Difference between revisions of "Man page"

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[[Category:System administration]]
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{{Lowercase title}}
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[[ar:Man Page]]
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[[Category:Command-line]]
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[[ko:Man Page]]
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[[ar:Man page]]
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[[ru:Man Page]]
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[[es:Man page]]
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[[zh-CN:Man Page]]
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[[id:Man page]]
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{{Article summary start|Summary}}
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[[ja:Man ページ]]
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{{Article summary text|Information on man pages, along with recommendations on how to improve their usage}}
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[[ko:Man page]]
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<!--
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[[pt:Man page]]
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{{Article summary heading|Related}}
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[[ru:Man page]]
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{{Article summary wiki|}}
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[[zh-hans:Man page]]
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-->
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{{Related articles start}}
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{{Article summary end}}
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{{Related|Color output in console#man}}
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{{DISPLAYTITLE:man pages}}
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{{Related articles end}}
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'''man pages''' (abbreviation for "manual pages") are the extensive documentation that comes preinstalled with almost all substantial UNIX-like operating systems, including Arch Linux. The command used to display them is {{Ic|man}}.
+
[[Wikipedia:Man_page|man pages]]—abbreviation for "manual pages"—are the form of documentation that is available on almost all UNIX-like operating systems, including Arch Linux. The command used to display them is {{Ic|man}}.
  
 
In spite of their scope, man pages are designed to be self-contained documents, consequentially limiting themselves to referring to other man pages when discussing related subjects. This is in sharp contrast with the hyperlink-aware info files, GNU's attempt at replacing the traditional man page format.
 
In spite of their scope, man pages are designed to be self-contained documents, consequentially limiting themselves to referring to other man pages when discussing related subjects. This is in sharp contrast with the hyperlink-aware info files, GNU's attempt at replacing the traditional man page format.
  
−
==Accessing Man Pages==
+
{{Pkg|man-db}} implements ''man'' on Arch Linux, and [[Core utilities#less|less]] is the default pager used with ''man''.
 +
 
 +
== Accessing man pages ==
 
To read a man page, simply enter:
 
To read a man page, simply enter:
  
 
  $ man ''page_name''
 
  $ man ''page_name''
  
−
Manuals are sorted into several sections:
+
Manuals are sorted into several [[Wikipedia:Man_page#Manual_sections|sections]]. For a full listing see the section entitled "Sections of the manual pages" in {{man|7|man-pages}}.
−
# General commands
 
−
# System calls (functions provided by the kernel)
 
−
# Library calls (C library functions)
 
−
# Special files (usually found in /dev) and drivers
 
−
# File formats and conventions
 
−
# Games
 
−
# Miscellaneous (including conventions)
 
−
# System administration commands (usually requiring root privileges) and daemons
 
  
−
Man pages are usually referred to by their name, followed by their section number in parentheses. Often there are multiple man pages of the same name, such as man(1) and man(7). In this case, give man the section number followed by the name of the man page, for example:
+
Man pages are usually referred to by their name, followed by their section number in parentheses. Often there are multiple man pages of the same name, such as {{man|1|man}} and {{man|7|man}}. In this case, give man the section number followed by the name of the man page, for example:
  
 
  $ man 5 passwd
 
  $ man 5 passwd
Line 37: Line 31:
 
to read the man page on {{Ic|/etc/passwd}}, rather than the {{Ic|passwd}} utility.
 
to read the man page on {{Ic|/etc/passwd}}, rather than the {{Ic|passwd}} utility.
  
−
Very brief descriptions of programs can be read out of man pages without displaying the whole page using the {{Ic|whatis}} command. For example, for a brief description of ls, type:
+
One-line descriptions of man pages can be displayed using the {{Ic|whatis}} command. For example, for a brief description of the man page sections about {{ic|ls}}, type:
 +
 
 +
{{hc|$ whatis ls|
 +
ls (1p)              - list directory contents
 +
ls (1)              - list directory contents
 +
}}
  
−
$ whatis ls
+
== Format ==
  
−
and {{Ic|whatis}} will output "list directory contents."
+
Man pages all follow a fairly standard format, which helps in navigating them. See the section entitled "Sections within a manual page" in {{man|7|man-pages}}.
  
