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xman(1X)
X11R6
NAME
xman - Manual page display program for the X Window System
SYNOPSIS
xman [-options...]
OPTIONS
xman supports all standard Toolkit command line arguments (see X(1X)). 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.
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 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.
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
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 displayed 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
directories 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 symbolic 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 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) Programming 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 distinctly)
or a numeral (0-9). Be warned, however, that man(1) and catman(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 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 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) specified 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 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 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
DISPLAY
the default host and display to use.
MANPATH
the search path for manual pages. Directories are separated by colons
(for example, /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.
See X(1X) for a full statement of rights and permissions.
FILES
<manpath directory>/man<character>
<manpath directory>/cat<character>
<manpath directory>/mandesc
<XRoot>/lib/X11/app-defaults/Xman
specifies required resources. <XRoot> refers to the root of the X11
install tree.
/tmp
xman creates temporary files in /tmp for all unformatted man pages and
all apropos searches.
SEE ALSO
X(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.
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