Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition

Name

man

Synopsis

man [options] [section] [title]

Description

Display information from the online reference manuals. man locates and prints the named title from the designated reference section.

Options

-7, --ascii

Expect a pure ASCII file, and format it for a 7-bit terminal or terminal emulator.

-a, --all

Show all pages matching title.

-b

Leave blank lines in output.

-d, --debug

Display debugging information. Suppress actual printing of manual pages.

-f, --whatis

Same as whatis command.

-k, --apropos

Same as apropos command.

-l, --local-file

Search local files, not system files, for manual pages. If i is given as filename, search standard input.

-m systems, --systems= systems

Search systems' manual pages. systems should be a comma-separated list.

-p preprocessors, --preprocessor= preprocessors

Preprocess manual pages with preprocessors before turning them over to nroff, troff, or groff. Always runs soelim first.

-r prompt, --prompt= prompt

Set prompt if less is used as pager.

-t, --troff

Format the manual page with /usr/bin/groff -Tgv -mandoc. Implied by -T and -Z.

-u, --update

Perform a consistency check between manual page cache and filesystem.

-w, --where, --location

Print pathnames of entries on standard output.

-D, --default

Reset all options to their defaults.

-L locale, --locale= locale

Assume current locale to be locale; do not consult the setlocale() function.

-M path, --manpath= path

Search for manual pages in path. Ignore -m option.

-P pager, --pager= pager

Select paging ...