MAN(1)                     OpenBSD Reference Manual                     MAN(1)

NAME
     man - display the on-line manual pages

SYNOPSIS
     man [-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 archi-
     tecture (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 dis-
             played.

     -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 insensi-
             tive.

     -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 subdirecto-
             ries 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 spe-
             cific 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 architec-
             ture whilst using another.

             This option overrides the MACHINE environment variable.

     [-s] section
             Restricts the directories that man will search to a specific sec-
             tion.  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 tutori-
     al for writing man pages is provided in mdoc.samples(7).

ENVIRONMENT
     MACHINE   As some manual pages are intended only for specific architec-
               tures, 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 environ-
               ment 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 spec-
               ifying 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 or-
               der, are specified by the ``_subdir'' line in the man configu-
               ration file.

     PAGER     Specifies the pagination program to use when MANPAGER is not
               defined.

FILES
     /etc/man.conf  default man configuration file

SEE ALSO
     apropos(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.

BUGS
     The on-line manual pages are, by necessity, forgiving toward stupid dis-
     play devices, causing a few manual pages to be not as nicely formatted as
     their typeset counterparts.

OpenBSD 4.7                      June 4, 2009                                3
