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Manpages

Using manpages

Ever wonder if "man" has a man page? Ever stare deep into man's soul? Now you don't have to type "man man" to see man's deepest features.

This document is derived mostly from man man and its references.

Use man <manpage> -wa to see all manpages that would be opened

Another option: man -aW man | xargs ls -l

  1. See what manpage files would be opened man -w <manpage> or man --path <manpage>
    • Supposedly -W gives one per line with no description
  2. Use man <manpage> -a to sequentially view all manpages with the given title

man checks $PATH for manpages

If an application is on $PATH, man finds it on system path.

  1. Specify folders: man man -M /usr/share/man:/usr/local/share/man
    • Can search and open local manpages this way
  2. Or specify MANPATH in your man config.`

Configuration

Check out $ man man.conf for config file details

  1. man -C config_file: Specify a configuration file

    • Default is /private/etc/man.conf

  2. See also: roff, groff, nroff, troff, ditroff

Using a custom 'Pager'

This is probably best set in either $PAGER or $MANPAGER in .bashrc

  1. default pager: /usr/bin/less -is
  2. override: man man -P "/usr/bin/less -Nis
    • gives you line numbers
    • overrides MANPAGER environment variable
      • MANPAGER overrides PAGER environment variable
      • Consider setting this in .bashrc

Supporting and Coordinating Applications

  1. man -k <string> - same as apropos
    • likely man -k is the most convenient method, "equivalent to apropos"
    • apropos - search the whatis database for "strings".
  2. man -f <complete keyword> - same as whatis
    • whatis - search the whatis database for "complete keywords".
    • only displays complete word matches
    • the whatis database is created with the command /usr/libexec/makewhatis
  3. man -K <something>
    • Search for a specified string in all man pages.
    • Continues search even after you say 'y' and open a manpage
    • still pretty slow, tested with man -K vimtutor