man

man [options ] [[section ] subjects ]

Display information from the online reference manual. Each subject is usually the name of a command from Section 1 of the online manuals, unless you specify an optional section from 1 to 8. If you don't specify a subject , you must supply either a keyword (for -k ) or a file (for -f ). No options except -M can be used with -k or -f . The MANPATH environment variable defines the directories in which man searches for information (default is /usr/share/man ). PAGER defines how output is sent to the screen (default is more -s ). Note: in Solaris, section must be preceded by -s .

Options

-

Pipe output through cat instead of more -s .

-a

Show all pages matching subject . Solaris only.

-d

Debug; evaluate the man command but don't execute. Solaris only.

-f files

Display a one-line summary of one or more reference files . Same as whatis .

-F

Search MANPATH directories, not windex database. Solaris only.

-k keywords

Display any header line that contains one of the specified keywords . Same as apropos .

-l

Like -a , but list only the pages. Solaris only.

-M path

Search for online descriptions in directory path instead of default directory. -M overrides MANPATH .

-r

Reformat but don't display manpage. Same as man - -t . Solaris only.

-s section

Specify the section of the manpage to search in. Required on Solaris for anything that isn't a command.

-t

Format the manpages with troff .

-T mac

Display information using macro package mac instead of tmac.an (the man macros).

Examples

Save documentation on the mv command (strip backspaces):

man mv | col -b > mv.txt

Display commands related to linking and compiling:

man -k link compile | more

Display a summary of all intro files:

man -f intro

Look up the intro page from Section 3M (the math library):

man 3m intro

		In SVR4

man -s 3m intro

		In Solaris