XMAN(1) General Commands Manual XMAN(1)
NAME
xman - Manual page display program for the X Window System
SYNOPSIS
xman [ -options ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Xman is a manual page browser. The default size of the initial xman
window is small so that you can leave it running throughout your entire
login session. In the initial window there are three options: Help will
pop up a window with on-line help, Quit will exit, and Manual Page will
pop up a window with a manual page browser in it. Typing Control-S will
pop up a window prompting for a specific manual page to display. You
may display more than one manual page browser window at a time from a
single execution of xman.
For further information on using xman, please read the on-line help in-
formation. Most of this manual will discuss customization of xman.
OPTIONS
Xman supports all standard Toolkit command line arguments (see X(7)).
The following additional arguments are supported.
-helpfile filename
Specifies a helpfile to use other than the default.
-bothshown
Allows both the manual page and manual directory to be on the
screen at the same time.
-notopbox
Starts without the Top Menu with the three buttons in it.
-geometry WxH+X+Y
Sets the size and location of the Top Menu with the three buttons
in it.
-pagesize WxH+X+Y
Sets the size and location of all the Manual Pages.
-help Print a usage message and exit.
-version
Print the program version and exit.
CUSTOMIZING XMAN
Xman allows customization of both the directories to be searched for
manual pages, and the name that each directory will map to in the Sec-
tions menu. Xman determines which directories it will search by reading
the MANPATH environment variable. If no MANPATH is found then the di-
rectory is /usr/man is searched on POSIX systems. This environment is
expected to be a colon-separated list of directories for xman to search.
setenv MANPATH /mit/kit/man:/usr/man
By default, xman will search each of the following directories (in each
of the directories specified in the users MANPATH) for manual pages. If
manual pages exist in that directory then they are added to list of man-
ual pages for the corresponding menu item. A menu item is only dis-
played for those sections that actually contain manual pages.
Directory Section Name
- -
man1 (1) User Commands
man2 (2) System Calls
man3 (3) Subroutines
man4 (4) Devices
man5 (5) File Formats
man6 (6) Games
man7 (7) Miscellaneous
man8 (8) Sys. Administration
manl (l) Local
mann (n) New
mano (o) Old
For instance, a user has three directories in her manual path and each
contain a directory called man3. All these manual pages will appear al-
phabetically sorted when the user selects the menu item called (3) Sub-
routines. If there is no directory called mano in any of the directo-
ries in her MANPATH, or there are no manual pages in any of the directo-
ries called mano then no menu item will be displayed for the section
called (o) Old.
BSD AND LINUX SYSTEMS
In newer BSD and Linux systems, Xman will search for a file named
/etc/man.conf which will contain the list of directories containing man-
ual pages. See man.conf(5) for a complete description of the file for-
mat.
THE MANDESC FILE
By using the mandesc file a user or system manager is able to more
closely control which manual pages will appear in each of the sections
represented by menu items in the Sections menu. This functionality is
only available on a section by section basis, and individual manual
pages may not be handled in this manner. (Although generous use of sym-
bolic links — see ln(1) — will allow almost any configuration you can
imagine.)
The format of the mandesc file is a character followed by a label. The
character determines which of the sections will be added under this la-
bel. For instance suppose that you would like to create an extra menu
item that contains all programmer subroutines. This label should con-
tain all manual pages in both sections two and three. The mandesc file
would look like this:
2Programmer Subroutines
3Programmer Subroutines
This will add a menu item to the Sections menu that would bring up a
listing of all manual pages in sections two and three of the Programmers
Manual. Since the label names are exactly the same they will be added
to the same section. Note, however, that the original sections still ex-
ist.
If you want to completely ignore the default sections in a manual direc-
tory then add the line:
no default sections
anywhere in your mandesc file. This keeps xman from searching the de-
fault manual sections In that directory only. As an example, suppose
you want to do the same thing as above, but you don't think that it is
useful to have the System Calls or Subroutines sections any longer. You
would need to duplicate the default entries, as well as adding your new
one.
no default sections
1(1) User Commands
2Programmer Subroutines
3Programmer Subroutines
4(4) Devices
5(5) File Formats
6(6) Games
7(7) Miscellaneous
8(8) Sys. Administration
l(l) Local
n(n) New
o(o) Old
Xman will read any section that is of the form man<character>, where
<character> is an upper or lower case letter (they are treated dis-
tinctly) or a numeral (0-9). Be warned, however, that man(1) and cat-
man(8) will not search directories that are non-standard.
WIDGETS
In order to specify resources, it is useful to know the hierarchy of the
widgets which compose xman. In the notation below, indentation indi-
cates hierarchical structure. The widget class name is given first,
followed by the widget instance name.
Xman xman (This widget is never used)
TopLevelShell topBox
Form form
Label topLabel
Command helpButton
Command quitButton
Command manpageButton
TransientShell search
DialogWidgetClass dialog
Label label
Text value
Command manualPage
Command apropos
Command cancel
TransientShell pleaseStandBy
Label label
TopLevelShell manualBrowser
Paned Manpage_Vpane
Paned horizPane
MenuButton options
MenuButton sections
Label manualBrowser
Viewport directory
List directory
List directory
.
. (one for each section,
. created on the fly)
.
