https://github.com/plp13/qman
A more modern man page viewer for our terminals
https://github.com/plp13/qman
Last synced: 27 days ago
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A more modern man page viewer for our terminals
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/plp13/qman
- Owner: plp13
- License: bsd-2-clause
- Created: 2023-09-28T20:06:06.000Z (about 2 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-10-18T11:36:02.000Z (29 days ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-10-21T04:43:35.861Z (27 days ago)
- Language: C
- Size: 13.9 MB
- Stars: 315
- Watchers: 3
- Forks: 9
- Open Issues: 2
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# Qman
A more modern manual page viewer for our terminals
Version 1.5.0 -- [see what's new](#new-in-this-version)
## Get started
- [Generic build instructions](doc/BUILDING.md) (works for most Linux distros)
- [O/S specific instructions](doc/OS_SPECIFIC.md)
- [Manual](man/qman.1.md)
- [Troubleshooting](doc/TROUBLESHOOTING.md)
- [Packages](doc/PACKAGES.md)
- [Configuration and themes](config/)
- [Contributing](doc/CONTRIBUTING.md)
## Rationale
Unix manual pages are lovely. They are concise, well-written, complete, and
downright useful. However, the standard way of accessing them from the
command-line hasn't changed since the early days.
Qman aims to change that. It's a modern, full-featured manual page viewer
featuring hyperlinks, web browser like navigation, a table of contents for each
page, incremental search, on-line help, and more. It also strives to be fast and
tiny, so that it can be used everywhere. For this reason, it's been written in
plain C and has only minimal dependencies.
## Features
- Index page that displays all manual pages available on the system, sorted
alphabetically and organised by section
- Pages for apropos and whatis results
- Hyperlinks to other manual pages
- Hyperlinks for URLs and email addresses
- Hyperlinks to files or directories in the local filesystem
- In-page hyperlinks
- A table of contents for each manual page
- Incremental search for manual pages
- Incremental free page text search
- Command-line options similar to those of `man` (most importantly, `-k` and
`-f`)
- Keyboard mappings similar to those of `less`
- Mouse support
- Navigation history
- On-line help
- Fully configurable using INI-style config files
- Manual page
## Project status
All basic functionality has been completed. The software has been in use since
late 2023 and is considered stable. Bugs, of course, still happen. If you think
you have found one, please open an
[issue](https://github.com/plp13/qman/issues).
## New in this version
Version 1.5.0 introduces the following:
- Support for several different manual page systems. Historically Qman only
supported `mandb`, but this is no longer the case. The program now supports
the following manual page systems:
- **[mandb](https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db)** - most Linux distributions
- **[mandoc](https://mandoc.bsd.lv/)** - Void Linux, Haiku, others?
- **[freebsd](https://www.freebsd.org/)** - FreeBSD
- **[darwin](https://www.apple.com/macos/)** - macOS
- Hyperlinks to files or directories in the local filesystem (new config
option `viewer_path` can be used to specify the program for opening them)
- New `[capabilities]` config file section enables users to disable several non-
core program features
- Three new themes:
- `adwaita`, designed to match the colors of dark Adwaita desktops
- `adwaita-light`, designed to match the colors of light Adwaita desktops
- `modernity-light`, a generic light theme to complement `modernity`
- Re-organized and extended documentation
- Improved error messages, especially when it comes to errors caused by
misconfiguration or a missing manual pages database
- Miscellaneous other bug fixes and minor features
> **:bulb: Note**
>
> Users using custom config files may need to update them after a new release.
> For more information, please refer to Qman's manual page and the documentation
> in [config/README.md](config/README.md).
>
> In version 1.5.0, config options `sections_on_top`, `hyphenate` and `justify`
> have been moved to section `[capabilities]`.
## More screenshots
Index page:
Opening a manual page using a pop-up:
Using the table of contents:
Searching incrementally:
Performing apropos:
Online help:
