\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*- @c %**start of header @setfilename ../../info/woman.info @settitle WoMan: Browse Unix Manual Pages ``W.O. (without) Man'' @include docstyle.texi @include emacsver.texi @afourpaper @c With different size paper the printed page breaks will need attention! @c Look for @page and @need commands. @setchapternewpage off @paragraphindent 0 @c %**end of header @copying This file documents WoMan: A program to browse Unix manual pages ``W.O. (without) man''. Copyright @copyright{} 2001--2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. @quotation Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover Texts being ``A GNU Manual,'' and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License.'' (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have the freedom to copy and modify this GNU manual.'' @end quotation @end copying @dircategory Emacs misc features @direntry * WoMan: (woman). Browse UN*X Manual Pages "W.O. (without) Man". @end direntry @finalout @titlepage @title WoMan @subtitle Browse Unix Manual Pages ``W.O. (without) Man'' @subtitle as distributed with Emacs @value{EMACSVER} @author Francis J. Wright @sp 2 @author School of Mathematical Sciences @author Queen Mary and Westfield College @author (University of London) @author Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK @author @email{F.J.Wright@@qmul.ac.uk} @author @uref{http://centaur.maths.qmw.ac.uk/} @c He no longer maintains this manual. @comment The following two commands start the copyright page. @page @vskip 0pt plus 1filll @insertcopying @end titlepage @contents @c =================================================================== @ifnottex @node Top @top WoMan: Browse Unix Manual Pages ``W.O. (without) Man'' @display As distributed with Emacs @value{EMACSVER}. @ifnothtml @email{F.J.Wright@@qmw.ac.uk, Francis J. Wright} @end ifnothtml @ifhtml Francis J. Wright @end ifhtml @uref{http://centaur.maths.qmw.ac.uk/, School of Mathematical Sciences} Queen Mary and Westfield College (University of London) Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK @end display @insertcopying @end ifnottex @menu * Introduction:: Introduction * Background:: Background * Finding:: Finding and Formatting Man Pages * Browsing:: Browsing Man Pages * Customization:: Customization * Log:: The *WoMan-Log* Buffer * Technical:: Technical Details * Bugs:: Reporting Bugs * Acknowledgments:: Acknowledgments * GNU Free Documentation License:: The license for this documentation. * Command Index:: Command Index * Variable Index:: Variable Index * Keystroke Index:: Keystroke Index * Concept Index:: Concept Index @end menu @c =================================================================== @node Introduction @chapter Introduction @cindex introduction This version of WoMan should run with GNU Emacs 20.3 or later on any platform. It has not been tested, and may not run, with any other version of Emacs. It was developed primarily on various versions of Microsoft Windows, but has also been tested on MS-DOS, and various versions of UNIX and GNU/Linux. WoMan is distributed with GNU Emacs. WoMan implements a subset of the formatting performed by the Emacs @code{man} (or @code{manual-entry}) command to format a Unix-style @dfn{manual page} (usually abbreviated to @dfn{man page}) for display, but without calling any external programs. It is intended to emulate the whole of the @code{roff -man} macro package, plus those @code{roff} requests (@pxref{Background, , Background}) that are most commonly used in man pages. However, the emulation is modified to include the reformatting done by the Emacs @code{man} command. No hyphenation is performed. @table @b @item Advantages Much more direct, does not require any external programs. Supports completion on man page names. @item Disadvantages Not a complete emulation. Currently no support for @code{eqn} or @code{tbl}. Slightly slower for large man pages (but usually faster for small- and medium-size pages). @end table This browser works quite well on simple well-written man files. It works less well on idiosyncratic files that ``break the rules'' or use the more obscure @code{roff} requests directly. Current test results are available in the file @uref{http://centaur.maths.qmw.ac.uk/Emacs/WoMan/files/woman.status, @file{woman.status}}. WoMan supports the use of compressed man files via @code{auto-compression-mode} by turning it on if necessary. But you may need to adjust the user option @code{woman-file-compression-regexp}. @xref{Interface Options, , Interface Options}. Brief help on the WoMan interactive commands and user options, all of which begin with the prefix @code{woman-} (or occasionally @code{WoMan-}), is available most easily by loading WoMan and then either running the command @code{woman-mini-help} or selecting the WoMan menu option @samp{Mini Help}. Guidance on reporting bugs is given below. @xref{Bugs, , Reporting Bugs}. @c =================================================================== @node Background @chapter Background @cindex background WoMan is a browser for traditional Unix-style manual page documentation. Each such document is conventionally referred to as a @dfn{manual page}, or @dfn{man page} for short, even though some are very much longer than one page. A man page is a document written using the Unix ``man'' macros, which are themselves written in the nroff/troff text processing markup language. @code{nroff} and @code{troff} are text processors originally written for the UNIX operating system by Joseph F. Ossanna at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA@. They are closely related, and except in the few cases where the distinction between them is important I will refer to them both ambiguously as @code{roff}. @code{roff} markup consists of @dfn{requests} and @dfn{escape sequences}. A request occupies a complete line and begins with either a period or an apostrophe. An escape sequence is embedded within the input text and begins (by default) with a backslash. The original man macro package defines 20 new @code{roff} requests implemented as macros, which were considered to be sufficient for writing man pages. But whilst in principle man pages use only the man macros, in practice a significant number use many other @code{roff} requests. The distinction between @code{troff} and @code{nroff} is that @code{troff} was designed to drive a phototypesetter whereas @code{nroff} was designed to produce essentially @acronym{ASCII} output for a character-based device similar to a teletypewriter (usually abbreviated to ``teletype'' or ``tty''). Hence, @code{troff} supports much finer control over output positioning than does @code{nroff} and can be seen as a forerunner of @TeX{}. Traditionally, man pages are either formatted by @code{troff} for typesetting or by @code{nroff} for printing on a character printer or displaying on a screen. Of course, over the last 25 years or so, the distinction between typeset output on paper and characters on a screen has become blurred by the fact that most screens now support bit-mapped displays, so that any information that can be printed can also be rendered on screen, the only difference being the resolution. Nevertheless, Unix-style manual page documentation is still normally browsed on screen by running a program called @code{man}. This program looks in a predefined set of directories for the man page matching a specified topic, then either formats the source file by running @code{nroff} or recovers a pre-formatted file, and displays it via a pager such as @code{more}. @code{nroff} normally formats for a printer, so it paginates the output, numbers the pages, etc., most of which is irrelevant when the document is browsed as a continuous scrollable document on screen. The only concession to on-screen browsing normally implemented by the @code{man} program is to squeeze consecutive blank lines into a single blank line. For some time, Emacs has offered an improved interface for browsing man pages in the form of the Emacs @code{man} (or @code{manual-entry}) command, see @ref{Documentation, man, Documentation Commands, emacs, GNU Emacs Manual}. This command runs @code{man} as described above, perhaps in the background, and then post-processes the output to remove much of the @code{nroff} pagination such as page headers and footers, and places the result into an Emacs buffer. It puts this buffer into a special major mode, which is tailored for man page browsing, and provides a number of useful navigation commands, support for following references, etc. It provides some support for special display faces (fonts), but no special menu or mouse support. The Emacs man package appears to have been developed over about 10 years, from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. There is considerable inefficiency in having @code{nroff} paginate a document and then removing most of the pagination! WoMan is an Emacs Lisp library that provides an emulation of the functionality of the Emacs @code{man} command, the main difference being that WoMan does not use any external programs. The only situation in which WoMan might use an external program is when the source file is compressed, when WoMan will use the standard Emacs automatic decompression facility, which does call an external program. I began developing WoMan in the Spring of 1997 and the first version was released in May 1997. The original motivation for WoMan was the fact that many GNU and Unix programs are ported to other platforms and come with Unix-style manual page documentation. This may be difficult to read because ports of the Unix-style @code{man} program can be a little awkward to set up. I decided that it should not be too hard to emulate the 20 @code{man} macros directly, without treating them as macros and largely ignoring the underlying @code{roff} requests, given the text processing capabilities of Emacs. This proved to be essentially true, and it did not take a great deal of work to be able to format simple man pages acceptably. One problem arose with the significant number of man pages that use @code{roff} requests in addition to the @code{man} macros, and since releasing the first version of WoMan I have been continually extending it to support more @code{roff} requests. WoMan can now format a significant proportion of the man pages that I have tested, either well or at least readably. However, I have added capabilities partly by making additional passes through the document, a design that is fundamentally flawed. This can only be solved by a major re-design of WoMan to handle the major formatting within a single recursive pass, rather than the present multiple passes without any significant recursion. There are some @code{roff} requests that cannot be handled satisfactorily within the present design. Some of these are currently handled by kludges that ``usually more or less work.'' The principle advantage of WoMan is that it does not require @code{man}, and indeed the name WoMan is a contraction of ``without man.'' But it has other advantages. It does not paginate the document, so it does not need to un-paginate it again, thereby saving time. It could take full advantage of the display capabilities available to it, and I hope to develop WoMan to take advantage of developments in Emacs itself. At present, WoMan uses several display faces to support bold and italic text, to indicate other fonts, etc. The default faces are also colored, but the choice of faces is customizable. WoMan provides menu support for navigation and mouse support for following references, in addition to the navigation facilities provided by @code{man} mode. WoMan has (this) texinfo documentation! WoMan @emph{does not} replace @code{man}, although it does use a number of the facilities implemented in the Emacs @code{man} library. WoMan and man can happily co-exist, which is very useful for comparison and debugging purposes. @ignore @code{nroff} simulates non-@acronym{ASCII} characters by using one or more @acronym{ASCII} characters. WoMan should be able to do much better than this. I have recently begun to add support for WoMan to use more of the characters in its default font and to use a symbol font, and it is an aspect that I intend to develop further in the near future. It should be possible to move WoMan from an emulation of @code{nroff} to an emulation of @code{troff} as GNU Emacs moves to providing bit-mapped display facilities. @end ignore @node Finding @chapter Finding and Formatting Man Pages @cindex using, finding man pages @cindex using, formatting man pages @cindex finding man pages @cindex formatting man pages @cindex man pages, finding @cindex man pages, formatting WoMan provides three user interfaces for finding and formatting man pages: @itemize @bullet @item a topic interface similar to that provided by the standard Emacs @code{man} command; @item a family of filename interfaces analogous to the standard Emacs @code{view-file} command; @item an automatic interface that detects the file type from its contents. (This is currently neither well tested, well supported nor recommended!) @end itemize The topic and filename interfaces support completion in the usual way. The topic interface is generally the most convenient for regular use, although it