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Manual: xman

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 information. 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 sup‐
ported.

-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 Sections menu. Xman determines which directories it will search by reading the MANPATH environ‐
ment variable. If no MANPATH is found then the directory 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 manual pages for
the corresponding menu item. A menu item is only displayed 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 alphabetically sorted when the user selects the menu item called (3) Subroutines. If there
is no directory called mano in any of the directories in her MANPATH, or there are no manual pages in any of the di‐
rectories 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 direc‐
tories containing manual pages. See man.conf(5) for a complete description of the file format.

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 sec‐
tion 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 label. For instance suppose that you would like to create an extra menu item that contains
all programmer subroutines. This label should contain 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 exist.

If you want to completely ignore the default sections in a manual directory then add the line:

no default sections

anywhere in your mandesc file. This keeps xman from searching the default 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 Sys‐
tem 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, where is an upper or lower case letter
(they are treated distinctly) or a numeral (0-9). Be warned, however, that man(1) and catman(8) will not search di‐
rectories 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 indicates 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
.
. (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 customizations 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 directory and the manual page are shown simultane‐
ously.

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) specified above. The name was chosen to be compat‐
ible 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
buttons) 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 directory listing is vertically or horizontally
organized. 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 display. The page argument can be either Directory or ManualPage.

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 argument 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, otherwise xman
will attempt to display the results in the parent 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 visible 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 display 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 widget, 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 informa‐
tional display line to show the current version of xman.

FILES
/man

/cat

/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 separated 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 be‐
fore 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)

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Manual: xman

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