usr.bin/man/man.1

.\"-
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.\"  Copyright (c) 2010 Gordon Tetlow
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.Dd January 24, 2025
.Dt MAN 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm man
.Nd display online manual documentation pages
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl adhlo
.Op Fl t | w
.Op Fl M Ar manpath
.Op Fl P Ar pager
.Op Fl S Ar mansect
.Op Fl m Ar arch Ns Op : Ns Ar machine
.Op Fl p Op Ar eprtv
.Op Ar mansect
.Ar page | Ar
.Nm
.Fl K | f | k
.Ar expression ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility finds and displays online manual documentation pages.
If
.Ar mansect
is provided,
.Nm
restricts the search to the specific section of the manual.
.Pp
The sections of the manual are:
.Pp
.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact
.It
.Fx
General Commands Manual
.It
.Fx
System Calls Manual
.It
.Fx
Library Functions Manual
.It
.Fx
Kernel Interfaces Manual
.It
.Fx
File Formats Manual
.It
.Fx
Games Manual
.It
.Fx
Miscellaneous Information Manual
.It
.Fx
System Manager's Manual
.It
.Fx
Kernel Developer's Manual
.El
.Pp
Options that
.Nm
understands:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl K Ar expression
Search full text of all manual pages for an extended regular
.Ar expression ,
as described in
.Xr re_format 7 .
This option requires
.Xr mandoc 1 .
This is a slow operation.
.It Fl M Ar manpath
Force a specific colon separated manual path instead of the default
search path.
See
.Ev MANPATH
in
.Sx ENVIRONMENT .
.It Fl P Ar pager
Use specified pager.
Defaults to
.Ql less -sR
if color support is enabled, or
.Ql less -s .
Overrides the
.Ev MANPAGER
environment variable, which in turn overrides the
.Ev PAGER
environment variable.
.It Fl S Ar mansect
Restrict manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list.
Defaults to
.Ql 1:8:2:3:3lua:n:4:5:6:7:9:l .
Overrides the
.Ev MANSECT
environment variable.
.It Fl a
Display all manual pages instead of just the first found for each
.Ar page
argument.
.It Fl d
Print extra debugging information.
Repeat for increased verbosity.
Does not display the manual page.
.It Fl f Ar expression
Search names of all manual pages for an extended regular
.Ar expression ,
emulating
.Xr whatis 1 .
.It Fl h
Display short help message and exit.
.It Fl k Ar expression
Search names and descriptions of all manual pages for an extended regular
.Ar expression ,
emulating basic functionality of
.Xr apropos 1 .
.It Fl l
Interpret all arguments as absolute or relative filename(s)
of the manual page(s) to display.
No search is done and the options
.Fl M ,
.Fl m ,
and
.Fl S
are ignored.
.It Fl m Ar arch Ns Op : Ns Ar machine
Override the default architecture and machine settings allowing lookup of
other platform specific manual pages.
See
.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
for how this option changes the default behavior.
Overrides the
.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
and
.Ev MACHINE
environment variables.
.It Fl o
Force use of non-localized manual pages.
See
.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
for how locale specific searches work.
Overrides the
.Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE ,
and
.Ev LANG
environment variables.
.It Fl p Op Cm eprtv
Use the list of given preprocessors before running
.Xr nroff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
or
.Xr troff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff .
Valid preprocessors arguments:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
.It Cm e
.Xr eqn 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
.It Cm p
.Xr pic 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
.It Cm r
.Xr refer 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
.It Cm t
.Xr tbl 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
.It Cm v
.Xr vgrind 1
.El
.Pp
Overrides the
.Ev MANROFFSEQ
environment variable.
.It Fl t
Send manual page source through
.Xr troff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
allowing transformation of the manual pages to other formats.
.It Fl w
Display the location of the manual page instead of the contents of
the manual page.
.El
.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
.Ss Locale Specific Searches
The
.Nm
utility supports manual pages in different locales.
The search behavior is dictated by the first of three
environment variables with a nonempty string:
.Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE ,
or
.Ev LANG .
If set,
.Nm
will search for locale specific manual pages using the following logic:
.Pp
.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
.It
.Va lang Ns _ Ns Va country . Ns Va charset
.It
.Va lang . Ns Va charset
.It
.Li en . Ns Va charset
.El
.Pp
For example, if
.Ev LC_ALL
is set to
.Ql ja_JP.eucJP ,
.Nm
will search the following paths when considering section 1 manual pages in
.Pa /usr/share/man :
.Pp
.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
.It
.Pa /usr/share/man/ja_JP.eucJP/man1
.It
.Pa /usr/share/man/ja.eucJP/man1
.It
.Pa /usr/share/man/en.eucJP/man1
.It
.Pa /usr/share/man/man1
.El
.Ss Platform Specific Searches
The
.Nm
utility supports platform specific manual pages.
