XMAN(1) X Version 11 (Release 5) XMAN(1)
NAME
xman - Manual page display program for the X Window System.
SYNOPSIS
xman [-options ...] [manual_name]
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.
CUSTOMIZING XMAN
Xman allows customization of both the directories to be
searched for manual pages, and the name that each directory
will map to in the Sections menu. Xman determines which
directories it will search by reading the MANPATH
environment variable. This MANPATH environment variable is
expected to be a colon-separated list of directories for
xman to search.
e.g. setenv MANPATH /usr/catman/M_man:/usr/catman/X_man:
/usr/catman/a_man:/usr/catman/p_man:/usr/catman/u_man
If no MANPATH is found then by default only the directories
/usr/catman/M_man, /usr/catman/X_man, /usr/catman/a_man,
/usr/catman/p_man, /usr/catman/u_man are searched on POSIX
systems.
By default, xman will search each of the above directories
or each of the directories specified in the users MANPATH
for manual pages but not both. If you define MANPATH make
sure it has all the appropriate directories and that the
manual pages in those directories are formatted as explained
below in the section titled NOTES. If manual pages exist in
that directory then they are added to a list of manual pages
for the corresponding menu item. A menu item is only
displayed for those sections that actually contain manual
pages.
Directory Section Name
--------- ------------
man1 (1) User Commands
man2 (2) System Calls
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man3 (3) Subroutines
man4 (4) Devices
man5 (5) File Formats
man6 (6) Games
man7 (7) Miscellaneous
man8 (8) Sys. Administration
manl (l) Local
mann (n) New
mano (o) Old
For instance, a user has three directories in her manual
path and each contain a directory called man3. All these
manual pages will appear alphabetically sorted when the user
selects the menu item called (3) Subroutines. If there is
no directory called mano in any of the directories in her
MANPATH, or there are no manual pages in any of the
directories called mano then no menu item will be displayed
for the section called (o) Old.
By using the mandesc file a user or system manager is able
to more closely control which manual pages will appear in
each of the sections represented by menu items in the
Sections menu. This functionality is only available on a
section by section basis, and individual manual pages may
not be handled in this manner (Although generous use of
symbolic links - ln(1) - will allow almost any configuration
you can imagine).
The format of the mandesc file is a character followed by a
label. The character determines which of the sections will
be added under this label. For instance suppose that you
would like to create an extra menu item that contains all
programmer subroutines. This label should contain all
manual pages in both sections two and three. The mandesc
file would look like this:
2Programmer Subroutines
3Programmer Subroutines
This will add a menu item to the Sections menu that would
bring up a listing of all manual pages in sections two and
three of the Programmers Manual. Since the label names are
exactly the same they will be added to the same section.
Note, however, that the original sections still exist.
If you want to completely ignore the default sections in a
manual directory then add the line:
no default sections
anywhere in your mandesc file. This keeps xman from
searching the default manual sections In that directory
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XMAN(1) X Version 11 (Release 5) XMAN(1)
only. As an example, suppose you want to do the same thing
as above, but you don't think that it is useful to have the
System Calls or Subroutines sections any longer. You would
need to duplicate the default entries, as well as adding
your new one.
no default sections
1(1) User Commands
2Programmer Subroutines
3Programmer Subroutines
4(4) Devices
5(5) File Formats
6(6) Games
7(7) Miscellaneous
8(8) Sys. Administration
l(l) Local
n(n) New
o(o) Old
Xman will read any section that is of the from
man<character>, where <character> is an upper or lower case
letter (they are treated distinctly) or a numeral (0-9). Be
warned, however, that man(1) and catman(8) will not search
directories that are non-standard.
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
Xman supports all standard Toolkit command line arguments
(see X(1)). Moreover, it also supports all the resources
related to the Text widget. The following additional
arguments are also supported.
-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.
-wantitalics
Changes underlined letters to italics.
-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.
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WIDGETS
In order to specify resources, it is useful to know the
hierarchy of the widgets which compose xman. In the
notation below, indentation indicates hierarchical
structure. The widget class name is given first, followed
by the widget instance name.
Xman xman (This widget is never used)
TopLevelShell topbox
Form form
Label topLabel
Command helpButton
Command quitButton
Command manpageButton
TransientShell search
DialogWidgetClass dialog
Label label
Text value
Command manualPage
Command apropos
Command cancel
TransientShell pleaseStandBy
Label label
TopLevelShell manualBrowser
Paned Manpage_Vpane
Paned horizPane
MenuButton options
MenuButton sections
Label manualBrowser
Viewport directory
List directory
List directory
.
. (one for each section,
. created "on the fly")
.
XmanText manualPage
SimpleMenu optionMenu
SmeBSB openNewManpage
SmeBSB help
SmeLine line
SmeBSB Display
SmeBSB displayDirectory
SmeBSB displayManualPage
SmeBSB showBothScreens
SmeLine line
SmeBSB searchString
SmeBSB search
SmeLine line
SmeBSB removeThisManpage
SmeLine lineq
SmeBSB quit
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XMAN(1) X Version 11 (Release 5) XMAN(1)
SimpleMenu sectionMenu
SmeBSB <name of section>
.
