Manup Lonely MAN near You

SYNOPSIS

+ + + + + +

man [-acfhklw] [-C + file] [-M + path] [-m + path] [-S + subsection] [[-s] + section] name ...

DESCRIPTION

+The man utility displays the manual page entitled + name. Pages may be selected according to a specific + category (section) or machine architecture + (subsection). +

The options are as follows:

-a

Display all matching manual pages.

-C + file

Use the specified file instead of the default + configuration file. This permits users to configure their own manual + environment. See man.conf(5) for a description of the contents of this file.

-c

Copy the manual page to the standard output instead of using + less(1) to paginate it. + This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device. +

When using -c, most terminal devices + are unable to show the markup. To print the output of + man to the terminal with markup but without + using a pager, pipe it to ul(1). To remove the markup, pipe the output to + col(1) + -b instead.

-f

A synonym for whatis(1). + It searches for name in manual page names and + displays the header lines from all matching pages. The search is case + insensitive and matches whole words only.

-h

Display only the SYNOPSIS lines of the requested manual pages. Implies + -a and -c.

-k

A synonym for apropos(1). Instead of name, an expression + can be provided using the syntax described in the + apropos(1) manual. By + default, it displays the header lines of all matching pages.

-l

A synonym for mandoc(1). + The name arguments are interpreted as filenames. No + search is done and file, path, + section, subsection, and + -w are ignored. This option implies + -a.

-M + path

Override the list of directories to search for manual pages. The supplied + path must be a colon + (‘:’) separated list of directories. + This option also overrides the environment variable + MANPATH and any directories specified in the + man.conf(5) file.

-m + path

Augment the list of directories to search for manual pages. The supplied + path must be a colon + (‘:’) separated list of directories. + These directories will be searched before those specified using the + -M option, the MANPATH + environment variable, the man.conf(5) file, or the default directories.

-S + subsection

Only show pages for the specified machine(1) architecture. subsection + is case insensitive. +

By default manual pages for all architectures are installed. + Therefore this option can be used to view pages for one architecture + whilst using another.

This option overrides the MACHINE + environment variable.

[-s] section

Only select manuals from the specified section. The + currently available sections are: +

1: General commands (tools and utilities).
2: System calls and error numbers.
3: Library functions.
3p: perl(1) programmer's + reference guide.
4: Device drivers.
5: File formats.
6: Games.
7: Miscellaneous information.
8: System maintenance and operation commands.
9: Kernel internals.

-w

List the pathnames of all matching manual pages instead of displaying any + of them. If no name is given, list the directories + that would be searched.

The options -IKOTW are also supported and + are documented in mandoc(1). The options -fkl are mutually + exclusive and override each other.

The search starts with the -m argument if + provided, then continues with the -M argument, the + MANPATH variable, the + manpath entries in the + man.conf(5) file, or with + /usr/share/man:/usr/X11R6/man:/usr/local/man + by default. Within each of these, directories are searched in the order + provided. Within each directory, the search proceeds according to the + following list of sections: 1, 8, 6, 2, 3, 5, 7, 4, 9, 3p. The first match + found is shown.

The mandoc.db(5) database is used for looking up manual page entries. In + cases where the database is absent, outdated, or corrupt, + man falls back to looking for files called + name.section. If both a + formatted and an unformatted version of the same manual page, for example + cat1/foo.0 and man1/foo.1, + exist in the same directory, only the unformatted version is used. The + database is kept up to date with makewhatis(8), which is run by the + weekly(8) maintenance + script.

Guidelines for writing man pages can be found in + mdoc(7).

ENVIRONMENT

MACHINE: As some manual pages are intended only for specific architectures, + man searches any subdirectories, with the same + name as the current architecture, in every directory which it searches. + Machine specific areas are checked before general areas. The current + machine type may be overridden by setting the environment variable + MACHINE to the name of a specific architecture, or + with the -S option. + MACHINE is case insensitive.
MANPAGER: Any non-empty value of the environment variable + MANPAGER is used instead of the standard + pagination program, less(1). If less(1) + is used, the interactive :t command can be used to + go to the definitions of various terms, for example command line options, + command modifiers, internal commands, environment variables, function + names, preprocessor macros, errno(2) values, and some other emphasized words. Some terms may + have defining text at more than one place. In that case, the + less(1) interactive + commands t and T can be + used to move to the next and to the previous place providing information + about the term last searched for with :t. The + -O + tag[=term] option documented + in the mandoc(1) manual + opens a manual page at the definition of a specific + term rather than at the beginning.
MANPATH: Override the standard search path which is either specified in + man.conf(5) or the + default path. The format of MANPATH is a colon + (‘:’) separated list of directories. + Invalid directories are ignored. Overridden by -M, + ignored if -l is specified. +
If MANPATH begins with a colon, it is + appended to the standard path; if it ends with a colon, it is prepended + to the standard path; or if it contains two adjacent colons, the + standard path is inserted between the colons.
+
PAGER: Specifies the pagination program to use when + MANPAGER is not defined. If neither PAGER nor + MANPAGER is defined, less(1) is used.

FILES

/etc/man.conf: default man configuration file

EXIT + STATUS

The man utility exits 0 on success, + and >0 if an error occurs. See mandoc(1) for details.

EXAMPLES

Format a page for pasting extracts into an email message — + avoid printing any UTF-8 characters, reduce the width to ease quoting in + replies, and remove markup:

$ man -T ascii -O width=65 pledge |
+  col -b

Read a typeset page in a PDF viewer:

$ MANPAGER=mupdf man -T pdf
+  lpd

SEE + ALSO

apropos(1), + col(1), + mandoc(1), + ul(1), + whereis(1), + man.conf(5), + mdoc(7)

STANDARDS

The man utility is compliant with the + IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”) + specification.

The flags [-aCcfhIKlMmOSsTWw], as well as + the environment variables MACHINE, + MANPAGER, and MANPATH, are + extensions to that specification.

HISTORY

A man command first appeared in + Version 2 AT&T UNIX.

The -w option first appeared in + Version 7 AT&T UNIX; + -f and -k in + /usr/usb/man in 4.0BSD; + -M in 4.3BSD; + -a in 4.3BSD-Tahoe; + -c and -m in + 4.3BSD-Reno; -h in + 4.3BSD-Net/2; -C in + NetBSD 1.0; -s and + -S in OpenBSD 2.3; and + -I, -K, + -l, -O, and + -W in OpenBSD 5.7. The + -T option first appeared in + AT&T System III UNIX and was also added + in OpenBSD 5.7.

+ L + m + `m` + t + F + y +

NAME