1CATMAN(8)                   System Manager's Manual                  CATMAN(8)
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NAME

6       catman - create the cat files for the manual
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SYNOPSIS

9       /usr/sbin/catman [ -p ] [ -n ] [ -w ] [ -M path ] [ sections ]
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DESCRIPTION

12       Catman creates the preformatted versions of the on-line manual from the
13       nroff input files.  Each manual page is examined and those  whose  pre‐
14       formatted  versions  are  missing or out of date are recreated.  If any
15       changes are made, catman will recreate the whatis database.
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17       If there is one parameter not starting with a `-', it is taken to be  a
18       list of manual sections to look in.  For example
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20              catman 123
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22       will cause the updating to only happen to manual sections 1, 2, and 3.
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24       Options:
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26       -n     prevents creations of the whatis database.
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28       -p     prints what would be done instead of doing it.
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30       -w     causes only the whatis database to be created.  No manual refor‐
31              matting is done.
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33       -M     updates manual pages located in the set of directories specified
34              by  path  (/usr/man  by  default).  Path has the form of a colon
35              (`:')  separated  list   of   directory   names,   for   example
36              `/usr/local/man:/usr/man'.   If  the  environment variable `MAN‐
37              PATH' is set, its value is used for the default path.
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39       If the nroff source  file  contains  only  a  line  of  the  form  `.so
40       manx/yyy.x',  a  symbolic  link  is  made  in the catx directory to the
41       appropriate preformatted manual page.  This feature allows easy distri‐
42       bution  of  the  preformatted  manual pages among a group of associated
43       machines with rdist(1).  The nroff sources need not be  distributed  to
44       all  machines,  thus  saving the associated disk space.  As an example,
45       consider a local network with 5 machines, called mach1  through  mach5.
46       Suppose  mach3  has  the manual page nroff sources.  Every night, mach3
47       runs catman via cron(8) and later runs rdist with a distfile that looks
48       like:
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50              MANSLAVES = ( mach1 mach2 mach4 mach5 )
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52              MANUALS = (/usr/man/cat[1-8no] /usr/man/whatis)
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54              ${MANUALS} -> ${MANSLAVES}
55                      install -R;
56                      notify root;
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FILES

60       /usr/man               default manual directory location
61       /usr/man/man?/*.*      raw (nroff input) manual sections
62       /usr/man/cat?/*.*      preformatted manual pages
63       /usr/man/whatis        whatis database
64       /usr/sbin/makewhatis   command script to make whatis database
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SEE ALSO

67       man(1), cron(8), rdist(1)
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BUGS

70       Acts oddly on nights with full moons.
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72       The  need for catman(8) is almost but not quite gone.  Most of the man‐
73       pages have been moved out of /usr/src/man into the  sourcecode  hierar‐
74       chy.   The  recreation of the whatis database is the main use of catman
75       now.
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794th Berkeley Distribution      October 23, 1996                      CATMAN(8)