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
   hierarchies  (manpaths)  are to be treated as system hierarchies and to
   assign 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.

FORMAT

   The following field types are currently recognised:

   # comment
          Blank  lines  or  those  beginning  with  a # will be treated as
          comments 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
          under /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,
          catpath_element may be omitted.

          Traditional  cat  placement  would  be  impossible for read only
          mounted manual page  hierarchies  and  because  of  this  it  is
          possible  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
          another 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
          various  programs  (such  as  grep and tbl), and default sets of
          arguments 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
          extensions 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
          terminal 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.





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