may require some special setup, especially if your machine does not already have a conventional @code{man} installation (which WoMan tries to detect). The simplest filename interface command @code{woman-find-file} can always be used with no setup at all (provided WoMan is installed and loaded or set up to autoload). The automatic interface always requires special setup. @heading Case-Dependence of Filenames @cindex case-sensitivity @vindex w32-downcase-file-names By default, WoMan ignores case in file pathnames only when it seems appropriate. Microsoft Windows users who want complete case independence should set the special NTEmacs variable @code{w32-downcase-file-names} to @code{t} and use all lower case when setting WoMan file paths. @menu * Topic:: Topic Interface * Filename:: Filename Interface * Automatic:: Automatic Interface @end menu @node Topic @section Topic Interface @cindex topic interface The topic interface is accessed principally via the command @code{woman}. The same command can be accessed via the menu item @samp{Help->Manuals->Read Man Page (WoMan)...} once WoMan has been loaded. The command reads a manual topic in the minibuffer, which can be the @dfn{basename} of a man file anywhere in the man file structure. The ``basename'' in this context means the filename without any directory component and without any extension or suffix components that relate to the file type. So, for example, if there is a compressed source file in Chapter 5 of the UNIX Programmer's Manual with the full pathname @file{/usr/local/man/man5/man.conf.5.gz} then the topic is @code{man.conf}. Provided WoMan is configured correctly, this topic will appear among the completions offered by @code{woman}. If more than one file has the same topic name then WoMan will prompt for which file to format. Completion of topics is case insensitive. Clearly, @code{woman} has to know where to look for man files and there are two customizable user options that store this information: @code{woman-manpath} and @code{woman-path}. @xref{Interface Options, , Interface Options}. If @code{woman-manpath} is not set explicitly then WoMan tries to pick up the information that would be used by the @code{man} command, as follows. If the environment variable @code{MANPATH} is set, which seems to be the standard mechanism under UNIX, then WoMan parses that. Otherwise, if WoMan can find a configuration file named (by default) @file{man.conf} (or something very similar), which seems to be the standard mechanism under GNU/Linux, then it parses that. To be precise, ``something very similar'' means starting with @samp{man} and ending with @samp{.conf} and possibly more lowercase letters, e.g., @file{manual.configuration}. The search path and/or precise full path name for this file are set by the value of the customizable user option @code{woman-man.conf-path}. If all else fails, WoMan uses a plausible default man search path. If the above default configuration does not work correctly for any reason then simply customize the value of @code{woman-manpath}. To access man files that are not in a conventional man file hierarchy, customize the value of @code{woman-path} to include the directories containing the files. In this way, @code{woman} can access manual files @emph{anywhere} in the entire file system. There are two differences between @code{woman-manpath} and @code{woman-path}. Firstly, the elements of @code{woman-manpath} must be directories that contain @emph{directories of} man files, whereas the elements of @code{woman-path} must be directories that contain man files @emph{directly}. Secondly, the last directory component of each element of @code{woman-path} is treated as a regular (Emacs) match expression rather than a fixed name, which allows collections of related directories to be specified succinctly. Also, elements of @code{woman-manpath} can be conses, indicating a mapping from @samp{PATH} environment variable components to man directory hierarchies. For topic completion to work, WoMan must build a list of all the manual files that it can access, which can be very slow, especially if a network is involved. For this reason, it caches various amounts of information, after which retrieving it from the cache is very fast. If the cache ever gets out of synchronism with reality, running the @code{woman} command with a prefix argument (e.g., @kbd{C-u M-x woman}) will force it to rebuild its cache. This is necessary only if the names or locations of any man files change; it is not necessary if only their contents change. It would always be necessary if such a change occurred whilst Emacs were running and after WoMan has been loaded. It may be necessary if such a change occurs between Emacs sessions and persistent caching is used, although WoMan can detect some changes that invalidate its cache and rebuild it automatically. Customize the variable @code{woman-cache-filename} to save the cache between Emacs sessions. This is recommended only if the @code{woman} command is too slow the first time it is run in an Emacs session, while it builds its cache in main memory, which @emph{may} be @emph{very} slow. @xref{Cache, , The WoMan Topic Cache}, for further details. @menu * Cache:: The WoMan Topic Cache * Word at point:: Using the "Word at Point" as a Topic Suggestion @end menu @node Cache @subsection The WoMan Topic Cache @cindex topic cache @cindex cache, topic The amount of information that WoMan caches (in main memory and, optionally, saved to disc) is controlled by the user option @code{woman-cache-level}. There is a trade-off between the speed with which WoMan can find a file and the size of the cache, and the default setting gives a reasonable compromise. The @code{woman} command always performs a certain amount of caching in main memory, but it can also write its cache to the filestore as a persistent cache under control of the user option @code{woman-cache-filename}. If persistent caching is turned on then WoMan re-loads its internal cache from the cache file almost instantaneously, so that there is never any perceptible start-up delay @emph{except} when WoMan rebuilds its cache. Persistent caching is currently turned off by default. This is because users with persistent caching turned on may overlook the need to force WoMan to rebuild its cache the first time they run it after they have installed new man files; with persistent caching turned off, WoMan automatically rebuilds its cache every time it is run in a new Emacs session. A prefix argument always causes the @code{woman} command (only) to rebuild its topic cache, and to re-save it to @code{woman-cache-filename} if this variable has a