xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/man/man.1 (revision a0b9e2e854027e6ff61fb075a1309dbc71c42b54)
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2.\"  Copyright (c) 2010 Gordon Tetlow
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd October 28, 2020
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
61The sections of the manual are:
62.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact
63.It
64.Fx
65General Commands Manual
66.It
67.Fx
68System Calls Manual
69.It
70.Fx
71Library Functions Manual
72.It
73.Fx
74Kernel Interfaces Manual
75.It
76.Fx
77File Formats Manual
78.It
79.Fx
80Games Manual
81.It
82.Fx
83Miscellaneous Information Manual
84.It
85.Fx
86System Manager's Manual
87.It
88.Fx
89Kernel Developer's Manual
90.El
91.Pp
92Options that
93.Nm
94understands:
95.Bl -tag -width indent
96.It Fl M Ar manpath
97Forces a specific colon separated manual path instead of the default
98search path.
99See
100.Xr manpath 1 .
101Overrides the
102.Ev MANPATH
103environment variable.
104.It Fl P Ar pager
105Use specified pager.
106Defaults to
107.Dq Li "less -sR"
108if color support is enabled, or
109.Dq Li "less -s" .
110Overrides the
111.Ev MANPAGER
112environment variable, which in turn overrides the
113.Ev PAGER
114environment variable.
115.It Fl S Ar mansect
116Restricts manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list.
117Defaults to
118.Dq Li 1:8:2:3:3lua:n:4:5:6:7:9:l .
119Overrides the
120.Ev MANSECT
121environment variable.
122.It Fl a
123Display all manual pages instead of just the first found for each
124.Ar page
125argument.
126.It Fl d
127Print extra debugging information.
128Repeat for increased verbosity.
129Does not display the manual page.
130.It Fl f
131Emulate
132.Xr whatis 1 .
133.It Fl h
134Display short help message and exit.
135.It Fl k
136Emulate
137.Xr apropos 1 .
138.It Fl m Ar arch Ns Op : Ns Ar machine
139Override the default architecture and machine settings allowing lookup of
140other platform specific manual pages.
141See
142.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
143for how this option changes the default behavior.
144Overrides the
145.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
146and
147.Ev MACHINE
148environment variables.
149.It Fl o
150Force use of non-localized manual pages.
151See
152.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
153for how locale specific searches work.
154Overrides the
155.Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE ,
156and
157.Ev LANG
158environment variables.
159.It Fl p Op Cm eprtv
160Use the list of given preprocessors before running
161.Xr nroff 1
162or
163.Xr troff 1 .
164Valid preprocessors arguments:
165.Pp
166.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
167.It Cm e
168.Xr eqn 1
169.It Cm p
170.Xr pic 1
171.It Cm r
172.Xr refer 1
173.It Cm t
174.Xr tbl 1
175.It Cm v
176.Xr vgrind 1
177.El
178.Pp
179Overrides the
180.Ev MANROFFSEQ
181environment variable.
182.It Fl t
183Send manual page source through
184.Xr troff 1
185allowing transformation of the manual pages to other formats.
186.It Fl w
187Display the location of the manual page instead of the contents of
188the manual page.
189.El
190.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
191.Ss Locale Specific Searches
192The
193.Nm
194utility supports manual pages in different locales.
195The search behavior is dictated by the first of three
196environment variables with a nonempty string:
197.Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE ,
198or
199.Ev LANG .
200If set,
201.Nm
202will search for locale specific manual pages using the following logic:
203.Pp
204.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
205.It
206.Va lang Ns _ Ns Va country Ns . Ns Va charset
207.It
208.Va lang Ns . Ns Va charset
209.It
210.Li en Ns . Ns Va charset
211.El
212.Pp
213For example, if
214.Ev LC_ALL
215is set to
216.Dq Li ja_JP.eucJP ,
217.Nm
218will search the following paths when considering section 1 manual pages in
219.Pa /usr/share/man :
220.Pp
221.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
222.It
223.Pa /usr/share/man/ja_JP.eucJP/man1
224.It
225.Pa /usr/share/man/ja.eucJP/man1
226.It
227.Pa /usr/share/man/en.eucJP/man1
228.It
229.Pa /usr/share/man/man1
230.El
231.Ss Platform Specific Searches
232The
233.Nm
234utility supports platform specific manual pages.
