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Improve the description of -m/-M/MANPATH/man.conf in multiple respects

after kn@ reported that the descriptions were incomplete and somewhat
inaccurate.
OK jmc@ kn@
This commit is contained in:
schwarze
2020-01-07 11:15:12 +00:00
parent e231a6c824
commit 55ceb03d1b

View File

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
.\" $OpenBSD: man.1,v 1.33 2019/03/09 15:54:46 schwarze Exp $
.\" $OpenBSD: man.1,v 1.34 2020/01/07 11:15:12 schwarze Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993
.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
.\"
.\" @(#)man.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 1/2/94
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: March 9 2019 $
.Dd $Mdocdate: January 7 2020 $
.Dt MAN 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ The
.Nm
utility
displays the
manual pages entitled
manual page entitled
.Ar name .
Pages may be selected according to
a specific category
@@ -64,7 +64,6 @@ The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl a
Display all matching manual pages.
Normally, only the first page found is displayed.
.It Fl C Ar file
Use the specified
.Ar file
@@ -129,31 +128,31 @@ are ignored.
This option implies
.Fl a .
.It Fl M Ar path
Override the list of standard directories which
.Nm
searches for manual pages.
Override the list of directories to search for manual pages.
The supplied
.Ar path
must be a colon
.Pq Ql \&:
separated list of directories.
This search path may also be set using the environment variable
.Ev MANPATH .
.It Fl m Ar path
Augment the list of standard directories which
.Nm
searches for manual pages.
The supplied
.Ar path
must be a colon
.Pq Ql \&:
separated list of directories.
These directories will be searched before the standard directories or
the directories specified using the
.Fl M
option or the
This option also overrides the environment variable
.Ev MANPATH
environment variable.
and any directories specified in the
.Xr man.conf 5
file.
.It Fl m Ar path
Augment the list of directories to search for manual pages.
The supplied
.Ar path
must be a colon
.Pq Ql \&:
separated list of directories.
These directories will be searched before those specified using the
.Fl M
option, the
.Ev MANPATH
environment variable, the
.Xr man.conf 5
file, or the default directories.
.It Fl S Ar subsection
Only show pages for the specified
.Xr machine 1
@@ -197,10 +196,6 @@ System maintenance and operation commands.
.It 9
Kernel internals.
.El
.Pp
If not specified and a match is found in more than one section,
the first match is selected from the following list:
1, 8, 6, 2, 3, 5, 7, 4, 9, 3p.
.It Fl w
List the pathnames of all matching manual pages instead of displaying
any of them.
@@ -214,9 +209,23 @@ The options
.Fl fkl
are mutually exclusive and override each other.
.Pp
Guidelines for writing
man pages can be found in
.Xr mdoc 7 .
The search starts with the
.Fl m
argument if provided, then continues with the
.Fl M
argument, the
.Ev MANPATH
variable, the
.Ic manpath
entries in the
.Xr man.conf 5
file, or with
.Pa /usr/share/man : Ns Pa /usr/X11R6/man : Ns Pa /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.
.Pp
The
.Xr mandoc.db 5
@@ -236,6 +245,10 @@ The database is kept up to date with
which is run by the
.Xr weekly 8
maintenance script.
.Pp
Guidelines for writing
man pages can be found in
.Xr mdoc 7 .
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width MANPATHX
.It Ev MACHINE
@@ -286,15 +299,15 @@ manual opens a manual page at the definition of a specific
.Ar term
rather than at the beginning.
.It Ev MANPATH
The standard search path used by
.Nm
may be changed by specifying a path in the
Override the standard search path which is either specified in
.Xr man.conf 5
or the default path.
The format of
.Ev MANPATH
environment variable.
The format of the path is a colon
is a colon
.Pq Ql \&:
separated list of directories.
Invalid paths are ignored.
Invalid directories are ignored.
Overridden by
.Fl M ,
ignored if
@@ -303,12 +316,10 @@ is specified.
.Pp
If
.Ev MANPATH
begins with a colon, it is appended to the default list;
if it ends with a colon, it is prepended to the default list;
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 search path is inserted between the colons.
If none of these conditions are met, it overrides the
standard search path.
the standard path is inserted between the colons.
.It Ev PAGER
Specifies the pagination program to use when
.Ev MANPAGER
@@ -321,7 +332,9 @@ is used.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/man.conf -compact
.It Pa /etc/man.conf
default man configuration file
default
.Nm
configuration file
.El
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std man