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pman

PINFO(1)                                                              PINFO(1)



NAME
       pinfo - curses based lynx-style info browser

SYNTAX
       pinfo [options] [infopage]

DESCRIPTION
       This  is  a  program for viewing info files. You specify which page you
       want to read by passing it an infopage argument. This argument contains
       the  name  of  an  info  page (i.e. 'bash').  The program will then (by
       default)  search  for  it  in  ./,  /usr/info,   /usr/share/info,   and
       /usr/local/info.   The  searchpath can be adjusted by INFOPATH environ-
       ment variable or in config file. Pinfo will also automaticaly  add  the
       suffix  '-info',  '-info.Z',  At  present other suffixes are not recog-
       nized, but you can easily add them to the function openinfo() in  file-
       handling_functions.c.

       When  the  search for info pages fails, man is called with the infopage
       argument, and it's output is parsed by pinfo. This means that when  you
       don't  have the appropriate info page, but have a man page instead; the
       man page will be viewed.

       When no infopage is specified, the default `dir' page is shown.

       Supported options are

       -h, --help - print help information and exit.

       -v, --version - print version information and exit.

       -m, --manual - uses manual page instead of info by default.  (pinfo  -m
       could be used as a manual pager). Warning: Everything what follows this
       option is passed to the `man'  program.  Don't  be  confused  if  pinfo
       options,  which followed `-m' don't work. When using this option, pinfo
       does not parse the info options as ussual! It invokes the man  part  of
       program.

       You  can also call the man function of pinfo in another way. When pinfo
       is called with an argv[0] (the program file name), which  contains  the
       word 'man' in it's name, the man functions are enabled automatically.

       Previously  there  was  a  symlink  to pinfo, called pman, but I had to
       remove it from the distribution, since it's name was in  conflict  with
       some  other utility. Anyway, you can feel free to create such a link if
       you wish.

       -r, --raw-filename - uses a raw filename first (i.e. the name which you
       specified  as infopage is considered to be a real file in the specified
       location).

       -f, --file synonym for -r.

       -a, --apropos - if this is set, apropos is called when no man  or  info
       page could be found.

       -c,  --cut-man-headers  -  if this is set, man parsing code will try to
       cut out the repeated man headers. Use with care. ;)

       -s, --squeeze-lines- cut empty lines from  manual  pages.  This  option
       enables autocutting of every repeated newline in a manual page.

       -t,  --force-manual-tag-table-  forces  manual  detection of tag table.
       This allows you to view info pages, which may be  corrupted.  (as  i.e.
       version  of  jed's pages, shipped with RH5.0). The tag table corruption
       ussualy appears in that the info links, which you follow, move  you  to
       quite unexpected nodes.

       --node=nodename,  --node  nodename-  Go  to the node `nodename' of info
       file.

       --rcfile=filename, --rcfile filename- Use alternate rcfile.

       --long-manual-links, -l- Use long link names in manuals. On  some  sys-
       tems  the manual hierarchy is divided into subsections like `3ncurses',
       etc, while on other systems all belongs to section `3'. If this  option
       is what your system is like, feel free to use it.

       --clear-at-exit, -x- Clear screen at exit.

       The  options  are  handled  by GNU getopt, so you can here (as in other
       programs) abbreviate the option names to the minimal number of  charac-
       ters by which the options differ.

       Warning! If you do not have getopt, these options will not work!


DEFAULT KEYS WHEN BROWSING INFO FILE
       Just  take  a  look  at the example config file (below), and at the key
       descriptions. Keys available in manual viewer differ  a  bit  from  the
       keys available in info viewer.


ENVIRONMENT
       There  is  a  variable  $INFOPATH,  which  can  specify the paths to be
       searched for info files. It's format is similar to that  of  the  $PATH
       variable. An example setting could look like:

       /usr/info:/usr/somewhere/info:/not/even/in/usr/info

       etc. Directories are separated by colons.


