NAME

man, manprog − print entries in this manual

SYNOPSIS

man [ options ] [ section ] titles

/usr/lib/manprog file

DESCRIPTION

Man locates and prints the entry of this manual named title in the specified section. (For historical reasons, the word “page” is often used as a synonym for “entry” in this context.)Requests for entries are case-insensitive and only the first nine characters are significant. They can contain shell metacharacters. The section number may not have a subsection letter suffix.  A new section can be specified before each title. If no section is specified, the whole manual is searched for title. If multiple entries match the request, man pauses between them.  Specifying the section will greatly speed up finding the entry. 

Man first searches for the entry in the directories of pre-formatted man pages (/usr/man/?_man/cat?  and /usr/man/local/cat?) for quick printing of frequently referenced pages.  If there is not a pre-formatted page then one will be created (unless certain incompatible options are specified, e.g., -t). 

Options and their meanings are:

−t Typeset the entry in the default format (8.5”×11”). 

−s Typeset the entry in the small format (6”×9”). 

−T4014 Display the typeset output on a Tektronix 4014 terminal using tc(1).

−Ttek Same as −T4014. 

−Tst Print the typeset output on the MHCC STARE facility (this option is not usable on most systems). 

−Tvp Print the typeset output on a Versatec printer; this option is not available at all UNIX System sites. 

−Tterm Format the entry using nroff and print it on the standard output (usually, the terminal); term is the terminal type (see term(5) and the explanation below); for a list of recognized values of term, type help term2.  The default value of term is 450. 

−w Print on the standard output only the path names of the entries, relative to /usr/man, or to the current directory for −d option. 

−d Search the current directory rather than /usr/man; requires the full file name (e.g., cu.1c, rather than just cu). 

−12 Indicates that the manual entry is to be produced in 12-pitch.  May be used when $TERM (see below) is set to one of 300, 300s, 450, and 1620.  (The pitch switch on the DASI 300 and 300s terminals must be manually set to 12 if this option is used.) 

−c Causes man to invoke col(1); note that col(1) is invoked automatically by man unless term is one of 300, 300s, 450, 37, 4000a, 382, 4014, tek, 1620, and X. 

−y Causes man to use the non-compacted version of the macros. 

The above options other than −d, −c, and −y are mutually exclusive, except that the −s option may be used in conjunction with the first four −T options above.  Any other options are passed to troff, nroff, or the man(5) macro package.

When using nroff, man examines the environment variable $TERM (see environ(5)) and attempts to select options to nroff, as well as filters, that adapt the output to the terminal being used. The −Tterm option overrides the value of $TERM; in particular, one should use −Tlp when sending the output of man to a line printer. 

If the first line of the input for an entry consists solely of the string:

’\" x

where x is any combination of the three characters c, e, and t, and where there is exactly one blank between the double quote (") and x, then man will preprocess its input through the appropriate combination of cw(1), eqn(1) (neqn for nroff) and tbl(1), respectively; if eqn or neqn are invoked, they will automatically read the file /usr/pub/eqnchar (see eqnchar(5)).

The man command executes manprog that takes a file name as its argument.  Manprog calculates and returns a string of three register definitions used by the formatters identifying the date the file was last modified.  The returned string has the form:

−rdday −rmmonth −ryyear

and is passed to nroff which sets this string as variables for the man macro package.  Months are given from 0 to 11, therefore month is always 1 less than the actual month.  The man macros calculate the correct month.  If the man macro package is invoked as an option to nroff/troff (i.e., nroff −man file), then the current day/month/year is used as the printed date.

EXAMPLES

man man

reproduces on the terminal this entry, as well as any other entries named man that may exist in other sections of the manual, e.g., man(5).

man 2 get\*

 will display the entries for all system calls that begin with “get”. 

FILES

/usr/man/[au]_man/man[1-8]/∗ the UNIX Programmer’s Manual

/usr/man/local/man[1-8]/∗ local additions

/usr/man/[au]_man/cat[1-8]/∗ pre-formatted man pages for fast printing

/usr/man/local/cat[1-8]/∗ pre-formatted local man pages for fast printing

/usr/lib/manprog calculates modification dates of entries

SEE ALSO

cw(1), eqn(1), nroff(1), tbl(1), tc(1), troff(1), environ(5), man(5), term(5). 

BUGS

All entries are supposed to be reproducible either on a typesetter or on a terminal.  However, on a terminal some information is necessarily lost. 

Version 3.6  —  December 20, 1987