−
==Format==
+
== Searching manuals ==
−
Man pages all follow a fairly standard format, which helps in navigating them. Some sections which are often present include:
 
−
* NAME - The name of the command and a one-line statement of its purpose.
 
−
* SYNOPSIS - A list of the options and arguments a command takes or the parameters the function takes and its header file.
 
−
* DESCRIPTION - A more in depth description of a command or function's purpose and workings.
 
−
* EXAMPLES - Common examples, usually ranging from the simple to the relatively complex.
 
−
* OPTIONS - Descriptions of each of the options a command takes and what they do.
 
−
* EXIT STATUS - The meanings of different exit codes.
 
−
* FILES - Files related to a command or function.
 
−
* BUGS - Problems with the command or function that are pending repair. Also known as KNOWN BUGS.
 
−
* SEE ALSO - A list of related commands or functions.
 
−
* AUTHOR, HISTORY, COPYRIGHT, LICENSE, WARRANTY - Information about the program, its past, its terms of use, and its creator.
 
  
−
==Searching manuals==
+
Even though the {{Ic|man}} utility allows users to display man pages, and search their contents via ''less'', a problem arises when one knows not the exact name of the desired manual page in the first place! Fortunately, the {{Ic|-k}} or {{Ic|--apropos}} options can be used to search the manual page descriptions for instances of a given keyword.
−
Whilst the {{Ic|man}} utility allows users to display man pages, a problem arises when one knows not the exact name of the desired manual page in the first place! Fortunately, the {{Ic|-k}} or {{Ic|--apropos}} options can be used to search the manual page descriptions for instances of a given keyword.
 
  
 
The research feature is provided by a dedicated cache. By default you may not have any cache built and all your searches will give you the ''nothing appropriate'' result. You can generate the cache or update it by running
 
The research feature is provided by a dedicated cache. By default you may not have any cache built and all your searches will give you the ''nothing appropriate'' result. You can generate the cache or update it by running
 +
 
  # mandb
 
  # mandb
 +
 
You should run it everytime a new manpage is installed.
 
You should run it everytime a new manpage is installed.
  
Line 79: Line 68:
  
 
If you want to do a more in-depth search by matching the keywords found in the whole articles, you can use the {{ic|-K}} option:
 
If you want to do a more in-depth search by matching the keywords found in the whole articles, you can use the {{ic|-K}} option:
 +
 
  $ man -K password
 
  $ man -K password
  
−
==Colored man pages==
+
== Page width ==
−
Color-enabled man pages allow for a clearer presentation and easier digestion of the content.
+
The man page width is controlled by the {{Ic|MANWIDTH}} environment variable.
−
There are two prevalent methods for achieving colored man pages: using {{Ic|less}}, or opting for {{Ic|most}}.
 
  
−
===Using {{ic|less}} (Recommended) ===
+
If the number of columns in the terminal is too small (e.g. the window width is narrow), the line breaks will be wrong. This can be very disturbing for reading. You can fix this by setting the MANWIDTH on {{Ic|man}} invocation. With {{Ic|Bash}}, that would be:
−
:<small>''Source: [http://linuxtidbits.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/less-colors-for-man-pages/ Less Colors For Man Pages | Linux Tidbits]''</small>
 
−
This method has the advantage that {{Ic|less}} has a bigger feature set than {{Ic|most}}, and is the default for viewing man pages.
 
  
−
Add the following to a shell configuration file. For [[Bash]] it would be:
+
{{Hc|~/.bashrc|<nowiki>
−
{{hc|~/.bashrc|
+
man() {
−
<nowiki>man() {
+
     local width=$(tput cols)
−
     env LESS_TERMCAP_mb=$'\E[01;31m' \
+
     [ $width -gt $MANWIDTH ] && width=$MANWIDTH
−
     LESS_TERMCAP_md=$'\E[01;38;5;74m' \
+
     env MANWIDTH=$width \
−
    LESS_TERMCAP_me=$'\E[0m' \
 
−
    LESS_TERMCAP_se=$'\E[0m' \
 
−
    LESS_TERMCAP_so=$'\E[38;5;246m' \
 
−
     LESS_TERMCAP_ue=$'\E[0m' \
 
−
    LESS_TERMCAP_us=$'\E[04;38;5;146m' \
 
 
     man "$@"
 
     man "$@"
 
}
 
}
 
</nowiki>}}
 
</nowiki>}}
  
−
To customize the colors, see [[Wikipedia:ANSI escape code]] for reference.
+
== Reading local man pages ==
  
−
===Using {{ic|most}} (Not recommended)===
+
Instead of the standard interface, using browsers such as {{Pkg|lynx}} and [[Firefox]] to view man pages allows users to reap info pages' main benefit of hyperlinked text. Alternatives include the following:
−
The basic function of 'most' is similar to {{Ic|less}} and {{Ic|more}}, but it has a smaller feature set. Configuring most to use colors is easier than using less, but additional configuration is necessary to make most behave like less.
 
