4.3BSD-UWisc/man/cat1/man.1

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MAN(1)              UNIX Programmer's Manual               MAN(1)



NAME
     man - find manual information by keywords; print out the
     manual

SYNOPSIS
     man [ - ] [ -M _p_a_t_h ] [ section ] title ...
     man -k keyword ...
     man -f file ...

DESCRIPTION
     _M_a_n is a program which gives information from the program-
     mers manual.  It can be asked for one line descriptions of
     commands specified by name, or for all commands whose
     description contains any of a set of keywords.  It can also
     provide on-line access to the sections of the printed
     manual.

     When given the option -k and a set of keywords, _m_a_n prints
     out a one line synopsis of each manual sections whose list-
     ing in the table of contents contains one of those keywords.

     When given the option -f and a list of file names, _m_a_n
     attempts to locate manual sections related to those files,
     printing out the table of contents lines for those sections.

     When neither -k nor -f is specified, _m_a_n formats a specified
     set of manual pages.  If a section specifier is given _m_a_n
     looks in the that section of the manual for the given
     _t_i_t_l_e_s. _S_e_c_t_i_o_n is either an Arabic section number (3 for
     instance), or one of the words ``new,'' ``local,'' ``old,''
     or ``public.'' A section number may be followed by a single
     letter classifier (for instance, 1g, indicating a graphics
     program in section 1).  If _s_e_c_t_i_o_n is omitted, _m_a_n searches
     all sections of the manual, giving preference to commands
     over subroutines in system libraries, and printing the first
     section it finds, if any.

     If the standard output is a teletype, or if the flag - is
     given, _m_a_n pipes its output through _m_o_r_e(1) with the option
     -s to crush out useless blank lines and to stop after each
     page on the screen.  Hit a space to continue, a control-D to
     scroll 11 more lines when the output stops.

     Normally _m_a_n checks in a standard location for manual infor-
     mation (/usr/man).  This can be changed by supplying a
     search path (a la the shell) with the -M flag.  The search
     path is a colon (`:') separated list of directories in which
     manual subdirectories may be found; e.g.
     ``/usr/local:/usr/man''. If the environment variable
     `MANPATH' is set, its value is used for the default path.
     If a search path is supplied with the -k or -f options, it
     must be specified first.



Printed 12/27/86           May 9, 1986                          1






MAN(1)              UNIX Programmer's Manual               MAN(1)



     _M_a_n will look for the manual page in either of two forms,
     the nroff source or preformatted pages.  If either version
     is available, the manual page will be displayed.  If the
     preformatted version is available, and it has a more recent
     modify time than the nroff source,  it will be promptly
     displayed.  Otherwise, the manual page will be formatted
     with nroff and displayed.  If the user has permission, the
     formatted manual page will be deposited in the proper place,
     so that later invocations of man will not need to format the
     page again.

FILES
     /usr/man          standard manual area
     /usr/man/man?/*   directories containing source for manuals
     /usr/man/cat?/*   directories containing preformatted pages
     /usr/man/whatis   keyword database

SEE ALSO
     apropos(1), more(1), whereis(1), catman(8)

BUGS
     The manual is supposed to be reproducible either on the pho-
     totypesetter or on a typewriter.  However, on a typewriter
     some information is necessarily lost.































Printed 12/27/86           May 9, 1986                          2