15    Man Page Browser

This chapter provides an overview of the Man Page Browser's features and capabilities. For more detailed information on how to use this tool, click on the Help button. You can print Help topics using the HyperHelp Viewer.

The Man Page Browser is a graphical user interface to the UNIX man utility. It is integrated with the FUSE Editor, Emacs, and the Porting Assistant.

The Man Page Browser displays reference pages (UNIX man pages) in a scrollable Motif window. Reference pages are pages from the UNIX command reference manual that have been made available for online access and viewing.

Figure Figure 15-1 shows the Man Page Browser main window.

Figure 15-1:  Man Page Browser Main Window

Key elements are the major window panes running from the top to the bottom of the window:

Display area

Displays reference page text or an index of pages. Click on a hotspot (red text) to navigate to that reference page.

Setup area

Buttons and fields let you specify the action you want to take, such as using the Search... button to find a specified string in the text of a displayed reference page. Use the Keyword field in conjunction with the Display Man Page or Search buttons to locate a reference page. Use the Section field to limit the search to a particular section.

15.1    Summary of Features

The Man Page Browser lets you:

• Display an index reference page with a given name or topic string

• Display the reference page for a command, system call, or subroutine you selected in the emacs or FUSE Editor's buffer

• Search for occurrences of a specified string or expression in reference page text

• Return to previously displayed reference pages or indexes

• Display a specified file as a reference page

• Navigate to other reference pages by clicking on hotspots

• Copy text from the display window to another window or application

• Print reference pages directly from the Man Page Browser

You can access the Man Page Browser from the Tools menu on the Control Panel, the FUSE Editor or Emacs (see Chapter Chapter 13), and most FUSE tools. The Man Page Browser searches the default man directory for your system. You can specify alternative search paths by defining the MANPATH environment variable. See the reference page on the man command for more information on MANPATH.

The Man Page Browser supports X resources for color, fonts, zoom speed, and margins in addition to standard Motif resources for geography, display, and so on. See Section Section 15.8 for information on customizing the Man Page Browser.

15.2    Starting the Man Page Browser

You can start the Man Page Browser in several ways:

• Use the command line.

• If you have CDE installed, use the Man Page Browser icon.

• Use the FUSE Control Panel once FUSE is running.

• Use the Tools menu from most FUSE tools.

15.2.1    Use the Command Line

You can start the Man Page Browser from the command line using the following command:

% fusewinman [-Xt-Options] [section] [keyword]

% fuseman [Xt-Options] [-k expression]

See Appendix Appendix D and the specific reference pages for the command syntax and options.

If the Control Panel is not running, it starts automatically as a minimized icon. If FUSE is already running, the Man Page Browser is placed in the current project.

15.2.2    Use the Man Page Browser Icon from CDE

When you have CDE installed, FUSE provides a FUSE application group icon and icons for the individual tools that make up the FUSE environment.

To invoke the Man Page Browser:

1. Double click on the Application Manager icon in the CDE Front Panel to display the application group icons.

2. Double click on the FUSE application group icon to display the icons in the FUSE application group.

3. Double click on the Man Page Browser icon to start the tool.

15.2.3    Use the FUSE Control Panel

To start the Man Page Browser from the FUSE Control Panel, select Man Page Browser from the Tools menu.

15.2.4    Use the Tools Menu from Most FUSE Tools

Most FUSE tools have a Tools menu. To start a tool, select the tool from the Tools menu.

15.3    Displaying a Reference Page

To display the reference page for a known UNIX command:

The Man Page Browser displays the contents of the reference page in its display area. Use the scroll bar to bring portions of the reference page text into view.

The Man Page Browser keeps a history of the last 100 displays. You can recall any of these displays by using the Previous and Next buttons.

If there is no manual entry for the keyword you specify, the Man Page Browser displays a message to that effect in the display area.

Most reference pages have a Related Commands section at the bottom of the page. In the Man Page Browser, the related commands are hotspots. You can display the reference page for a related command by clicking on it.

To view the reference page for the chmod command:

To view the reference page for XGetCommand in Section 3X11:

15.4    Searching for Reference Pages

The Man Page Browser provides the following methods for searching for reference pages:

• Match Description: Similar to man -k keyword, lists reference page titles whose topic string or description contain the pattern in the Keyword field.

• Match Name: Lists reference page titles that match the pattern in the Keyword field.

The reference page titles are hotspots, that is, you can navigate to the corresponding reference page text by clicking on the title in the listing.

If no matching reference pages are found, the display area remains blank.

To list the titles of reference pages that contain password in their topic strings:

To list the titles of all the Motif system calls and widgets:

To list all the titles of all the reference pages that begin with str:

15.5    Finding Occurrences of a String in Reference Page Text

By searching for a given string, you can go directly to a specific location in the reference page (for example, FLAGS or a particular option) without scrolling manually.

To find occurrences of a specified string in the the Man Page Browser display area:

You can continue to search for occurrences of the same string by repeated use of the Find Next button. When the end of the reference page text is reached, the Man Page Browser cycles again through the text from the beginning.

If the Man Page Browser cannot find the search string, you hear a beep when you click on Find Next.

15.6    Displaying a File as a Reference Page

The Man Page Browser can display any text file. If the file contains valid nroff coding, the file is displayed in reference page format, which is equivalent to nroff -man. This can be used to easily view reference pages that you are developing.

To display a particular file in the Man Page Browser main window:

The Man Page Browser displays the contents of the specified file in its display area.

If you try to open a file that is not a text file, the Man Page Browser clears the display area.

15.7    Copying Text to Another Window

The Man Page Browser supports copying text from the display window to other applications on your desktop. You can select text from the display window before pasting into another application:

• Use MB1 to drag over a section of text to select it.

• Double click on a word to select it.

• Triple click on a line to select it.

• Quadruple click in the display window to select the entire page.

15.8    Customizing the Man Page Browser

FUSE supports several X resources that you can use to customize colors, fonts, margins, and zooming in the Man Page Browser main window. You can also customize the Man Page Browser using global customizations from the Control Panel.

The default values for these resources are stored in the file $FUSE_TOP/rundata/resources/DFMan. (FUSE_TOP is environment variable set to the directory in which FUSE was installed and is automatically defined in any Host Shell window you invoke from the Control Panel.)

To customize the Man Page Browser main window, copy the default Man Page Browser resource file, if necessary, to your local FUSE customization area (~/.fuse-defaults/locale). Edit your local copy of DFMan, referring to Table Table 15-1 for information on valid values.

If you are running FUSE on a monochrome display, change the value of DFMan*Hyper*highlightFontto a bold font. This will make it easier for you to distinguish hotspots from regular text. The following is an example of a valid value you can use when you are using the default fixed font for regular text:

-misc-fixed-bold-r-semicondensed--13-100-100-100-c-60-iso8859-1

Table 15-1:  X Resources for Customizing the Man Page Browser Main Window

Resource	Description	Default
DFMan*Hyper*zoomEffect	Specifies to open a new page with zoom effect. Legal values are on or off.	on
DFMan*Hyper*zoomSpeed	Speed of the zoom effect. Value must be an integer.	4
DFMan*Hyper*FontList	Font used for normal text.	fixed
DFMan*Hyper*highlightColor	Color used for highlighted text.	red
DFMan*Hyper*normalColor	Color used for normal text.	black
DFMan*Hyper*selectColor	Color used for selected text.	blue
DFMan*Hyper*margin	Text margin. Value must be an integer.	10