. (one for each section)
.
TransientShell search
DialogWidgetClass dialog
Label label
Text value
Command manualPage
Command apropos
Command cancel
TransientShell pleaseStandBy
Label label
TransientShell likeToSave
Dialog dialog
Label label
Text value
Command yes
Command no
TopLevelShell help
Paned Manpage_Vpane
Paned horizPane
MenuButton options
MenuButton sections
Label manualBrowser
XmanText manualPage
SimpleMenu optionMenu
SmeBSB openNewManpage
SmeBSB help
SmeLine line
SmeBSB Display
SmeBSB displayDirectory
SmeBSB displayManualPage
SmeBSB showBothScreens
SmeLine line
SmeBSB searchString
SmeBSB search
SmeLine line
SmeBSB removeThisManpage
SmeLine lineq
SmeBSB quit
APPLICATION RESOURCES
xman has the following application-specific resources which
allow customizations unique to xman.
manualFontNormal (Class Font)
The font to use for normal text in the
manual pages.
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manualFontBold (Class Font)
The font to use for bold text in the
manual pages.
manualFontItalic (Class Font)
The font to use for italic text in the
manual pages.
directoryFontNormal (Class Font)
The font to use for the directory text.
bothShown (Class Boolean)
Either 'true' or 'false', specifies
whether or not you want both the directory
and the manual page shown at start up.
directoryHeight (Class DirectoryHeight)
The height in pixels of the directory,
when the directory and the manual page are
shown simultaneously.
topCursor (Class Cursor)
The cursor to use in the top box.
helpCursor (Class Cursor)
The cursor to use in the help window.
manpageCursor (Class Cursor)
The cursor to use in the manual page
window.
searchEntryCursor (Class Cursor)
The cursor to use in the search entry text
widget.
pointerColor (Class Foreground)
This is the color of all the cursors
(pointers) specified above. The name was
chosen to be compatible with xterm.
helpFile (Class File)
Use this rather than the system default
helpfile.
topBox (Class Boolean)
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.
wantItalics (Class Boolean)
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Either 'true' or 'false', determines
whether to change the underlined letters
to italics. The default is true.
verticalList (Class Boolean)
Either 'true' or 'false', determines
whether the directory listing is
vertically or horizontally organized. The
default is horizontal (false).
GLOBAL ACTIONS
Xman defines all user interaction through global actions.
This allows the user to modify the translation table of any
widget, and bind any event to the new user action. The list
of actions supported by xman are:
GotoPage(page) When used in a manual page display window
this will allow the user to move between a
directory and manual page display. The page
argument can be either Directory or
ManualPage.
Quit() This action may be used anywhere, and will
exit xman.
Search(type, action)
Only useful when used in a search popup, this
action will cause the search widget to
perform the named search type on the string
in the search popup's value widget. This
action will also pop down the search widget.
The type argument can be either Manpage,
Manpage or Cancel. If an action of Open is
specified then xman will open a new manual
page to display the results of the search,
otherwise xman will attempt to display the
results in the parent of the search popup.
PopupHelp() This action may be used anywhere, and will
popup the help widget.
TextSearch(action)
This action may be used in any manual page or
help display window. The action can be
forward or backward. It will cause the search
string dialog to popup on the screen,
allowing the user to search for a specific
string in the manual or help page.
PopupSearch() This action may be used anywhere except in a
help window. It will cause the search popup
to become active and visible on the screen,
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allowing the user to search for a manual
page.
CreateNewManpage()
This action may be used anywhere, and will
create a new manual page display window.
RemoveThisManpage()
This action may be used in any manual page or
help display window. When called it will
remove the window, and clean up all resources
associated with it.
SaveFormattedPage(action)
This action can only be used in the
"likeToSave" popup widget, and tells xman
whether to Save or Cancel a save of the
manual page that has just been formatted.
FILES
<manpath directory>/man<character>
<manpath directory>/cat<character>
<manpath directory>/mandesc
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Xman
specifies required resources
/tmp Xman creates temporary files in
/tmp for all unformatted man pages
and all apropos searches.
SEE ALSO
X(1), X(8C), man(1), apropos(1), catman(8), Athena Widget
Set
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY the default host and display to use.
MANPATH the search path for manual pages. Directories
are separated by colons (e.g.
/usr/catman/a_man:/usr/catman/p_man).
XENVIRONMENT to get the name of a resource file that
overrides the global resources stored in the
RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
XAPPLRESDIR A string that will have "Xman" appended to
it. This string will be the full path name
of a user app-defaults file to be merged into
the resource database after the system app-
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XMAN(1) X Version 11 (Release 5) XMAN(1)
defaults file, and before the resources that
are attached to the display.
NOTES
Xman will interpret manual pages that are derived as
follows:
The example shown below is for the manpage xman.1.man
nroff -man -Tlp xman.1.man | col > xman.1X
Optional: pack xman.1X
The pack command will produce a file: xman.1X.z
You can put either xman.1X.z or xman.1X in /usr/catman
directory.
WARNINGS
The Normal font, Bold font and the Italic font must have the
same point size. The Normal font and the Bold font must not
have an Italic font characteristics.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1991 Data General Corporation.
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