man -- Command

Display Lexicon entries
man [-dw] [page ...]

man prints each manual page onto  the standard output.  This normally is an
entry from the COHERENT Lexicon, although  it can be a manual page from any
other source as well.

When used with  the option -w, it prints the  path name of the file instead
of printing the document itself.  When used with option -d, it dumps a list
of  all available  manual pages  to  the standard  output device,  for your
perusal.

By default, man uses the pager more to display text.  To use another pager,
e.g., scat, define the environmental variable PAGER:

    export PAGER="/bin/scat"

man normally searches for  manual pages in the directory /usr/man. However,
if the environmental variable MANPATH is set, man searches for manual pages
in  each  directory  that  it   names.   MANPATH  must  name  one  or  more
directories, with directories separated by a colon `:'.

Index Files

To locate a manual page, man reads index files.  It assumes that every file
/usr/man/*.index is an index file;  it then opens these files, and searches
them for the manual entry you have requested.

Prior  to release  4.2, an  index file  consisted of  entries that  had the
format:

    relative-path-name article-name

where relative-path-name  gave the subdirectory  and file in  /usr/man that
held the manual-page entry, article_name gave the name of the article as it
appears in the Lexicon.  Beginning with release 4.2, man uses index entries
of the form:

    relative-path-name article_name description

description gives a brief summary of the article.  Fields must be separated
by one more white-space characters.  For example, entries

     COHERENT1/bc   bc        Interactive calculator with arbitrary precision
     LOCAL/chess    chess     Interactive chess program

associate manual-page file /usr/man/COHERENT1/bc with the Lexicon entry for
the command  bc. Likewise, rules for the user-written  chess game chess are
found in file /usr/man/LOCAL/chess.

man can  read index entries prepared  in either the ``old''  or the ``new''
form.   We encourage  you to  use the  new form,  because this  format also
allows the index entries to be used by the command apropos.

Adding Manual-Page Entries

When writing  new manual-page entries  for COHERENT, we  recommend that you
place them  into a  subdirectory of  /usr/man. This subdirectory  should be
uniquely named  to avoid  possible name-space  collisions.  A good  rule of
thumb is  to name the subdirectory  after the application with  which it is
associated.   Also,   when  all   manual-pages  associated  with   a  given
application reside  in a specific  subdirectory, you can  update the manual
pages easily.

You should also add a uniquely  named index file to directory /usr/man that
identifies each  of the newly  added manual pages.  This  index file should
use the  ``new'' format described above;  and its name should  end with the
suffix .index.

Files

/usr/man/* -- Directories  that hold manual pages /usr/man/*.index -- Index
files

See Also

apropos,
commands,
help,
install,
PAGER,
Using COHERENT

Notes

The manual pages that are included with your release of the COHERENT system
may  include  entries  that have  been  corrected  and  updated since  your
COHERENT manual was printed.  If  there is a discrepancy between an on-line
manual page and the printed COHERENT manual, you should assume that the on-
line manual page is correct.

© 2012 by Stephen A. Ness