MAN(1) BSD General Commands Manual MAN(1)
NAME
man -- display online manual documentation pages
SYNOPSIS
man [-adho] [-t | -w] [-M manpath] [-P pager] [-S mansect] [-m arch[:machine]] [-p [eprtv]] [mansect] page ...
man -f keyword ...
man -k keyword ...
DESCRIPTION
The man utility finds and displays online manual documentation pages. If mansect is provided, man restricts the search to the specific sec-
tion of the manual.
The sections of the manual are:
1. FreeBSD General Commands Manual
2. FreeBSD System Calls Manual
3. FreeBSD Library Functions Manual
4. FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual
5. FreeBSD File Formats Manual
6. FreeBSD Games Manual
7. FreeBSD Miscellaneous Information Manual
8. FreeBSD System Manager's Manual
9. FreeBSD Kernel Developer's Manual
Options that man understands:
-M manpath
Forces a specific colon separated manual path instead of the default search path. See manpath(1). Overrides the MANPATH environment
variable.
-P pager
Use specified pager. Defaults to ``less -sR'' if color support is enabled, or ``more -s''. Overrides the MANPAGER environment vari-
able, which in turn overrides the PAGER environment variable.
-S mansect
Restricts manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list. Defaults to ``1:8:2:3:n:4:5:6:7:9:l''. Overrides the
MANSECT environment variable.
-a Display all manual pages instead of just the first found for each page argument.
-d Print extra debugging information. Repeat for increased verbosity. Does not display the manual page.
-f Emulate whatis(1).
-h Display short help message and exit.
-k Emulate apropos(1).
-m arch[:machine]
Override the default architecture and machine settings allowing lookup of other platform specific manual pages. See IMPLEMENTATION
NOTES for how this option changes the default behavior. Overrides the MACHINE_ARCH and MACHINE environment variables.
-o Force use of non-localized manual pages. See IMPLEMENTATION NOTES for how locale specific searches work. Overrides the LC_ALL,
LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables.
-p [eprtv]
Use the list of given preprocessors before running nroff(1) or troff(1). Valid preprocessors arguments:
e eqn(1)
p pic(1)
r refer(1)
t tbl(1)
v vgrind(1)
Overrides the MANROFFSEQ environment variable.
-t Send manual page source through troff(1) allowing transformation of the manual pages to other formats.
-w Display the location of the manual page instead of the contents of the manual page.
IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
Locale Specific Searches
The man utility supports manual pages in different locales. The search behavior is dictated by the first of three environment variables with
a nonempty string: LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG. If set, man will search for locale specific manual pages using the following logic:
lang_country.charset
lang.charset
en.charset
For example, if LC_ALL is set to ``ja_JP.eucJP'', man will search the following paths when considering section 1 manual pages in
/usr/share/man:
/usr/share/man/ja_JP.eucJP/man1
/usr/share/man/ja.eucJP/man1
/usr/share/man/en.eucJP/man1
/usr/share/man/man1
Platform Specific Searches
The man utility supports platform specific manual pages. The search behavior is dictated by the -m option or the MACHINE_ARCH and MACHINE
environment variables. For example, if MACHINE_ARCH is set to ``i386'' and MACHINE is set to ``pc98'', man will search the following paths
when considering section 4 manual pages in /usr/share/man:
/usr/share/man/man4/pc98
/usr/share/man/man4/i386
/usr/share/man/man4
Displaying Specific Manual Files
The man utility also supports displaying a specific manual page if passed a path to the file as long as it contains a '/' character.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables affect the execution of man:
LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG
Used to find locale specific manual pages. Valid values can be found by running the locale(1) command. See IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
for details. Influenced by the -o option.
MACHINE_ARCH, MACHINE
Used to find platform specific manual pages. If unset, the output of ``sysctl hw.machine_arch'' and ``sysctl hw.machine'' is
used respectively. See IMPLEMENTATION NOTES for details. Corresponds to the -m option.
MANPATH Used to find the location of the manual files. See manpath(1) for additional information. Corresponds to the -M option.
MANROFFSEQ Used to determine the preprocessors for the manual source before running nroff(1) or troff(1). If unset, defaults to tbl(1).
Corresponds to the -p option.
MANSECT Restricts manual sections searched to the specified colon delimited list. Corresponds to the -S option.
MANWIDTH If set to a numeric value, used as the width manpages should be displayed. Otherwise, if set to a special value ``tty'', and
output is to a terminal, the pages may be displayed over the whole width of the screen.
MANCOLOR If set, enables color support.
MANPAGER Program used to display files.
If unset, and color support is enabled, ``less -sR'' is used.
If unset, and color support is disabled, then PAGER is used. If that has no value either, ``more -s'' is used.
FILES
/etc/man.conf
System configuration file.
/usr/local/etc/man.d/*.conf
Local configuration files.
SEE ALSO
apropos(1), intro(1), locale(1), manpath(1), nroff(1), troff(1), whatis(1), intro(2), intro(3), intro(4), intro(5), man.conf(5), intro(6),
intro(7), intro(8), intro(9)
BSD
September 26, 2014 BSD