−
Install {{Pkg|most}} using [[pacman]]:
 
−
# pacman -S most
 
  
−
Edit {{ic|/etc/man_db.conf}}, uncomment the pager definition and change it to:
+
* [[KDE]] users can read man pages in
−
DEFINE    pager    most -s
+
** Konqueror using {{ic|man:<name>}}.
−
Test the new setup by typing:
+
** KHelpCenter ({{Pkg|khelpcenter}}) in "UNIX manual pages" or by running {{ic|khelpcenter man:<name>}}.
−
$ man whatever_man_page
+
* {{pkg|xorg-xman}} provides a categorized look at man pages in [[X]].
 +
* The [[GNOME]] Help Browser {{pkg|yelp}} can be used via {{ic|yelp man:<name>}}.
  
−
Modifying the color values requires editing {{ic|~/.mostrc}} (creating the file if it is not present) or editing {{ic|/etc/most.conf}} for system-wide changes. Example {{ic|~/.mostrc}}:
+
=== Conversion to HTML ===
−
% Color settings
 
−
color normal lightgray black
 
−
color status yellow blue
 
−
color underline yellow black
 
−
color overstrike brightblue black
 
−
Another example showing keybindings similar to {{Ic|less}} (jump to line is set to 'J'):
 
−
% less-like keybindings
 
−
unsetkey "^K"
 
−
unsetkey "g"
 
−
unsetkey "G"
 
−
unsetkey ":"
 
−
 
−
setkey next_file ":n"
 
−
setkey find_file ":e"
 
−
setkey next_file ":p"
 
−
setkey toggle_options ":o"
 
−
setkey toggle_case ":c"
 
−
setkey delete_file ":d"
 
−
setkey exit ":q"
 
−
 
−
setkey bob "g"
 
−
setkey eob "G"
 
−
setkey down "e"
 
−
setkey down "E"
 
−
setkey down "j"
 
−
setkey down "^N"
 
−
setkey up "y"
 
−
setkey up "^Y"
 
−
setkey up "k"
 
−
setkey up "^P"
 
−
setkey up "^K"
 
−
setkey page_down "f"
 
−
setkey page_down "^F"
 
−
setkey page_up "b"
 
−
setkey page_up "^B"
 
−
setkey other_window "z"
 
−
setkey other_window "w"
 
−
setkey search_backward "?"
 
−
setkey bob "p"
 
−
setkey goto_mark "'"
 
−
setkey find_file "E"
 
−
setkey edit "v"
 
  
−
=== Colored man pages on xterm or rxvt-unicode ===
+
==== mandoc ====
  
−
:<small>''Source: [http://pub.ligatura.org/fs/xfree86/xresources/xterm XFree resources file for XTerm program]''</small>{{linkrot|2013|09|10}}
+
Install the {{AUR|mandoc}} package. To convert a page, for example {{ic|free(1)}}:
  
−
A quick way to add color to manual pages viewed on {{Pkg|xterm}}/{{Ic|uxterm}} or {{Pkg|rxvt-unicode}} is to modify {{ic|~/.Xresources}}.
+
$ gunzip -c /usr/share/man/man1/free.1.gz | mandoc -Thtml -Ostyle=style.css 1> free.html
  
−
==== xterm ====
+
Now open the file called {{ic|free.html}} in your favourite browser.
−
*VT100.colorBDMode:    true
 
−
*VT100.colorBD:        red
 
−
*VT100.colorULMode:    true
 
−
*VT100.colorUL:        cyan
 
  
−
which ''replaces'' the decorations with the colors.  Also add:
+
==== man2html ====
  
−
*VT100.veryBoldColors: 6
+
First, install {{Pkg|man2html}} from the official repositories.
  
