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(Documentation): Document woman.el features.

This commit is contained in:
Eli Zaretskii 2000-05-09 09:33:07 +00:00
parent f3a3ea9a0a
commit df0e3f6cdf

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@ -1570,6 +1570,7 @@ mostly must be obtained separately, typically from the appropriate GNU
package.
@findex manual-entry
@cindex manual pages
You can read the ``man page'' for an operating system command, library
function, or system call, with the @kbd{M-x manual-entry} command. It
runs the @code{man} program to format the man page, and runs it
@ -1592,6 +1593,62 @@ by setting the variable @code{Man-fontify-manpage-flag} to @code{nil}.
other fashion, you can use the command @kbd{M-x Man-fontify-manpage} to
perform the same conversions that @kbd{M-x manual-entry} does.
@findex woman
@cindex manual pages, on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
An alternative way of reading manual pages is the @kbd{M-x woman}
command@footnote{The name of the command, @code{woman}, is an acronym
for ``w/o (without) man'', since it doesn't use the @code{man}
program.}. Unlike @kbd{M-x man}, it does not run any external programs
to format and display the man pages, instead it does that entirely in
Emacs Lisp. Thus, it is useful on systems such as MS-Windows, where the
@code{man} program and the programs it runs are not readily available.
When invoked, @kbd{M-x woman} prompts for a name of a manual page and
provides completion based on the list of manual pages that are installed
on your machine; the list of available manual pages is computed
automatically the first time you invoke @code{woman}. The word at point
in the current buffer is used to suggest the default name of the manual
page.
With a numeric argument, @kbd{M-x woman} recomputes the list of the
manual pages used for completion. This is useful if you add or delete
manual pages.
@vindex woman-manpath
By default, @kbd{M-x woman} looks up the manual pages in directories
listed by the @code{MANPATH} environment variable. (If @code{MANPATH}
is not set, @code{woman} uses a suitable default value, which can be
customized.) More precisely, @code{woman} looks for subdirectories that
match the shell wildcard @file{man*} in each one of these directories,
and tries to find the manual pages in those subdirectories. When first
invoked, @kbd{M-x woman} converts the value of @code{MANPATH} to a list
of directory names and stores that list in the @code{woman-manpath}
variable. By changing the value of this variable, you can customize the
list of directories where @code{woman} looks for manual pages.
@vindex woman-path
In addition, you can augment the list of directories searched by
@code{woman} by setting the value of the @code{woman-path} variable.
This variable should hold a list of specific directories which
@code{woman} should search, in addition to those in
@code{woman-manpath}. Unlike @code{woman-manpath}, the directories in
@code{woman-path} are searched for the manual pages, not for @file{man*}
subdirectories.
@findex woman-find-file
Occasionally, you might need to display manual pages that are not in
any of the directories listed by @code{woman-manpath} and
@code{woman-path}. The @kbd{M-x woman-find-file} command prompts for a
name of a manual page file, with completion, and then formats and
displays that file like @kbd{M-x woman} does.
@vindex woman-dired-keys
First time you invoke @kbd{M-x woman}, it defines the Dired @kbd{W}
key to run the @code{woman-find-file} command on the current line's
file. You can disable this by setting the variable
@code{woman-dired-keys} to @code{nil}. @xref{Dired}. In addition, the
Tar-mode @kbd{w} key is bound to @code{woman-find-file} on the current
line's archive member.
Eventually the GNU project hopes to replace most man pages with
better-organized manuals that you can browse with Info. @xref{Misc
Help}. Since this process is only partially completed, it is still