Colored `man` pages on OSX

.env

# ZSH / BASH users
# Add this to your .env, .bashrc, .zshrc, or whatever file you're using for environment

man() {
	env \
		LESS_TERMCAP_mb=$(printf "\e[1;31m") \
		LESS_TERMCAP_md=$(printf "\e[1;31m") \
		LESS_TERMCAP_me=$(printf "\e[0m") \
		LESS_TERMCAP_se=$(printf "\e[0m") \
		LESS_TERMCAP_so=$(printf "\e[1;44;33m") \
		LESS_TERMCAP_ue=$(printf "\e[0m") \
		LESS_TERMCAP_us=$(printf "\e[1;32m") \
		man "$@"
}

man.fish

# Fish users
# Save this file as ~/.config/fish/functions/man.fish

function man
env \
    LESS_TERMCAP_mb=(printf "\e[1;31m") \
    LESS_TERMCAP_md=(printf "\e[1;31m") \
    LESS_TERMCAP_me=(printf "\e[0m") \
    LESS_TERMCAP_se=(printf "\e[0m") \
    LESS_TERMCAP_so=(printf "\e[1;44;33m") \
    LESS_TERMCAP_ue=(printf "\e[0m") \
    LESS_TERMCAP_us=(printf "\e[1;32m") \
        man "$argv"
end

👍

you'll need to remove the quotes around "$@" and "$argv", otherwise it passes multiple arguments as a single argument; which makes it impossible to view different sections of the manual. e.g.: man 3 calloc

👍

BTW, @gf3 is telling incorrect info.

"$@" is supposed to pass multiple arguments. "$*" will pass multiple arguments as a single argument, though.
(Therefore, .env file is correct, at least)

See https://yakking.branchable.com/posts/whitespace-safety/

@supermarin, thanks for that man.fish! 🙇‍♂️
Also what @gf3 says is correct, at least for fish --- removing the quotes from around "$argv" fixes the issue with invocations such as man 3 calloc. Thanks @gf3 for pointing it out 👍

For Oh-my-fish users, you can also put the man function into your init.fish file, for example.
That way, you can keep your omf config in a repository and have colored man output.

Besides, I can confirm what @sankalp-khare said regarding $argv in fish. Fish does not perform word splitting and argv is an array (or, list in fish terminology).

For anyone using a version of less that is more recent than 2021, you can make use of the new '--use-color' option like so:

export MANPAGER="less -R --use-color -Dd+r -Du+b"