]> git.cameronkatri.com Git - mandoc.git/blob - man.1
reduce indentation for better readability
[mandoc.git] / man.1
1 .\" $Id: man.1,v 1.12 2015/01/20 21:16:51 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, 2015 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: January 20 2015 $
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 acfhklVw
43 .Op Fl C Ar file
44 .Op Fl I Cm os Ns = Ns Ar name
45 .Op Fl K Ar encoding
46 .Op Fl M Ar path
47 .Op Fl m Ar path
48 .Op Fl O Ar option Ns = Ns Ar value
49 .Op Fl S Ar subsection
50 .Op Fl s Ar section
51 .Op Fl T Ar output
52 .Op Fl W Ar level
53 .Op Ar section
54 .Ar name ...
55 .Sh DESCRIPTION
56 The
57 .Nm
58 utility
59 displays the
60 manual pages entitled
61 .Ar name .
62 Pages may be selected according to
63 a specific category
64 .Pq Ar section
65 or
66 machine architecture
67 .Pq Ar subsection .
68 .Pp
69 The options are as follows:
70 .Bl -tag -width Ds
71 .It Fl a
72 Display all of the manual pages for a specified
73 .Ar section
74 and
75 .Ar name
76 combination.
77 Normally, only the first manual page found is displayed.
78 .It Fl C Ar file
79 Use the specified
80 .Ar file
81 instead of the default configuration file.
82 This permits users to configure their own manual environment.
83 See
84 .Xr man.conf 5
85 for a description of the contents of this file.
86 .It Fl c
87 Copy the manual page to the standard output instead of using
88 .Xr more 1
89 to paginate it.
90 This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device.
91 .It Fl f
92 A synonym for
93 .Xr whatis 1 .
94 It searches for
95 .Ar name
96 in manual page names and displays the header lines from all matching pages.
97 The search is case insensitive and matches whole words only.
98 This overrides any earlier
99 .Fl k
100 and
101 .Fl l
102 options.
103 .It Fl I Cm os Ns = Ns Ar name
104 Override the default operating system
105 .Ar name
106 for the
107 .Xr mdoc 7
108 .Ic \&Os
109 and for the
110 .Xr man 7
111 .Ic \&TH
112 macro.
113 .It Fl h
114 Display only the SYNOPSIS lines of the requested manual pages.
115 Implies
116 .Fl a
117 and
118 .Fl c .
119 .It Fl K Ar encoding
120 Specify the input encoding.
121 The supported
122 .Ar encoding
123 arguments are
124 .Cm us-ascii ,
125 .Cm iso-8859-1 ,
126 and
127 .Cm utf-8 .
128 By default, the encoding is automatically detected as described in the
129 .Xr mandoc 1
130 manual.
131 .It Fl k
132 A synonym for
133 .Xr apropos 1 .
134 Instead of
135 .Ar name ,
136 an expression can be provided using the syntax described in the
137 .Xr apropos 1
138 manual.
139 By default, it displays the header lines of all matching pages.
140 This overrides any earlier
141 .Fl f
142 and
143 .Fl l
144 options.
145 .It Fl l
146 A synonym for
147 .Xr mandoc 1
148 .Fl a .
149 The
150 .Ar name
151 arguments are interpreted as filenames.
152 No search is done and
153 .Ar file ,
154 .Ar path ,
155 .Ar section ,
156 and
157 .Ar subsection
158 are ignored.
159 This overrides any earlier
160 .Fl f ,
161 .Fl k ,
162 and
163 .Fl w
164 options.
165 .It Fl M Ar path
166 Override the list of standard directories which
167 .Nm
168 searches for manual pages.
169 The supplied
170 .Ar path
171 must be a colon
172 .Pq Ql \&:
173 separated list of directories.
174 This search path may also be set using the environment variable
175 .Ev MANPATH .
176 The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order,
177 are specified by the
178 .Dq _subdir
179 line in the
180 .Nm
181 configuration file.
182 .It Fl m Ar path
183 Augment the list of standard directories which
184 .Nm
185 searches for manual pages.
186 The supplied
187 .Ar path
188 must be a colon
189 .Pq Ql \&:
190 separated list of directories.
191 These directories will be searched before the standard directories or
192 the directories specified using the
193 .Fl M
194 option or the
195 .Ev MANPATH
196 environment variable.
197 The subdirectories to be searched, and their search order,
198 are specified by the
199 .Dq _subdir
200 line in the
201 .Nm
202 configuration file.
203 .It Fl O Ar option Ns = Ns Ar value
204 Comma-separated output options.
205 For each output format, the available options are described in the
206 .Xr mandoc 1
207 manual.
208 .It Fl S Ar subsection
209 Restricts the directories that
210 .Nm
211 will search to those of a specific
212 .Xr machine 1
213 architecture.
214 .Ar subsection
215 is case insensitive.
216 .Pp
217 By default manual pages for all architectures are installed.
218 Therefore this option can be used to view pages for one
219 architecture whilst using another.
220 .Pp
221 This option overrides the
222 .Ev MACHINE
223 environment variable.
224 .It Xo
225 .Op Fl s
226 .Ar section
227 .Xc
228 Restricts the directories that
229 .Nm
230 will search to a specific section.
231 The currently available sections are:
232 .Pp
233 .Bl -tag -width "localXXX" -offset indent -compact
234 .It 1
235 General commands
236 .Pq tools and utilities .
237 .It 2
238 System calls and error numbers.
239 .It 3
240 Libraries.
241 .It 3f
242 Fortran programmer's reference guide.
243 .It 3p
244 .Xr perl 1
245 programmer's reference guide.
