xref: /csrg-svn/usr.bin/man/man.conf.5 (revision 49645)

.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff%
.\"
.\"     @(#)man.conf.5	5.6 (Berkeley) 05/10/91
.\"
.Dd
.Dt MAN.CONF 5
.Sh NAME
.Nm man.conf
.Nd configuration file for
.Xr man 1
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Xr man 1 ,
.Xr apropos 1 ,
and
.Xr whatis 1
commands
search for manual pages or their database files as specified by the
.Nm man.conf
file.
Manual pages are expected to be preformatted (see
.Xr nroff 1 )
and named with a trailing ``.0''.
.Pp
The
.Nm man.conf
file contains two types of lines.
.Pp
The first type of line is a ``section'' line, which contains a
section name followed by a directory path.
Lines in this format specify that manual pages for the section
may be found in the directory.
.Pp
Directories named with a trailing slash character (``/'') are expected
to contain subdirectories (see the keyword ``_subdir'' below) instead
of manual pages.
These subdirectories are searched instead of the directory.
.Pp
All directories (either explicitly specified or named with a trailing
slash) may contain subdirectories.
The
.Xr man 1
command
automatically searches any subdirectory with the same name as the
current machine type before the directory is searched.
No specification of these subdirectories is necessary in the
.Nm man.conf
file.
.Pp
Section names are unrestricted except for the reserved words specified
below; in general, however, it is best to avoid anything beginning with
an underscore (``_'') in order to avoid future incompatibilities.
.Pp
The section named ``_default'' is the list of directories to be
searched if no section is specified.
.Pp
The second type of line is preceded with a ``keyword''.
The possible keywords and their meanings are as follows:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It _subdir
The list (in search order) of subdirectories which will be searched in
any directory named with a trailing slash (``/'') character.  This
list is also used when a path is specified by the
.Ev MANPATH
environment
variable or the
.Fl M
option.
.It _version
The version of the configuration file.
.It _whatdb
The full pathname (not just a directory path) for a database to be used
by the
.Xr apropos 1
and
.Xr whatis 1
commands.
.El
.Pp
Multiple specifications for all types of lines (except for ``_version'')
are cumulative and the entries are used in the order listed in the file;
multiple entries may be listed per line, as well.
.Pp
Empty lines or lines whose first non-whitespace character is a hash
mark (``#'') are ignored.
.Sh EXAMPLES
Given the following
.Nm man.conf
file:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
_version	BSD.1
_subdir		cat1 cat2 cat3
_default	/usr/share/man/
sect3		/usr/share/man/cat3
.Ed
.Pp
The default
.Xr mktemp 3
manual page should be stored in
.Dq Pa /usr/share/man/cat3/mktemp.0 .
Any
.Tn VAX
architecture specific version of it should be stored in
.Dq Pa cat3/vax/mktemp.0 .
.Pp
The command
.Dq Li man mktemp
would search the subdirectories
.Dq Pa cat1
.Dq Pa cat2 ,
and
.Dq Pa cat3 ,
in
.Dq Pa /usr/share/man ,
in that order, for
.Dq Pa mktemp.0''.
If a subdirectory with the same name as the current machine type
existed in any of them, it would be searched as well.
.Pp
The command
.Dq Li man sect3 mktemp
would only search
.Dq Li /usr/share/man/cat3
and any possible per machine subdirectory.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/man.conf -compact
.It Pa /etc/man.conf
Standard manual directory search path.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr apropos 1 ,
.Xr machine 1 ,
.Xr man 1 ,
.Xr whatis 1 ,
.Xr whereis 1
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
file format
.Ud .