MAN(1) OpenBSD Reference Manual MAN(1)NAMEman - display manual pages
SYNOPSISman [-achw] [-C file] [-M path] [-m path] [-S subsection] [-s section]
[section] name ...
man-f command ...
man-k keyword ...
DESCRIPTION
The man utility displays the BSD manual pages entitled name. Pages may
be selected according to a specific category (section) or machine
architecture (subsection).
The options are as follows:
-a Display all of the manual pages for a specified section and name
combination. Normally, only the first manual page found is
displayed.
-C file
Use the specified file instead of the default configuration file.
This permits users to configure their own manual environment.
See man.conf(5) for a description of the contents of this file.
-c Copy the manual page to the standard output instead of using
more(1) to paginate it. This is done by default if the standard
output is not a terminal device.
-f command
A synonym for whatis(1). It looks up a given command and gives
the header line from the manual page. command is case
insensitive.
-h Display only the ``SYNOPSIS'' lines of the requested manual
pages.
-k keyword
A synonym for apropos(1). It shows which manual pages contain
instances of any of the given keywords in their title line.
keyword is case insensitive.
For instance, to list all man pages which contain ``mount'' in
the ``NAME'' line of the man page:
$ man-k mount
Which would produce a list much like this:
amd (8) - automatically mount file systems
amq (8) - automounter query tool
domountroothooks (9) - run all mountroot hooks
exports (5) - define remote mount points for NFS mount requests
getfsstat (2) - get list of all mounted file systems
getmntinfo (3) - get information about mounted file systems
mount (8) - mount file systems
mount, unmount (2) - mount or dismount a filesystem
mount_cd9660 (8) - mount an ISO-9660 filesystem
mount_ext2fs (8) - mount an ext2fs file system
mount_ffs (8) - mount a Berkeley Fast File System
mount_msdos (8) - mount an MS-DOS file system
mount_nfs (8) - mount NFS file systems
mount_nnpfs (8) - mount the nnpfs filesystem
mount_ntfs (8) - mount an NTFS file system
mount_portal (8) - mount the portal daemon
mount_procfs (8) - mount the process file system
mount_udf (8) - mount a UDF filesystem
mountd (8) - service remote NFS mount requests
...
-M path
Override the list of standard directories which man searches for
manual pages. The supplied path must be a colon (`:') separated
list of directories. This search path may also be set using the
environment variable MANPATH. The subdirectories to be searched,
and their search order, are specified by the ``_subdir'' line in
the man configuration file.
-m path
Augment the list of standard directories which man searches for
manual pages. The supplied path must be a colon (`:') separated
list of directories. These directories will be searched before
the standard directories or the directories specified using the
-M option or the MANPATH environment variable. The
subdirectories to be searched, and their search order, are
specified by the ``_subdir'' line in the man configuration file.
-S subsection
Restricts the directories that man will search to those of a
specific machine(1) architecture. subsection is case
insensitive.
By default manual pages for all architectures are installed.
Therefore this option can be used to view pages for one
architecture whilst using another.
This option overrides the MACHINE environment variable.
[-s] section
Restricts the directories that man will search to a specific
section. The currently available sections are:
1 General commands (tools and utilities).
2 System calls and error numbers.
3 Libraries.
3f Fortran programmer's reference guide.
3p perl(1) programmer's reference guide.
4 Device drivers.
5 File formats.
6 Games.
7 Miscellaneous.
8 System maintenance and operation commands.
9 Kernel internals.
X11 An alias for X11R6.
X11R6 X Window System.
local Pages located in /usr/local.
n Tcl/Tk commands.
The man configuration file, man.conf(5), specifies the possible
section values, and their search order. Additional sections may
be specified.
-w List the pathnames of the manual pages which man would display
for the specified section and name combination.
Guidelines for OpenBSD man pages can be found in mdoc(7). A full
tutorial for writing man pages is provided in mdoc.samples(7).
ENVIRONMENT
MACHINE As some manual pages are intended only for specific
architectures, man searches any subdirectories, with the same
name as the current architecture, in every directory which it
searches. Machine specific areas are checked before general
areas. The current machine type may be overridden by setting
the environment variable MACHINE to the name of a specific
architecture, or with the -S option. MACHINE is case
insensitive.
MANPAGER Any non-null value of the environment variable MANPAGER will be
used instead of the standard pagination program, more(1).
MANPATH The standard search path used by man may be overridden by
specifying a path in the MANPATH environment variable. The
format of the path is a colon (`:') separated list of
directories. The subdirectories to be searched, as well as
their search order, are specified by the ``_subdir'' line in
the man configuration file.
PAGER Specifies the pagination program to use when MANPAGER is not
defined.
FILES
/etc/man.conf default man configuration file
EXIT STATUS
The man utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
SEE ALSOapropos(1), intro(1), whatis(1), whereis(1), intro(2), intro(3),
intro(4), intro(5), man.conf(5), intro(6), intro(7), mdoc(7),
mdoc.samples(7), intro(8), intro(9)STANDARDS
The man utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (``POSIX'')
specification.
The flags [-aCcfhMmSsw] are extensions to that specification.
HISTORY
A man command appeared in Version 3 AT&T UNIX.
OpenBSD 4.9 September 19, 2010 OpenBSD 4.9
