Package: man-db
Version: 2.7.6.1-2
Severity: normal
Dear Maintainer,
because things weren't working as expected, I wanted to read some
manpages. However, because I was in a non-existing working directory man
failed with a useless error message.
How to reproduce:
➜ ~ sshfs 192.168.1.1:/mnt/ /mnt/fladderiep/home
➜ ~ cd /mnt/fladderiep/home
➜ home kill $(pidof sshfs)
➜ home man
What manual page do you want?
➜ home man man
man: can't change directory to '(unreachable)/': No such file or
directory
man: command exited with status 255: sed -e '/^[[:space:]]*$/{ N;
/^[[:space:]]*\n[[:space:]]*$/D; }' | (cd (unreachable)/ &&
LESS=-ix8RmPm Manual page man(1) ?ltline %lt?L/%L.:byte %bB?s/%s..?e
(END):?pB %pB\%.. (press h for help or q to quit)$PM Manual page man(1)
?ltline %lt?L/%L.:byte %bB?s/%s..?e (END):?pB %pB\%.. (press h for help
or q to quit)$-R MAN_PN=man(1) less)
I read that you'd like to see the man --debug output, my first try to
redirect the output, it turned out that the manpages was dumped there,
no errors:
man --debug man >/tmp/manohman
Now it gets funny:
man --debug man >/tmp/manohman 2>&1
echo $?
0
But inside that file, the error isn't there. Back to the backlogs!
[…]
ult_src: File /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz in mantree /usr/share/man
found ultimate source file /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz
converted /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz to /usr/share/man/cat1/man.1.gz
is_changed: a=/usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz,
b=/usr/share/man/cat1/man.1.gz (-2)
converted /var/cache/man/cat1/man.1.gz to /var/cache/man/cat1/man.1.gz
will try cat file /var/cache/man/cat1/man.1.gz
chdir /usr/share/man
pre-processors `t' from file
page_encoding = ISO-8859-1
source_encoding = ISO-8859-1
locale_charset = UTF-8
roff_device (locale) = utf8
roff_encoding = ISO-8859-1
output_encoding = UTF-8
less_charset = utf-8
Terminal width 150
Terminal width 150 not within cat page range [80, 80]
Using 146-character lines
formatted_encoding = UTF-8
format: 1, save_cat: 0, found: 1
add_output_iconv: source UTF-8, target UTF-8
Setting LESS to -ix8RmPm Manual page man(1) ?ltline %lt?L/%L.:byte
%bB?s/%s..?e (END):?pB %pB\%.. (press h for help or q to quit)$PM Manual
%page man(1) ?ltline %lt?L/%L.:byte %bB?s/%s..?e (END):?pB %pB\%..
%(press h for help or q to quit)$
Setting MAN_PN to man(1)
++priv_drop_count = 1
man: can't change directory to '(unreachable)/': No such file or
directory
man: command exited with status 255: sed -e '/^[[:space:]]*$/{ N;
/^[[:space:]]*\n[[:space:]]*$/D; }' | (cd (unreachable)/ &&
LESS=-ix8RmPm Manual page man(1) ?ltline %lt?L/%L.:byte %bB?s/%s..?e
(END):?pB %pB\%.. (press h for help or q to quit)$PM Manual page man(1)
?ltline %lt?L/%L.:byte %bB?s/%s..?e (END):?pB %pB\%.. (press h for help
or q to quit)$ MAN_PN=man(1) pager)
hashtable_free: 12 entries, 12 (100%) unique
I don't have a fancy solution for this, I'd already be happy with a
nicer error message, even if it's possible to work around it, there
might be more funky edge-cases with disconnected or high-latency network
storage.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.7
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-8-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8),
LANGUAGE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
Versions of packages man-db depends on:
ii bsdmainutils 9.0.12+nmu1
ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.61
ii dpkg 1.18.25
ii groff-base 1.22.3-9
ii libc6 2.24-11+deb9u3
ii libgdbm3 1.8.3-14
ii libpipeline1 1.4.1-2
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.8.dfsg-5
man-db recommends no packages.
Versions of packages man-db suggests:
pn groff <none>
ii less 481-2.1
ii links2 [www-browser] 2.14-2+b1
ii lynx [www-browser] 2.8.9dev11-1
ii w3m [www-browser] 0.5.3-34+deb9u1
-- debconf information:
man-db/auto-update: true
man-db/install-setuid: false
*** /tmp/manohman
ruid=1000, euid=1000
rgid=1000, egid=1000
++priv_drop_count = 1
>From the config file /etc/manpath.config:
Mandatory mandir `/usr/man'.
Mandatory mandir `/usr/share/man'.
Mandatory mandir `/usr/local/share/man'.
Path `/bin' mapped to mandir `/usr/share/man'.
Path `/usr/bin' mapped to mandir `/usr/share/man'.
Path `/sbin' mapped to mandir `/usr/share/man'.
Path `/usr/sbin' mapped to mandir `/usr/share/man'.
Path `/usr/local/bin' mapped to mandir `/usr/local/man'.
Path `/usr/local/bin' mapped to mandir `/usr/local/share/man'.
Path `/usr/local/sbin' mapped to mandir `/usr/local/man'.
Path `/usr/local/sbin' mapped to mandir `/usr/local/share/man'.
Path `/usr/X11R6/bin' mapped to mandir `/usr/X11R6/man'.
