man(1)man(1)NAMEman - find manual information by keywords; print out a manual entry
SYNOPSIS
path] keyword...
path] file...
path] macro-package] [section[subsection]] entry_name...
DESCRIPTION
accesses information from the HP-UX manual pages. It can be used to:
· List all manual entries whose one-line description contains
any of a specified set of keywords.
· Display or print one-line descriptions of entries specified
by name.
· Search on-line manual directories by entry name and display
or print the specified entry or entries.
· Search a specified on-line manual section (directory) and
display or print the specified entry or entries in that sec‐
tion.
Searching for Entry Names by Keyword (first form)
The first form above searches the one-line descriptions of individual
entries for specified keywords. Arguments are as follows:
followed by one or more keywords causes
to print the one-line description of each manual
entry whose one-line description contains text
matching one or more of the specified keywords
(similar to the behavior of grep(1)). Keywords
are separated by blanks (space or tab).
Before this option can be used, file must exist.
can be created by running catman(1M).
Obtaining One-Line Description of an Entry (second form)
The second form above finds and displays or prints the one-line
descriptions of specified individual entries. Arguments are as fol‐
lows:
followed by one or more file names causes
to print the one-line description of each manual
entry found whose name matches file. When speci‐
fying two or more files, file arguments are sepa‐
rated by blanks (space or tab). If entry names
matching file exist in two or more sections, the
one-line description of each matched file name is
output.
Before this option can be used, file must exist.
can be created by running catman(1M).
Viewing Individual Manual Entries (third form)
The third form shown above is used for viewing one or more individual
manual entries. in this form recognizes the following arguments:
(optional) When the
argument is present, sends the formatted manual
entry directly to standard output without pro‐
cessing it through the output filter specified by
the environment variable.
Change the search path for manual pages.
path is a colon-separated list of directories
that contain manual page directory subtrees.
When used with the or options, the option must
appear first.
uses macro-package rather than the standard -man
macros defined in for formatting manual pages.
When specifying the option to , the full path
must be given. For example:
section[subsection]
(optional) Search in the specified section for
the given entry_name. section specifies a single
section number or one of the words or to search
for one or more of the entries indicated. sec‐
tion corresponds to the section number where the
entry appears in the It can be followed by an
optional uppercase/lowercase subsection identi‐
fier such as which would indicate a library rou‐
tine in Section 3. and are interpreted as equiv‐
alent, since all Section 3 manual entries are
stored in the same or in related directories
(such as and However, if an entry is in Section
1M, section must be specified as or
entry_name Search for a specific entry name where entry_name
is the name of the manual entry without its sec‐
tion-number suffix. Except for names exceeding
11 characters, entry_name is identical to the
name of the manual entry as listed at the top of
each page, or is the same as one of the keywords
in the left-hand part of the one-line description
in the corresponding manual entry.
If entry_name is longer than 11 characters, first
searches for the full-length entry_name. If not
found, entry_name is truncated to 11 characters
to ensure that there is room for the section suf‐
fix in 14-character source file names. Files in
the directories are normally installed with the
filename truncated to 11 characters where neces‐
sary so that the name plus a three-character sec‐
tion suffix does not exceed the maximum filename
length on short filename systems.
If section is not specified (see previous argu‐
ment description), searches all sections of the
manual in order: then and printing the first
matching entry it encounters.
If there is more than one manual entry among the
sections, the first manual entry is displayed.
For example, will display only will display
If the standard output is a teletype, and if the flag is not given,
pipes its output through (see more(1)), with the option, to eliminate
multiple blank lines and stop after each screenful. This default
behavior can be changed by setting the variable in the user's environ‐
ment. The value of must be a string that names an output filter (such
as pg(1)), along with the desired options.
File Search Conventions
searches in several directories, as appropriate, for the specified man‐
ual entry. The search continues until either the entry is found or all
candidate directories are searched. The first three directories
searched, in order, are: and
The environment variable can be used to specify directories to be
searched, and, if set, overrides the default paths given above. Upon
logging in, ( or ) sets the environment variable to default settings.