COLOR AND KEY DEFINITIONS
       There  are  configuration files called ~/.pinforc and [prefix]/etc/pin-
       forc, for local and global configuration (where prefix is the prefix of
       the  directory,  where  pinfo  is  installed,  i.e.  /usr/local, or /).
       Here's an example of such a file; we'll discuss the contents below:


       # Here are some colour setting.
       # Whitespace between the entries is optional.
       COL_NORMAL = COLOR_WHITE, COLOR_BLACK, NO_BOLD, NO_BLINK
       COL_MENUSELECTED = COLOR_RED, COLOR_BLACK, BOLD, NO_BLINK
       COL_MENU=COLOR_BLUE,COLOR_BLACK,BOLD, NO_BLINK
       COL_NOTESELECTED=COLOR_RED,COLOR_BLACK,BOLD, NO_BLINK
       COL_NOTE=COLOR_GREEN,COLOR_BLACK,BOLD, NO_BLINK
       COL_TOPLINE=COLOR_YELLOW,COLOR_BLUE,BOLD, NO_BLINK
       COL_BOTTOMLINE=COLOR_YELLOW,COLOR_BLUE,BOLD, NO_BLINK
       COL_MANUALBOLD=COLOR_WHITE,COLOR_BLACK,BOLD, NO_BLINK
       COL_MANUALITALIC=COLOR_WHITE,COLOR_BLACK,BOLD, NO_BLINK
       COL_URL=COLOR_MAGENTA,COLOR_BLACK,BOLD, NO_BLINK
       COL_URLSELECTED=COLOR_RED,COLOR_BLACK,NO_BOLD, NO_BLINK
       COL_INFOHIGHLIGHT=COLOR_WHITE,COLOR_BLACK,BOLD, NO_BLINK
       #
       # Here are some keybindings as well...
       #
       KEY_TOTALSEARCH_1 = 's'
       KEY_TOTALSEARCH_2 = 'S'
       KEY_SEARCH_1 = '/'
       KEY_SEARCH_2 = '.'
       KEY_GOTO_1='g'
       KEY_GOTO_2='m'
       KEY_HOME_1='h'
       KEY_HOME_2='H'
       KEY_PREVNODE_1='p'
       KEY_PREVNODE_2='P'
       KEY_NEXTNODE_1='n'
       KEY_NEXTNODE_2='N'
       KEY_UP_1=KEY_UP
       KEY_UP_2='u'
       KEY_END_1=KEY_END
       KEY_END_2='e'
       KEY_PGDN_1=KEY_NPAGE
       KEY_PGDN_2=' '
       KEY_PGDN_AUTO_1=0
       KEY_PGDN_AUTO_2=' '
       KEY_PGUP_1=KEY_PPAGE
       KEY_PGUP_2='b'
       KEY_PGUP_AUTO_1=0
       KEY_PGUP_AUTO_2='b'
       KEY_DOWN_1=KEY_DOWN
       KEY_DOWN_2='d'
       KEY_TOP_1=KEY_HOME
       KEY_TOP_2='t'
       KEY_BACK_1=KEY_LEFT
       KEY_BACK_2='l'
       KEY_FOLLOWLINK_1=KEY_RIGHT
       KEY_FOLLOWLINK_2='0
       # 12 is a code for ctrl+l
       KEY_REFRESH_1=12
       KEY_REFRESH_2='~'
       KEY_SHELLFEED_1='!'
       KEY_SHELLFEED_2='1'
       KEY_QUIT_1='q'
       KEY_QUIT_2='Q'
       KEY_DIRPAGE_1='d'
       KEY_DIRPAGE_2='D'
       KEY_GOLINE_1='l'
       KEY_GOLINE_2=0
       KEY_PRINT_1=']'
       KEY_PRINT_2=0
       #
       # Some options, explained in the man page
       #
       MANUAL=false
       CUT-MAN-HEADERS=true
       CUT-EMPTY-MAN-LINES=true
       RAW-FILENAME=false
       APROPOS=false
       DONT-HANDLE-WITHOUT-TAG-TABLE=false
       LONG-MANUAL-LINKS=false
       FILTER-0xB7=true
       QUIT-CONFIRMATION=false
       QUIT-CONFIRM-DEFAULT=no
       CLEAR-SCREEN-AT-EXIT=true
       STDERR-REDIRECTION="2> /dev/null"
       HTTPVIEWER=lynx
       FTPVIEWER=lynx
       MAILEDITOR=pine
       MANLINKS=1:8:2:3:4:5:6:7:9:n:p:o:3X11:3Xt
       INFOPATH=/usr/info:/usr/share/info:/usr/local/info
       HIGHLIGHTREGEXP=Bash.*has
       SAFE-USER=nobody
       SAFE-GROUP=nobody

