MAN(1)                       BSD Reference Manual                       MAN(1)

NAME
     man - display the on-line manual pages

SYNOPSIS
     man [-achw] [-M path] [-m path] [section] name ...

DESCRIPTION
     The man utility displays the BSD UNIX manual pages entitled name.

     The options are as follows:

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

     -c      Copy the manual 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 manual
             pages.

     -M      Override the list of standard directories which man searches for
             manual pages.  The supplied path must be a colon (``:'') separat-
             ed list of directories.  This search path may also be set using
             the environment variable MANPATH. The subdirectories to be
             searched as well as 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
             manual pages.  The supplied path must be a colon (``:'') separat-
             ed list of directories.  These directories will be searched be-
             fore the standard directories or the directories specified using
             the -M option or the MANPATH environment variable.

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

     The optional section restricts the directories that man will search.  The
     man configuration file (see man.conf(5))  specifies the possible section
     values that are currently available.  If only a single argument is speci-
     fied or if the first argument is not a valid section, man assumes that
     the argument is the name of a manual page to be displayed.

ENVIRONMENT
     MACHINE   As some manual pages are intended only for use on certain ar-
               chitectures, man searches certain directories applicable to the
               current machine.  Man's determination of the current machine
               type may be overridden by setting the environment variable
               MACHINE to the name of an architecture (see machine(1)).  Ma-
               chine specific areas are checked before general areas.

     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     Any value of the environment variable PAGER will be used in-
               stead of the standard pagination program more(1).

FILES

     /etc/man.conf  man configuration file (see man.conf(5))

SEE ALSO
     apropos(1),  machine(1),  whatis(1),  whereis(1),  man.conf(5)

BUGS
     The on-line manual pages are, by necessity, forgiving toward stupid dis-
     play devices, causing some manual pages to not be as good as their type-
     set counterparts.

HISTORY
     A man command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

4th Berkeley Distribution       March 27, 1993                               2