246 .It 4
247 Device drivers.
248 .It 5
249 File formats.
250 .It 6
251 Games.
252 .It 7
253 Miscellaneous.
254 .It 8
255 System maintenance and operation commands.
256 .It 9
257 Kernel internals.
258 .It X11
259 An alias for X11R6.
260 .It X11R6
261 X Window System.
262 .It local
263 Pages located in
264 .Pa /usr/local .
265 .It n
266 Tcl/Tk commands.
267 .El
268 .Pp
269 The
270 .Nm
271 configuration file,
272 .Xr man.conf 5 ,
273 specifies the possible
274 .Ar section
275 values, and their search order.
276 Additional sections may be specified.
277 .It Fl T Ar output
278 Select the output format.
279 The default is
280 .Cm locale .
281 The other output modes
282 .Cm ascii ,
283 .Cm html ,
284 .Cm lint ,
285 .Cm man ,
286 .Cm pdf ,
287 .Cm ps ,
288 .Cm tree ,
289 and
290 .Cm utf8
291 are described in the
292 .Xr mandoc 1
293 manual.
294 .It Fl V
295 Print version and exit.
296 .It Fl W Ar level
297 Specify the minimum message
298 .Ar level
299 to be reported on the standard error output and to affect the exit status.
300 The
301 .Ar level
302 can be
303 .Cm warning ,
304 .Cm error ,
305 or
306 .Cm unsupp ;
307 .Cm all
308 is an alias for
309 .Cm warning .
310 By default,
311 .Nm
312 is silent.
313 See the
314 .Xr mandoc 1
315 manual for details.
316 .It Fl w
317 List the pathnames of the manual pages which
318 .Nm
319 would display for the specified
320 .Ar section
321 and
322 .Ar name
323 combination.
324 .El
325 .Pp
326 Guidelines for writing
327 man pages can be found in
328 .Xr mdoc 7 .
329 .Pp
330 If both a formatted and an unformatted version of the same manual page,
331 for example
332 .Pa cat1/foo.0
333 and
334 .Pa man1/foo.1 ,
335 exist in the same directory, and at least one of them is selected,
336 only the newer one is used.
337 However, if both the
338 .Fl a
339 and the
340 .Fl w
341 options are specified, both file names are printed.
342 .Sh ENVIRONMENT
343 .Bl -tag -width MANPATHX
344 .It Ev MACHINE
345 As some manual pages are intended only for specific architectures,
346 .Nm
347 searches any subdirectories,
348 with the same name as the current architecture,
349 in every directory which it searches.
350 Machine specific areas are checked before general areas.
351 The current machine type may be overridden by setting the environment
352 variable
353 .Ev MACHINE
354 to the name of a specific architecture,
355 or with the
356 .Fl S
357 option.
358 .Ev MACHINE
359 is case insensitive.
360 .It Ev MANPAGER
361 Any non-empty value of the environment variable
362 .Ev MANPAGER
363 will be used instead of the standard pagination program,
364 .Xr more 1 .
365 .It Ev MANPATH
366 The standard search path used by
367 .Nm
368 may be overridden by specifying a path in the
369 .Ev MANPATH
370 environment
371 variable.
372 The format of the path is a colon
373 .Pq Ql \&:
374 separated list of directories.
375 The subdirectories to be searched, as well as their search order,
376 are specified by the
377 .Dq _subdir
378 line in the
379 .Nm
380 configuration file.
381 .It Ev PAGER
382 Specifies the pagination program to use when
383 .Ev MANPAGER
384 is not defined.
385 If neither PAGER nor MANPAGER is defined,
386 .Pa /usr/bin/more Fl s
387 will be used.
388 .El
389 .Sh FILES
390 .Bl -tag -width /etc/man.conf -compact
391 .It Pa /etc/man.conf
392 default man configuration file
393 .El
394 .Sh EXIT STATUS
395 .Ex -std man
396 .Sh SEE ALSO
397 .Xr apropos 1 ,
398 .Xr intro 1 ,
399 .Xr whatis 1 ,
400 .Xr whereis 1 ,
401 .Xr intro 2 ,
402 .Xr intro 3 ,
403 .Xr intro 4 ,
404 .Xr intro 5 ,
405 .Xr man.conf 5 ,
406 .Xr intro 6 ,
407 .Xr intro 7 ,
408 .Xr mdoc 7 ,
409 .Xr intro 8 ,
410 .Xr intro 9
411 .Sh STANDARDS
412 The
413 .Nm
414 utility is compliant with the
415 .St -p1003.1-2008
416 specification.
417 .Pp
418 The flags
419 .Op Fl aCcfhIKlMmOSsTVWw ,
420 as well as the environment variables
421 .Ev MACHINE ,
422 .Ev MANPAGER ,
423 and
424 .Ev MANPATH ,
425 are extensions to that specification.
426 .Sh HISTORY
427 A
428 .Nm
429 command first appeared in
430 .At v3 .
431 .Pp
432 The
433 .Fl w
434 option first appeared in
435 .At v7 ;
436 .Fl f
437 and
438 .Fl k
439 in
440 .Bx 4 ;
441 .Fl M
442 in
443 .Bx 4.3 ;
444 .Fl a
445 in
446 .Bx 4.3 Tahoe ;
447 .Fl c
448 and
449 .Fl m
450 in
451 .Bx 4.3 Reno ;
452 .Fl h
453 in
454 .Bx 4.3 Net/2 ;
455 .Fl C
456 in
457 .Nx 1.0 ;
458 and
459 .Fl s
460 and
461 .Fl S
462 in
463 .Ox 2.3 .