non-@code{nil} value. This is necessary if the @emph{names} of any of the directories or files in the paths specified by @code{woman-manpath} or @code{woman-path} change. If WoMan user options that affect the cache are changed then WoMan will automatically update its cache file on disc (if one is in use) the next time it is run in a new Emacs session. @node Word at point @subsection Using the "Word at Point" as a Topic Suggestion @cindex word at point @cindex point, word at By default, the @code{woman} command uses the word nearest to point in the current buffer as a suggestion for the topic to look up, if it exists as a valid topic. The topic can be confirmed or edited in the minibuffer. You can also bind the variable @code{woman-use-topic-at-point} locally to a non-@code{nil} value (using @code{let}), in which case @code{woman} will can use the suggested topic without confirmation if possible. This may be useful to provide special private key bindings, e.g., this key binding for @kbd{C-c w} runs WoMan on the topic at point without seeking confirmation: @lisp (global-set-key "\C-cw" (lambda () (interactive) (let ((woman-use-topic-at-point t)) (woman)))) @end lisp @node Filename @section Filename Interface @cindex filename interface The commands in this family are completely independent of the topic interface, caching mechanism, etc. @findex woman-find-file The filename interface is accessed principally via the extended command @code{woman-find-file}, which is available without any configuration at all (provided WoMan is installed and loaded or set up to autoload). This command can be used to browse any accessible man file, regardless of its filename or location. If the file is compressed then automatic file decompression must already be turned on (e.g., see the @samp{Help->Options} submenu)---it is turned on automatically only by the @code{woman} topic interface. @findex woman-dired-find-file Once WoMan is loaded (or if specially set up), various additional commands in this family are available. In a dired buffer, the command @code{woman-dired-find-file} allows the file on the same line as point to be formatted and browsed by WoMan. It is bound to the key @kbd{W} in the dired mode map and added to the dired major mode menu. It may also be bound to @kbd{w}, unless this key is bound by another library, which it is by @code{dired-x}, for example. Because it is quite likely that other libraries will extend the capabilities of such a commonly used mode as dired, the precise key bindings added by WoMan to the dired mode map are controlled by the user option @code{woman-dired-keys}. @findex woman-tar-extract-file When a tar (Tape ARchive) file is visited in Emacs, it is opened in tar mode, which parses the tar file and shows a dired-like view of its contents. The WoMan command @code{woman-tar-extract-file} allows the file on the same line as point to be formatted and browsed by WoMan. It is bound to the key @kbd{w} in the tar mode map and added to the tar major mode menu. The command @code{woman-reformat-last-file}, which is bound to the key @kbd{R} in WoMan mode and available on the major mode menu, reformats the last file formatted by WoMan. This may occasionally be useful if formatting parameters, such as the fill column, are changed, or perhaps if the buffer is somehow corrupted. @findex woman-decode-buffer The command @code{woman-decode-buffer} can be used to decode and browse the current buffer if it is visiting a man file, although it is primarily used internally by WoMan. @node Automatic @section Automatic Interface @cindex automatic interface Emacs provides an interface to detect automatically the format of a file and decode it when it is visited. It is used primarily by the facilities for editing rich (i.e., formatted) text, as a way to store formatting information transparently as @acronym{ASCII} markup. WoMan can in principle use this interface, but it must be configured explicitly. This use of WoMan does not seem to be particularly advantageous, so it is not really supported. It originated during early experiments on how best to implement WoMan, before I implemented the current topic interface, and I subsequently stopped using it. I might revive it as a mechanism for storing pre-formatted WoMan files, somewhat analogous to the standard Unix @code{catman} facility. In the meantime, it exists for anyone who wants to experiment with it. Once it is set up it is simply a question of visiting the file and there is no WoMan-specific user interface! To use it, put something like this in your @file{.emacs} file. [The call to @code{set-visited-file-name} is to avoid font-locking triggered by automatic major mode selection.] @lisp (autoload 'woman-decode-region "woman") (add-to-list 'format-alist '(man "Unix man-page source format" "\\.\\(TH\\|ig\\) " woman-decode-region nil nil (lambda (arg) set-visited-file-name (file-name-sans-extension buffer-file-name)))) @end lisp @c =================================================================== @node Browsing @chapter Browsing Man Pages @cindex using, browsing man pages @cindex browsing man pages @cindex man pages, browsing Once a man page has been found and formatted, WoMan provides a browsing interface that is essentially the same as that provided by the standard Emacs @code{man} command (and much of the code is inherited from the @code{man} library, which WoMan currently requires). Many WoMan facilities can be accessed from the WoMan major mode menu as well as via key bindings, etc. WoMan does not produce any page breaks or page numbers, and in fact does not paginate the man page at all, since this is not appropriate for continuous online browsing. It produces a document header line that is constructed from the standard man page header and footer. Apart from that, the appearance of the formatted man page should be almost identical to what would be produced by @code{man}, with consecutive blank lines squeezed to a single blank line. @menu * Fonts:: Fonts and Faces * Navigation:: Navigation * References:: Following References * Changing:: Changing the Current Man Page * Convenience:: Convenience Key Bindings * Imenu:: Imenu Support; Contents Menu @end menu @node Fonts @section Fonts and Faces @cindex fonts @cindex faces Fonts used by @code{roff} are handled by WoMan as faces, the details of which are customizable. @xref{Faces, , Faces}. WoMan supports both the italic and bold fonts normally used in man pages, together with a single face to represent all unknown fonts (which are occasionally used in ``non-standard'' man pages, usually to represent a ``typewriter'' font) and a face to indicate additional symbols introduced