MAN(1) | General Commands Manual | MAN(1)

# NAME

`man` — display manual pages

# SYNOPSIS

`man` | [`-acfhklw`] [`-C` file] [`-M` path] [`-m` path] [`-S` subsection] [[`-s`] section] name ...

# DESCRIPTION

The `man` utility displays the manual page entitled name. Pages may be selected according to a specific category (section) or machine architecture (subsection), or searched for with `-k` using apropos(1) search expressions. The default pager, less(1), supports the command `:t` to jump to definitions of specific terms (see `MANPAGER`, below).

The options are as follows:

`-a`
  Display all matching manual pages.
`-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 less(1) to paginate it. This is done by default if the standard output is not a terminal device.

  When using `-c`, most terminal devices are unable to show the markup. To print the output of `man` to the terminal with markup but without using a pager, pipe it to ul(1). To remove the markup, pipe the output to col(1) `-b` instead.

`-f`
  A synonym for whatis(1). It searches for name in manual page names and displays the header lines from all matching pages. The search is case insensitive and matches whole words only.
`-h`
  Display only the SYNOPSIS lines of the requested manual pages. Implies `-a` and `-c`.
`-k`
  A synonym for apropos(1). Instead of name, an expression can be provided using the syntax described in the apropos(1) manual. By default, it displays the header lines of all matching pages.
`-l`
  A synonym for mandoc(1). The name arguments are interpreted as filenames. No search is done and file, path, section, subsection, and `-w` are ignored. This option implies `-a`.
`-M` path
  Override the list of directories to search for manual pages. The supplied path must be a colon (‘`:`’) separated list of directories. This option also overrides the environment variable `MANPATH` and any directories specified in the man.conf(5) file.
`-m` path
  Augment the list of directories to search for manual pages. The supplied path must be a colon (‘`:`’) separated list of directories. These directories will be searched before those specified using the `-M` option, the `MANPATH` environment variable, the man.conf(5) file, or the default directories.
`-S` subsection
  Only show pages for the specified 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 architecture whilst using another.

  This option overrides the `MACHINE` environment variable.

[`-s`] section
  Only select manuals from the specified section. The currently available sections are:

  1
    General commands (tools and utilities).
  2
    System calls and error numbers.
  3
    Library functions.
  3p
    perl(1) programmer's reference guide.
  4
    Device drivers.
  5
    File formats.
  6
    Games.
  7
    Miscellaneous information.
  8
    System maintenance and operation commands.
  9
    Kernel internals.
`-w`
  List the pathnames of all matching manual pages instead of displaying any of them. If no name is given, list the directories that would be searched.

The options `-IKOTW` are also supported and are documented in mandoc(1). The options `-fkl` are mutually exclusive and override each other.

The search starts with the `-m` argument if provided, then continues with the `-M` argument, the `MANPATH` variable, the `manpath` entries in the man.conf(5) file, or with /usr/share/man:/usr/X11R6/man:/usr/local/man by default. Within each of these, directories are searched in the order provided. Within each directory, the search proceeds according to the following list of sections: 1, 8, 6, 2, 3, 5, 7, 4, 9, 3p. The first match found is shown.

The mandoc.db(5) database is used for looking up manual page entries. In cases where the database is absent, outdated, or corrupt, `man` falls back to looking for files called name.section. If both a formatted and an unformatted version of the same manual page, for example cat1/foo.0 and man1/foo.1, exist in the same directory, only the unformatted version is used. The database is kept up to date with makewhatis(8), which is run by the weekly(8) maintenance script.

Guidelines for writing man pages can be found in mdoc(7).

# ENVIRONMENT

`MACHINE`
  As some manual pages are intended only for specific architectures, `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 environment variable `MACHINE` to the name of a specific architecture, or with the `-S` option. `MACHINE` is case insensitive.
`MANPAGER`
  Any non-empty value of the environment variable `MANPAGER` is used instead of the standard pagination program, less(1). If less(1) is used, the interactive `:t` command can be used to go to the definitions of various terms, for example command line options, command modifiers, internal commands, environment variables, function names, preprocessor macros, errno(2) values, and some other emphasized words. Some terms may have defining text at more than one place. In that case, the less(1) interactive commands `t` and `T` can be used to move to the next and to the previous place providing information about the term last searched for with `:t`. The `-O` `tag`[=term] option documented in the mandoc(1) manual opens a manual page at the definition of a specific term rather than at the beginning.
`MANPATH`
  Override the standard search path which is either specified in man.conf(5) or the default path. The format of `MANPATH` is a colon (‘`:`’) separated list of directories. Invalid directories are ignored. Overridden by `-M`, ignored if `-l` is specified.

  If `MANPATH` begins with a colon, it is appended to the standard path; if it ends with a colon, it is prepended to the standard path; or if it contains two adjacent colons, the standard path is inserted between the colons.

`PAGER`
  Specifies the pagination program to use when `MANPAGER` is not defined. If neither PAGER nor MANPAGER is defined, less(1) is used.

# FILES

/etc/man.conf
  default `man` configuration file

# EXIT STATUS

The `man` utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. See mandoc(1) for details.

# EXAMPLES

Show all manual pages that mention the `PWD` environment variable:

`$ man -ak Ev=PWD`

Show the ksh(1) manual and jump to the place where the `pwd` builtin command is described:

`$ man -O tag=pwd ksh`

Equivalently, use the command ‘`man ksh`’, then type ‘`:tpwd`’ and press the return key.

Format a page for pasting extracts into an email message — avoid printing any UTF-8 characters, reduce the width to ease quoting in replies, and remove markup:

`$ man -T ascii -O width=65 pledge | col -b`

Read a typeset page in a PDF viewer:

`$ MANPAGER=mupdf man -T pdf lpd`

# SEE ALSO

apropos(1), col(1), mandoc(1), ul(1), whereis(1), man.conf(5), mdoc(7)

# STANDARDS

The `man` utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”) specification.

The flags [`-aCcfhIKlMmOSsTWw`], as well as the environment variables `MACHINE`, `MANPAGER`, and `MANPATH`, are extensions to that specification.

# HISTORY

A `man` command first appeared in Version 2 AT&T UNIX.

The `-w` option first appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX; `-f` and `-k` in /usr/usb/man in 4.0BSD; `-M` in 4.3BSD; `-a` in 4.3BSD-Tahoe; `-c` and `-m` in 4.3BSD-Reno; `-h` in 4.3BSD-Net/2; `-C` in NetBSD 1.0; `-s` and `-S` in OpenBSD 2.3; and `-I`, `-K`, `-l`, `-O`, and `-W` in OpenBSD 5.7. The `-T` option first appeared in AT&T System III UNIX and was also added in OpenBSD 5.7.

January 26, 2025 | Debian