Path `/usr/bin/X11' mapped to mandir `/usr/X11R6/man'.
Path `/usr/games' mapped to mandir `/usr/share/man'.
Path `/opt/bin' mapped to mandir `/opt/man'.
Path `/opt/sbin' mapped to mandir `/opt/man'.
Global mandir `/usr/man', catdir `/var/cache/man/fsstnd'.
Global mandir `/usr/share/man', catdir `/var/cache/man'.
Global mandir `/usr/local/man', catdir `/var/cache/man/oldlocal'.
Global mandir `/usr/local/share/man', catdir `/var/cache/man/local'.
Global mandir `/usr/X11R6/man', catdir `/var/cache/man/X11R6'.
Global mandir `/opt/man', catdir `/var/cache/man/opt'.
Added section `1'.
Added section `n'.
Added section `l'.
Added section `8'.
Added section `3'.
Added section `2'.
Added section `3posix'.
Added section `3pm'.
Added section `3perl'.
Added section `3am'.
Added section `5'.
Added section `4'.
Added section `9'.
Added section `6'.
Added section `7'.
`/usr/man' `' `1'
`/usr/share/man' `' `1'
`/usr/local/share/man' `' `1'
`/bin' `/usr/share/man' `0'
`/usr/bin' `/usr/share/man' `0'
`/sbin' `/usr/share/man' `0'
`/usr/sbin' `/usr/share/man' `0'
`/usr/local/bin' `/usr/local/man' `0'
`/usr/local/bin' `/usr/local/share/man' `0'
`/usr/local/sbin' `/usr/local/man' `0'
`/usr/local/sbin' `/usr/local/share/man' `0'
`/usr/X11R6/bin' `/usr/X11R6/man' `0'
`/usr/bin/X11' `/usr/X11R6/man' `0'
`/usr/games' `/usr/share/man' `0'
`/opt/bin' `/opt/man' `0'
`/opt/sbin' `/opt/man' `0'
`/usr/man' `/var/cache/man/fsstnd' `-1'
`/usr/share/man' `/var/cache/man' `-1'
`/usr/local/man' `/var/cache/man/oldlocal' `-1'
`/usr/local/share/man' `/var/cache/man/local' `-1'
`/usr/X11R6/man' `/var/cache/man/X11R6' `-1'
`/opt/man' `/var/cache/man/opt' `-1'
`1' `' `-5'
`n' `' `-5'
`l' `' `-5'
`8' `' `-5'
`3' `' `-5'
`2' `' `-5'
`3posix' `' `-5'
`3pm' `' `-5'
`3perl' `' `-5'
`3am' `' `-5'
`5' `' `-5'
`4' `' `-5'
`9' `' `-5'
`6' `' `-5'
`7' `' `-5'
real user = 1000; effective user = 1000
using pager as pager
path directory /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/lib is not in the config
file
but does have a ../man, man, ../share/man, or share/man subdirectory
adding /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man to manpath
path directory /home/kwadronaut/bin is not in the config file
and doesn't have ../man, man, ../share/man, or share/man subdirectories
path directory /usr/local/bin is in the config file
adding /usr/local/man to manpath
adding /usr/local/share/man to manpath
path directory /usr/bin is in the config file
adding /usr/share/man to manpath
path directory /bin is in the config file
/usr/share/man is already in the manpath
path directory /usr/local/games is not in the config file
but does have a ../man, man, ../share/man, or share/man subdirectory
/usr/local/man is already in the manpath
path directory /usr/games is in the config file
/usr/share/man is already in the manpath
path directory /snap/bin is not in the config file
and doesn't have ../man, man, ../share/man, or share/man subdirectories
adding mandatory man directories
warning: /usr/man: No such file or directory
/usr/share/man is already in the manpath
/usr/local/share/man is already in the manpath
add_nls_manpaths(): processing
/home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man:/home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man:/usr/local/man:/usr/local/share/man:/usr/share/man
checking for locale en_US.utf8
/home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man:/home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man
reduced to /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man
manpath search path (with duplicates) =
/home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man:/usr/local/man:/usr/local/share/man:/usr/share/man:/home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man:/home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man:/usr/local/man:/usr/local/share/man:/usr/share/man
adding /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man to manpathlist
adding /usr/local/man to manpathlist
adding /usr/local/share/man to manpathlist
adding /usr/share/man to manpathlist
adding /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man to manpathlist
adding /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man to manpathlist
adding /usr/local/man to manpathlist
adding /usr/local/share/man to manpathlist
adding /usr/share/man to manpathlist
Removing duplicate manpath entry /usr/local/share/man (2) ->
/usr/local/man (1)
Removing duplicate manpath entry /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man
(3) -> /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man (0)
Removing duplicate manpath entry /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man
(3) -> /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man (0)
Removing duplicate manpath entry /usr/local/man (3) -> /usr/local/man (1)
Removing duplicate manpath entry /usr/local/share/man (3) ->
/usr/local/man (1)
Removing duplicate manpath entry /usr/share/man (3) -> /usr/share/man (2)
final search path =
/home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man:/usr/local/man:/usr/share/man
--priv_drop_count = 0
++priv_drop_count = 1
searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section 1
trying section 1 with globbing
Layout is GNU (1)
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: miss
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man1*
matched: /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man/man1
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man/man1: miss
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man/man1: man.1*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: cat1*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
Failed to open /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man/index.db O_RDONLY
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section 1
trying section 1 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: miss
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man1*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: cat1*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
Failed to open /var/cache/man/oldlocal/index.db O_RDONLY
searching in /usr/share/man, section 1
trying section 1 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: miss
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man1*
matched: /usr/share/man/man1
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man/man1: miss
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man/man1: man.1*
matched: /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz
hashtable_free: 1 entries, 1 (100%) unique
ult_src: File /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz in mantree /usr/share/man
candidate: 0 0 man /usr/share/man /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz A - 1 1
++priv_drop_count = 1
searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section n
trying section n with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: mann*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: catn*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section n
trying section n with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: mann*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: catn*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section n
trying section n with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: mann*
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: catn*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
Succeeded in opening /var/cache/man/index.db O_RDONLY
found 2 names/extensions
multi key lookup (man 1)
multi key lookup (man 7)
++priv_drop_count = 1
searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section l
trying section l with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: manl*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: catl*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section l
trying section l with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: manl*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: catl*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section l
trying section l with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: manl*
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: catl*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
++priv_drop_count = 1
searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section 8
trying section 8 with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man8*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: cat8*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section 8
trying section 8 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man8*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: cat8*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section 8
trying section 8 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man8*
matched: /usr/share/man/man8
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man/man8: miss
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man/man8: man.8*
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: cat8*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
++priv_drop_count = 1
searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section 3
trying section 3 with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man3*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section 3
trying section 3 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man3*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section 3
trying section 3 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man3*
matched: /usr/share/man/man3
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man/man3: miss
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man/man3: man.3*
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
++priv_drop_count = 1
searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section 2
