Displaying package man pages

The version of a service and productivity tools package can vary between Linux® distributions. You might also want to install the latest version of an open source package that is available online. Given this variance and flexibility, the best source of accurate and relevant information for commands in a package are the man pages installed with the commands.

To determine the man pages provided by a package installed on your system, list the file content of the package by running rpm -ql package-name. Man page path names typically contain /man/:

# rpm -ql servicelog
/usr/bin/log_repair_action
/usr/bin/servicelog
/usr/bin/servicelog_manage
/usr/bin/servicelog_notify
/usr/bin/v1_servicelog
/usr/bin/v29_servicelog
/usr/sbin/slog_common_event
/usr/share/doc/packages/servicelog
/usr/share/doc/packages/servicelog/COPYING
/usr/share/man/man8/log_repair_action.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/servicelog.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/servicelog_notify.8.gz

You can display the man pages you discover with the man command:

# man log_repair_action
LOG_REPAIR_ACTION(8)        POWER Diagnostic Tools        LOG_REPAIR_ACTION(8)

NAME
       log_repair_action - create a log entry to indicate that a device was repaired

SYNOPSIS
       /usr/sbin/log_repair_action -l location-code [-q]
       /usr/sbin/log_repair_action -l location-code -d date [-q]

DESCRIPTION
       The  log_repair_action  command  creates an entry in the error log to indicate that
       the device at the specified location code has been repaired.  When viewing  a  list
       of  platform  errors, all errors on the device at the specified location code prior
       to the specified date will be considered closed (fixed).

OPTIONS
       -l location-code  or --location="location-code"
              Specify the lcoation code of the device which was repaired.

       -d date or --date="date"
              Specify the date and time on which the device was repaired.  If  not  speci-
              fied, defaults to the current date/time.

       -q or --quiet
              Do not prompt for confirmation or print error messages.

AUTHOR
       Written by Michael Strosaker (strosake@austin.ibm.com)

SEE ALSO
       servicelog(8) sysdiag(8)

Linux                            February 2005            LOG_REPAIR_ACTION(8)
:

The following example script simplifies discovering and displaying the man pages provided by a package. It displays a selection list of the man pages provided by a required package-name argument. It then displays the man page for a selection.

#! /bin/bash

if [ -z "$1" ];then
    echo "missing package-name argument"
    exit 1
fi

# Discover the man pages in the package. "sort -u" to keep only unique
# instances in case there are duplicate pages in different languages.

man_pages=`rpm -ql $1 | sed -n 's/^.*\/\(.*\)\.\(\w\)\.gz$/\1\[\2\]/p' | sort -u`

# Show a selection list. Pass a selected man page to the man command.

PS3="Select man page: "

select man_page in $man_pages; do
	man `echo "$man_page" | sed 's/^\(.*\)\[\(.*\)\]$/\2 \1/'`
done

The following example shows running the script to list man pages in the servicelog page, and then display the log_repair_action man page. It assumes that the script was copied and pasted into a file named pkg-man in the current directory, and that the execute permissions of the pkg-man file are set.

# ./pkg-man servicelog
1) log_repair_action[8]
2) servicelog[8]
3) servicelog_notify[8]
Select man page: 1 (<enter> is pressed here)
LOG_REPAIR_ACTION(8)        POWER Diagnostic Tools        LOG_REPAIR_ACTION(8)

NAME
       log_repair_action - create a log entry to indicate that a device was repaired

SYNOPSIS
       /usr/sbin/log_repair_action -l location-code [-q]
       /usr/sbin/log_repair_action -l location-code -d date [-q]

DESCRIPTION
       The  log_repair_action  command  creates an entry in the error log to indicate that
       the device at the specified location code has been repaired.  When viewing  a  list
       of  platform  errors, all errors on the device at the specified location code prior
       to the specified date will be considered closed (fixed).

OPTIONS
       -l location-code  or --location="location-code"
              Specify the lcoation code of the device which was repaired.

       -d date or --date="date"
              Specify the date and time on which the device was repaired.  If  not  speci-
              fied, defaults to the current date/time.

       -q or --quiet
              Do not prompt for confirmation or print error messages.

AUTHOR
       Written by Michael Strosaker (strosake@austin.ibm.com)

SEE ALSO
       servicelog(8) sysdiag(8)

Linux                            February 2005            LOG_REPAIR_ACTION(8)
: