BRLMAN(1)

NAME

brlman - manual page viewer for BRL-CAD

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SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
EXAMPLES
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
BUG REPORTS

SYNOPSIS

brlman [options] [manpage] [section]
brlman -k keyword
brlman -K keyword

brlman is a manual page viewer for BRL-CAD programs, libraries, file formats, and mged(1)/GED commands. On Unix-like systems it wraps the system man(1) command, supplying the paths needed to locate BRL-CAD’s installed man pages. On systems lacking a man command, or when the GUI is explicitly requested, brlman launches a graphical viewer that displays HTML versions of the same documentation. The terminal and HTML pages are generated from the same source and contain identical information.

The page to display is given by name. An optional one-character section may be supplied either as a positional argument or via -S. If no section is given, brlman searches sections 1, 3, 5, and n in that order and shows the first match. With no arguments at all, the graphical viewer (where available) opens to a browsable index.

Search mode lists matching manual pages in ranked order instead of opening a single page. The -k option searches page names, synopsis text, and brief descriptions. The -K option searches the full manual page text. When no section is selected, all BRL-CAD manual sections are searched.

OPTIONS

-h, --help: Print a usage summary and exit.
-g, --gui: Force the graphical man page viewer, even where the terminal man command is available.
--no-gui: Disable the graphical viewer. If the terminal man command is unavailable, brlman will fail. Primarily useful in scripting.
-L lg, --language lg: Two-letter language code (e.g. en) used when selecting man pages. If not given, brlman uses the first two characters of the LANG environment variable, falling back to en.
-S , --section: Section to search. Useful when a program and a GED command share a name; the default page is the program (section 1), so -S n selects the GED command page instead. Allowed sections are 1 (programs), 3 (libraries), 5 (conventions/formats), and n (GED commands).
-k keyword, --keyword keyword: Search manual page names, synopses, and brief descriptions. Matching pages are listed in ranked order.
-K keyword, --full-text keyword: Search the full text of manual pages. Matching pages are listed in ranked order.

EXAMPLES

Example 1. Viewing a program manual page

brlman mged

Opens the manual page for the mged(1) command, defaulting to section 1.

Example 2. Disambiguating a name shared by a tool and a GED command

brlman -S n search

The name search exists both as a standalone tool (section 1) and as a GED command (section n). The -S n selection shows the GED command page instead of the default tool page. The equivalent positional form is brlman search n.

Example 3. Browsing documentation graphically

brlman -g

Forces the graphical viewer and, because no page was named, opens a browsable index of all installed programs, libraries, conventions, and GED commands.

Example 4. Searching all manual page text

brlman -K "boolean operations"

Lists pages whose full text contains the search terms, with higher-ranked matches first.