by WoMan. This currently means the characters ^ and _ used to indicate super- and sub-scripts, which are not displayed well by WoMan. @node Navigation @section Navigation @cindex navigation Man (and hence WoMan) mode can be thought of as a superset of view mode. The buffer cannot be edited, so keys that would normally self-insert are used for navigation. The WoMan key bindings are a minor modification of the @code{man} key bindings. @table @kbd @item @key{SPC} @kindex SPC @findex scroll-up Scroll the man page up the window (@code{scroll-up}). @item @key{DEL} @itemx @kbd{S-@key{SPC}} @kindex DEL @kindex S-SPC @findex scroll-down Scroll the man page down the window (@code{scroll-down}). @item n @kindex n @findex Man-next-section Move point to the Nth next section---default 1 (@code{Man-next-section}). @item p @kindex p @findex Man-previous-section Move point to Nth previous section---default 1 (@code{Man-previous-section}). @item g @kindex g @findex Man-goto-section Move point to the specified section (@code{Man-goto-section}). @item s @kindex s @findex Man-goto-see-also-section Move point to the ``SEE ALSO'' section (@code{Man-goto-see-also-section}). Actually the section moved to is described by @code{Man-see-also-regexp}. @end table @node References @section Following References @cindex following references @cindex references Man pages usually contain a ``SEE ALSO'' section containing references to other man pages. If these man pages are installed then WoMan can easily be directed to follow the reference, i.e., to find and format the man page. When the mouse is passed over a correctly formatted reference it is highlighted, in which case clicking the middle button @kbd{mouse-2} will cause WoMan to follow the reference. Alternatively, when point is over such a reference the key @key{RET} will follow the reference. Any word in the buffer can be used as a reference by clicking @kbd{mouse-2} over it provided the Meta key is also used (although in general such a ``reference'' will not lead to a man page). Alternatively, the key @kbd{r} allows completion to be used to select a reference to follow, based on the word at point as default. @table @kbd @item @kbd{mouse-2} @kindex mouse-2 @findex woman-mouse-2 Run WoMan with word under mouse as topic (@code{woman-mouse-2}). The word must be mouse-highlighted unless @code{woman-mouse-2} is used with the Meta key. @item @key{RET} @kindex RET @findex man-follow Get the man page for the topic under (or nearest to) point (@code{man-follow}). @item r @kindex r @findex Man-follow-manual-reference Get one of the man pages referred to in the ``SEE ALSO'' section (@code{Man-follow-manual-reference}). Specify which reference to use; default is based on word at point. @end table @node Changing @section Changing the Current Man Page @cindex changing current man page @cindex current man page, changing The man page currently being browsed by WoMan can be changed in several ways. The command @code{woman} can be invoked to format another man page, or the current WoMan buffer can be buried or killed. WoMan maintains a ring of formatted man pages, and it is possible to move forwards and backwards in this ring by moving to the next or previous man page. It is sometimes useful to reformat the current page, for example after the right margin (the wrap column) or some other formatting parameter has been changed. Buffers formatted by Man and WoMan are completely unrelated, even though some of the commands to manipulate them are superficially the same (and share code). @table @kbd @item m @kindex m @findex man Run the command @code{man} to get a Un*x manual page and put it in a buffer. This command is the top-level command in the man package. It runs a Un*x command to retrieve and clean a man page in the background and places the results in a Man mode (man page browsing) buffer. If a man buffer already exists for this man page, it will display immediately. This works exactly the same if WoMan is loaded, except that the formatting time is displayed in the mini-buffer. @item w @kindex w @findex woman Run the command @code{woman} exactly as if the extended command or menu item had been used. @item q @kindex q @findex Man-quit Bury the buffer containing the current man page (@code{Man-quit}), i.e., move it to the bottom of the buffer stack. @item k @kindex k @findex Man-kill Kill the buffer containing the current man page (@code{Man-kill}), i.e., delete it completely so that it can be retrieved only by formatting the page again. @item M-p @kindex M-p @findex WoMan-previous-manpage Find the previous WoMan buffer (@code{WoMan-previous-manpage}). @item M-n @kindex M-n @findex WoMan-next-manpage Find the next WoMan buffer (@code{WoMan-next-manpage}). @item R @kindex R @findex woman-reformat-last-file Call WoMan to reformat the last man page formatted by WoMan (@code{woman-reformat-last-file}), e.g., after changing the fill column. @end table @node Convenience @section Convenience Key Bindings @cindex convenience key bindings @cindex key bindings, convenience @table @kbd @item - @kindex - @findex negative-argument Begin a negative numeric argument for the next command (@code{negative-argument}). @item 0 .. 9 @kindex 0 .. 9 @findex digit-argument Part of the numeric argument for the next command (@code{digit-argument}). @item < @kindex < @itemx . @kindex . @findex beginning-of-buffer Move point to the beginning of the buffer; leave mark at previous position (@code{beginning-of-buffer}). @item > @kindex > @findex end-of-buffer Move point to the end of the buffer; leave mark at previous position (@code{end-of-buffer}). @item ? @kindex ? @findex describe-mode Display documentation of current major mode and minor modes (@code{describe-mode}). The major mode description comes first, followed by the minor modes, each on a separate page. @end table @node Imenu @section Imenu Support; Contents Menu @cindex imenu support @cindex contents menu The WoMan menu provides an option to make a contents menu for the current man page (using @code{imenu}). Alternatively, if you customize the option @code{woman-imenu} to @code{t} then WoMan will do it automatically for every man page. The menu title is set by the option @code{woman-imenu-title}, which is ``CONTENTS'' by default. The menu shows manual sections and subsections by default, but you can change this by customizing @code{woman-imenu-generic-expression}. WoMan is configured not to replace spaces in an imenu @file{*Completion*} buffer. For further documentation on the use of imenu, such as menu sorting, see the source file @file{imenu.el}, which is distributed with GNU Emacs. @c =================================================================== @node Customization @chapter Customization @cindex customization All WoMan user options are customizable, and it is recommended to change them only via the standard Emacs customization facilities. WoMan defines a top-level customization group called @code{WoMan} under the parent group @code{Help}. It can be accessed either via the standard Emacs facilities, e.g., via the @samp{Help->Customize} submenu, or via the WoMan major mode menu. The top-level WoMan group contains only a few general options and three subgroups. The hooks are provided only for special purposes that, for example, require code to be executed, and should be changed only via @code{Customization} or the function @code{add-hook}. Most customization should be possible via existing user options. @vtable @code @item woman-show-log A boolean value that defaults to @code{nil}. If non-@code{nil} then show the @file{*WoMan-Log*} buffer if appropriate, i.e., if any warning messages are written to it. @xref{Log, , The *WoMan-Log* Buffer}. @item woman-pre-format-hook A hook run immediately before formatting a buffer. It might, for example, be used for face customization. @xref{Faces, , Faces}, however. @item woman-post-format-hook A hook run immediately after formatting a buffer. It might, for example, be used for installing a dynamic menu using @code{imenu}. (However. in this case it is better to use the built-in WoMan @code{imenu} support. @xref{Imenu, , Imenu Support; Contents Menu}.) @end vtable @heading Customization Subgroups @table @code @item WoMan Interface These options control the process of locating the appropriate file to browse, and the appearance of the browsing interface. @item WoMan Formatting These options control the layout that WoMan uses to format the man page. @item WoMan Faces These options control the display faces that WoMan uses to format the man page. @end table @menu * Interface Options:: * Formatting Options:: * Faces:: * Special symbols:: @end menu @node Interface Options @section Interface Options @cindex interface options These options control the process of locating the appropriate file to browse, and the appearance of the browsing interface. @vtable @code @item woman-man.conf-path A list of strings representing directories to search and/or files to try for a man configuration file. The default is @lisp ("/etc" "/usr/local/lib") @end lisp @noindent [for GNU/Linux and Cygwin respectively.] A trailing separator (@file{/} for UNIX etc.)@: on directories is optional and the filename matched if a directory is specified is the first to match the regexp @code{man.*\.conf}. If the environment variable @code{MANPATH} is not set but a configuration file is found then it is parsed instead (or as well) to provide a default value for @code{woman-manpath}. @item woman-manpath A list of strings representing @emph{directory trees} to search for Unix manual files. Each element should be the name of a directory that contains subdirectories of the form @file{man?}, or more precisely subdirectories selected by the value of @code{woman-manpath-man-regexp}. Non-directory and unreadable files are ignored. This can also contain conses, with the car indicating a @code{PATH} variable component mapped to the directory tree given in the cdr. @cindex @code{MANPATH}, environment variable If not set then the environment variable @code{MANPATH} is used. If no such environment variable is found, the default list is determined by consulting the man configuration file if found. By default this is expected to be either @file{/etc/man.config} or @file{/usr/local/lib/man.conf}, which is controlled by the user option @code{woman-man.conf-path}. An empty substring of @code{MANPATH} denotes the default list. Otherwise, the default value of this variable is @lisp ("/usr/man" "/usr/local/man") @end lisp Any environment variables (names of which must have the Unix-style form @code{$NAME}, e.g., @code{$HOME}, @code{$EMACSDATA}, @code{$EMACS_DIR}, regardless of platform) are evaluated first but each element must evaluate to a @emph{single} name of a directory. Trailing @file{/}s are ignored. (Specific directories in @code{woman-path} are also searched.) On Microsoft platforms I recommend including drive letters explicitly, e.g.: @lisp ("C:/Cygwin/usr/man" "C:/usr/man" "C:/usr/local/man") @end lisp @cindex directory separator character @cindex @code{MANPATH}, directory separator The @code{MANPATH} environment variable may be set using DOS semi-colon-separated or Unix-style colon-separated syntax (but not mixed). @item woman-manpath-man-regexp A regular expression to match man directories @emph{under} the @code{woman-manpath} directories. These normally have names of the form @file{man?}. Its default value is @code{"[Mm][Aa][Nn]"}, which is case-insensitive mainly for the benefit of Microsoft platforms. Its purpose is to avoid directories such as @file{cat?}, @file{.}, @file{..}, etc. @item woman-path A list of strings representing @emph{specific directories} to search for Unix manual files. For example @lisp ("/emacs/etc") @end lisp These directories are searched in addition to the directory trees specified in @code{woman-manpath}. Each element should be a directory string or @code{nil}, which represents the current directory when the path is expanded and cached. However, the last component (only) of each directory string is treated as a regexp (Emacs, not shell) and the string is expanded into a list of matching directories. Non-directory and unreadable files are ignored. The default value on MS-DOS is @lisp ("$DJDIR/info" "$DJDIR/man/cat[1-9onlp]") @end lisp @noindent and on other platforms is @code{nil}. Any environment variables (names of which must have the Unix-style form @code{$NAME}, e.g., @code{$HOME}, @code{$EMACSDATA}, @code{$EMACS_DIR}, regardless of platform) are evaluated first but each element must evaluate to a @emph{single} name of a directory (regexp, see above). For example @lisp ("$EMACSDATA") @end lisp @noindent or equivalently @lisp ("$EMACS_DIR/etc") @end lisp @noindent Trailing @file{/}s are discarded. (The directory trees in @code{woman-manpath} are also searched.) On Microsoft platforms I recommend including drive letters explicitly. @item woman-cache-level A positive integer representing the level of topic caching: @enumerate @item cache only the topic and directory lists (uses minimal memory, but not recommended); @item cache also the directories for each topic (faster, without using much more memory); @item cache also the actual filenames for each topic (fastest, but uses twice as much memory). @end enumerate The default value is currently 2, a good