trying section 2 with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man2*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: cat2*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section 2
trying section 2 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man2*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: cat2*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section 2
trying section 2 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man2*
matched: /usr/share/man/man2
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man/man2: miss
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man/man2: man.2*
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: cat2*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
++priv_drop_count = 1
searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section 3posix
trying section 3posix with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man3*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section 3posix
trying section 3posix with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man3*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section 3posix
trying section 3posix with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man3*
matched: /usr/share/man/man3
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man/man3: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man/man3: man.3posix*
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
++priv_drop_count = 1
searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section 3pm
trying section 3pm with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man3*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section 3pm
trying section 3pm with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man3*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section 3pm
trying section 3pm with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man3*
matched: /usr/share/man/man3
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man/man3: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man/man3: man.3pm*
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
++priv_drop_count = 1
searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section 3perl
trying section 3perl with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man3*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section 3perl
trying section 3perl with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man3*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section 3perl
trying section 3perl with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man3*
matched: /usr/share/man/man3
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man/man3: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man/man3: man.3perl*
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
++priv_drop_count = 1
searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section 3am
trying section 3am with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man3*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section 3am
trying section 3am with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man3*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section 3am
trying section 3am with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man3*
matched: /usr/share/man/man3
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man/man3: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man/man3: man.3am*
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: cat3*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
++priv_drop_count = 1
searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section 5
trying section 5 with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man5*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: cat5*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section 5
trying section 5 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man5*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: cat5*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section 5
trying section 5 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man5*
matched: /usr/share/man/man5
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man/man5: miss
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man/man5: man.5*
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: cat5*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
++priv_drop_count = 1
searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section 4
trying section 4 with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man4*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: cat4*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section 4
trying section 4 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man4*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: cat4*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section 4
trying section 4 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man4*
matched: /usr/share/man/man4
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man/man4: miss
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man/man4: man.4*
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: cat4*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
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trying section 9 with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man9*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: cat9*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
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trying section 9 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man9*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: cat9*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section 9
trying section 9 with globbing
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globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man9*
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
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trying section 6 with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man6*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
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hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
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trying section 6 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man6*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
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searching in /usr/share/man, section 6
trying section 6 with globbing
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globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man6*
matched: /usr/share/man/man6
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globbing pattern in /usr/share/man/man6: man.6*
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hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
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searching in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man, section 7
trying section 7 with globbing
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: man7*
update_directory_cache /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: hit
globbing pattern in /home/kwadronaut/dev/git-subrepo/man: cat7*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
--priv_drop_count = 0
searching in /usr/local/man, section 7
trying section 7 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: man7*
update_directory_cache /usr/local/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/local/man: cat7*
hashtable_free: 0 entries, 0 (0%) unique
searching in /usr/share/man, section 7
trying section 7 with globbing
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man: hit
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man: man7*
matched: /usr/share/man/man7
update_directory_cache /usr/share/man/man7: miss
globbing pattern in /usr/share/man/man7: man.7*
matched: /usr/share/man/man7/man.7.gz
hashtable_free: 1 entries, 1 (100%) unique
ult_src: File /usr/share/man/man7/man.7.gz in mantree /usr/share/man
candidate: 0 0 man /usr/share/man /usr/share/man/man7/man.7.gz A - 7 7
search: 0 0 man /usr/share/man /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz A man 1 1
(dup: 0)
Checking physical location: /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz
ult_src: File /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz in mantree /usr/share/man
found ultimate source file /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz
converted /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz to /usr/share/man/cat1/man.1.gz
is_changed: a=/usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz,
b=/usr/share/man/cat1/man.1.gz (-2)
converted /var/cache/man/cat1/man.1.gz to /var/cache/man/cat1/man.1.gz
will try cat file /var/cache/man/cat1/man.1.gz
chdir /usr/share/man
pre-processors `t' from file
page_encoding = ISO-8859-1
source_encoding = ISO-8859-1
locale_charset = UTF-8
roff_device (locale) = utf8
roff_encoding = ISO-8859-1
output_encoding = UTF-8
less_charset = utf-8
Terminal width 74
Terminal width 74 not within cat page range [80, 80]
Using 72-character lines
formatted_encoding = UTF-8
format: 1, save_cat: 0, found: 1
add_output_iconv: source UTF-8, target UTF-8
++priv_drop_count = 1
opening - (parent path: /usr/share/man)
opened -
trying encoding UTF-8 -> UTF-8//IGNORE
MAN(1) Manual pager utils MAN(1)
NAME
man - an interface to the on-line reference manuals
SYNOPSIS
man [-C file] [-d] [-D] [--warnings[=warnings]] [-R encoding] [-L
locale] [-m system[,...]] [-M path] [-S list] [-e extension]
[-i|-I] [--regex|--wildcard] [--names-only] [-a] [-u] [--no-sub‐
pages] [-P pager] [-r prompt] [-7] [-E encoding] [--no-hyphen‐
ation] [--no-justification] [-p string] [-t] [-T[device]]
[-H[browser]] [-X[dpi]] [-Z] [[section] page[.section] ...] ...
