xman(1X)xman(1X)NAMExman - Manual page display program for the X Window System
SYNOPSISxman [-options...]
OPTIONSxman supports all standard Toolkit command line arguments (see X(1X)).
The following additional arguments are supported. Specifies a helpfile
to use other than the default. Allows both the manual page and manual
directory to be on the screen at the same time. Starts without the Top
Menu with the three buttons in it. Sets the size and location of the
Top Menu with the three buttons in it. Sets the size and location of
all the Manual Pages.
DESCRIPTION
The xman program is a manual page browser. The default size of the
initial xman window is small so that you can leave it running through‐
out 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 win‐
dow 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.
CUSTOMIZING XMANxman 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 read‐
ing the MANPATH environment variable. If no MANPATH is found then the
directory /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 dis‐
played for those sections that actually contain manual pages.
──────────────────────────────────────────
Directory Section Name
──────────────────────────────────────────
man1 (1) User Commands
man2 (2) System Calls
man3 (3) Programming Routines
man4 (4) File Formats
man5 (5) Miscellaneous Information
man6 (6) Games
man7 (7) Special Files
man8 (8) System 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 direc‐
tories in her MANPATH, or there are no manual pages in any of the
directories called mano then no menu item will be displayed for the
section called (o) Old.
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
label. 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 Program‐
mers 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 do not 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 2(2) System Calls 3(3) Program‐
ming Routines 4(4) File Formats 5(5) Miscellaneous Information 6(6)
Games 7(7) Special Files 8(8) System Administration l(l) Local n(n) New
o(o) Old
xman will read any section that is of the from 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
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 <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 RESOURCESxman has the following application-specific resources which allow cus‐
tomizations unique to xman. The font to use for normal text in the
manual pages. The font to use for bold text in the manual pages. The
font to use for italic text in the manual pages. The font to use for
the directory text. Either `true' or `false,' specifies whether or not
you want both the directory and the manual page shown at start up. The
height in pixels of the directory, when the directory and the manual
page are shown simultaneously. The cursor to use in the top box. The
cursor to use in the help window. The cursor to use in the manual page
window. The cursor to use in the search entry text widget. This is
the color of all the cursors (pointers) specified above. The name was
chosen to be compatible with xterm. Use this rather than the system
default helpfile. 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. Either
`true' or `false,' determines whether the directory listing is verti‐
cally or horizontally organized. The default is horizontal (false).
GLOBAL ACTIONSxman 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: 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. This action may be used any‐
where, and will exit xman. 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 Apro‐
pos, 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, oth‐
erwise xman will attempt to display the results in the parent of the
search popup. This action may be used anywhere, and will popup the
help widget. 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. This action may be
used anywhere, and will create a new manual page display window. 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. 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. 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.
ERRORS
The xman client returns the following error message if you do not have
any manpage subsets installed on your system:
Xman Error: Could not allocate memory for manual sections
ENVIRONMENT
the default host and display to use. the search path for manual pages.
Directories are separated by colons (for example,
/usr/man:/mit/kit/man:/foo/bar/man). to get the name of a resource
file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER
property. 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.
See X(1X) for a full statement of rights and permissions.
FILES
specifies required resources. <XRoot> refers to the root of the X11
install tree. xman creates temporary files in /tmp for all unformatted
man pages and all apropos searches.
SEE ALSOX(1X), man(1), apropos(1), catman(8), Athena Widget Set
AUTHORS
Chris Peterson, MIT X Consortium from the V10 version written by Barry
Shein formerly of Boston University.
xman(1X)