ScrollByLine manualPage
SimpleMenu optionMenu
SmeBSB displayDirectory
SmeBSB displayManualPage
SmeBSB help
SmeBSB search
SmeBSB showBothScreens
SmeBSB removeThisManpage
SmeBSB openNewManpage
SmeBSB showVersion
SmeBSB quit
SimpleMenu sectionMenu
SmeBSB <name of section>
.
. (one for each section)
.
TransientShell search
DialogWidgetClass dialog
Label label
Text value
Command manualPage
Command apropos
Command cancel
TransientShell pleaseStandBy
Label label
TransientShell likeToSave
Dialog dialog
Label label
Text value
Command yes
Command no
TopLevelShell help
Paned Manpage_Vpane
Paned horizPane
MenuButton options
MenuButton sections
Label manualBrowser
ScrollByLine manualPage
SimpleMenu optionMenu
SmeBSB displayDirectory
SmeBSB displayManualPage
SmeBSB help
SmeBSB search
SmeBSB showBothScreens
SmeBSB removeThisManpage
SmeBSB openNewManpage
SmeBSB showVersion
SmeBSB quit
APPLICATION RESOURCES
xman has the following application-specific resources which allow cus-
tomizations unique to xman.
manualFontNormal (Class Font)
The font to use for normal text in the manual pages.
manualFontBold (Class Font)
The font to use for bold text in the manual pages.
manualFontItalic (Class Font)
The font to use for italic text in the manual pages.
directoryFontNormal (Class Font)
The font to use for the directory text.
bothShown (Class Boolean)
Either `true' or `false,' specifies whether or not you
want both the directory and the manual page shown at
start up.
directoryHeight (Class DirectoryHeight)
The height in pixels of the directory, when the direc-
tory and the manual page are shown simultaneously.
topCursor (Class Cursor)
The cursor to use in the top box.
helpCursor (Class Cursor)
The cursor to use in the help window.
manpageCursor (Class Cursor)
The cursor to use in the manual page window.
searchEntryCursor (Class Cursor)
The cursor to use in the search entry text widget.
pointerColor (Class Foreground)
This is the color of all the cursors (pointers) speci-
fied above. The name was chosen to be compatible with
xterm.
helpFile (Class File)
Use this rather than the system default helpfile.
topBox (Class Boolean)
Either `true' or `false,' determines whether the top
box (containing the help, quit and manual page but-
tons) or a manual page is put on the screen at start-
up. The default is true.
verticalList (Class Boolean)
Either `true' or `false,' determines whether the di-
rectory listing is vertically or horizontally orga-
nized. The default is horizontal (false).
GLOBAL ACTIONS
Xman defines all user interaction through global actions. This allows
the user to modify the translation table of any widget, and bind any
event to the new user action. The list of actions supported by xman
are:
GotoPage(page) When used in a manual page display window this will allow
the user to move between a directory and manual page dis-
play. The page argument can be either Directory or Manu-
alPage.
Quit() This action may be used anywhere, and will exit xman.
Search(type, action)
Only useful when used in a search popup, this action will
cause the search widget to perform the named search type
on the string in the search popup's value widget. This
action will also pop down the search widget. The type ar-
gument can be either Apropos, Manpage or Cancel. If an
action of Open is specified then xman will open a new
manual page to display the results of the search, other-
wise xman will attempt to display the results in the par-
ent of the search popup.
PopupHelp() This action may be used anywhere, and will popup the help
widget.
PopupSearch() This action may be used anywhere except in a help window.
It will cause the search popup to become active and visi-
ble on the screen, allowing the user search for a manual
page.
CreateNewManpage()
This action may be used anywhere, and will create a new
manual page display window.
RemoveThisManpage()
This action may be used in any manual page or help dis-
play window. When called it will remove the window, and
clean up all resources associated with it.
SaveFormattedPage(action)
This action can only be used in the likeToSave popup wid-
get, and tells xman whether to Save or Cancel a save of
the manual page that has just been formatted.
ShowVersion() This action may be called from any manual page or help
display window, and will cause the informational display
line to show the current version of xman.
FILES
<manpath directory>/man<character>
<manpath directory>/cat<character>
<manpath directory>/mandesc
/etc/X11/app-defaults/Xman
specifies required resources.
/tmp Xman creates temporary files in /tmp for all
unformatted man pages and all apropos searches.
SEE ALSO
X(7), man(1), apropos(1), catman(8), Athena Widget Set
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY the default host and display to use.
MANPATH the search path for manual pages. Directories are sepa-
rated by colons (e.g.
/usr/man:/mit/kit/man:/foo/bar/man).
XENVIRONMENT to get the name of a resource file that overrides the
global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
XAPPLRESDIR A string that will have ``Xman'' appended to it. This
string will be the full path name of a user app-defaults
file to be merged into the resource database after the
system app-defaults file, and before the resources that
are attached to the display.
AUTHORS
Chris Peterson, MIT X Consortium from the V10 version written by Barry
Shein formerly of Boston University. Bug fixes and Linux support by
Carlos A M dos Santos, for The XFree86 Project.
X Version 11 xman 1.1.6 XMAN(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Sat Oct 3 08:35:46 CEST 2026.