−
if you want colors and decorations (bold or underline) ''at the same time''.  See {{ic|man xterm}} for a description of the {{ic|veryBoldColors}} resource.
+
Now, convert a man page:
  
−
==== rxvt-unicode ====
+
$ man free | man2html -compress -cgiurl man$section/$title.$section$subsection.html > ~/man/free.html
−
URxvt.colorIT:      #87af5f
 
−
URxvt.colorBD:      #d7d7d7
 
−
URxvt.colorUL:      #87afd7
 
  
−
Run:
+
Another use for {{Ic|man2html}} is exporting to raw, printer-friendly text:
−
$ xrdb -load ~/.Xresources
 
  
−
Launch a new {{Ic|xterm/uxterm}} or {{Ic|rxvt-unicode}} and you should see colorful man pages.
+
$ man free | man2html -bare > ~/free.txt
−
This combination puts colors to '''bold''' and <u>underlined</u> words in {{Ic|xterm/uxterm}} or to '''bold''', <u>underlined</u>, and ''italicized'' text in {{Ic|rxvt-unicode}}. You can play with different combinations of these attributes (see the [http://pub.ligatura.org/fs/xfree86/xresources/xterm sources]{{linkrot|2013|09|10}} of this item).
 
  
−
== Reading local man pages ==
+
==== man -H ====
−
Instead of the standard interface, using browsers such as lynx and [[Firefox]] to view man pages allows users to reap info pages' main benefit: hyperlinked text.
 
  
−
[[KDE]] users can read man pages in Konqueror using:
+
The GNU implementation of man in the Arch repositories also has the ability to do this on its own:
−
man:<name>
 
−
From the [[Official Repositories]] come two other possibilities:
 
  
−
1. {{pkg|xorg-xman}} provides a categorized look at man pages in [[X]].
+
$ man -H free
  
−
2. The [[GNOME]] Help Browser {{pkg|yelp}} is a more neat way but has some dependencies.
+
This will read your {{ic|BROWSER}} [[environment variable]] to determine the browser. You can override this by passing the binary to the {{ic|-H}} option.
  
−
=== Converting to browser-readable HTML ===
+
==== roffit ====
−
First, install {{Pkg|man2html}} from the official repositories.
 
  
−
Now, convert a man page:
+
First install {{AUR|roffit}} from [[AUR]].
−
$ man free | man2html -compress -cgiurl man$section/$title.$section$subsection.html > ~/man/free.html
 
  
−
Another use for {{Ic|man2html}} is exporting to raw, printer-friendly text:
+
To convert a man page:
−
$ man free | man2html -bare > ~/free.txt
 
  
−
The GNU implementation of man in the Arch repositories also has the ability to do this on its own:
+
  $ gunzip -c /usr/share/man/man1/free.1.gz | roffit > free.html
−
  $ man -H free
 
  
−
This will read your {{ic|BROWSER}} environment variable to determine the browser. You can override this by passing the binary to the {{ic|-H}} option.
+
=== Conversion to PDF ===
  
−
=== Converting to PDF ===
 
 
man pages have always been printable: they are written in troff, which is fundamentally a typesetting language. If you have ghostscript installed, converting a man page to PDF is actually very easy: {{ic|<nowiki>man -t <manpage> | ps2pdf - <pdf></nowiki>}}. [https://www.google.com/search?q=manpage+pdf+troff&num=100&hl=en&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=5BZpUI3oH6rI2AXvx4CoAw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1321&bih=1100 This google image search] should give you an idea of what the result looks like; it may not be to everybody's liking.
 
man pages have always been printable: they are written in troff, which is fundamentally a typesetting language. If you have ghostscript installed, converting a man page to PDF is actually very easy: {{ic|<nowiki>man -t <manpage> | ps2pdf - <pdf></nowiki>}}. [https://www.google.com/search?q=manpage+pdf+troff&num=100&hl=en&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=5BZpUI3oH6rI2AXvx4CoAw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1321&bih=1100 This google image search] should give you an idea of what the result looks like; it may not be to everybody's liking.
  
 
Caveats: Fonts are generally limited to Times at hardcoded sizes. There are no hyperlinks. Some man pages were specifically designed for terminal viewing, and won't look right in PS or PDF form.
 