man -k [apropos options] regexp ...
man -K [-w|-W] [-S list] [-i|-I] [--regex] [section] term ...
man -f [whatis options] page ...
man -l [-C file] [-d] [-D] [--warnings[=warnings]] [-R encoding]
[-L locale] [-P pager] [-r prompt] [-7] [-E encoding] [-p string]
[-t] [-T[device]] [-H[browser]] [-X[dpi]] [-Z] file ...
man -w|-W [-C file] [-d] [-D] page ...
man -c [-C file] [-d] [-D] page ...
man [-?V]
DESCRIPTION
man is the system's manual pager. Each page argument given to
man is normally the name of a program, utility or function. The
manual page associated with each of these arguments is then found
and displayed. A section, if provided, will direct man to look
only in that section of the manual. The default action is to
search in all of the available sections following a pre-defined
order ("1 n l 8 3 2 3posix 3pm 3perl 3am 5 4 9 6 7" by default,
unless overridden by the SECTION directive in /etc/manpath.con‐
fig), and to show only the first page found, even if page exists
in several sections.
The table below shows the section numbers of the manual followed
by the types of pages they contain.
1 Executable programs or shell commands
2 System calls (functions provided by the kernel)
3 Library calls (functions within program libraries)
4 Special files (usually found in /dev)
5 File formats and conventions eg /etc/passwd
6 Games
7 Miscellaneous (including macro packages and conventions),
e.g. man(7), groff(7)
8 System administration commands (usually only for root)
9 Kernel routines [Non standard]
A manual page consists of several sections.
Conventional section names include NAME, SYNOPSIS, CONFIGURATION,
DESCRIPTION, OPTIONS, EXIT STATUS, RETURN VALUE, ERRORS, ENVIRON‐
MENT, FILES, VERSIONS, CONFORMING TO, NOTES, BUGS, EXAMPLE,
AUTHORS, and SEE ALSO.
The following conventions apply to the SYNOPSIS section and can
be used as a guide in other sections.
bold text type exactly as shown.
italic text replace with appropriate argument.
[-abc] any or all arguments within [ ] are optional.
-a|-b options delimited by | cannot be used
together.
argument ... argument is repeatable.
[expression] ... entire expression within [ ] is repeatable.
Exact rendering may vary depending on the output device. For
instance, man will usually not be able to render italics when
running in a terminal, and will typically use underlined or
coloured text instead.
The command or function illustration is a pattern that should
match all possible invocations. In some cases it is advisable to
illustrate several exclusive invocations as is shown in the SYN‐
OPSIS section of this manual page.
EXAMPLES
man ls
Display the manual page for the item (program) ls.
man man.7
Display the manual page for macro package man from section 7.
man -a intro
Display, in succession, all of the available intro manual
pages contained within the manual. It is possible to quit
between successive displays or skip any of them.
man -t alias | lpr -Pps
Format the manual page referenced by `alias', usually a shell
manual page, into the default troff or groff format and pipe
it to the printer named ps. The default output for groff is
usually PostScript. man --help should advise as to which
processor is bound to the -t option.
man -l -Tdvi ./foo.1x.gz > ./foo.1x.dvi
This command will decompress and format the nroff source man‐
ual page ./foo.1x.gz into a device independent (dvi) file.
The redirection is necessary as the -T flag causes output to
be directed to stdout with no pager. The output could be
viewed with a program such as xdvi or further processed into
PostScript using a program such as dvips.
man -k printf
Search the short descriptions and manual page names for the
keyword printf as regular expression. Print out any matches.
Equivalent to apropos printf.
man -f smail
Lookup the manual pages referenced by smail and print out the
short descriptions of any found. Equivalent to whatis smail.
OVERVIEW
Many options are available to man in order to give as much flexi‐
bility as possible to the user. Changes can be made to the
search path, section order, output processor, and other behav‐
iours and operations detailed below.
If set, various environment variables are interrogated to deter‐
mine the operation of man. It is possible to set the `catch all'
variable $MANOPT to any string in command line format with the
exception that any spaces used as part of an option's argument
must be escaped (preceded by a backslash). man will parse
$MANOPT prior to parsing its own command line. Those options
requiring an argument will be overridden by the same options
found on the command line. To reset all of the options set in
$MANOPT, -D can be specified as the initial command line option.