235The search behavior is dictated by the
236.Fl m
237option or the
238.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
239and
240.Ev MACHINE
241environment variables.
242For example, if
243.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
244is set to
245.Dq Li aarch64
246and
247.Ev MACHINE
248is set to
249.Dq Li arm64 ,
250.Nm
251will search the following paths when considering section 4 manual pages in
252.Pa /usr/share/man :
253.Pp
254.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
255.It
256.Pa /usr/share/man/man4/aarch64
257.It
258.Pa /usr/share/man/man4/arm64
259.It
260.Pa /usr/share/man/man4
261.El
262.Ss Displaying Specific Manual Files
263The
264.Nm
265utility also supports displaying a specific manual page if passed a path
266to the file as long as it contains a
267.Ql /
268character.
269.Sh ENVIRONMENT
270The following environment variables affect the execution of
271.Nm :
272.Bl -tag -width ".Ev MANROFFSEQ"
273.It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
274Used to find locale specific manual pages.
275Valid values can be found by running the
276.Xr locale 1
277command.
278See
279.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
280for details.
281Influenced by the
282.Fl o
283option.
284.It Ev MACHINE_ARCH , MACHINE
285Used to find platform specific manual pages.
286If unset, the output of
287.Dq Li "sysctl hw.machine_arch"
288and
289.Dq Li "sysctl hw.machine"
290is used respectively.
291See
292.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
293for details.
294Corresponds to the
295.Fl m
296option.
297.It Ev MANPATH
298The standard search path used by
299.Xr man 1
300may be changed by specifying a path in the
301.Ev MANPATH
302environment variable.
303Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases, are ignored.
304Overridden by
305.Fl M .
306If
307.Ev MANPATH
308begins with a colon, it is appended to the default list;
309if it ends with a colon, it is prepended to the default list;
310or if it contains two adjacent colons,
311the standard search path is inserted between the colons.
312If none of these conditions are met, it overrides the
313standard search path.
314.It Ev MANROFFSEQ
315Used to determine the preprocessors for the manual source before running
316.Xr nroff 1
317or
318.Xr troff 1 .
319If unset, defaults to
320.Xr tbl 1 .
321Corresponds to the
322.Fl p
323option.
324.It Ev MANSECT
325Restricts manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list.
326Corresponds to the
327.Fl S
328option.
329.It Ev MANWIDTH
330If set to a numeric value, used as the width manpages should be displayed.
331Otherwise, if set to a special value
332.Dq Li tty ,
333and output is to a terminal,
334the pages may be displayed over the whole width of the screen.
335.It Ev MANCOLOR
336If set, enables color support.
337.It Ev MANPAGER
338Program used to display files.
339.Pp
340If unset, and color support is enabled,
341.Dq Li "less -sR"
342is used.
343.Pp
344If unset, and color support is disabled, then
345.Ev PAGER
346is used.
347If that has no value either,
348.Dq Li "less -s"
349is used.
350.El
351.Sh FILES
352.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
353.It Pa /etc/man.conf
354System configuration file.
355.It Pa /usr/local/etc/man.d/*.conf
356Local configuration files.
357.El
358.Sh EXIT STATUS
359.Ex -std
360.Sh SEE ALSO
361.Xr apropos 1 ,
362.Xr intro 1 ,
363.Xr mandoc 1 ,
364.Xr manpath 1 ,
365.Xr whatis 1 ,
366.Xr intro 2 ,
367.Xr intro 3 ,
368.Xr intro 3lua ,
369.Xr intro 4 ,
370.Xr intro 5 ,
371.Xr man.conf 5 ,
372.Xr intro 6 ,
373.Xr intro 7 ,
374.Xr mdoc 7 ,
375.Xr intro 8 ,
376.Xr intro 9
377