Caveats: Fonts are generally limited to Times at hardcoded sizes. There are no hyperlinks. Some man pages were specifically designed for terminal viewing, and won't look right in PS or PDF form.
  
−
The following perl script converts man pages to PDFs, caches the PDFs in the {{ic|$HOME/.manpdf/}} directory, and calls a PDF viewer, specifically [https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/mupdf/ mupdf].
+
== Online man pages ==
  
−
{{hc|Usage: manpdf [<section>] <manpage>|<nowiki>
+
There are several online databases of man pages, including:
−
#!/usr/bin/perl
+
* [http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/index.html man7.org]. Upstream for Arch Linux's {{pkg|man-pages}}.
−
use File::stat;
+
* [https://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/ Arch Linux man pages].  Used for links from the wiki.
 +
* [https://manned.org/ manned.org's collection from various Linux distributions, BSD, etc., with multiple package versions]
 +
* [https://manpages.debian.net/ Debian GNU/Linux man pages]
 +
* [https://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man DragonFlyBSD manual pages]
 +
* [https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi FreeBSD man pages]
 +
* [http://www.manpages.spotlynx.com/ Linux and Solaris 10 man pages]{{Dead link|2018|04|16}}
 +
* [https://linux.die.net/man/ Linux man pages at die.net]
 +
* [https://man.cx/ Linux man pages at man.cx]
 +
* [http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi NetBSD manual pages]
 +
* [https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/index.html Mac OS X manual pages]
 +
* [http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/alphabetical/index.html On-line UNIX manual pages]{{Dead link|2018|04|16}}
 +
* [https://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi OpenBSD manual pages]
 +
* [http://man.cat-v.org/plan_9/ Plan 9 Manual — Volume 1]
 +
* [http://man.cat-v.org/inferno/ Inferno Manual — Volume 1]
 +
* [http://sfdoccentral.symantec.com/sf/5.0MP3/linux/manpages/index.html Storage Foundation man pages]
 +
* [https://www.unix.com/man-page/OpenSolaris/1/man/ The UNIX and Linux forums man page repository]
 +
* [http://manpages.ubuntu.com/ Ubuntu manpage repository]
  
−
$pdfdir = $ENV{"HOME"}."/.manpdf";
+
{{Warning|Some distributions provide patched or outdated man pages that differ from those provided by Arch. Exercise caution when using online man pages.}}
−
-d $pdfdir || mkdir $pdfdir || die "can't create $pdfdir";
 
−
$manpage = $ARGV[0];
 
−
chop($manpath = `man -w $manpage`);
 
−
die if $?;
 
  
−
$maninfo = stat($manpath) or die;
+
==Noteworthy manpages==
−
$manpath =~ s@.*/man./(.*)(\.(gz|bz2))?$@$1@;
 
−
$pdfpath = "$pdfdir/$manpath.pdf";
 
−
$pdftime = 0;
 
−
if (-f $pdfpath) {
 
−
    $pdfinfo = stat($pdfpath) or die;
 
−
    $pdftime = $pdfinfo->mtime;
 
−
}
 
−
if (!-f $pdfpath || $maninfo->mtime > $pdftime) {
 
−
    system "man -t $manpage | ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen - $pdfpath";
 
−
}
 
−
die if !-f $pdfpath;
 
−
if (!fork) {
 
−
    open(STDOUT, "/dev/null");
 
−
    open(STDERR, "/dev/null");
 
−
    exec "mupdf", "-r", "96", $pdfpath;
 
−
    #exec "acroread", $pdfpath;
 
−
}
 
−
</nowiki>}}
 
  
−
== Online Man Pages ==
+
Here follows a non-exhaustive list of noteworthy pages that might help you understand a lot of things more in-depth. Some of them might serve as a good reference (like the ASCII table).
−
There are several online databases of man pages, including:
 
−
*[http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/index.html Man7.org.] Upstream for Arch Linux's {{pkg|man-pages}}.
 