This will allow man to `forget' about the options specified in
$MANOPT although they must still have been valid.
The manual pager utilities packaged as man-db make extensive use
of index database caches. These caches contain information such
as where each manual page can be found on the filesystem and what
its whatis (short one line description of the man page) contains,
and allow man to run faster than if it had to search the filesys‐
tem each time to find the appropriate manual page. If requested
using the -u option, man will ensure that the caches remain con‐
sistent, which can obviate the need to manually run software to
update traditional whatis text databases.
If man cannot find a mandb initiated index database for a partic‐
ular manual page hierarchy, it will still search for the
requested manual pages, although file globbing will be necessary
to search within that hierarchy. If whatis or apropos fails to
find an index it will try to extract information from a tradi‐
tional whatis database instead.
These utilities support compressed source nroff files having, by
default, the extensions of .Z, .z and .gz. It is possible to
deal with any compression extension, but this information must be
known at compile time. Also, by default, any cat pages produced
are compressed using gzip. Each `global' manual page hierarchy
such as /usr/share/man or /usr/X11R6/man may have any directory
as its cat page hierarchy. Traditionally the cat pages are
stored under the same hierarchy as the man pages, but for reasons
such as those specified in the File Hierarchy Standard (FHS), it
may be better to store them elsewhere. For details on how to do
this, please read manpath(5). For details on why to do this,
read the standard.
International support is available with this package. Native
language manual pages are accessible (if available on your sys‐
tem) via use of locale functions. To activate such support, it
is necessary to set either $LC_MESSAGES, $LANG or another system
dependent environment variable to your language locale, usually
specified in the POSIX 1003.1 based format:
<language>[_<territory>[.<character-set>[,<version>]]]
If the desired page is available in your locale, it will be dis‐
played in lieu of the standard (usually American English) page.
Support for international message catalogues is also featured in
this package and can be activated in the same way, again if
available. If you find that the manual pages and message cata‐
logues supplied with this package are not available in your
native language and you would like to supply them, please contact
the maintainer who will be coordinating such activity.
For information regarding other features and extensions available
with this manual pager, please read the documents supplied with
the package.
DEFAULTS
man will search for the desired manual pages within the index
database caches. If the -u option is given, a cache consistency
check is performed to ensure the databases accurately reflect the
filesystem. If this option is always given, it is not generally
necessary to run mandb after the caches are initially created,
unless a cache becomes corrupt. However, the cache consistency
check can be slow on systems with many manual pages installed, so
it is not performed by default, and system administrators may
wish to run mandb every week or so to keep the database caches
fresh. To forestall problems caused by outdated caches, man will
fall back to file globbing if a cache lookup fails, just as it
would if no cache was present.
Once a manual page has been located, a check is performed to find
out if a relative preformatted `cat' file already exists and is
newer than the nroff file. If it does and is, this preformatted
file is (usually) decompressed and then displayed, via use of a
pager. The pager can be specified in a number of ways, or else
will fall back to a default is used (see option -P for details).
If no cat is found or is older than the nroff file, the nroff is
filtered through various programs and is shown immediately.
If a cat file can be produced (a relative cat directory exists
and has appropriate permissions), man will compress and store the
cat file in the background.
The filters are deciphered by a number of means. Firstly, the
command line option -p or the environment variable $MANROFFSEQ is
interrogated. If -p was not used and the environment variable
was not set, the initial line of the nroff file is parsed for a
preprocessor string. To contain a valid preprocessor string, the
first line must resemble
'\" <string>
where string can be any combination of letters described by
option -p below.
If none of the above methods provide any filter information, a
default set is used.
A formatting pipeline is formed from the filters and the primary
formatter (nroff or [tg]roff with -t) and executed. Alterna‐
tively, if an executable program mandb_nfmt (or mandb_tfmt with
-t) exists in the man tree root, it is executed instead. It gets
passed the manual source file, the preprocessor string, and
optionally the device specified with -T or -E as arguments.
OPTIONS
Non argument options that are duplicated either on the command
line, in $MANOPT, or both, are not harmful. For options that
require an argument, each duplication will override the previous
argument value.
General options
-C file, --config-file=file
Use this user configuration file rather than the default
of ~/.manpath.
-d, --debug
Print debugging information.
-D, --default
This option is normally issued as the very first option
and resets man's behaviour to its default. Its use is to
reset those options that may have been set in $MANOPT.
Any options that follow -D will have their usual effect.
--warnings[=warnings]
Enable warnings from groff. This may be used to perform
sanity checks on the source text of manual pages. warn‐
ings is a comma-separated list of warning names; if it is
not supplied, the default is "mac". See the “Warnings”
node in info groff for a list of available warning names.
Main modes of operation
-f, --whatis
Equivalent to whatis. Display a short description from
the manual page, if available. See whatis(1) for details.
-k, --apropos
Equivalent to apropos. Search the short manual page
descriptions for keywords and display any matches. See
apropos(1) for details.
-K, --global-apropos
Search for text in all manual pages. This is a brute-
force search, and is likely to take some time; if you can,
you should specify a section to reduce the number of pages
that need to be searched. Search terms may be simple
strings (the default), or regular expressions if the
--regex option is used.
