to find locale specific manual pages.
284Valid values can be found by running the
285.Xr locale 1
286command.
287See
288.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
289for details.
290Influenced by the
291.Fl o
292option.
293.It Ev MACHINE_ARCH , MACHINE
294Used to find platform specific manual pages.
295If unset, the output of
296.Dq Li "sysctl hw.machine_arch"
297and
298.Dq Li "sysctl hw.machine"
299is used respectively.
300See
301.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
302for details.
303Corresponds to the
304.Fl m
305option.
306.It Ev MANPATH
307The standard search path used by
308.Xr man 1
309may be changed by specifying a path in the
310.Ev MANPATH
311environment variable.
312Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases, are ignored.
313Overridden by
314.Fl M .
315If
316.Ev MANPATH
317begins with a colon, it is appended to the default list;
318if it ends with a colon, it is prepended to the default list;
319or if it contains two adjacent colons,
320the standard search path is inserted between the colons.
321If none of these conditions are met, it overrides the
322standard search path.
323.It Ev MANROFFSEQ
324Used to determine the preprocessors for the manual source before running
325.Xr nroff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
326or
327.Xr troff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff .
328If unset, defaults to
329.Xr tbl 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff .
330Corresponds to the
331.Fl p
332option.
333.It Ev MANSECT
334Restricts manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list.
335Corresponds to the
336.Fl S
337option.
338.It Ev MANWIDTH
339If set to a numeric value, used as the width manpages should be displayed.
340Otherwise, if set to a special value
341.Dq Li tty ,
342and output is to a terminal,
343the pages may be displayed over the whole width of the screen.
344.It Ev MANCOLOR
345If set, enables color support.
346.It Ev MANPAGER
347Program used to display files.
348.Pp
349If unset, and color support is enabled,
350.Dq Li "less -sR"
351is used.
352.Pp
353If unset, and color support is disabled, then
354.Ev PAGER
355is used.
356If that has no value either,
357.Dq Li "less -s"
358is used.
359.El
360.Sh FILES
361.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
362.It Pa /etc/man.conf
363System configuration file.
364.It Pa /usr/local/etc/man.d/*.conf
365Local configuration files.
366.El
367.Sh EXIT STATUS
368.Ex -std
369.Sh EXAMPLES
370Show the manual page for
371.Xr stat 2 :
372.Bd -literal -offset indent
373$ man 2 stat
374.Ed
375.Pp
376Show all manual pages for
377.Ql stat .
378.Bd -literal -offset indent
379$ man -a stat
380.Ed
381.Pp
382List manual pages which match the regular expression either in the title or in
383the body:
384.Bd -literal -offset indent
385$ man -k '\e<copy\e>.*archive'
386.Ed
387.Pp
388Show the manual page for
389.Xr ls 1
390and use
391.Xr cat 1
392as pager:
393.Bd -literal -offset indent
394$ man -P cat ls
395.Ed
396.Pp
397Show the location of the
398.Xr ls 1
399manual page:
400.Bd -literal -offset indent
401$ man -w ls
402.Ed
403.Pp
404Show the location of manual pages in sections 1 and 8 which contain the word
405.Ql arm :
406.Bd -literal -offset indent
407$ ./man -w -K '\e<arm\e>' -S 1:8
408.Ed
409.Sh SEE ALSO
410.Xr apropos 1 ,
411.Xr egrep 1 ,
412.Xr intro 1 ,
413.Xr mandoc 1 ,
414.Xr manpath 1 ,
415.Xr whatis 1 ,
416.Xr intro 2 ,
417.Xr intro 3 ,
418.Xr intro 3lua ,
419.Xr intro 4 ,
420.Xr intro 5 ,
421.Xr man.conf 5 ,
422.Xr intro 6 ,
423.Xr intro 7 ,
424.Xr mdoc 7 ,
425.Xr intro 8 ,
426.Xr intro 9
427