       As you can see, the format is simple. First I'll explain the color def-
       initions.  First you must enter a color name (all available color names
       are present in the example, and  they're  self  explanatory,  I  think.
       There  is  also  a special color COLOR_DEFAULT, which stands for trans-
       parency). Then you enter  the  foreground  color,  and  the  background
       color. The BOLD attribute means that we want the foreground color to be
       highlighted. (i.e.  lightblue,  lightgreen).  BLINK  attribute  is  the
       blinking  attribute, or highlighted background in some other configura-
       tions.

       Now let's move to the key definitions. Here we first  put  a  key  name
       (again  all  keys are present in the example); then we enter it's value
       -- either surrounded by apostrophes,  or  a  keycode  number  (like  in
       KEY_REFRESH_1),  or  its mnemonic code name if it's a special key (like
       i.e. in KEY_FOLLOWLINK_1).

       If you wish to specify key by code  value,  use  the  supplied  program
       'testkey'  to obtain the needed value. It mainly is a feature, when you
       want to add some ctrl+letter keybindings, and similar.

       For each function you can bind two keys, i.e. you could bind both Enter
       and  Cursor  Right  to  the FollowLink-function.  As you can see in the
       example above, the two key  names  are  KEY_FOLLOWLINK_1  and  KEY_FOL-
       LOWLINK_2.

       Here's an explanation of the key names:


              KEY_TOTALSEARCH_1
                        Key for searching through all nodes of info file.

              KEY_TOTALSEARCH_2
                        Alternate  key for searching through all nodes of info
                        file.

              KEY_SEARCH_1
                        Key for searching through current node (or manual).

              KEY_SEARCH_2
                        Alternate key for searching through current  node  (or
                        manual).

              KEY_SEARCH_AGAIN_1
                        Key for repeating the last search.

              KEY_SEARCH_AGAIN_2
                        Alternate key for repeating the last search.

              KEY_GOTO_1
                        Key  for explicitly going to a node (by specifing it's
                        name).

              KEY_GOTO_2
                        Alternate key for  explicitly  going  to  a  node  (by
                        specifing it's name).

              KEY_PREVNODE_1
                        Key  for  going  to  a  node  marked  as 'Prev' in the
                        header. In manpage viewer this goes  to  the  previous
                        man section.

              KEY_PREVNODE_2
                        Alternate  key for going to a node marked as 'Prev' in
                        the header. In manpage viewer this goest to the previ-
                        ous man section.

              KEY_NEXTNODE_1
                        Key  for  going  to  a  node  marked  as 'Next' in the
                        header. In manpage viewer this goes to  the  next  man
                        section.

              KEY_NEXTNODE_2
                        Alternate  key for going to a node marked as 'Next' in
                        the header. In manpage viewer this goes  to  the  next
                        man section.

              KEY_UP_1  Key for scrolling text one line up.

              KEY_UP_2  Alternate key for scrolling text one line up.

              KEY_END_1 Key for going to the end of the node.

              KEY_END_2 Alternate key for going to the end of the node.

              KEY_PGDN_1
                        Key for going one page down in the viewed node.

              KEY_PGDN_2
                        Alternate  key  for  going one page down in the viewed
                        node.

              KEY_PGDN_AUTO_1
                        Key for going to the next node when you're at the  end
                        of node (default is zero -- turned off).

              KEY_PGDN_AUTO_2
                        Alternate  key  for going to the next node when you're
                        at the end of node (default is space, as for  pgdn_2).

