xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/man/man.1 (revision d0b2dbfa0ecf2bbc9709efc5e20baf8e4b44bbbf)
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2.\"  Copyright (c) 2010 Gordon Tetlow
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd January 26, 2022
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 K
47.Ar regexp ...
48.Nm
49.Fl f
50.Ar keyword ...
51.Nm
52.Fl k
53.Ar keyword ...
54.Sh DESCRIPTION
55The
56.Nm
57utility finds and displays online manual documentation pages.
58If
59.Ar mansect
60is provided,
61.Nm
62restricts the search to the specific section of the manual.
63.Pp
64The sections of the manual are:
65.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact
66.It
67.Fx
68General Commands Manual
69.It
70.Fx
71System Calls Manual
72.It
73.Fx
74Library Functions Manual
75.It
76.Fx
77Kernel Interfaces Manual
78.It
79.Fx
80File Formats Manual
81.It
82.Fx
83Games Manual
84.It
85.Fx
86Miscellaneous Information Manual
87.It
88.Fx
89System Manager's Manual
90.It
91.Fx
92Kernel Developer's Manual
93.El
94.Pp
95Options that
96.Nm
97understands:
98.Bl -tag -width indent
99.It Fl K Ar regexp
100Does a full text search in all manual pages.
101.Ar regexp
102is a regular expression as understood by
103.Dq Li "grep -E" .
104This option requires
105.Xr mandoc 1 .
106This is a slow operation.
107.It Fl M Ar manpath
108Forces a specific colon separated manual path instead of the default
109search path.
110See
111.Xr manpath 1 .
112Overrides the
113.Ev MANPATH
114environment variable.
115.It Fl P Ar pager
116Use specified pager.
117Defaults to
118.Dq Li "less -sR"
119if color support is enabled, or
120.Dq Li "less -s" .
121Overrides the
122.Ev MANPAGER
123environment variable, which in turn overrides the
124.Ev PAGER
125environment variable.
126.It Fl S Ar mansect
127Restricts manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list.
128Defaults to
129.Dq Li 1:8:2:3:3lua:n:4:5:6:7:9:l .
130Overrides the
131.Ev MANSECT
132environment variable.
133.It Fl a
134Display all manual pages instead of just the first found for each
135.Ar page
136argument.
137.It Fl d
138Print extra debugging information.
139Repeat for increased verbosity.
140Does not display the manual page.
141.It Fl f
142Emulate
143.Xr whatis 1 .
144.It Fl h
145Display short help message and exit.
146.It Fl k
147Emulate
148.Xr apropos 1 .
149.It Fl m Ar arch Ns Op : Ns Ar machine
150Override the default architecture and machine settings allowing lookup of
151other platform specific manual pages.
152See
153.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
154for how this option changes the default behavior.
155Overrides the
156.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
157and
158.Ev MACHINE
159environment variables.
160.It Fl o
161Force use of non-localized manual pages.
162See
163.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
164for how locale specific searches work.
165Overrides the
166.Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE ,
167and
168.Ev LANG
169environment variables.
170.It Fl p Op Cm eprtv
171Use the list of given preprocessors before running
172.Xr nroff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
173or
174.Xr troff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff .
175Valid preprocessors arguments:
176.Pp
177.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
178.It Cm e
179.Xr eqn 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
180.It Cm p
181.Xr pic 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
182.It Cm r
183.Xr refer 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
184.It Cm t
185.Xr tbl 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
186.It Cm v
187.Xr vgrind 1
188.El
189.Pp
190Overrides the
191.Ev MANROFFSEQ
192environment variable.
193.It Fl t
194Send manual page source through
195.Xr troff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
196allowing transformation of the manual pages to other formats.
197.It Fl w
198Display the location of the manual page instead of the contents of
199the manual page.
200.El
201.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
202.Ss Locale Specific Searches
203The
204.Nm
205utility supports manual pages in different locales.
206The search behavior is dictated by the first of three
207environment variables with a nonempty string:
208.Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE ,
209or
210.Ev LANG .
211If set,
212.Nm
213will search for locale specific manual pages using the following logic:
214.Pp
215.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
216.It
217.Va lang Ns _ Ns Va country Ns . Ns Va charset
218.It
219.Va lang Ns . Ns Va charset
220.It
221.Li en Ns . Ns Va charset
222.El
223.Pp
224For example, if
225.Ev LC_ALL
226is set to
227.Dq Li ja_JP.eucJP ,
228.Nm
229will search the following paths when considering section 1 manual pages in
230.Pa /usr/share/man :
231.Pp
232.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
233.It
234.Pa /usr/share/man/ja_JP.eucJP/man1
235.It
236.Pa /usr/share/man/ja.eucJP/man1
237.It
238.Pa /usr/share/man/en.eucJP/man1
239.It
240.Pa /usr/share/man/man1
241.El
242.Ss Platform Specific Searches
243The
244.Nm
245utility supports platform specific manual pages.
