wikiman

Offline documentation search engine

TLDR

Search documentation across all sources

$ wikiman [query]

Search only specific sources (comma-separated)

$ wikiman -s [man,arch] [query]

List available sources

$ wikiman -S

Search with quick search mode

$ wikiman -q [query]

Search using AND operator (all keywords must match)

$ wikiman -a [query]

Print raw output without interactive selection

$ wikiman -R [query]

Open results in HTML viewer instead of pager

$ wikiman -H [w3m] [query]

wikiman is an offline documentation search engine that aggregates multiple sources including man pages, Arch Wiki, Gentoo Wiki, TLDR pages, FreeBSD documentation, and DevDocs into a single searchable interface. Queries are matched across all configured sources simultaneously, with results ranked by relevance using fuzzy matching.Source filtering allows narrowing searches to specific documentation types, such as only wiki articles or only man pages. Results can be viewed in a terminal pager or opened in a browser with full HTML formatting preserved for wiki content.All documentation is stored locally after an initial sync, enabling fast searches without network access. If no keywords are provided, all pages are shown.

PARAMETERS

-s SOURCES

Comma-separated list of sources to search (default: all available).

-l LANGUAGES

Comma-separated search languages (default: en).

-f FINDER

Fuzzy finder to use (default: fzf).

-H VIEWER

HTML viewer for wiki pages (default: w3m).

-q

Enable quick search mode.

-a

Enable AND operator mode (all keywords must match).

-p

Disable quick result preview.

-k

Keep wikiman open after viewing a result.

-c

Show source column in results.

-R

Print raw output without interactive selection.

-S

List available sources and exit.

-W SHELL

Print widget code for the specified shell (bash, zsh, fish) and exit.

-v

Print version and exit.

-h

Display help and exit.

CONFIGURATION

~/.config/wikiman/wikiman.conf

User configuration file. Falls back to /etc/wikiman.conf if not present. Respects XDGCONFIGHOME.

Shell key binding (default Ctrl+F) can be enabled by sourcing widget files from /usr/share/wikiman/widgets/ for bash, zsh, or fish.

SOURCES

man - Man pagesarch - Arch Wikigentoo - Gentoo Wikitldr - TLDR pagesfbsd - FreeBSD documentationdevdocs - DevDocs

CAVEATS

Initial source sync requires network access and may download significant data depending on which sources are enabled. Requires fzf or another fuzzy finder for interactive selection.