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.\"     @(#)man.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/2/94
.\"
.TH "MAN" "1" "July 20, 2020" "Debian" "General Commands Manual"
.nh
.if n .ad l
.SH "NAME"
\fBman\fR
\- display manual pages
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP 4n
\fBman\fR
[\fB\-acfhklw\fR]
[\fB\-C\fR\ \fIfile\fR]
[\fB\-M\fR\ \fIpath\fR]
[\fB\-m\fR\ \fIpath\fR]
[\fB\-S\fR\ \fIsubsection\fR]
[[\fB\-s\fR]\ \fIsection\fR]
\fIname\ ...\fR
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
The
\fBman\fR
utility
displays the
manual page entitled
\fIname\fR.
Pages may be selected according to
a specific category
(\fIsection\fR)
or
machine architecture
(\fIsubsection\fR).
.PP
The options are as follows:
.TP 8n
\fB\-a\fR
Display all matching manual pages.
.TP 8n
\fB\-C\fR \fIfile\fR
Use the specified
\fIfile\fR
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.
.TP 8n
\fB\-c\fR
Copy the manual page to the standard output instead of using
less(1)
to paginate it.
This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device.
.sp
When using
\fB\-c\fR,
most terminal devices are unable to show the markup.
To print the output of
\fBman\fR
to the terminal with markup but without using a pager, pipe it to
ul(1).
To remove the markup, pipe the output to
col(1)
\fB\-b\fR
instead.
.TP 8n
\fB\-f\fR
A synonym for
whatis(1).
It searches for
\fIname\fR
in manual page names and displays the header lines from all matching pages.
The search is case insensitive and matches whole words only.
.TP 8n
\fB\-h\fR
Display only the SYNOPSIS lines of the requested manual pages.
Implies
\fB\-a\fR
and
\fB\-c\fR.
.TP 8n
\fB\-k\fR
A synonym for
apropos(1).
Instead of
\fIname\fR,
an expression can be provided using the syntax described in the
apropos(1)
manual.
By default, it displays the header lines of all matching pages.
.TP 8n
\fB\-l\fR
A synonym for
mandoc(1).
The
\fIname\fR
arguments are interpreted as filenames.
No search is done and
\fIfile\fR,
\fIpath\fR,
\fIsection\fR,
\fIsubsection\fR,
and
\fB\-w\fR
are ignored.
This option implies
\fB\-a\fR.
.TP 8n
\fB\-M\fR \fIpath\fR
Override the list of directories to search for manual pages.
The supplied
\fIpath\fR
must be a colon
(\(oq\&:\(cq)
separated list of directories.
This option also overrides the environment variable
\fRMANPATH\fR
and any directories specified in the
man.conf(5)
file.
.TP 8n
\fB\-m\fR \fIpath\fR
Augment the list of directories to search for manual pages.
The supplied
\fIpath\fR
must be a colon
(\(oq\&:\(cq)
separated list of directories.
These directories will be searched before those specified using the
\fB\-M\fR
option, the
\fRMANPATH\fR
environment variable, the
man.conf(5)
file, or the default directories.
.TP 8n
\fB\-S\fR \fIsubsection\fR
Only show pages for the specified
machine(1)
architecture.
\fIsubsection\fR
is case insensitive.
.sp
By default manual pages for all architectures are installed.
Therefore this option can be used to view pages for one
architecture whilst using another.
.sp
This option overrides the
\fRMACHINE\fR
environment variable.
.TP 8n
[\fB\-s\fR] \fIsection\fR
Only select manuals from the specified
\fIsection\fR.
The currently available sections are:
.sp
.RS 14n
.PD 0
.TP 10n
1
General commands
(tools and utilities).
.TP 10n
2
System calls and error numbers.
.TP 10n
3
Library functions.
.TP 10n
3p
perl(1)
programmer's reference guide.
.TP 10n
4
Device drivers.
.TP 10n
5
File formats.
.TP 10n
6
Games.
.TP 10n
7
Miscellaneous information.
.TP 10n
8
System maintenance and operation commands.
.TP 10n
9
Kernel internals.
.RE
.PD
.TP 8n
\fB\-w\fR
List the pathnames of all matching manual pages instead of displaying
any of them.
If no
\fIname\fR
is given, list the directories that would be searched.
.PP
The options
\fB\-IKOTW\fR
are also supported and are documented in
mandoc(1).
The options
\fB\-fkl\fR
are mutually exclusive and override each other.
.PP
The search starts with the
\fB\-m\fR
argument if provided, then continues with the
\fB\-M\fR
argument, the
\fRMANPATH\fR
variable, the
\fBmanpath\fR
entries in the
man.conf(5)
file, or with
\fI/usr/share/man\fR:\fI/usr/X11R6/man\fR:\fI/usr/local/man\fR
by default.
Within each of these, directories are searched in the order provided.
