MAN(1) BSD MAN(1)
NAME
man - display reference manual information
SYNOPSIS
man [ - ] [ -M path ] [ section ] title ...
man -k keyword ...
man -f file ...
DESCRIPTION
man displays information from the BSD Command Reference and BSD
Programmer's Reference. man displays entries in an edit pad (if you are
using a Domain workstation) or a terminal screen. It allows you to obtain
one-line descriptions of commands specified by name, or for all commands
whose description contains any of a set of keywords. It can also provide
on-line access to the sections of the printed manual.
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 can resize 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 finish
reading the manual entry, close the window by positioning the cursor in
the window and pressing <EXIT>.
When man is not run from a Display Manager pad, man checks the
environment variable $PAGER to determine what program is to be used to
display man pages. If $PAGER is not set, the default is more.
man looks for the manual page in either of two forms, the nroff source or
preformatted pages. If either version is available, the manual page is
displayed. If the preformatted version is available, and it has a more
recent modify time than the nroff source, it is displayed. Otherwise, the
manual page is usually formatted with nroff and displayed.
NOTE: Domain/OS provides only preformatted manual pages.
OPTIONS
section Look for title in the given section. The section argument is
either an Arabic section number (for example, 3) optionally
followed by a single-letter classifier (for instance, 1g,
indicating a graphics program in section 1), or one of the
words "new," "local," "old," "public," or "apollo." 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.
- Pipe the output through more(1) with the option -s to crush out
useless blank lines and to stop after each page on the screen.
Press the spacebar to continue, or CTRL/D to scroll 11 more
lines when the output stops.
-M path Search for manual subdirectories in path. The default search
path for manual entries is /usr/man. path is a list of
directories (separated by colons) in which manual
subdirectories may be found, e.g., "/usr/local/man:/usr/man".
If you supply a search path with the -k or -f options, -M must
be specified first.
If the environment variable `MANPATH' is set, its value is used
for the default search path. -M path will override the value of
`MANPATH'.
-k keyword ...
Print a one-line synopsis of each entry whose listing in the
table of contents contains the specified keyword(s).
-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/catl (cat-ell, not cat-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 Domain/OS does not supply nroff sources for BSD manual pages, you
cannot print copies on local printers.
BUGS
The manual is supposed to be reproducible either on the phototypesetter
or on a typewriter. However, on a typewriter some information is
necessarily lost.
FILES
/usr/man Standard manual area
/usr/man/man?/* Directories containing source for manuals
(not supplied on Domain/OS)
/usr/man/cat?/* Directories containing preformatted pages
/usr/man/whatis Keyword database
SEE ALSO
apropos(1), more(1), whereis(1)