xref: /freebsd-11-stable/contrib/mdocml/man.1 (revision 9be86479f0658967474b49635e035945d75c31a5)
1.\"	$Id: man.1,v 1.29 2017/05/17 23:23:00 schwarze Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993
4.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
5.\" Copyright (c) 2003, 2007, 2008, 2014 Jason McIntyre <jmc@openbsd.org>
6.\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011, 2014-2017 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
7.\"
8.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
9.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
10.\" are met:
11.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
12.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
13.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
14.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
15.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
16.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\"    without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\"     @(#)man.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/2/94
33.\"
34.Dd $Mdocdate: May 17 2017 $
35.Dt MAN 1
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm man
39.Nd display manual pages
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm man
42.Op Fl acfhklw
43.Op Fl C Ar file
44.Op Fl M Ar path
45.Op Fl m Ar path
46.Op Fl S Ar subsection
47.Op Oo Fl s Oc Ar section
48.Ar name ...
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50The
51.Nm
52utility
53displays the
54manual pages entitled
55.Ar name .
56Pages may be selected according to
57a specific category
58.Pq Ar section
59or
60machine architecture
61.Pq Ar subsection .
62.Pp
63The options are as follows:
64.Bl -tag -width Ds
65.It Fl a
66Display all matching manual pages.
67Normally, only the first page found is displayed.
68.It Fl C Ar file
69Use the specified
70.Ar file
71instead of the default configuration file.
72This permits users to configure their own manual environment.
73See
74.Xr man.conf 5
75for a description of the contents of this file.
76.It Fl c
77Copy the manual page to the standard output instead of using
78.Xr more 1
79to paginate it.
80This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device.
81.It Fl f
82A synonym for
83.Xr whatis 1 .
84It searches for
85.Ar name
86in manual page names and displays the header lines from all matching pages.
87The search is case insensitive and matches whole words only.
88.It Fl h
89Display only the SYNOPSIS lines of the requested manual pages.
90Implies
91.Fl a
92and
93.Fl c .
94.It Fl k
95A synonym for
96.Xr apropos 1 .
97Instead of
98.Ar name ,
99an expression can be provided using the syntax described in the
100.Xr apropos 1
101manual.
102By default, it displays the header lines of all matching pages.
103.It Fl l
104A synonym for
105.Xr mandoc 1
106.Fl a .
107The
108.Ar name
109arguments are interpreted as filenames.
110No search is done and
111.Ar file ,
112.Ar path ,
113.Ar section ,
114.Ar subsection ,
115and
116.Fl w
117are ignored.
118.It Fl M Ar path
119Override the list of standard directories which
120.Nm
121searches for manual pages.
122The supplied
123.Ar path
124must be a colon
125.Pq Ql \&:
126separated list of directories.
127This search path may also be set using the environment variable
128.Ev MANPATH .
129.It Fl m Ar path
130Augment the list of standard directories which
131.Nm
132searches for manual pages.
133The supplied
134.Ar path
135must be a colon
136.Pq Ql \&:
137separated list of directories.
138These directories will be searched before the standard directories or
139the directories specified using the
140.Fl M
141option or the
142.Ev MANPATH
143environment variable.
144.It Fl S Ar subsection
145Only show pages for the specified
146.Xr machine 1
147architecture.
148.Ar subsection
149is case insensitive.
150.Pp
151By default manual pages for all architectures are installed.
152Therefore this option can be used to view pages for one
153architecture whilst using another.
154.Pp
155This option overrides the
156.Ev MACHINE
157environment variable.
158.It Oo Fl s Oc Ar section
159Only select manuals from the specified
160.Ar section .
161The currently available sections are:
162.Pp
163.Bl -tag -width "localXXX" -offset indent -compact
164.It 1
165General commands
166.Pq tools and utilities .
167.It 2
168System calls and error numbers.
169.It 3
170Library functions.
171.It 3p
172.Xr perl 1
173programmer's reference guide.
174.It 4
175Device drivers.
176.It 5
177File formats.
178.It 6
179Games.
180.It 7
181Miscellaneous information.
182.It 8
183System maintenance and operation commands.
184.It 9
185Kernel internals.
186.El
187.Pp
188If not specified and a match is found in more than one section,
189the first match is selected from the following list:
1901, 8, 6, 2, 3, 5, 7, 4, 9, 3p.
191.It Fl w
192List the pathnames of all matching manual pages instead of displaying
193any of them.
194.El
195.Pp
196The options
197.Fl IKOTW
198are also supported and are documented in
199.Xr mandoc 1 .