general compromise. If the @code{woman} command is slow to find files then try 3, which may be particularly beneficial with large remote-mounted man directories. Run the @code{woman} command with a prefix argument or delete the cache file @code{woman-cache-filename} for a change to take effect. (Values < 1 behave like 1; values > 3 behave like 3.) @item woman-cache-filename Either a string representing the full pathname of the WoMan directory and topic cache file, or @code{nil}. It is used to save and restore the cache between Emacs sessions. This is especially useful with remote-mounted man page files! The default value of @code{nil} suppresses this action. The ``standard'' non-@code{nil} filename is @file{~/.wmncach.el}. Remember that a prefix argument forces the @code{woman} command to update and re-write the cache. @item woman-dired-keys A list of @code{dired} mode keys to be defined to run WoMan on the current file, e.g., @code{("w" "W")} or any non-@code{nil} atom to automatically define @kbd{w} and @kbd{W} if they are unbound, or @code{nil} to do nothing. Default is @code{t}. @item woman-imenu-generic-expression Imenu support for Sections and Subsections: an alist with elements of the form @code{(MENU-TITLE REGEXP INDEX)}---see the documentation for @code{imenu-generic-expression}. Default value is @lisp ((nil "\n\\([A-Z].*\\)" 1) ; SECTION, but not TITLE ("*Subsections*" "^ \\([A-Z].*\\)" 1)) @end lisp @item woman-imenu A boolean value that defaults to @code{nil}. If non-@code{nil} then WoMan adds a Contents menu to the menubar by calling @code{imenu-add-to-menubar}. @item woman-imenu-title A string representing the title to use if WoMan adds a Contents menu to the menubar. Default is @code{"CONTENTS"}. @item woman-use-topic-at-point A boolean value that defaults to @code{nil}. If non-@code{nil} then the @code{woman} command uses the word at point as the topic, @emph{without interactive confirmation}, if it exists as a topic. @item woman-use-topic-at-point-default A boolean value representing the default value for @code{woman-use-topic-at-point}. The default value is @code{nil}. [The variable @code{woman-use-topic-at-point} may be @code{let}-bound when @code{woman} is loaded, in which case its global value does not get defined. The function @code{woman-file-name} sets it to this value if it is unbound.] @item woman-uncompressed-file-regexp A regular match expression used to select man source files (ignoring any compression extension). The default value is @code{"\\.\\([0-9lmnt]\\w*\\)"} [which means a filename extension is required]. @emph{Do not change this unless you are sure you know what you are doing!} The SysV standard man pages use two character suffixes, and this is becoming more common in the GNU world. For example, the man pages in the @code{ncurses} package include @file{toe.1m}, @file{form.3x}, etc. @strong{Please note:} an optional compression regexp will be appended, so this regexp @emph{must not} end with any kind of string terminator such as @code{$} or @code{\\'}. @item woman-file-compression-regexp A regular match expression used to match compressed man file extensions for which decompressors are available and handled by auto-compression mode. It should begin with @code{\\.} and end with @code{\\'} and @emph{must not} be optional. The default value is @code{"\\.\\(g?z\\|bz2\\|xz\\)\\'"}, which matches the @code{gzip}, @code{bzip2}, and @code{xz} compression extensions. @emph{Do not change this unless you are sure you know what you are doing!} [It should be compatible with the @code{car} of @code{jka-compr-file-name-handler-entry}, but that is unduly complicated, includes an inappropriate extension (@file{.tgz}) and is not loaded by default!] @item woman-use-own-frame If non-@code{nil} then use a dedicated frame for displaying WoMan windows. This is useful only when WoMan is run under a window system such as X or Microsoft Windows that supports real multiple frames, in which case the default value is non-@code{nil}. @end vtable @node Formatting Options @section Formatting Options @cindex formatting options These options control the layout that WoMan uses to format the man page. @vtable @code @item woman-fill-column An integer specifying the right margin for formatted text. Default is 65. @item woman-fill-frame A boolean value. If non-@code{nil} then most of the frame width is used, overriding the value of @code{woman-fill-column}. Default is @code{nil}. @item woman-default-indent An integer specifying the default prevailing indent for the @code{-man} macros. Default is 5. Set this variable to 7 to emulate GNU/Linux man formatting. @item woman-bold-headings A boolean value. If non-@code{nil} then embolden section and subsection headings. Default is @code{t}. [Heading emboldening is @emph{not} standard @code{man} behavior.] @item woman-ignore A boolean value. If non-@code{nil} then unrecognized requests etc.@: are ignored. Default is @code{t}. This gives the standard @code{roff} behavior. If @code{nil} then they are left in the buffer, which may aid debugging. @item woman-preserve-ascii A boolean value. If non-@code{nil} then preserve @acronym{ASCII} characters in the WoMan buffer. Otherwise, non-@acronym{ASCII} characters (that display as @acronym{ASCII}) may remain, which is irrelevant unless the buffer is to be saved to a file. Default is @code{nil}. @item woman-emulation WoMan emulation, currently either @code{nroff} or @code{troff}. Default is @code{nroff}. @code{troff} emulation is experimental and largely untested. @end vtable @node Faces @section Faces @cindex faces These options control the display faces that WoMan uses to format the man page. @vtable @code @item woman-fontify A boolean value. If non-@code{nil} then WoMan assumes that face support is available. It defaults to a non-@code{nil} value if the display supports either colors or different fonts. @item woman-italic-face Face for italic font in man pages. Default: italic, underlined, foreground red. This is overkill! @code{troff} uses just italic; @code{nroff} uses just underline. You should probably select either italic or underline as you prefer, but not both, although italic and underline work together perfectly well! @item woman-bold-face Face for bold font in man pages. Default: bold, foreground blue. @item woman-unknown-face Face for all unknown fonts in man pages. Default: foreground brown. Brown is a good compromise: it is distinguishable from the default but not enough so as to make font errors look terrible. (Files that use non-standard fonts seem to do so badly or in idiosyncratic ways!) @item woman-addition-face Face for all additions made by WoMan to man