1MANPATH(5)                     /etc/man_db.conf                     MANPATH(5)
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NAME

6       manpath - format of the /etc/man_db.conf file
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DESCRIPTION

9       The  manpath configuration file is used by the manual page utilities to
10       assess users' manpaths at run time, to indicate which manual page hier‐
11       archies  (manpaths)  are to be treated as system hierarchies and to as‐
12       sign them directories to be used for storing cat files.
13
14       If the environment variable $MANPATH is already  set,  the  information
15       contained within /etc/man_db.conf will not override it.
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SEARCH PATH

18       By  default,  man-db  examines the user's $PATH.  For each path_element
19       found there, it adds manpath_element to the search path.
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21       If there is no MANPATH_MAP line in the configuration file for  a  given
22       path_element,  then  it  adds  all  of  path_element/../man,  path_ele‐
23       ment/man, path_element/../share/man,  and  path_element/share/man  that
24       exist as directories to the search path.
25
26       It  then adds any MANDATORY_MANPATH entries from the configuration file
27       to the search path.
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29       Finally, if the --systems option is used  or  the  $SYSTEM  environment
30       variable  is  set,  then that should consist of a sequence of operating
31       system names separated by commas or colons.  This acts as  a  template,
32       expanding  the search path once more to allow access to other operating
33       systems' manual pages: for each system name, man-db looks for that name
34       as  a subdirectory of each entry in the search path, and adds it to the
35       final search path if it exists.  A system name of man inserts the  nor‐
36       mal  search  path  without  subdirectories.  For example, if the search
37       path would otherwise have been /usr/share/man:/usr/local/man, and $SYS‐
38       TEM   is  set  to  newOS:man,  then  the  final  search  path  will  be
39       /usr/share/man/newOS:/usr/share/man:/usr/local/man/newOS:/usr/lo‐
40       cal/man.
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42       The  $MANPATH  environment  variable  overrides man-db's default manual
43       page search paths.  Most users should not need to set it.   Its  syntax
44       is similar to the $PATH environment variable: it consists of a sequence
45       of directory names separated  by  colons.   It  overrides  the  default
46       search path described above.
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48       If  the  value of $MANPATH starts with a colon, then the default search
49       path is added at its start.  If the  value  of  $MANPATH  ends  with  a
50       colon,  then the default search path is added at its end.  If the value
51       of $MANPATH contains a double colon (::), then the default search  path
52       is inserted in the middle of the value, between the two colons.
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FORMAT

55       The following field types are currently recognised:
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57       # comment
58              Blank  lines or those beginning with a # will be treated as com‐
59              ments and ignored.
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61       MANDATORY_MANPATH manpath_element
62              Lines of this form indicate manpaths  that  every  automatically
63              generated  $MANPATH should contain.  This will typically include
64              /usr/man.
65
66       MANPATH_MAP path_element manpath_element
67              Lines of this form set up $PATH to $MANPATH mappings.  For  each
68              path_element  found in the user's $PATH, manpath_element will be
69              added to the $MANPATH.
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71       MANDB_MAP manpath_element [ catpath_element ]
72              Lines of this form indicate which manpaths are to be treated  as
73              system  manpaths, and optionally where their cat files should be
74              stored.  This field type is particularly important if man  is  a
75              setuid  program,  as  (when  in  the  system  configuration file
76              /etc/man_db.conf rather than  the  per-user  configuration  file
77              .manpath)  it  indicates which manual page hierarchies to access
78              as the setuid user and which as the invoking user.
79
80              The system manual page hierarchies are usually those stored  un‐
81              der /usr such as /usr/man, /usr/local/man and /usr/X11R6/man.
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83              If  cat  pages  from  a particular manpath_element are not to be
84              stored or are to be stored in  the  traditional  location,  cat‐
85              path_element may be omitted.
86
87              Traditional  cat  placement  would  be  impossible for read only
88              mounted manual page hierarchies and because of this it is possi‐
89              ble  to specify any valid directory hierarchy for their storage.
90              To observe the Linux FSSTND the keyword FSSTND can  be  used  in
91              place of an actual directory.
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93              Unfortunately,  it  is  necessary to specify all system man tree
94              paths,  including  alternate  operating  system  paths  such  as
95              /usr/man/sun    and    any    NLS    locale    paths   such   as
96              /usr/man/de_DE.88591.
97
98              As the information is parsed line by line in the order  written,
99              it  is  necessary for any manpath that is a sub-hierarchy of an‐
100              other hierarchy to be listed first, otherwise an incorrect match
101              will be made.  An example is that /usr/man/de_DE.88591 must come
102              before /usr/man.
103
104       DEFINE key value
105              Lines of this form define miscellaneous configuration variables;
106              see  the  default configuration file for those variables used by
107              the manual pager utilities.  They include default paths to vari‐
108              ous  programs  (such as grep and tbl), and default sets of argu‐
109              ments to those programs.
110
111       SECTION section ...
112              Lines of this form define the order  in  which  manual  sections
113              should  be  searched.  If there are no SECTION directives in the
114              configuration file, the default is:
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116                     SECTION 1 n l 8 3 0 2 5 4 9 6 7
117
118              If multiple SECTION directives are given,  their  section  lists
119              will be concatenated.
120
121              If a particular extension is not in this list (say, 1mh) it will
122              be displayed with the rest of the section it  belongs  to.   The
123              effect  of  this is that you only need to explicitly list exten‐
124              sions if you want to force a particular  order.   Sections  with
125              extensions  should  usually  be  adjacent  to their main section
126              (e.g. "1 1mh 8 ...").
127
128              SECTIONS is accepted as an alternative name for this directive.
129
130       MINCATWIDTH width
131              If the terminal width is less than width, cat pages will not  be
132              created (if missing) or displayed.  The default is 80.
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134       MAXCATWIDTH width
135              If  the terminal width is greater than width, cat pages will not
136              be created (if missing) or displayed.  The default is 80.
137
138       CATWIDTH width
139              If width is non-zero, cat pages will always be formatted  for  a
140              terminal of the given width, regardless of the width of the ter‐
141              minal actually being used.  This should generally be within  the
142              range set by MINCATWIDTH and MAXCATWIDTH.
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144       NOCACHE
145              This flag prevents man(1) from creating cat pages automatically.
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BUGS

148       Unless  the rules above are followed and observed precisely, the manual
149       pager utilities will not function as desired.   The  rules  are  overly
150       complicated.
151
152       https://gitlab.com/cjwatson/man-db/-/issues
153       https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=man-db
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1572.10.0                            2022-02-04                        MANPATH(5)
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