[0m


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



[1mNAME
     [0mman - find manual information by keywords; print out the
     manual

[1mSYNOPSIS
     man [0m[ [1m- [0m] [ [1m-q [0m] [ [1m-r [0m] [ [1m-M [0m_p_a_t_h ] [ section ] title ...
     [1mman -k [0mkeyword ...
     [1mman -f [0mfile ...

[1mDESCRIPTION
     [0m_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 [1m-k [0mand a set of keywords, _m_a_n prints
     out a one line synopsis of each manual section whose listing
     in the table of contents contains one of those keywords.

     When given the option [1m-f [0mand 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 [1m-k [0mnor [1m-f [0mis specified, _m_a_n formats a specified
     set of manual pages.  If a section specifier is given _m_a_n
     looks in 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.

     Normally, when _m_a_n formats a manual page, it filters the
     input through the text preprocessors _t_b_l(_1) and _n_e_q_n(_1).
     The [1m-q [0moption can be used to suppress this behaviour, and
     pass the input directly to _n_r_o_f_f(_1).

     If the standard output is a teletype _m_a_n pipes its output
     through _m_o_r_e(1) with the option [1m-s [0mto 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.

     If the standard output is not a teletype, or the [1m- [0mflag is
     given, man pipes its output through _c_a_t(1).  If [1m- [0mis speci-
     fied the [1m-s [0moption is used to remove consecutive blank
     lines.



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



     Normally _m_a_n checks in a standard location for manual infor-
     mation (/_u_s_r/_s_h_a_r_e/_m_a_n).  This can be changed by supplying a
     search path (like the _s_h(1) command search path) with the [1m-M
     [0mflag.  The search path is a colon (":") separated list of
     directories in which manual subdirectories may be found;
     e.g. "/usr/local:/usr/share/man" If the environment variable
     "MANPATH" is set, its value is used for the default path.
     If a search path is supplied with the [1m-k [0mor [1m-f [0moptions, it
     must be specified first.

     _M_a_n will look for the manual page in one of three forms: the
     _n_r_o_f_f source, preformatted pages, or a man archive generated
     by _a_r_c_a_t(_8).  If any version is available, the manual page
     will be displayed.  If the preformatted version is avail-
     able, 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
     neither preformatted nor nroff source versions are available
     and there is an entry in the archive this will be used.  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.

     Any file on the current search path of the form _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e.A
     is assumed to be a man archive.  Note that _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e.pag and
     _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e.dir also form part of the archive.

     Normally each manual page should have either an _n_r_o_f_f source
     version or an archive entry - there is no point having both,
     the archive entry will simply be ignored.

     The man pages archive and the preformatted versions of the
     man pages contain vt100 escape sequences - if they are
     displayed on a terminal (or by a program) which expects dif-
     ferent escapes, the results are unpredictable.  This can be
     avoided by using the [1m-r [0moption which forces _m_a_n to only use
     the nroff source, and to re-format the manual page for the
     current terminal type given by the "TERM" environment vari-
     able.

[1mFILES
     [0m/usr/share/man	     standard manual area
     /usr/share/man/man?/*   directories containing source for manuals
     /usr/share/man/cat?/*   directories containing preformatted pages
     /usr/share/man/*.A man  page archive and contents list
     /usr/share/man/whatis   keyword database

[1mSEE ALSO
     [0mapropos(1), more(1), whereis(1), catman(8), arcat(8)

[1mBUGS
     [0mThe manual is supposed to be reproducible either on the



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



     phototypesetter or on a typewriter.  However, on a type-
     writer some information is necessarily lost.





















































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[0m