Note that this searches the sources of the manual pages,
not the rendered text, and so may include false positives
due to things like comments in source files. Searching
the rendered text would be much slower.
-l, --local-file
Activate `local' mode. Format and display local manual
files instead of searching through the system's manual
collection. Each manual page argument will be interpreted
as an nroff source file in the correct format. No cat
file is produced. If '-' is listed as one of the argu‐
ments, input will be taken from stdin. When this option
is not used, and man fails to find the page required,
before displaying the error message, it attempts to act as
if this option was supplied, using the name as a filename
and looking for an exact match.
-w, --where, --path, --location
Don't actually display the manual pages, but do print the
location(s) of the source nroff files that would be for‐
matted.
-W, --where-cat, --location-cat
Don't actually display the manual pages, but do print the
location(s) of the cat files that would be displayed. If
-w and -W are both specified, print both separated by a
space.
-c, --catman
This option is not for general use and should only be used
by the catman program.
-R encoding, --recode=encoding
Instead of formatting the manual page in the usual way,
output its source converted to the specified encoding. If
you already know the encoding of the source file, you can
also use manconv(1) directly. However, this option allows
you to convert several manual pages to a single encoding
without having to explicitly state the encoding of each,
provided that they were already installed in a structure
similar to a manual page hierarchy.
Finding manual pages
-L locale, --locale=locale
man will normally determine your current locale by a call
to the C function setlocale(3) which interrogates various
environment variables, possibly including $LC_MESSAGES and
$LANG. To temporarily override the determined value, use
this option to supply a locale string directly to man.
Note that it will not take effect until the search for
pages actually begins. Output such as the help message
will always be displayed in the initially determined
locale.
-m system[,...], --systems=system[,...]
If this system has access to other operating system's man‐
ual pages, they can be accessed using this option. To
search for a manual page from NewOS's manual page collec‐
tion, use the option -m NewOS.
The system specified can be a combination of comma delim‐
ited operating system names. To include a search of the
native operating system's manual pages, include the system
name man in the argument string. This option will over‐
ride the $SYSTEM environment variable.
-M path, --manpath=path
Specify an alternate manpath to use. By default, man uses
manpath derived code to determine the path to search.
This option overrides the $MANPATH environment variable
and causes option -m to be ignored.
A path specified as a manpath must be the root of a manual
page hierarchy structured into sections as described in
the man-db manual (under "The manual page system"). To
view manual pages outside such hierarchies, see the -l
option.
-S list, -s list, --sections=list
List is a colon- or comma-separated list of `order spe‐
cific' manual sections to search. This option overrides
the $MANSECT environment variable. (The -s spelling is
for compatibility with System V.)
-e sub-extension, --extension=sub-extension
Some systems incorporate large packages of manual pages,
such as those that accompany the Tcl package, into the
main manual page hierarchy. To get around the problem of
having two manual pages with the same name such as
exit(3), the Tcl pages were usually all assigned to sec‐
tion l. As this is unfortunate, it is now possible to put
the pages in the correct section, and to assign a specific
`extension' to them, in this case, exit(3tcl). Under nor‐
mal operation, man will display exit(3) in preference to
exit(3tcl). To negotiate this situation and to avoid hav‐
ing to know which section the page you require resides in,
it is now possible to give man a sub-extension string
indicating which package the page must belong to. Using
the above example, supplying the option -e tcl to man will
restrict the search to pages having an extension of *tcl.
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case when searching for manual pages. This is the
default.
-I, --match-case
Search for manual pages case-sensitively.
--regex
Show all pages with any part of either their names or
their descriptions matching each page argument as a regu‐
lar expression, as with apropos(1). Since there is usu‐
ally no reasonable way to pick a "best" page when search‐
ing for a regular expression, this option implies -a.
--wildcard
Show all pages with any part of either their names or
their descriptions matching each page argument using
shell-style wildcards, as with apropos(1) --wildcard. The
page argument must match the entire name or description,
or match on word boundaries in the description. Since
there is usually no reasonable way to pick a "best" page
when searching for a wildcard, this option implies -a.
--names-only
If the --regex or --wildcard option is used, match only
page names, not page descriptions, as with whatis(1).
Otherwise, no effect.
-a, --all
By default, man will exit after displaying the most suit‐
able manual page it finds. Using this option forces man
to display all the manual pages with names that match the
search criteria.
-u, --update
This option causes man to perform an `inode level' consis‐
tency check on its database caches to ensure that they are
an accurate representation of the filesystem. It will
only have a useful effect if man is installed with the
setuid bit set.
--no-subpages
By default, man will try to interpret pairs of manual page
names given on the command line as equivalent to a single
manual page name containing a hyphen or an underscore.
This supports the common pattern of programs that imple‐
ment a number of subcommands, allowing them to provide
manual pages for each that can be accessed using similar
syntax as would be used to invoke the subcommands them‐
selves. For example:
$ man -aw git diff
/usr/share/man/man1/git-diff.1.gz
To disable this behaviour, use the --no-subpages option.
$ man -aw --no-subpages git diff
/usr/share/man/man1/git.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man3/Git.3pm.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/diff.1.gz
Controlling formatted output
-P pager, --pager=pager
Specify which output pager to use. By default, man uses
pager. This option overrides the $MANPAGER environment
variable, which in turn overrides the $PAGER environment
variable. It is not used in conjunction with -f or -k.