200The options
201.Fl fkl
202are mutually exclusive and override each other.
203.Pp
204Guidelines for writing
205man pages can be found in
206.Xr mdoc 7 .
207.Pp
208If both a formatted and an unformatted version of the same manual page,
209for example
210.Pa cat1/foo.0
211and
212.Pa man1/foo.1 ,
213exist in the same directory, only the unformatted version is used.
214.Sh ENVIRONMENT
215.Bl -tag -width MANPATHX
216.It Ev MACHINE
217As some manual pages are intended only for specific architectures,
218.Nm
219searches any subdirectories,
220with the same name as the current architecture,
221in every directory which it searches.
222Machine specific areas are checked before general areas.
223The current machine type may be overridden by setting the environment
224variable
225.Ev MACHINE
226to the name of a specific architecture,
227or with the
228.Fl S
229option.
230.Ev MACHINE
231is case insensitive.
232.It Ev MANPAGER
233Any non-empty value of the environment variable
234.Ev MANPAGER
235is used instead of the standard pagination program,
236.Xr more 1 .
237If
238.Xr less 1
239is used, the interactive
240.Ic :t
241command can be used to go to the definitions of various terms, for
242example command line options, command modifiers, internal commands,
243environment variables, function names, preprocessor macros,
244.Xr errno 2
245values, and some other emphasized words.
246Some terms may have defining text at more than one place.
247In that case, the
248.Xr less 1
249interactive commands
250.Ic t
251and
252.Ic T
253can be used to move to the next and to the previous place providing
254information about the term last searched for with
255.Ic :t .
256.It Ev MANPATH
257The standard search path used by
258.Nm
259may be changed by specifying a path in the
260.Ev MANPATH
261environment variable.
262The format of the path is a colon
263.Pq Ql \&:
264separated list of directories.
265Invalid paths are ignored.
266Overridden by
267.Fl M ,
268ignored if
269.Fl l
270is specified.
271.Pp
272If
273.Ev MANPATH
274begins with a colon, it is appended to the default list;
275if it ends with a colon, it is prepended to the default list;
276or if it contains two adjacent colons,
277the standard search path is inserted between the colons.
278If none of these conditions are met, it overrides the
279standard search path.
280.It Ev PAGER
281Specifies the pagination program to use when
282.Ev MANPAGER
283is not defined.
284If neither PAGER nor MANPAGER is defined,
285.Xr more 1
286.Fl s
287is used.
288Only used if
289.Fl a
290or
291.Fl l
292is specified.
293.El
294.Sh FILES
295.Bl -tag -width /etc/man.conf -compact
296.It Pa /etc/man.conf
297default man configuration file
298.El
299.Sh EXIT STATUS
300.Ex -std man
301See
302.Xr mandoc 1
303for details.
304.Sh SEE ALSO
305.Xr apropos 1 ,
306.Xr intro 1 ,
307.Xr whereis 1 ,
308.Xr intro 2 ,
309.Xr intro 3 ,
310.Xr intro 4 ,
311.Xr intro 5 ,
312.Xr man.conf 5 ,
313.Xr intro 6 ,
314.Xr intro 7 ,
315.Xr mdoc 7 ,
316.Xr intro 8 ,
317.Xr intro 9
318.Sh STANDARDS
319The
320.Nm
321utility is compliant with the
322.St -p1003.1-2008
323specification.
324.Pp
325The flags
326.Op Fl aCcfhIKlMmOSsTWw ,
327as well as the environment variables
328.Ev MACHINE ,
329.Ev MANPAGER ,
330and
331.Ev MANPATH ,
332are extensions to that specification.
333.Sh HISTORY
334A
335.Nm
336command first appeared in
337.At v3 .
338.Pp
339The
340.Fl w
341option first appeared in
342.At v7 ;
343.Fl f
344and
345.Fl k
346in
347.Bx 4 ;
348.Fl M
349in
350.Bx 4.3 ;
351.Fl a
352in
353.Bx 4.3 Tahoe ;
354.Fl c
355and
356.Fl m
357in
358.Bx 4.3 Reno ;
359.Fl h
360in
361.Bx 4.3 Net/2 ;
362.Fl C
363in
364.Nx 1.0 ;
365.Fl s
366and
367.Fl S
368in
369.Ox 2.3 ;
370and
371.Fl I ,
372.Fl K ,
373.Fl l ,
374.Fl O ,
375and
376.Fl W
377in
378.Ox 5.7 .
379The
380.Fl T
381option first appeared in
382.At III
383and was also added in
384.Ox 5.7 .
385