xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/man/man.1 (revision 595e514d0df2bac5b813d35f83e32875dbf16a83)
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2.\"  Copyright (c) 2010 Gordon Tetlow
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd June 3, 2011
29.Dt MAN 1
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm man
33.Nd display online manual documentation pages
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Nm
36.Op Fl adho
37.Op Fl t | w
38.Op Fl M Ar manpath
39.Op Fl P Ar pager
40.Op Fl S Ar mansect
41.Op Fl m Ar arch Ns Op : Ns Ar machine
42.Op Fl p Op Ar eprtv
43.Op Ar mansect
44.Ar page ...
45.Nm
46.Fl f
47.Ar keyword ...
48.Nm
49.Fl k
50.Ar keyword ...
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The
53.Nm
54utility finds and displays online manual documentation pages.
55If
56.Ar mansect
57is provided,
58.Nm
59restricts the search to the specific section of the manual.
60.Pp
61Options that
62.Nm
63understands:
64.Bl -tag -width indent
65.It Fl M Ar manpath
66Forces a specific colon separated manual path instead of the default
67search path.
68See
69.Xr manpath 1 .
70Overrides the
71.Ev MANPATH
72environment variable.
73.It Fl P Ar pager
74Use specified pager.
75Defaults to
76.Dq Li "less -sR"
77if color support is enabled, or
78.Dq Li "more -s" .
79Overrides the
80.Ev MANPAGER
81environment variable, which in turn overrides the
82.Ev PAGER
83environment variable.
84.It Fl S Ar mansect
85Restricts manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list.
86Defaults to
87.Dq Li 1:8:2:3:n:4:5:6:7:9:l .
88Overrides the
89.Ev MANSECT
90environment variable.
91.It Fl a
92Display all manual pages instead of just the first found for each
93.Ar page
94argument.
95.It Fl d
96Print extra debugging information.
97Repeat for increased verbosity.
98Does not display the manual page.
99.It Fl f
100Emulate
101.Xr whatis 1 .
102.It Fl h
103Display short help message and exit.
104.It Fl k
105Emulate
106.Xr apropos 1 .
107.It Fl m Ar arch Ns Op : Ns Ar machine
108Override the default architecture and machine settings allowing lookup of
109other platform specific manual pages.
110See
111.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
112for how this option changes the default behavior.
113Overrides the
114.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
115and
116.Ev MACHINE
117environment variables.
118.It Fl o
119Force use of non-localized manual pages.
120See
121.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
122for how locale specific searches work.
123Overrides the
124.Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE ,
125and
126.Ev LANG
127environment variables.
128.It Fl p Op Cm eprtv
129Use the list of given preprocessors before running
130.Xr nroff 1
131or
132.Xr troff 1 .
133Valid preprocessors arguments:
134.Pp
135.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
136.It Cm e
137.Xr eqn 1
138.It Cm p
139.Xr pic 1
140.It Cm r
141.Xr refer 1
142.It Cm t
143.Xr tbl 1
144.It Cm v
145.Xr vgrind 1
146.El
147.Pp
148Overrides the
149.Ev MANROFFSEQ
150environment variable.
151.It Fl t
152Send manual page source through
153.Xr troff 1
154allowing transformation of the manual pages to other formats.
155.It Fl w
156Display the location of the manual page instead of the contents of
157the manual page.
158.El
159.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
160.Ss Locale Specific Searches
161The
162.Nm
163utility supports manual pages in different locales.
164The search behavior is dictated by the first of three
165environment variables with a nonempty string:
166.Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE ,
167or
168.Ev LANG .
169If set,
170.Nm
171will search for locale specific manual pages using the following logic:
172.Pp
173.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
174.It
175.Va lang Ns _ Ns Va country Ns . Ns Va charset
176.It
177.Va lang Ns . Ns Va charset
178.It
179.Li en Ns . Ns Va charset
180.El
181.Pp
182For example, if
183.Ev LC_ALL
184is set to
185.Dq Li ja_JP.eucJP ,
186.Nm
187will search the following paths when considering section 1 manual pages in
188.Pa /usr/share/man :
189.Pp
190.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
191.It
192.Pa /usr/share/man/ja_JP.eucJP/man1
193.It
194.Pa /usr/share/man/ja.eucJP/man1
195.It
196.Pa /usr/share/man/en.eucJP/man1
197.It
198.Pa /usr/share/man/man1
199.El
200.Ss Platform Specific Searches
201The
202.Nm
203utility supports platform specific manual pages.
204The search behavior is dictated by the
205.Fl m
206option or the
207.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
208and
209.Ev MACHINE
210environment variables.
211For example, if
212.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
213is set to
214.Dq Li i386
215and
216.Ev MACHINE
217is set to
218.Dq Li pc98 ,
219.Nm
220will search the following paths when considering section 4 manual pages in
221.Pa /usr/share/man :
222.Pp
223.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
224.It
225.Pa /usr/share/man/man4/pc98
226.It
227.Pa /usr/share/man/man4/i386
228.It
229.Pa /usr/share/man/man4
230.El
231.Ss Displaying Specific Manual Files
232The
233.Nm
234utility also supports displaying a specific manual page if passed a path
235to the file as long as it contains a
236.Ql /
237character.
238.Sh ENVIRONMENT
239The following environment variables affect the execution of
240.Nm :
241.Bl -tag -width ".Ev MANROFFSEQ"
242.It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
243Used to find locale specific manual pages.
244Valid values can be found by running the
245.Xr locale 1
246command.
247See
248.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
249for details.
250Influenced by the
251.Fl o
252option.
253.It Ev MACHINE_ARCH , MACHINE
254Used to find platform specific manual pages.
255If unset, the output of
256.Dq Li "sysctl hw.machine_arch"
257and
258.Dq Li "sysctl hw.machine"
259is used respectively.
260See
261.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
262for details.
263Corresponds to the
264.Fl m
265option.
266.It Ev MANPATH
267Used to find the location of the manual files.
268See
269.Xr manpath 1
270for additional information.
271Corresponds to the
272.Fl M
273option.
274.It Ev MANROFFSEQ
275Used to determine the preprocessors for the manual source before running
276.Xr nroff 1
277or
278.Xr troff 1 .
279If unset, defaults to
280.Xr tbl 1 .
281Corresponds to the
282.Fl p
283option.
284.It Ev MANSECT
285Restricts manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list.
286Corresponds to the
287.Fl S
288option.
289.It Ev MANWIDTH
290If set to a numeric value, used as the width manpages should be displayed.
291Otherwise, if set to a special value
292.Dq Li tty ,
293and output is to a terminal,
294the pages may be displayed over the whole width of the screen.
295.It Ev MANCOLOR
296If set, enables color support.
297.It Ev MANPAGER
298Program used to display files.
299.Pp
300If unset, and color support is enabled,
301.Dq Li "less -sR"
302is used.
303.Pp
304If unset, and color support is disabled, then
305.Ev PAGER
306is used.
307If that has no value either,
308.Dq Li "more -s"
309is used.
310.El
311.Sh FILES
312.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
313.It Pa /etc/man.conf
314System configuration file.
315.It Pa /usr/local/etc/man.d/*.conf
316Local configuration files.
317.El
318.Sh SEE ALSO
319.Xr apropos 1 ,
320.Xr intro 1 ,
321.Xr locale 1 ,
322.Xr manpath 1 ,
323.Xr nroff 1 ,
324.Xr troff 1 ,
325.Xr whatis 1 ,
326.Xr man.conf 5
327