manpath

MANPATH(5)                    /etc/manpath.config                   MANPATH(5)

NAME
       manpath - format of the /etc/manpath.config file

DESCRIPTION
       The  manpath configuration file is used by the manual page utilities to
       assess users' manpaths at run time, to indicate which manual page hier-
       archies  (manpaths)  are to be treated as system hierarchies and to as-
       sign them directories to be used for storing cat files.

       If the environment variable $MANPATH is already  set,  the  information
       contained within /etc/manpath.config will not override it.

SEARCH PATH
       By  default,  man-db  examines the user's $PATH.  For each path_element
       found there, it adds manpath_element to the search path.

       If there is no MANPATH_MAP line in the configuration file for  a  given
       path_element,  then  it  adds  all  of  path_element/../man,  path_ele-
       ment/man, path_element/../share/man,  and  path_element/share/man  that
       exist as directories to the search path.

       It  then adds any MANDATORY_MANPATH entries from the configuration file
       to the search path.

       Finally, if the --systems option is used  or  the  $SYSTEM  environment
       variable  is  set,  then that should consist of a sequence of operating
       system names separated by commas or colons.  This acts as  a  template,
       expanding  the search path once more to allow access to other operating
       systems' manual pages: for each system name, man-db looks for that name
       as  a subdirectory of each entry in the search path, and adds it to the
       final search path if it exists.  A system name of man inserts the  nor-
       mal  search  path  without  subdirectories.  For example, if the search
       path would otherwise have been /usr/share/man:/usr/local/man, and $SYS-
       TEM   is  set  to  newOS:man,  then  the  final  search  path  will  be
       /usr/share/man/newOS:/usr/share/man:/usr/local/man/newOS:/usr/lo-
       cal/man.

       The  $MANPATH  environment  variable  overrides man-db's default manual
       page search paths.  Most users should not need to set it.   Its  syntax
       is similar to the $PATH environment variable: it consists of a sequence
       of directory names separated  by  colons.   It  overrides  the  default
       search path described above.

       If  the  value of $MANPATH starts with a colon, then the default search
       path is added at its start.  If the  value  of  $MANPATH  ends  with  a
       colon,  then the default search path is added at its end.  If the value
       of $MANPATH contains a double colon (::), then the default search  path
       is inserted in the middle of the value, between the two colons.

FORMAT
       The following field types are currently recognised:

       # comment
              Blank  lines or those beginning with a # will be treated as com-
              ments and ignored.

       MANDATORY_MANPATH manpath_element
              Lines of this form indicate manpaths  that  every  automatically
              generated  $MANPATH should contain.  This will typically include
              /usr/man.

       MANPATH_MAP path_element manpath_element
              Lines of this form set up $PATH to $MANPATH mappings.  For  each
              path_element  found in the user's $PATH, manpath_element will be
              added to the $MANPATH.

       MANDB_MAP manpath_element [ catpath_element ]
              Lines of this form indicate which manpaths are to be treated  as
              system  manpaths, and optionally where their cat files should be
              stored.  This field type is particularly important if man  is  a
              setuid  program,  as  (when  in  the  system  configuration file
              /etc/manpath.config rather than the per-user configuration  file
              .manpath)  it  indicates which manual page hierarchies to access
              as the setuid user and which as the invoking user.

              The system manual page hierarchies are usually those stored  un-
              der /usr such as /usr/man, /usr/local/man and /usr/X11R6/man.

              If  cat  pages  from  a particular manpath_element are not to be
              stored or are to be stored in  the  traditional  location,  cat-
              path_element may be omitted.

              Traditional  cat  placement  would  be  impossible for read only
              mounted manual page hierarchies and because of this it is possi-
              ble  to specify any valid directory hierarchy for their storage.
              To observe the Linux FSSTND the keyword FSSTND can  be  used  in
              place of an actual directory.

              Unfortunately,  it  is  necessary to specify all system man tree
              paths,  including  alternate  operating  system  paths  such  as
              /usr/man/sun    and    any    NLS    locale    paths   such   as
              /usr/man/de_DE.88591.

              As the information is parsed line by line in the order  written,
              it  is  necessary for any manpath that is a sub-hierarchy of an-
              other hierarchy to be listed first, otherwise an incorrect match
              will be made.  An example is that /usr/man/de_DE.88591 must come
              before /usr/man.

       DEFINE key value
              Lines of this form define miscellaneous configuration variables;
              see  the  default configuration file for those variables used by
              the manual pager utilities.  They include default paths to vari-
              ous  programs  (such as grep and tbl), and default sets of argu-
              ments to those programs.

       SECTION section ...
              Lines of this form define the order  in  which  manual  sections
              should  be  searched.  If there are no SECTION directives in the
              configuration file, the default is:

                     SECTION 1 n l 8 3 0 2 5 4 9 6 7

              If multiple SECTION directives are given,  their  section  lists
              will be concatenated.

              If a particular extension is not in this list (say, 1mh) it will
              be displayed with the rest of the section it  belongs  to.   The
              effect  of  this is that you only need to explicitly list exten-
              sions if you want to force a particular  order.   Sections  with
              extensions  should  usually  be  adjacent  to their main section
              (e.g. "1 1mh 8 ...").

              SECTIONS is accepted as an alternative name for this directive.

       MINCATWIDTH width
              If the terminal width is less than width, cat pages will not  be
              created (if missing) or displayed.  The default is 80.

       MAXCATWIDTH width
              If  the terminal width is greater than width, cat pages will not
              be created (if missing) or displayed.  The default is 80.

       CATWIDTH width
              If width is non-zero, cat pages will always be formatted  for  a
              terminal of the given width, regardless of the width of the ter-
              minal actually being used.  This should generally be within  the
              range set by MINCATWIDTH and MAXCATWIDTH.

       NOCACHE
              This flag prevents man(1) from creating cat pages automatically.

BUGS
       Unless  the rules above are followed and observed precisely, the manual
       pager utilities will not function as desired.   The  rules  are  overly
       complicated.

       https://gitlab.com/cjwatson/man-db/-/issues
       https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=man-db

2.10.2                            2022-03-17                        MANPATH(5)