man(1) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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MAN(1)                      NetBSD Reference Manual                     MAN(1)


NAME

     man - display the on-line manual pages (aka ``man pages'')


SYNOPSIS

     man [-acw|-h] [-C file] [-M path] [-m path] [section] name ...
     man [-k] [-C file] [-M path] [-m path] keyword ...


DESCRIPTION

     The man utility displays the BSD man pages entitled name.

     The options are as follows:

     -a      Display all of the man pages for a specified section and name
             combination.  (Normally, only the first man page found is dis-
             played.)

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

     -c      Copy the man page to the standard output instead of using more(1)
             to paginate it.  This is done by default if the standard output
             is not a terminal device.

     -h      Display only the ``SYNOPSIS'' lines of the requested man pages,
             in the same manner as whatis(1).

     -k      Display the header lines for any man pages matching keyword(s),
             in the same manner as apropos(1).

     -M      Override the list of standard directories which man searches for
             man pages.  The supplied path must be a colon (``:'') separated
             list of directories.  This search path may also be set using the
             environment variable MANPATH.  The subdirectories to be searched,
             and their search order, is specified by the ``_subdir'' line in
             the man configuration file.

     -m      Augment the list of standard directories which man searches for
             man pages.  The supplied path must be a colon (``:'') separated
             list of directories.  These directories will be searched before
             the standard directories or the directories specified using the
             -M option or the MANPATH environment variable.  The subdirecto-
             ries to be searched, and their search order, is specified by the
             ``_subdir'' line in the man configuration file.

     -w      List the pathnames of the man pages which man would display for
             the specified section and name combination.

     The optional section argument restricts the directories that man will
     search.  The man configuration file (see man.conf(5)) specifies the pos-
     sible section values that are currently available.  Except when used with
     the `-k' option, if only a single argument is specified or if the first
     argument is not a valid section, man assumes that the argument is the
     name of a man page to be displayed.


ENVIRONMENT

     MACHINE   As some man pages are intended only for specific architectures,
               man searches any subdirectories, with the same name as the cur-
               rent architecture, in every directory which it searches.  Ma-
               chine specific areas are checked before general areas.  The
               current machine type may be overridden by setting the environ-
               ment variable MACHINE to the name of a specific architecture.

     MANPATH   The standard search path used by man may be overridden by spec-
               ifying a path in the MANPATH environment variable.  The format
               of the path is a colon (``:'') separated list of directories.
               The subdirectories to be searched as well as their search order
               is specified by the ``_subdir'' line in the man configuration
               file.

     PAGER     The pagination command used for writing the output.  If the
               PAGER environment variable is null or not set, the standard
               pagination program more(1) will be used.


FILES

     /etc/man.conf default man configuration file.
     /usr/{share,X11R6,X11,pkg,local}/man/whatis.db standard whatis/apropos
                    database search path, set in /etc/man.conf.


SEE ALSO

     apropos(1), whatis(1), whereis(1), man.conf(5), mdoc(7), mdoc.samples(7)


STANDARDS

     man conforms to .


BUGS

     The on-line man pages are, by necessity, forgiving toward stupid display
     devices, causing a few man pages to be not as nicely formatted their
     typeset counterparts.

NetBSD 1.4                      January 2, 1994                              2