xman(1X) xman(1X)
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. Specifies a help-
file 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 man-
ual 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 Sec-
tions 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 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) 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 dis-
tinctly) 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. 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 wid-
get. 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 but-
tons) 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 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: 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 anywhere, 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 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. 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 vis-
ible on the screen, allowing the user search for a manual page. This action may be used anywhere, and will create a new manual page dis-
play 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 unformat-
ted 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.
xman(1X)