307 lines
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307 lines
11 KiB
HTML
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<!-- Copyright (c) 2001 The Open Group, All Rights Reserved -->
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<title>man</title>
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<basefont size="3"> <a name="man"></a> <a name="tag_04_85"></a><!-- man -->
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<!--header start-->
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<center><font size="2">The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6<br>
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IEEE Std 1003.1-2001<br>
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Copyright © 2001 The IEEE and The Open Group, All Rights reserved.</font></center>
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<!--header end-->
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<hr size="2" noshade>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_01"></a>NAME</h4>
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<blockquote>man - display system documentation</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_02"></a>SYNOPSIS</h4>
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<blockquote class="synopsis">
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<p><code><tt>man</tt> <b>[</b><tt>-k</tt><b>]</b> <i>name</i><tt>...</tt></code></p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_03"></a>DESCRIPTION</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>The <i>man</i> utility shall write information about each of the <i>name</i> operands. If <i>name</i> is the name of a standard
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utility, <i>man</i> at a minimum shall write a message describing the syntax used by the standard utility, its options, and
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operands. If more information is available, the <i>man</i> utility shall provide it in an implementation-defined manner.</p>
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<p>An implementation may provide information for values of <i>name</i> other than the standard utilities. Standard utilities that
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are listed as optional and that are not supported by the implementation either shall cause a brief message indicating that fact to
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be displayed or shall cause a full display of information as described previously.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_04"></a>OPTIONS</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>The <i>man</i> utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <a href=
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"../basedefs/xbd_chap12.html#tag_12_02">Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines</a>.</p>
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<p>The following option shall be supported:</p>
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<dl compact>
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<dt><b>-k</b></dt>
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<dd>Interpret <i>name</i> operands as keywords to be used in searching a utilities summary database that contains a brief purpose
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entry for each standard utility and write lines from the summary database that match any of the keywords. The keyword search shall
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produce results that are the equivalent of the output of the following command:
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<pre>
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<tt>grep -Ei '
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</tt><i>name
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name</i><tt>...
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'</tt> <i>summary-database</i>
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</pre>
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<p>This assumes that the <i>summary-database</i> is a text file with a single entry per line; this organization is not required and
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the example using <a href="../utilities/grep.html"><i>grep</i></a> <b>-Ei</b> is merely illustrative of the type of search
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intended. The purpose entry to be included in the database shall consist of a terse description of the purpose of the utility.</p>
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</dd>
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</dl>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_05"></a>OPERANDS</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>The following operand shall be supported:</p>
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<dl compact>
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<dt><i>name</i></dt>
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<dd>A keyword or the name of a standard utility. When <b>-k</b> is not specified and <i>name</i> does not represent one of the
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standard utilities, the results are unspecified.</dd>
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</dl>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_06"></a>STDIN</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>Not used.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_07"></a>INPUT FILES</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>None.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_08"></a>ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>The following environment variables shall affect the execution of <i>man</i>:</p>
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<dl compact>
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<dt><i>LANG</i></dt>
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<dd>Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
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IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <a href="../basedefs/xbd_chap08.html#tag_08_02">Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables</a> for
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the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)</dd>
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<dt><i>LC_ALL</i></dt>
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<dd>If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.</dd>
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<dt><i>LC_CTYPE</i></dt>
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<dd>Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
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opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and in the summary database). The value of <i>LC_CTYPE</i> need not affect the format
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of the information written about the <i>name</i> operands.</dd>
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<dt><i>LC_MESSAGES</i></dt>
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<dd>Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error and
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informative messages written to standard output.</dd>
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<dt><i>NLSPATH</i></dt>
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<dd><sup>[<a href="javascript:open_code('XSI')">XSI</a>]</sup> <img src="../images/opt-start.gif" alt="[Option Start]" border="0">
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Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of <i>LC_MESSAGES .</i> <img src="../images/opt-end.gif" alt=
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"[Option End]" border="0"></dd>
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<dt><i>PAGER</i></dt>
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<dd>Determine an output filtering command for writing the output to a terminal. Any string acceptable as a <i>command_string</i>
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operand to the <a href="../utilities/sh.html"><i>sh</i></a> <b>-c</b> command shall be valid. When standard output is a terminal
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device, the reference page output shall be piped through the command. If the <i>PAGER</i> variable is null or not set, the command
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shall be either <a href="../utilities/more.html"><i>more</i></a> or another paginator utility documented in the system
