XMAN(1) BSD XMAN(1)
NAME
xman - display manual pages
SYNOPSIS
xman [-options ...]
DESCRIPTION
Xman is a manual page browser. The default size of the initial xman
window is small so that you can leave it running throughout your entire
login session. In the initial window there are three options: Help will
pop up a window with on-line help, Quit will exit, and Manual Page will
pop up a window with a manual page browser in it. You may pop up more
than one manual page browser window from a single execution of xman.
For further information on using xman please read the on-line help
information. The rest of this manual page will discuss customization of
xman.
Xman accomodates new manual sections by the use of the environment
variable MANPATH and by directory description files named mandesc. Xman
will search each directory specified in the environment variable MANPATH
for the following subdirectories only: man0, man1, ..., man8, manl
(local), and mann (new). (It usually ignores the information in man0
unless there is a mandesc file that specifically tells it not to.) These
subdirectories each represent a separate section of the manual. These
subdirectories should contain man pages. Any manual section can be
renamed by an optional mandesc file.
As an example, if MANPATH was set to /usr/man:/usr/sipb/man and there was
no mandesc file in /usr/man, xman would put all of the files in the
default section names (e.g. manl gets a section name of local). But if
there were a mandesc file in /usr/sipb/man which contained the line lSIPB
Programs, then xman would put all files in the manl subdirectory in a new
section called ``SIPB Programs''. Xman will search the mandesc file
until there are no more lines of information. This flexibility is ideal
for courses that have their own manual pages.
Xman creates temporary files in /tmp for all unformatted man pages and
all apropos searches.
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
-helpfile filename
Specifies a helpfile to use other than the default.
-bothshown
Allows both the manual page and manual directory to be on the screen
at the same time.
-notopbox
Starts without the Top Menu with the three buttons in it.
-geometry WxH+X+Y
Sets the size and location of the Top Menu with the three buttons in
it.
-pagesize WxH+X+Y
Sets the size and location of all the Manual Pages.
-bw pixels or -borderwidth pixels
Specifies the width of the border for all windows in xman.
-bd color or -bordercolor color
Specifies the color of the borders of all windows in xman.
-fg color or -foreground color
Specifies the foreground color to be used.
-bg color or -background color
Specifies the background color to be used.
-fn font or -font font
Specifies the font to use for all buttons and labels.
-display host:display[.screen]
Specifies a display other than the default specified by the DISPLAY
environment variable.
-name name
Specifies the name to use when retrieving resources.
-title title
Specifies the title of this application.
-xrm resources
Allows a resource to be specified on the command line.
X DEFAULTS
The xman program uses the following X resources: foreground, background,
width, height, borderWidth, and borderColor.
In order to change the default values for widget resources you need to
know widget names. Below are the names of some of the most common
widgets. You can also reference Widgets by class. The most common
classes are Label, Command, and Text.
topBox the top menu
help the help window
manualBrowser the manual page display window
xmanCommands manual page command popup menu
xmanSections manual page section popup menu
xmanSearch manual page search popup menu
In addition, xman has application-specific resources which allow unique
xman customizations.
manualFontNormal The font to use for normal text in the manual pages.
manualFontBold The font to use for bold text in the manual pages.
manualFontItalic The font to use for italic text in the manual pages.
directoryFontNormal
The font to use for the directory text.
bothShown Either 'true' or 'false', specifies whether or not you
want both the directory and the manual page shown at
start up.
directoryHeight The height in pixels of the directory, when the
directory and the manual page are shown simultaneously.
topCursor The cursor to use in the top box.
helpCursor The cursor to use in the help window.
manpageCursor The cursor to use in the manual page window.
searchEntryCursor The cursor to use in the search entry text widget.
helpFile Use this rather than the system default helpfile.
topBox Either 'true' or 'false', determines whether the top
box (containing the help, quit and manual page buttons)
or a manual page is put on the screen at start-up. The
default is true.
verticalList Either 'true' or 'false', determines whether the
directory listing is vertically or horizontally
organized. The default is horizontal (false).
Here are a few examples of how to string all this information together
into a resource specification that can be used on the command line with
the -xrm flag, or added to your .Xresource or .Xdefaults file.
xman*Command.foreground: Blue All command buttons will be blue.
xman*topBox*foreground: Blue Everything in the top menu has a blue
foreground.
xman*Text.border: Red All text widgets have a red border.
xman*Label.font: 9x15 All label buttons have a 9x15 font.
FILES
/usr/man/* or those specified in the MANPATH.
mandesc
SEE ALSO
X(1), X(8C), man(1), apropos(1)
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY - the default host and display to use.
MANPATH - the search path for manual pages. Directories are separated by
colons (e.g. /usr/man:/mit/kit/man:/foo/bar/man).
BUGS
The -fn and -font option only specify the fonts for the command button
and not the text of the manpages or directories.
Protocol error upon selecting "Remove This Manpage".
Specification of the mandesc file format is not given in the man page.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1988 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
See X(1) for a full statement of rights and permissions.
AUTHORS
Chris Peterson, MIT Project Athena from the V10 version written by Barry
Shein of Boston University.