MAN(1)
NAME
man − display reference manual information
USAGE
man -k keyword ...
man -f file ...
man [ section ] title ...
DESCRIPTION
The man command is an on-line help facility that displays entries from this manual and other DOMAIN/IX reference manuals in an edit pad (if you are using a DOMAIN workstation) or terminal screen (if you’re not). It has a keyword search facility that returns the names of all entries whose one-line descriptions include the given keywords, and it can be extended to include locally-generated material.
We supply formatted and unformatted versions of all entries. If the unformatted version of a manual entry is newer than the unformatted version, man assumes that you have added new information, formats the unformatted version, and writes it over the old formatted version. The maintenance program catman(8) checks formatted and unformatted version of all (or a subset of) entries, reformatting where necessary. Sites that allow changes to unformatted manual entries may wish to have cron(8) invoke catman on a regular basis.
When the standard output is connected to a Display Manager pad (the normal case when you are using a DOMAIN workstation), man displays the manual page in a read-only edit pad. You may re-size the pad, scroll through or copy portions of the text, turn the pad into an icon, or do any other operation allowed on a read-only edit pad. When you are finished reading the manual entry, close the window by putting the cursor in the window and typing ↑N.
If the standard output is a TTY, or if you specify a dash (−) as an argument, man pipes its output through cat(1) with the −s option to crush out useless blank lines. It then processes the output through ul(1) to create proper underlines for different terminals, and finally through more(1).
OPTIONS
section Look for title in the given section. Section is an Arabic section number (e.g., 3), optionally followed by a single-letter classifier (e.g., 3m). If you omit the section argument, man searches all sections of the manual, giving preference to commands over subroutines in system libraries, and printing the first entry it finds.
−k keyword Print a one-line synopsis of each entry whose listing in the table of contents contains the specified keyword.
−f file ... Print a one-line synopsis of each entry that is related to the named system file.
local Print a local entry. You can add your own entries to the directory /usr/man/manl (man-ell, not man-one). Filenames in this directory must have the suffix .l (a dot followed by a lowercase L).
EXAMPLES
To find out if there are any entries pertaining to the file /etc/rc: % man -f /etc/rc rc (8) - boot time shell script
To see a local entry in the file /usr/man/manl/roff.l % man local roff
NOTES
Since all DOMAIN/IX reference manual entries have to be processed using the -manx macros, and since many of them need to be preprocessed through tbl(1) and/or eqn(1), man invokes the pipeline tbl filename | neqn | nroff -man | col when it has to reformat an entry. Catman behaves the same way when invoked with the -x option.
FILES
/usr/man/man?/* unformatted manual entries
/usr/man/cat?/* formatted manual entries
/usr/lib/whatis database of one-line descriptions of commands and system calls