−
*[http://manpages.debian.net/ ''Debian GNU/Linux man pages'']
 
−
*[http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man ''DragonFlyBSD manual pages'']
 
−
*[http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi ''FreeBSD Hypertext Man Pages'']
 
−
*[http://www.manpages.spotlynx.com/ ''Linux and Solaris 10 Man Pages'']
 
−
*[http://manpagehelp.net ''Linux/FreeBSD Man Pages''] with user comments
 
−
*[http://linux.die.net/man/ ''Linux man pages at die.net'']
 
−
*[http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/ The Linux man-pages project at kernel.org]
 
−
*[http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi ''NetBSD manual pages'']
 
−
*[http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/index.html ''Mac OS X Manual Pages'']
 
−
*[http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/alphabetical/index.html ''On-line UNIX manual pages'']
 
−
*[http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi ''OpenBSD manual pages'']
 
−
*[http://man.cat-v.org/plan_9/ ''Plan 9 Manual — Volume 1'']
 
−
*[http://man.cat-v.org/inferno/ ''Inferno Manual — Volume 1'']
 
−
*[http://sfdoccentral.symantec.com/sf/5.0MP3/linux/manpages/index.html ''Storage Foundation Man Pages'']
 
−
*[http://www.unix.com/man-page/OpenSolaris/1/man/ ''The UNIX and Linux Forums Man Page Repository'']
 
−
*[http://manpages.ubuntu.com/ ''Ubuntu Manpage Repository'']
 
  
−
==Noteworthy manpages==
+
* {{man|7|ascii}}
 +
* {{man|7|boot}}
 +
* {{man|7|charsets}}
 +
* {{man|1|chmod}}
 +
* {{man|7|credentials}}
 +
* {{man|5|fstab}}
 +
* {{man|7|hier}}
 +
* {{man|1|systemd}}
 +
* {{man|1p|locale}}, {{man|5|locale}}, {{man|7|locale}}
 +
* {{man|3|printf}}
 +
* {{man|5|proc}}
 +
* {{man|7|regex}}
 +
* {{man|7|signal}}
 +
* {{man|5|term}}, {{man|7|term}}
 +
* {{man|5|termcap}}
 +
* {{man|5|terminfo}}
 +
* {{man|7|utf-8}}
  
−
Here follows a non-exhaustive list of noteworthy pages that might help you understand a lot of things more in-depth. Some of them might serve as a good reference (like the ascii table).
+
More generally, have a look at [http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/dir_section_7.html category 7 (miscellaneous) pages]:
  
−
* ascii(7)
 
−
* boot(7)
 
−
* charsets(7)
 
−
* chmod(1)
 
−
* credentials(7)
 
−
* fstab(5)
 
−
* hier(7)
 
−
* systemd(1)
 
−
* locale(1P)(5)(7)
 
−
* printf(3)
 
−
* proc(5)
 
−
* regex(7)
 
−
* signal(7)
 
−
* term(5)(7)
 
−
* termcap(5)
 
−
* terminfo(5)
 
−
* utf-8(7)
 
−
More generally, have a look at category 7 pages:
 
 
  $ man -s 7 -k ".*"  
 
  $ man -s 7 -k ".*"  
  
 
Arch Linux specific pages:
 
Arch Linux specific pages:
−
* archlinux(7)
 
−
* mkinitcpio(8)
 
−
* pacman(8)
 
−
* pacman-key(8)
 
−
* pacman.conf(5)
 
  
−
==See also==
+
* {{man|7|archlinux}}
 +
* {{man|8|mkinitcpio}}
 +
* {{man|8|pacman}}
 +
* {{man|8|pacman-key}}
 +
* {{man|5|pacman.conf}}
 +
 
 +
== See also ==
  
−
* [[General Recommendations]] - General Recommendations for Arch
+
* [https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Man_page man page - Gentoo wiki article]
 +
* [https://linuxtidbits.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/wtfm-write-the-fine-manual-with-pod2man-text-converter/ Write The Fine Manual with pod2man]

Latest revision as of 17:24, 16 April 2018

Related articles

man pages—abbreviation for "manual pages"—are the form of documentation that is available on almost all UNIX-like operating systems, including Arch Linux. The command used to display them is man.

In spite of their scope, man pages are designed to be self-contained documents, consequentially limiting themselves to referring to other man pages when discussing related subjects. This is in sharp contrast with the hyperlink-aware info files, GNU's attempt at replacing the traditional man page format.

man-db implements man on Arch Linux, and less is the default pager used with man.

Accessing man pages

To read a man page, simply enter: 

$ man page_name

Manuals are sorted into several sections. For a full listing see the section entitled "Sections of the manual pages" in man-pages(7).