Within each directory, the search proceeds according to the following
list of sections: 1, 8, 6, 2, 3, 5, 7, 4, 9, 3p.
The first match found is shown.
.PP
The
mandoc.db(5)
database is used for looking up manual page entries.
In cases where the database is absent, outdated, or corrupt,
\fBman\fR
falls back to looking for files called
\fIname\fR.\fIsection\fR.
If both a formatted and an unformatted version of the same manual page,
for example
\fIcat1/foo.0\fR
and
\fIman1/foo.1\fR,
exist in the same directory, only the unformatted version is used.
The database is kept up to date with
makewhatis(8),
which is run by the
weekly(8)
maintenance script.
.PP
Guidelines for writing
man pages can be found in
mdoc(7).
.SH "ENVIRONMENT"
.TP 10n
\fRMACHINE\fR
As some manual pages are intended only for specific architectures,
\fBman\fR
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
\fRMACHINE\fR
to the name of a specific architecture,
or with the
\fB\-S\fR
option.
\fRMACHINE\fR
is case insensitive.
.TP 10n
\fRMANPAGER\fR
Any non-empty value of the environment variable
\fRMANPAGER\fR
is used instead of the standard pagination program,
less(1).
If
less(1)
is used, the interactive
\fB:t\fR
command can be used to go to the definitions of various terms, for
example command line options, command modifiers, internal commands,
environment variables, function names, preprocessor macros,
errno(2)
values, and some other emphasized words.
Some terms may have defining text at more than one place.
In that case, the
less(1)
interactive commands
\fBt\fR
and
\fBT\fR
can be used to move to the next and to the previous place providing
information about the term last searched for with
\fB:t\fR.
The
\fB\-O\fR \fBtag\fR[=\fIterm\fR]
option documented in the
mandoc(1)
manual opens a manual page at the definition of a specific
\fIterm\fR
rather than at the beginning.
.TP 10n
\fRMANPATH\fR
Override the standard search path which is either specified in
man.conf(5)
or the default path.
The format of
\fRMANPATH\fR
is a colon
(\(oq\&:\(cq)
separated list of directories.
Invalid directories are ignored.
Overridden by
\fB\-M\fR,
ignored if
\fB\-l\fR
is specified.
.sp
If
\fRMANPATH\fR
begins with a colon, it is appended to the standard path;
if it ends with a colon, it is prepended to the standard path;
or if it contains two adjacent colons,
the standard path is inserted between the colons.
.TP 10n
\fRPAGER\fR
Specifies the pagination program to use when
\fRMANPAGER\fR
is not defined.
If neither PAGER nor MANPAGER is defined,
less(1)
is used.
.SH "FILES"
.TP 15n
\fI/etc/man.conf\fR
default
\fBman\fR
configuration file
.SH "EXIT STATUS"
.br
The \fBman\fR utility exits\~0 on success, and\~>0 if an error occurs.
See
mandoc(1)
for details.
.SH "EXAMPLES"
Format a page for pasting extracts into an email message \(em
avoid printing any UTF-8 characters, reduce the width to ease
quoting in replies, and remove markup:
.PP
.RS 6n
$ man -T ascii -O width=65 pledge | col -b
.RE
.PP
Read a typeset page in a PDF viewer:
.PP
.RS 6n
$ MANPAGER=mupdf man -T pdf lpd
.RE
.SH "SEE ALSO"
apropos(1),
col(1),
mandoc(1),
ul(1),
whereis(1),
man.conf(5),
mdoc(7)
.SH "STANDARDS"
The
\fBman\fR
utility is compliant with the
IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (\(lqPOSIX.1\(rq)
specification.
.PP
The flags
[\fB\-aCcfhIKlMmOSsTWw\fR],
as well as the environment variables
\fRMACHINE\fR,
\fRMANPAGER\fR,
and
\fRMANPATH\fR,
are extensions to that specification.
.SH "HISTORY"
A
\fBman\fR
command first appeared in
Version\~2 AT&T UNIX.
.PP
The
\fB\-w\fR
option first appeared in
Version\~7 AT&T UNIX;
\fB\-f\fR
and
\fB\-k\fR
in
4BSD;
\fB\-M\fR
in
4.3BSD;
\fB\-a\fR
in
4.3BSD-Tahoe;
\fB\-c\fR
and
\fB\-m\fR
in
4.3BSD-Reno;
\fB\-h\fR
in
4.3BSD-Net/2;
\fB\-C\fR
in
NetBSD\ 1.0;
\fB\-s\fR
and
\fB\-S\fR
in
OpenBSD\ 2.3;
and
\fB\-I\fR,
\fB\-K\fR,
\fB\-l\fR,
\fB\-O\fR,
and
\fB\-W\fR
in
OpenBSD\ 5.7.
The
\fB\-T\fR
option first appeared in
AT&T System\~III UNIX
and was also added in
OpenBSD\ 5.7.