man(1) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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MAN(1)                  NetBSD General Commands Manual                  MAN(1)


NAME

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


SYNOPSIS

     man [-acw|-h] [-C file] [-M path] [-m path] [-S srch] [[-s] section] name
         ...
     man [-C file] -f command ...
     man [-C file] -k keyword ...
     man -p


DESCRIPTION

     The man utility displays the manual pages named on the command line.  Its
     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.

     -f      Synonym for whatis(1).  It searches man pages for command in
             their names and displays header lines from all matching pages.

     -h      Display only the ``SYNOPSIS'' lines of the requested man pages.
             For commands, this is typically the command line usage informa-
             tion.  For library functions, this usually contains the required
             include files and function prototypes.

     -k      Search man pages for 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.

     -p      Print the search path for the manual pages.

     -s      Restrict the directories that man will search to the specified
             section.  The man configuration file (see man.conf(5)) specifies
             the possible section values that are currently available.

     -S      Display only man pages that have the specified string in the
             directory part of their filenames.  This allows the man page
             search process criteria to be narrowed without having to change
             the MANPATH or ``_default'' variables.

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

     If the `-s' option is not specified, there is more than one argument, the
     `-k' option is not used, and the first argument is a valid section, then
     that argument will be used as if specified by the `-s' option.

     If name is given with a full path (beginning with `/') or a relative path
     that begins with `./' or `../', then man interprets it as a file specifi-
     cation, so that you can do man ./foo.5 or even man /cd/foo/bar.1.gz.  If
     name contains `/' but does not match one of the above cases, then the
     search path is used; this allows you to request machine-specific man
     pages, such as man vax/boot.


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.
               Machine-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.
               Machine-specific man pages may also be requested by prepending
               the relevant subdirectory name to the page name, separated by
               `/'.  (See also the ``_<machine>'' line in the man.conf(5) con-
               figuration file, which defines additional supplemental paths
               related to a specific machine type.)

     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.conf(5) config-
               uration 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.


SEE ALSO

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


STANDARDS

     man conforms to X/Open Commands and Utilities Issue 5 (``XCU5'').


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 as their
     typeset counterparts.

NetBSD 10.1                      June 18, 2022                     NetBSD 10.1