246The search behavior is dictated by the
247.Fl m
248option or the
249.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
250and
251.Ev MACHINE
252environment variables.
253For example, if
254.Ev MACHINE_ARCH
255is set to
256.Dq Li aarch64
257and
258.Ev MACHINE
259is set to
260.Dq Li arm64 ,
261.Nm
262will search the following paths when considering section 4 manual pages in
263.Pa /usr/share/man :
264.Pp
265.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
266.It
267.Pa /usr/share/man/man4/aarch64
268.It
269.Pa /usr/share/man/man4/arm64
270.It
271.Pa /usr/share/man/man4
272.El
273.Ss Displaying Specific Manual Files
274The
275.Nm
276utility also supports displaying a specific manual page if passed a path
277to the file as long as it contains a
278.Ql /
279character.
280.Sh ENVIRONMENT
281The following environment variables affect the execution of
282.Nm :
283.Bl -tag -width ".Ev MANROFFSEQ"
284.It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
285Used to find locale specific manual pages.
286Valid values can be found by running the
287.Xr locale 1
288command.
289See
290.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
291for details.
292Influenced by the
293.Fl o
294option.
295.It Ev MACHINE_ARCH , MACHINE
296Used to find platform specific manual pages.
297If unset, the output of
298.Dq Li "sysctl hw.machine_arch"
299and
300.Dq Li "sysctl hw.machine"
301is used respectively.
302See
303.Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
304for details.
305Corresponds to the
306.Fl m
307option.
308.It Ev MANPATH
309The standard search path used by
310.Xr man 1
311may be changed by specifying a path in the
312.Ev MANPATH
313environment variable.
314Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases, are ignored.
315Overridden by
316.Fl M .
317If
318.Ev MANPATH
319begins with a colon, it is appended to the default list;
320if it ends with a colon, it is prepended to the default list;
321or if it contains two adjacent colons,
322the standard search path is inserted between the colons.
323If none of these conditions are met, it overrides the
324standard search path.
325.It Ev MANROFFSEQ
326Used to determine the preprocessors for the manual source before running
327.Xr nroff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff
328or
329.Xr troff 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff .
330If unset, defaults to
331.Xr tbl 1 Pq Pa ports/textproc/groff .
332Corresponds to the
333.Fl p
334option.
335.It Ev MANSECT
336Restricts manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list.
337Corresponds to the
338.Fl S
339option.
340.It Ev MANWIDTH
341If set to a numeric value, used as the width manpages should be displayed.
342Otherwise, if set to a special value
343.Dq Li tty ,
344and output is to a terminal,
345the pages may be displayed over the whole width of the screen.
346.It Ev MANCOLOR
347If set, enables color support.
348.It Ev MANPAGER
349Program used to display files.
350.Pp
351If unset, and color support is enabled,
352.Dq Li "less -sR"
353is used.
354.Pp
355If unset, and color support is disabled, then
356.Ev PAGER
357is used.
358If that has no value either,
359.Dq Li "less -s"
360is used.
361.El
362.Sh FILES
363.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
364.It Pa /etc/man.conf
365System configuration file.
366.It Pa /usr/local/etc/man.d/*.conf
367Local configuration files.
368.El
369.Sh EXIT STATUS
370.Ex -std
371.Sh EXAMPLES
372Show the manual page for
373.Xr stat 2 :
374.Bd -literal -offset indent
375$ man 2 stat
376.Ed
377.Pp
378Show all manual pages for
379.Ql stat .
380.Bd -literal -offset indent
381$ man -a stat
382.Ed
383.Pp
384List manual pages which match the regular expression either in the title or in
385the body:
386.Bd -literal -offset indent
387$ man -k '\e<copy\e>.*archive'
388.Ed
389.Pp
390Show the manual page for
391.Xr ls 1
392and use
393.Xr cat 1
394as pager:
395.Bd -literal -offset indent
396$ man -P cat ls
397.Ed
398.Pp
399Show the location of the
400.Xr ls 1
401manual page:
402.Bd -literal -offset indent
403$ man -w ls
404.Ed
405.Pp
406Show the location of manual pages in sections 1 and 8 which contain the word
407.Ql arm :
408.Bd -literal -offset indent
409$ ./man -w -K '\e<arm\e>' -S 1:8
410.Ed
411.Sh SEE ALSO
412.Xr apropos 1 ,
413.Xr egrep 1 ,
414.Xr intro 1 ,
415.Xr mandoc 1 ,
416.Xr manpath 1 ,
417.Xr whatis 1 ,
418.Xr intro 2 ,
419.Xr intro 3 ,
420.Xr intro 3lua ,
421.Xr intro 4 ,
422.Xr intro 5 ,
423.Xr man.conf 5 ,
424.Xr intro 6 ,
425.Xr intro 7 ,
426.Xr mdoc 7 ,
427.Xr intro 8 ,
428.Xr intro 9
429