The search behavior is dictated by the
.Fl m
option or the
.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
and
.Ev MACHINE
environment variables.
For example, if
.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
is set to
.Ql aarch64
and
.Ev MACHINE
is set to
.Ql arm64 ,
.Nm
will search the following paths when considering section 4 manual pages in
.Pa /usr/share/man :
.Pp
.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
.It
.Pa /usr/share/man/man4/aarch64
.It
.Pa /usr/share/man/man4/arm64
.It
.Pa /usr/share/man/man4
.El
.Ss Displaying Specific Manual Files
For compatibility reasons,
.Nm
will interpret any argument containing at least one
.Ql /
character as an absolute or relative path to a manual page to be
displayed.
This heuristic, made redundant by the more widely supported
.Fl l
option, is now deprecated and may be removed in future releases.
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables affect the execution of
.Nm :
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ev LC_ALL , Ev LC_CTYPE , Ev LANG
Used to find locale specific manual pages.
Valid values can be found by running the
.Xr locale 1
command.
See
.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
for details.
Influenced by the
.Fl o
option.
.It Ev MACHINE_ARCH , Ev MACHINE
Used to find platform specific manual pages.
If unset, the output of
.Ql sysctl Va hw.machine_arch
and
.Ql sysctl Va hw.machine
is used respectively.
See
.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
for details.
Corresponds to the
.Fl m
option.
.It Ev MANPATH
A colon
.Pq Ql \&:
separated list of directories to check for manual pages.
Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases, are ignored.
Overridden by
.Fl M .
If
.Ev MANPATH
begins with a colon, it is appended to the default list;
if it ends with a colon, it is prepended to the default list;
or if it contains two adjacent colons,
the standard search path is inserted between the colons.
If none of these conditions are met, it overrides the
standard search path.
See
.Xr manpath 1 .
.It Ev MANROFFSEQ
Used to determine the preprocessors for the manual source before running
.Xr nroff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
or
.Xr troff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff .
If unset, defaults to
.Xr tbl 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff .
Corresponds to the
.Fl p
option.
.It Ev MANSECT
Restricts manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list.
Corresponds to the
.Fl S
option.
.It Ev MANWIDTH
If set to a numeric value, used as the width manpages should be displayed.
Otherwise, if set to a special value
.Ql tty ,
and output is to a terminal,
the pages may be displayed over the whole width of the screen.
.It Ev MANCOLOR
If set, enables color support.
.It Ev MANPAGER
Program used to display files.
.Pp
If unset, and color support is enabled,
.Ql less -sR
is used.
.Pp
If unset, and color support is disabled, then
.Ev PAGER
is used.
If that has no value either,
.Ql less -s
is used.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width "/usr/local/etc/man.d/*.conf" -compact
.It Pa /etc/man.conf
System configuration file
.It Pa /usr/local/etc/man.d/*.conf
Local configuration files
.El
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std
.Sh EXAMPLES
Show the manual page for
.Xr stat 2 :
.Pp
.Dl $ man 2 stat
.Pp
Show all manual pages for
.Ql stat :
.Pp
.Dl $ man -a stat
.Pp
List manual pages which match the regular expression either in the title or in
the body:
.Pp
.Dl $ man -k '\e<copy\e>.*archive'
.Pp
Show the manual page for
.Xr ls 1
using
.Xr cat 1
as the pager:
.Pp
.Dl $ man -P cat ls
.Pp
Show the location of the
.Xr ls 1
manual page:
.Pp
.Dl $ man -w ls
.Pp
Show a manual page in the current working directory:
.Pp
.Dl $ man -l man.1
.Pp
Show the location of manual pages in sections 1 and 8 which contain the word
.Ql arm :
.Pp
.Dl $ man -w -K '\e<arm\e>' -S 1:8
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr apropos 1 ,
.Xr intro 1 ,
.Xr mandoc 1 ,
.Xr manpath 1 ,
.Xr whatis 1 ,
.Xr intro 2 ,
.Xr intro 3 ,
.Xr intro 3lua ,
.Xr intro 4 ,
.Xr intro 5 ,
.Xr man.conf 5 ,
.Xr intro 6 ,
.Xr intro 7 ,
.Xr mdoc 7 ,
.Xr re_format 7 ,
.Xr intro 8 ,
.Xr intro 9