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

NAME
       manpath - format of the /etc/man_db.conf 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/man_db.conf 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_element/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
       normal search path without subdirectories.  For example, if the search
       path would otherwise have been /usr/share/man:/usr/local/man, and
       $SYSTEM is set to newOS:man, then the final search path will be
       /usr/share/man/newOS:/usr/share/man:/usr/local/man/newOS:
       /usr/local/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
              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/man_db.conf 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 3type 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 overrides 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/man-db/man-db/-/issues
       https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=man-db

2.13.1                            2025-05-02                        MANPATH(5)