If the file exists, the default settings are taken from this file. The
variable follows the same form as the variable (see environ(5)).
Within each of these directories, searches in the subdirectories, the
subdirectories, the subdirectories, and the subdirectories. and direc‐
tories contain nroff(1)-compatible source text for the entries. and
directories contain the formatted versions of the entries. and direc‐
tories contain entries in compressed form. Files in these directories
are uncompressed by (see compress(1)) before being processed for print‐
ing or display.
If the environment variable is set to any valid language name defined
by lang(5), and the variable is not set, or is set to the default
directories, searches in three additional directories for the manual
entry before searching in First, searches in then in then in Thus,
native-language manual entries are displayed if they are present and
installed properly in the system.
If the environment variable is set to anything other than the default,
the above directories with as part of the path are not automatically
searched. All directories must be explicitly given in The and speci‐
fiers can be used as path components to cause locale-specific directo‐
ries to be searched. See environ(5) for a complete description of
uses the most recent version that it finds in the subdirectories
searched. If the most recent version is in:
The entry is uncompressed, formatted, and displayed.
If the directory exists, the formatted entry is
compressed and installed in If the directory
exists, the formatted entry is installed in
The entry is uncompressed and displayed.
The entry is formatted, and displayed.
If the directory exists, it is compressed, and
installed in If the directory exists, the format‐
ted entry is installed in
The entry is displayed.
If only the or subdirectory is present and/or nroff(1) is not
installed, only entries that are already formatted can be displayed.
To improve performance, you can run the catman(1M) command to create
the formatted entries in the directories. Running with the default
creates the directories (after removing any directories that exist on
your system) and also creates the file used by the option. If you
choose to have the directories, it would be space-saving to remove any
directories that may exist on your system. Beware that updates both
directories and if they both exist.
Special Manual Entries
Some situations may require creation of manual entries for local use or
distribution by third-party software suppliers. The manual formatting
macros have been structured to redefine page footers so that manual
entries not originating from Hewlett-Packard Company do not show the
name in the footer. For more information about this change and a
description of the manual formatting macros used with or see man(5).
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Environment Variables
determines the language in which messages are displayed. is also used
to determine the search path (as described above).
If is not specified or is set to the empty string, a default of "C"
(see lang(5)) is used instead of for messages, but not for the search
path.
If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting,
behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C". See
environ(5).
if set, gives a list of directories to be searched for the given entry,
replacing the default paths.
if set, defines an output filter to be used instead of more(1) to pagi‐
nate output.
International Code Set Support
Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.
EXAMPLES
List the manual entries that contain the word in their respective one-
line description (NAME) lines:
The output is:
Print the one-line description of the grep(1) manual entry:
Print the entire grep(1) manual entry:
Set a search path that includes a path directly below the current
directory. The manual entry, is assumed to exist in the directory (or
or
Display the manual entry for id(1), with the output piped through
Display intro(4) and intro(3):
WARNINGS
Manual entries are structured such that they can be printed on a photo‐
typesetter, conventional line printer, and screen display devices.
However, due to line printer and display device limitations, some
information may be lost in certain situations.
FILES
keyword database
formatted manual entries [compressed]
raw ( nroff(1)) source) man‐
ual entries [com‐
pressed]
formatted native-language manual entries
[compressed]
raw ( nroff(1))
source)
native-
lan‐
guage
man‐
ual
entries
[com‐
pressed]
SEE ALSO
col(1), com‐
press(1),
grep(1),
more(1), cat‐
man(1M), fix‐
man(1M), envi‐
ron(5),
intro(1),
intro(1M),
intro(2),
intro(3),
intro(4),
intro(5),
intro(7),
intro(9),
introduc‐
tion(9),
man(5), manu‐
als(5).
STANDARDS CONFORMANCEman(1)