Man pages are usually referred to by their name, followed by their section number in parentheses. Often there are multiple man pages of the same name, such as man(1) and man(7). In this case, give man the section number followed by the name of the man page, for example: 

$ man 5 passwd

to read the man page on /etc/passwd, rather than the passwd utility.

One-line descriptions of man pages can be displayed using the whatis command. For example, for a brief description of the man page sections about ls, type: 

$ whatis ls
ls (1p)              - list directory contents
ls (1)               - list directory contents

Format

Man pages all follow a fairly standard format, which helps in navigating them. See the section entitled "Sections within a manual page" in man-pages(7).

Searching manuals

Even though the man utility allows users to display man pages, and search their contents via less, a problem arises when one knows not the exact name of the desired manual page in the first place! Fortunately, the -k or --apropos options can be used to search the manual page descriptions for instances of a given keyword.

The research feature is provided by a dedicated cache. By default you may not have any cache built and all your searches will give you the nothing appropriate result. You can generate the cache or update it by running 

# mandb

You should run it everytime a new manpage is installed.

Now you can begin your search. For example, to search for man pages related to "password": 

$ man -k password

or: 

$ man --apropos password

This is equivalent to calling the apropos command: 

$ apropos password

The given keyword is interpreted as a regular expression by default.

If you want to do a more in-depth search by matching the keywords found in the whole articles, you can use the -K option: 

$ man -K password

Page width

The man page width is controlled by the MANWIDTH environment variable.

If the number of columns in the terminal is too small (e.g. the window width is narrow), the line breaks will be wrong. This can be very disturbing for reading. You can fix this by setting the MANWIDTH on man invocation. With Bash, that would be: 

~/.bashrc
man() {
    local width=$(tput cols)
    [ $width -gt $MANWIDTH ] && width=$MANWIDTH
    env MANWIDTH=$width \
    man "$@"
}

Reading local man pages

Instead of the standard interface, using browsers such as lynx and Firefox to view man pages allows users to reap info pages' main benefit of hyperlinked text. Alternatives include the following:

  • KDE users can read man pages in
    • Konqueror using man:<name>.
    • KHelpCenter (khelpcenter) in "UNIX manual pages" or by running khelpcenter man:<name>.
  • xorg-xman provides a categorized look at man pages in X.
  • The GNOME Help Browser yelp can be used via yelp man:<name>.

Conversion to HTML

mandoc

Install the mandocAUR package. To convert a page, for example free(1): 

$ gunzip -c /usr/share/man/man1/free.1.gz | mandoc -Thtml -Ostyle=style.css 1> free.html

Now open the file called free.html in your favourite browser.

man2html

First, install man2html from the official repositories.

Now, convert a man page: 

$ man free | man2html -compress -cgiurl man$section/$title.$section$subsection.html > ~/man/free.html

Another use for man2html is exporting to raw, printer-friendly text: 

$ man free | man2html -bare > ~/free.txt

man -H

The GNU implementation of man in the Arch repositories also has the ability to do this on its own: 

$ man -H free

This will read your BROWSER environment variable to determine the browser. You can override this by passing the binary to the -H option.

roffit

First install roffitAUR from AUR.

To convert a man page: 

$ gunzip -c /usr/share/man/man1/free.1.gz | roffit > free.html

Conversion to PDF

man pages have always been printable: they are written in troff, which is fundamentally a typesetting language. If you have ghostscript installed, converting a man page to PDF is actually very easy: man -t <manpage> | ps2pdf - <pdf>. This google image search should give you an idea of what the result looks like; it may not be to everybody's liking.

Caveats: Fonts are generally limited to Times at hardcoded sizes. There are no hyperlinks. Some man pages were specifically designed for terminal viewing, and won't look right in PS or PDF form.

Online man pages

There are several online databases of man pages, including:

Warning: Some distributions provide patched or outdated man pages that differ from those provided by Arch. Exercise caution when using online man pages.

Noteworthy manpages

Here follows a non-exhaustive list of noteworthy pages that might help you understand a lot of things more in-depth. Some of them might serve as a good reference (like the ASCII table).

More generally, have a look at category 7 (miscellaneous) pages: 

$ man -s 7 -k ".*"

Arch Linux specific pages:

See also

Retrieved from "https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Man_page&oldid=517685"