pages. Default: foreground orange. @end vtable @node Special symbols @section Special symbols @cindex special symbols This section currently applies @emph{only} to Microsoft Windows. WoMan provides partial experimental support for special symbols, initially only for MS-Windows and only for MS-Windows fonts. This includes both non-@acronym{ASCII} characters from the main text font and use of a separate symbol font. Later, support will be added for other font types (e.g., @code{bdf} fonts) and for the X Window System. In Emacs 20.7, the current support works partially under Windows 9x but may not work on any other platform. @vtable @code @item woman-use-extended-font A boolean value. If non-@code{nil} then WoMan may use non-@acronym{ASCII} characters from the default font. Default is @code{t}. @item woman-use-symbol-font A boolean value. If non-@code{nil} then WoMan may use the symbol font. Default is @code{nil}, mainly because it may change the line spacing (at least in NTEmacs 20). @item woman-symbol-font A string describing the symbol font to use for special characters. It should be compatible with, and the same size as, the default text font. Under MS-Windows, the default is @lisp "-*-Symbol-normal-r-*-*-*-*-96-96-p-*-ms-symbol" @end lisp @end vtable @c =================================================================== @node Log @chapter The *WoMan-Log* Buffer @cindex log buffer @cindex buffer, log This is modeled on the Emacs byte-compiler. It logs all files formatted by WoMan and the time taken. If WoMan finds anything that it cannot handle then it writes a warning to this buffer. If the variable @code{woman-show-log} is non-@code{nil} (by default it is @code{nil}) then WoMan automatically displays this buffer. @xref{Interface Options, , Interface Options}. Many WoMan warnings can be completely ignored, because they are reporting the fact that WoMan has ignored requests that it is correct for WoMan to ignore. In some future version this level of paranoia may be reduced, but not until WoMan is deemed more reliable. At present, all warnings should be treated with some suspicion. Uninterpreted escape sequences are also logged (in some cases). By resetting the variable @code{woman-ignore} to @code{nil} (by default it is @code{t}), uninterpreted @code{roff} requests can optionally be left in the formatted buffer to indicate precisely where they occurred. @xref{Interface Options, , Interface Options}. @c =================================================================== @node Technical @chapter Technical Details @cindex technical details @cindex horizontal spacing @cindex spacing, horizontal and vertical @cindex vertical spacing @cindex resolution @heading Horizontal and vertical spacing and resolution WoMan currently assumes 10 characters per inch horizontally, hence a horizontal resolution of 24 basic units, and 5 lines per inch vertically, hence a vertical resolution of 48 basic units. (@code{nroff} uses 240 per inch.) @heading Vertical spacing and blank lines The number of consecutive blank lines in the formatted buffer should be either 0 or 1. A blank line should leave a space like .sp 1. Current policy is to output vertical space only immediately before text is output. @c =================================================================== @node Bugs @chapter Reporting Bugs @cindex reporting bugs @cindex bugs, reporting If WoMan fails completely, or formats a file incorrectly (i.e., obviously wrongly or significantly differently from @code{man}) or inelegantly, then please @enumerate @item try the latest version of @file{woman.el} from the Emacs repository on @uref{https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/emacs/}. If it still fails, please @item use @kbd{M-x report-emacs-bug} to send a bug report. Please include the entry from the @file{*WoMan-Log*} buffer relating to the problem file, together with a brief description of the problem. Please indicate where you got the man source file from, but do not send it unless asked to send it. @end enumerate @c =================================================================== @node Acknowledgments @chapter Acknowledgments @cindex acknowledgments For Heather, Kathryn and Madelyn, the women in my life (although they will probably never use it)! I also thank the following for helpful suggestions, bug reports, code fragments, general interest, etc.: @quotation @c jari.aalto@@cs.tpu.fi Jari Aalto, @c dean@@dra.com Dean Andrews, @c barranquero@@laley-actualidad.es Juanma Barranquero, @c kb@@cs.umb.edu Karl Berry, @c jchapman@@netcomuk.co.uk Jim Chapman, @c frederic.corne@@erli.fr Frederic Corne, @c craft@@alacritech.com Peter Craft, @c ccurley@@trib.com Charles Curley, @c jdavidso@@teknowledge.com Jim Davidson, @c Kevin.DElia@@mci.com Kevin D'Elia, @c jpff@@maths.bath.ac.uk John Fitch, @c jwfrosch@@rish.b17c.ingr.com Hans Frosch, @c ggp@@informix.com Guy Gascoigne-Piggford, @c gorkab@@sanchez.com Brian Gorka, @c nhe@@lyngso-industri.dk Nicolai Henriksen, @c the@@software-ag.de Thomas Herchenroeder, @c ahinds@@thegrid.net Alexander Hinds, @c sth@@hacon.de Stefan Hornburg, @c tjump@@cais.com Theodore Jump, @c paulk@@mathworks.com Paul Kinnucan, @c jonas@@init.se Jonas Linde, @c andrewm@@optimation.co.nz Andrew McRae, @c howard@@silverstream.com Howard Melman, @c dennis@@math.binghamton.edu Dennis Pixton, @c raman@@Adobe.com T. V. Raman, @c bruce.ravel@@nist.gov Bruce Ravel, @c benny@@crocodial.de Benjamin Riefenstahl, @c kruland@@seistl.com Kevin Ruland, @c tom@@platte.com Tom Schutter, @c wxshi@@ma.neweb.ne.jp Wei-Xue Shi, @c fabio@@joplin.colorado.edu Fabio Somenzi, @c ks@@ic.uva.nl Karel Sprenger, @c szurgot@@itribe.net Chris Szurgot, @c pat@@po.cwru.edu Paul A. Thompson, @c arrigo@@maths.qmw.ac.uk Arrigo Triulzi, @c voelker@@cs.washington.edu Geoff Voelker, @c eliz@@is.elta.co.il Eli Zaretskii @end quotation @c =================================================================== @comment END OF MANUAL TEXT @page @node GNU Free Documentation License @appendix GNU Free Documentation License @include doclicense.texi @node Command Index @unnumbered Command Index @printindex fn @node Variable Index @unnumbered Variable Index @printindex vr @c Without a page throw here, the page length seems to get reset to the @c depth of the index that fits on the page after the previous index. @c This must be a bug! @page @node Keystroke Index @unnumbered Keystroke Index @printindex ky @c Without a page throw here, the page length seems to get reset to the @c depth of the index that fits on the page after the previous index. @c This must be a bug! @page @node Concept Index @unnumbered Concept Index @printindex cp @bye