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documentation.</dd>
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</dl>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_09"></a>ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>Default.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_10"></a>STDOUT</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>The <i>man</i> utility shall write text describing the syntax of the utility <i>name</i>, its options and its operands, or, when
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<b>-k</b> is specified, lines from the summary database. The format of this text is implementation-defined.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_11"></a>STDERR</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_12"></a>OUTPUT FILES</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>None.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_13"></a>EXTENDED DESCRIPTION</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>None.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_14"></a>EXIT STATUS</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>The following exit values shall be returned:</p>
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<dl compact>
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<dt> 0</dt>
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<dd>Successful completion.</dd>
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<dt>>0</dt>
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<dd>An error occurred.</dd>
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</dl>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_15"></a>CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>Default.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<hr>
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<div class="box"><em>The following sections are informative.</em></div>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_16"></a>APPLICATION USAGE</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>None.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_17"></a>EXAMPLES</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>None.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_18"></a>RATIONALE</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>It is recognized that the <i>man</i> utility is only of minimal usefulness as specified. The opinion of the standard developers
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was strongly divided as to how much or how little information <i>man</i> should be required to provide. They considered, however,
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that the provision of some portable way of accessing documentation would aid user portability. The arguments against a fuller
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specification were:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<p>Large quantities of documentation should not be required on a system that does not have excess disk space.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>The current manual system does not present information in a manner that greatly aids user portability.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>A "better help system" is currently an area in which vendors feel that they can add value to their POSIX implementations.</p>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>The <b>-f</b> option was considered, but due to implementation differences, it was not included in this volume of
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IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.</p>
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<p>The description was changed to be more specific about what has to be displayed for a utility. The standard developers considered
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it insufficient to allow a display of only the synopsis without giving a short description of what each option and operand
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does.</p>
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<p>The "purpose" entry to be included in the database can be similar to the section title (less the numeric prefix) from this
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volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 for each utility. These titles are similar to those used in historical systems for this
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purpose.</p>
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<p>See <a href="../utilities/mailx.html"><i>mailx</i></a> for rationale concerning the default paginator.</p>
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<p>The caveat in the <i>LC_CTYPE</i> description was added because it is not a requirement that an implementation provide reference
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pages for all of its supported locales on each system; changing <i>LC_CTYPE</i> does not necessarily translate the reference page
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into another language. This is equivalent to the current state of <i>LC_MESSAGES</i> in
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IEEE Std 1003.1-2001-locale-specific messages are not yet a requirement.</p>
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<p>The historical <i>MANPATH</i> variable is not included in POSIX because no attempt is made to specify naming conventions for
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reference page files, nor even to mandate that they are files at all. On some implementations they could be a true database, a
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hypertext file, or even fixed strings within the <i>man</i> executable. The standard developers considered the portability of
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reference pages to be outside their scope of work. However, users should be aware that <i>MANPATH</i> is implemented on a number of
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historical systems and that it can be used to tailor the search pattern for reference pages from the various categories (utilities,
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functions, file formats, and so on) when the system administrator reveals the location and conventions for reference pages on the
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system.</p>
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<p>The keyword search can rely on at least the text of the section titles from these utility descriptions, and the implementation
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may add more keywords. The term "section titles" refers to the strings such as:</p>
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<pre>
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<tt>man - Display system documentation
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ps - Report process status
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</tt>
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</pre>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_19"></a>FUTURE DIRECTIONS</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>None.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_20"></a>SEE ALSO</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p><a href="more.html"><i>more</i></a></p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_21"></a>CHANGE HISTORY</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>First released in Issue 4.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<h4><a name="tag_04_85_22"></a>Issue 5</h4>
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<blockquote>
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<p>The FUTURE DIRECTIONS section is added.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<div class="box"><em>End of informative text.</em></div>
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<hr>
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<hr size="2" noshade>
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<center><font size="2"><!--footer start-->
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UNIX ® is a registered Trademark of The Open Group.<br>
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POSIX ® is a registered Trademark of The IEEE.<br>
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[ <a href="../mindex.html">Main Index</a> | <a href="../basedefs/contents.html">XBD</a> | <a href=
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"../utilities/contents.html">XCU</a> | <a href="../functions/contents.html">XSH</a> | <a href="../xrat/contents.html">XRAT</a>
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