The value may be a simple command name or a command with
arguments, and may use shell quoting (backslashes, single
quotes, or double quotes). It may not use pipes to con‐
nect multiple commands; if you need that, use a wrapper
script, which may take the file to display either as an
argument or on standard input.
-r prompt, --prompt=prompt
If a recent version of less is used as the pager, man will
attempt to set its prompt and some sensible options. The
default prompt looks like
Manual page name(sec) line x
where name denotes the manual page name, sec denotes the
section it was found under and x the current line number.
This is achieved by using the $LESS environment variable.
Supplying -r with a string will override this default.
The string may contain the text $MAN_PN which will be
expanded to the name of the current manual page and its
section name surrounded by `(' and `)'. The string used
to produce the default could be expressed as
\ Manual\ page\ \$MAN_PN\ ?ltline\ %lt?L/%L.:
byte\ %bB?s/%s..?\ (END):?pB\ %pB\\%..
(press h for help or q to quit)
It is broken into three lines here for the sake of read‐
ability only. For its meaning see the less(1) manual
page. The prompt string is first evaluated by the shell.
All double quotes, back-quotes and backslashes in the
prompt must be escaped by a preceding backslash. The
prompt string may end in an escaped $ which may be fol‐
lowed by further options for less. By default man sets
the -ix8 options.
The $MANLESS environment variable described below may be
used to set a default prompt string if none is supplied on
the command line.
-7, --ascii
When viewing a pure ascii(7) manual page on a 7 bit termi‐
nal or terminal emulator, some characters may not display
correctly when using the latin1(7) device description with
GNU nroff. This option allows pure ascii manual pages to
be displayed in ascii with the latin1 device. It will not
translate any latin1 text. The following table shows the
translations performed: some parts of it may only be dis‐
played properly when using GNU nroff's latin1(7) device.
Description Octal latin1 ascii
────────────────────────────────────────
continuation 255 ‐ -
hyphen
bullet (middle 267 · o
dot)
acute accent 264 ´ '
multiplication 327 × x
sign
If the latin1 column displays correctly, your terminal may
be set up for latin1 characters and this option is not
necessary. If the latin1 and ascii columns are identical,
you are reading this page using this option or man did not
format this page using the latin1 device description. If
the latin1 column is missing or corrupt, you may need to
view manual pages with this option.
This option is ignored when using options -t, -H, -T, or
-Z and may be useless for nroff other than GNU's.
-E encoding, --encoding=encoding
Generate output for a character encoding other than the
default. For backward compatibility, encoding may be an
nroff device such as ascii, latin1, or utf8 as well as a
true character encoding such as UTF-8.
--no-hyphenation, --nh
Normally, nroff will automatically hyphenate text at line
breaks even in words that do not contain hyphens, if it is
necessary to do so to lay out words on a line without
excessive spacing. This option disables automatic hyphen‐
ation, so words will only be hyphenated if they already
contain hyphens.
If you are writing a manual page and simply want to pre‐
vent nroff from hyphenating a word at an inappropriate
point, do not use this option, but consult the nroff docu‐
mentation instead; for instance, you can put "\%" inside a
word to indicate that it may be hyphenated at that point,
or put "\%" at the start of a word to prevent it from
being hyphenated.
--no-justification, --nj
Normally, nroff will automatically justify text to both
margins. This option disables full justification, leaving
justified only to the left margin, sometimes called
"ragged-right" text.
If you are writing a manual page and simply want to pre‐
vent nroff from justifying certain paragraphs, do not use
this option, but consult the nroff documentation instead;
for instance, you can use the ".na", ".nf", ".fi", and
".ad" requests to temporarily disable adjusting and fill‐
ing.
-p string, --preprocessor=string
Specify the sequence of preprocessors to run before nroff
or troff/groff. Not all installations will have a full
set of preprocessors. Some of the preprocessors and the
letters used to designate them are: eqn (e), grap (g), pic
(p), tbl (t), vgrind (v), refer (r). This option over‐
rides the $MANROFFSEQ environment variable. zsoelim is
always run as the very first preprocessor.
-t, --troff
Use groff -mandoc to format the manual page to stdout.
This option is not required in conjunction with -H, -T, or
-Z.
-T[device], --troff-device[=device]
This option is used to change groff (or possibly troff's)
output to be suitable for a device other than the default.
It implies -t. Examples (provided with Groff-1.17)
include dvi, latin1, ps, utf8, X75 and X100.
-H[browser], --html[=browser]
This option will cause groff to produce HTML output, and
will display that output in a web browser. The choice of
browser is determined by the optional browser argument if
one is provided, by the $BROWSER environment variable, or
by a compile-time default if that is unset (usually lynx).
This option implies -t, and will only work with GNU troff.
-X[dpi], --gxditview[=dpi]
This option displays the output of groff in a graphical
window using the gxditview program. The dpi (dots per
inch) may be 75, 75-12, 100, or 100-12, defaulting to 75;
the -12 variants use a 12-point base font. This option
implies -T with the X75, X75-12, X100, or X100-12 device
respectively.
-Z, --ditroff
groff will run troff and then use an appropriate post-pro‐
cessor to produce output suitable for the chosen device.
If groff -mandoc is groff, this option is passed to groff
and will suppress the use of a post-processor. It implies
-t.
Getting help
-?, --help
Print a help message and exit.
--usage
Print a short usage message and exit.
-V, --version
Display version information.