              KEY_HOME_1
                        Key for going to the beginning of the node.

              KEY_HOME_2
                        Alternate  key for going to the beginning of the node.

              KEY_PGUP_1
                        Key for going one page up in the viewed node.

              KEY_PGUP_2
                        Alternate key for going one  page  up  in  the  viewed
                        node.

              KEY_PGUP_AUTO_1
                        Key  for going to the `up' node, when being at the top
                        of node. (Default value is zero -- turned off).

              KEY_PGUP_AUTO_2
                        Alternate key for going to the `up' node,  when  being
                        at  the  top  of  node.  (Default value is `-', as for
                        pgup_2).

              KEY_DOWN_1
                        Key for scrolling the text down one line.

              KEY_DOWN_2
                        Alternate key for scrolling the text down one line.

              KEY_TOP_1 Key for going to the top (first) node.

              KEY_TOP_2 Alternate key for going to the top (first) node.

              KEY_BACK_1
                        Key for going back (in the history of viewed nodes).

              KEY_BACK_2
                        Alternate key for going back (in the history of viewed
                        nodes).

              KEY_FOLLOWLINK_1
                        Key for following a hypertext link.

              KEY_FOLLOWLINK_2
                        Alternate key for following a hypertext link.

              KEY_REFRESH_1
                        Key  for  refreshing  the  screen (hardcoded is the ^L
                        value).

              KEY_REFRESH_2
                        Alternate key for refreshing the screen.

              KEY_SHELLFEED_1
                        Key for calling  a  shell  command,  and  passing  the
                        viewed node to the stdin of that command.

              KEY_SHELLFEED_2
                        Alternate key for calling a shell command, and passing
                        the viewed node to the stdin of that command.

              KEY_QUIT_1
                        Key for exiting the program.

              KEY_QUIT_2
                        Alternate key for exiting the program.

              KEY_GOLINE_1
                        Key for going to a specified line in file.

              KEY_GOLINE_2
                        Alternate key for going to a specified line in file.

              KEY_PRINT_1
                        Key for printing viewed node or man page.

              KEY_PRINT_2
                        Alternate key for printing viewed node or man page.


       The special mnemonics for keys (which are defined at present) are:


              KEY_BREAK

              KEY_DOWN

              KEY_UP

              KEY_LEFT

              KEY_RIGHT

              KEY_DOWN

              KEY_HOME

              KEY_BACKSPACE

              KEY_NPAGE

              KEY_PPAGE

              KEY_END [Note: this works probably ONLY with linux ncurses]

              KEY_F(x)

              KEY_CTRL('c')
                        - this assigns the key value to a ctrl+c  combination.
                        c may be any letter you wish.

              KEY_ALT('c')
                        - this assigns the key value to a alt+c combination. c
                        may be any letter you wish. If alt key won't work, you
                        may use ESC+key combination.

              'c'       -  this  means  a printable character c. The syntax is
                        just like in C/C++ ;).

              [number]  - you can also specify key as it's code number. It  is
                        useful e.g. when specifing control keys, and some non-
                        standard keys.  A numerical value of zero turns  given
                        keybinding off.

       See manual page for curs_getch (3x) for description of their meaning.

       Warning! Try not to create some serious keybinding conflicts!

       The  options  in the last part of the example configuration file should
       be fairly self-explanatory.  The variables that can be set to  true  or
       false  do  the  same  things as the commandline arguments with the same
       names.


              MANUAL    If this is set to true the default is to  first  check
                        for a man page, instead of a texinfo file.

              CUT-MAN-HEADERS
                        If  set  to  true,  then  pinfo  tries  to cut off the
                        repeated headers throughout man pages.

              CUT-EMPTY-MAN-LINES
                        If set to true,  then  pinfo  tries  to  cut  off  the
                        repeated  newlines  (i.e.  it will shorten each set of
                        consecutive newlines to one newline).

