XMAN(1) X11 5.4R3.00 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
man3 (3) Subroutines
man4 (4) Devices
man5 (5) File Formats
man6 (6) Games
man7 (7) Miscellaneous
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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 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
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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.
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
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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
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
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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.
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.
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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)
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.
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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, 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.
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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-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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