EXIT STATUS
0 Successful program execution.
1 Usage, syntax or configuration file error.
2 Operational error.
3 A child process returned a non-zero exit status.
16 At least one of the pages/files/keywords didn't exist or
wasn't matched.
ENVIRONMENT
MANPATH
If $MANPATH is set, its value is used as the path to
search for manual pages.
MANROFFOPT
The contents of $MANROFFOPT are added to the command line
every time man invokes the formatter (nroff, troff, or
groff).
MANROFFSEQ
If $MANROFFSEQ is set, its value is used to determine the
set of preprocessors to pass each manual page through.
The default preprocessor list is system dependent.
MANSECT
If $MANSECT is set, its value is a colon-delimited list of
sections and it is used to determine which manual sections
to search and in what order. The default is "1 n l 8 3 2
3posix 3pm 3perl 3am 5 4 9 6 7", unless overridden by the
SECTION directive in /etc/manpath.config.
MANPAGER, PAGER
If $MANPAGER or $PAGER is set ($MANPAGER is used in pref‐
erence), its value is used as the name of the program used
to display the manual page. By default, pager is used.
The value may be a simple command name or a command with
arguments, and may use shell quoting (backslashes, single
quotes, or double quotes). It may not use pipes to con‐
nect multiple commands; if you need that, use a wrapper
script, which may take the file to display either as an
argument or on standard input.
MANLESS
If $MANLESS is set, its value will be used as the default
prompt string for the less pager, as if it had been passed
using the -r option (so any occurrences of the text
$MAN_PN will be expanded in the same way). For example,
if you want to set the prompt string unconditionally to
“my prompt string”, set $MANLESS to ‘-Psmy prompt string’.
Using the -r option overrides this environment variable.
BROWSER
If $BROWSER is set, its value is a colon-delimited list of
commands, each of which in turn is used to try to start a
web browser for man --html. In each command, %s is
replaced by a filename containing the HTML output from
groff, %% is replaced by a single percent sign (%), and %c
is replaced by a colon (:).
SYSTEM If $SYSTEM is set, it will have the same effect as if it
had been specified as the argument to the -m option.
MANOPT If $MANOPT is set, it will be parsed prior to man's com‐
mand line and is expected to be in a similar format. As
all of the other man specific environment variables can be
expressed as command line options, and are thus candidates
for being included in $MANOPT it is expected that they
will become obsolete. N.B. All spaces that should be
interpreted as part of an option's argument must be
escaped.
MANWIDTH
If $MANWIDTH is set, its value is used as the line length
for which manual pages should be formatted. If it is not
set, manual pages will be formatted with a line length
appropriate to the current terminal (using the value of
$COLUMNS, an ioctl(2) if available, or falling back to 80
characters if neither is available). Cat pages will only
be saved when the default formatting can be used, that is
when the terminal line length is between 66 and 80 charac‐
ters.
MAN_KEEP_FORMATTING
Normally, when output is not being directed to a terminal
(such as to a file or a pipe), formatting characters are
discarded to make it easier to read the result without
special tools. However, if $MAN_KEEP_FORMATTING is set to
any non-empty value, these formatting characters are
retained. This may be useful for wrappers around man that
can interpret formatting characters.
MAN_KEEP_STDERR
Normally, when output is being directed to a terminal
(usually to a pager), any error output from the command
used to produce formatted versions of manual pages is dis‐
carded to avoid interfering with the pager's display.
Programs such as groff often produce relatively minor
error messages about typographical problems such as poor
alignment, which are unsightly and generally confusing
when displayed along with the manual page. However, some
users want to see them anyway, so, if $MAN_KEEP_STDERR is
set to any non-empty value, error output will be displayed
as usual.
LANG, LC_MESSAGES
Depending on system and implementation, either or both of
$LANG and $LC_MESSAGES will be interrogated for the cur‐
rent message locale. man will display its messages in
that locale (if available). See setlocale(3) for precise
details.
FILES
/etc/manpath.config
man-db configuration file.
/usr/share/man
A global manual page hierarchy.
/usr/share/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)
A traditional global index database cache.
/var/cache/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)
An FHS compliant global index database cache.
SEE ALSO
apropos(1), groff(1), less(1), manpath(1), nroff(1), troff(1),
whatis(1), zsoelim(1), setlocale(3), manpath(5), ascii(7),
latin1(7), man(7), catman(8), mandb(8), the man-db package man‐
ual, FSSTND
HISTORY
1990, 1991 – Originally written by John W. Eaton
(j...@che.utexas.edu).
Dec 23 1992: Rik Faith (fa...@cs.unc.edu) applied bug fixes sup‐
plied by Willem Kasdorp (wka...@nikhefk.nikef.nl).
30th April 1994 – 23rd February 2000: Wilf. (g.wilf...@ee.sur‐
rey.ac.uk) has been developing and maintaining this package with
the help of a few dedicated people.
30th October 1996 – 30th March 2001: Fabrizio Polacco <fpo‐
la...@debian.org> maintained and enhanced this package for the
Debian project, with the help of all the community.
31st March 2001 – present day: Colin Watson <cjwat...@debian.org>
is now developing and maintaining man-db.
2.7.6.1 2016-12-12 MAN(1)
--priv_drop_count = 0
hashtable_free: 3 entries, 3 (100%) unique
Found 1 man pages
++priv_drop_count = 1
hashtable_free: 12 entries, 12 (100%) unique
