xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/man/man.1 (revision 884a2a699669ec61e2366e3e358342dbc94be24a)
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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 | Fl 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.Ic "less -sR"
77if color support is enabled, or
78.Ic "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.Va 1:1aout: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 Ar eprtv
129Use the list of given preprocessors before running
130.Xr nroff 1
131or
132.Xr troff 1 .
133Valid preprocessors arguments:
134.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
135.It Cm e
136.Xr eqn 1
137.It Cm p
138.Xr pic 1
139.It Cm r
140.Xr refer 1
141.It Cm t
142.Xr tbl 1
143.It Cm v
144.Xr vgrind 1
145.El
146Overrides the
147.Ev MANROFFSEQ
148environment variable.
149.It Fl t
150Send manual page source through
151.Xr troff 1
152allowing transformation of the manual pages to other formats.
153.It Fl w
154Display the location of the manual page instead of the contents of
155the manual page.
156.El
157.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
158.Ss Locale Specific Searches
159The
160.Nm
161utility supports manual pages in different locales.
162The search behavior is dictated by the first of three
163environment variables with a nonempty string:
164.Ev LC_ALL ,
165.Ev LC_CTYPE ,
166or
167.Ev LANG .
168If set,
169.Nm
170will search for locale specific manual pages using the following logic:
171.Bl -item -compact -offset indent
172.Sm off
173.It
174.Va lang _
175.Va country .
176.Va charset
177.It
178.Va lang .
179.Va charset
180.It
181.Li en .
182.Va charset
183.Sm on
184.El
185For example, if
186.Ev LC_ALL
187is set to
188.Va ja_JP.eucJP ,
189.Nm
190will search the following paths when considering section 1 manual pages in
191.Pa /usr/share/man :
192.Bl -item -compact -offset indent
193.It
194.Pa /usr/share/man/ja_JP.eucJP/man1
195.It
196.Pa /usr/share/man/ja.eucJP/man1
197.It
198.Pa /usr/share/man/en.eucJP/man1
199.It
200.Pa /usr/share/man/man1
201.El
202.Ss Platform Specific Searches
203The
204.Nm
205utility supports platform specific manual pages.
206The search behavior is dictated by the
207.Fl m
208option or the
209.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
210and
211.Ev MACHINE
212environment variables.
213For example, if
214.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
215is set to
216.Va i386
217and
218.Ev MACHINE
219is set to
220.Va pc98 ,
221.Nm
222will search the following paths when considering section 4 manual pages in
223.Pa /usr/share/man :
224.Bl -item -compact -offset indent
225.It
226.Pa /usr/share/man/man4/pc98
227.It
228.Pa /usr/share/man/man4/i386
229.It
230.Pa /usr/share/man/man4
231.El
232.Ss Displaying Specific Manual Files
233The
234.Nm
235utility also supports displaying a specific manual page if passed a path
236to the file as long as it contains a
237.Sq /
238character.
239.Sh ENVIRONMENT
240The following environment variables affect the execution of
241.Nm :
242.Bl -tag -width ".Ev MANPATH"
243.It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
244Used to find locale specific manual pages.
245Valid values can be found by running the
246.Xr locale 1
247command.
248See
249.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
250for details.
251Influenced by the
252.Fl o
253option.
254.It Ev MACHINE_ARCH , MACHINE
255Used to find platform specific manual pages.
256If unset, the output of
257.Ic "sysctl hw.machine_arch"
258and
259.Ic "sysctl hw.machine"
260is used respectively.
261See
262.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
263for details.
264Corresponds to the
265.Fl m
266option.
267.It Ev MANPATH
268Used to find the location of the manual files.
269See
270.Xr manpath 1
271for additional information.
272Corresponds to the
273.Fl M
274option.
275.It Ev MANROFFSEQ
276Used to determine the preprocessors for the manual source before running
277.Xr nroff 1
278or
279.Xr troff 1 .
280If unset, defaults to
281.Xr tbl 1 .
282Corresponds to the
283.Fl p
284option.
285.It Ev MANSECT
286Restricts manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list.
287Corresponds to the
288.Fl S
289option.
290.It Ev MANWIDTH
291If set to a numeric value, used as the width manpages should be displayed.
292Otherwise, if set to a special value
293.Dq Li tty ,
294and output is to a terminal,
295the pages may be displayed over the whole width of the screen.
296.It Ev MANCOLOR
297If set, enables color support.
298.It Ev MANPAGER
299Program used to display files.
300.Pp
301If unset, and color support is enabled,
302.Ic "less -sR"
303is used.
304.Pp
305If unset, and color support is disabled, then
306.Ev PAGER
307is used.
308If that has no value either,
309.Ic "more -s"
310is used.
311.El
312.Sh FILES
313.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
314.It Pa /etc/man.conf
315System configuration file.
316.It Pa /usr/local/etc/man.d/*.conf
317Local configuration files.
318.El
319.Sh SEE ALSO
320.Xr intro 1 ,
321.Xr apropos 1 ,
322.Xr locale 1 ,
323.Xr manpath 1 ,
324.Xr man.conf 5 ,
325.Xr nroff 1 ,
326.Xr troff 1 ,
327.Xr whatis 1
328