3.2 Filename Interface

The commands in this family are completely independent of the topic interface, caching mechanism, etc.

The filename interface is accessed principally via the extended command woman-find-file, which is available without any configuration at all (provided WoMan is installed and loaded or set up to autoload). This command can be used to browse any accessible man file, regardless of its filename or location. If the file is compressed then automatic file decompression must already be turned on (e.g. see the ‘Help->Options’ submenu)—it is turned on automatically only by the woman topic interface.

Once WoMan is loaded (or if specially set up), various additional commands in this family are available. In a dired buffer, the command woman-dired-find-file allows the file on the same line as point to be formatted and browsed by WoMan. It is bound to the key W in the dired mode map and added to the dired major mode menu. It may also be bound to w, unless this key is bound by another library, which it is by dired-x, for example. Because it is quite likely that other libraries will extend the capabilities of such a commonly used mode as dired, the precise key bindings added by WoMan to the dired mode map are controlled by the user option woman-dired-keys.

When a tar (Tape ARchive) file is visited in Emacs, it is opened in tar mode, which parses the tar file and shows a dired-like view of its contents. The WoMan command woman-tar-extract-file allows the file on the same line as point to be formatted and browsed by WoMan. It is bound to the key w in the tar mode map and added to the tar major mode menu.

The command woman-reformat-last-file, which is bound to the key R in WoMan mode and available on the major mode menu, reformats the last file formatted by WoMan. This may occasionally be useful if formatting parameters, such as the fill column, are changed, or perhaps if the buffer is somehow corrupted.

The command woman-decode-buffer can be used to decode and browse the current buffer if it is visiting a man file, although it is primarily used internally by WoMan.