              RAW-FILENAME
                        If set to true, the file argument is taken to  be  the
                        name  of a file in the current working directory, i.e.
                        the directories in INFOPATH will only be searched if a
                        file with this name is not in the working directory.

              APROPOS   If  set  to  true, apropos is called if no info or man
                        page is found.

              DONT-HANDLE-WITHOUT-TAG-TABLE
                        If set to true , pinfo will  not  attempt  to  display
                        texinfo pages without tag tables.

              HTTPVIEWER
                        Set this to the program you want to use to follow http
                        links in documents.

              FTPVIEWER Set this to the program you want to use to follow  ftp
                        links in documents.

              MAILEDITOR
                        Set  this to your favourite email program, and it will
                        be started if you follow an email link in a  document.

              PRINTUTILITY
                        Utility,  which  you  use for printing. I.e. `lpr'. If
                        you don't use any, you may  also  try  something  like
                        `cat >/dev/lp1', or sth. ;)

              MANLINKS  This  specifies the section names, which may be refer-
                        enced in your man pages (i.e. Xtoolkit man pages match
                        the  section  3Xt  (see  for example XtVaCreateWidget)
                        manpage), Xlib function pages match section 3X11, etc.
                        Such  extensions  may not be recognized by default, so
                        it is a good idea to add them).

              INFOPATH  This allows you to override the default searchpath for
                        info pages. The paths should be separated by colons.

              MAN-OPTIONS
                        This  specifies the options, which should be passed to
                        the `man' program.  (see  man(1)  for  description  of
                        what they're like).

              STDERR-REDIRECTION
                        Pinfo  allows  you  to  redirect  the stderr output of
                        called programms. For example if you don't want to see
                        man's error messages about manual page formatting, you
                        can use STDER-REDIRECTION="2> /dev/null". This is  the
                        default.

              LONG-MANUAL-LINKS
                        This  is  another  true/false  option,  which  decides
                        whether  your  system  supports  long  manual  section
                        names, or not. (i.e. "3ncurses" instead of "3").

              FILTER-0xB7
                        This  decides,  whether you want to convert 0xb7 chars
                        to `o', or not. For example for iso-8859-2 fonts  this
                        makes  man's list marks a bit nicer ;) (look for exam-
                        ple at perl's man page, to see how  those  marks  look
                        like).

              QUIT-CONFIRMATION
                        This decides whether you want to use quit confirmation
                        on exit, or not.

              QUIT-CONFIRM-DEFAULT
                        This yes/no option determines the  default  answer  to
                        the  QUIT-CONFIRMATION dialog. (default answer is when
                        you press a key, that does not match the  asked  ques-
                        tion).

              CLEAR-SCREEN-AT-EXIT
                        This  true/false option determines if you want to have
                        your screen cleared at exit, or no.

              HIGHLIGHTREGEXP
                        This is an option, through which you may pass to pinfo
                        regexps, which should be highlighted when working with
                        document. Warning! This may turn very slow if you  use
                        it without care!

              SAFE-USER This option is used to pass the name of user, to which
                        suid when pinfo is run with root privileges.

              SAFE-GROUP
                        This option is used to pass  the  name  of  group,  to
                        which suid when pinfo is run with root privileges.



INTERNATIONALIZATION SUPPORT
       Pinfo  implements  general  features of gnu gettext library (the thing,
       which you need to see national messages ;). But  it  is  not  the  end.
       Pinfo  allows you to use national info pages! You only need to put them
       to your info directory, into a subdirectory, which is called `$LANG'.


LICENSE
       This program is distributed under the terms of GPL.


BUGS
       Please send bug reports to the author.


AUTHOR
       Przemek Borys <pborys@dione.ids.pl>

       If that E-mail address wont work (since the machine where it  is  being
       handled  is  a  bit damaged lately), you can try pborys@zeus.polsl.gli-
       wice.pl, or pborys@p-soft.silesia.linux.org.pl.

       There was also a lot of other people, who contributed to this code. See
       the AUTHORS file.


COMMENTS
       The  author  would like to read some comments and suggestions from you,
       if any.




                                  01 Dec 2001                         PINFO(1)