1.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1991, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)man.conf.5 8.1 (Berkeley) 06/09/93 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt MAN.CONF 5 10.Os 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm man.conf 13.Nd configuration file for 14.Xr man 1 15.Sh DESCRIPTION 16The 17.Xr man 1 , 18.Xr apropos 1 , 19and 20.Xr whatis 1 21commands 22search for manual pages or their database files as specified by the 23.Nm man.conf 24file. 25Manual pages are expected to be preformatted (see 26.Xr nroff 1 ) 27and named with a trailing ``.0''. 28.Pp 29The 30.Nm man.conf 31file contains two types of lines. 32.Pp 33The first type of line is a ``section'' line, which contains a 34section name followed by a directory path. 35Lines in this format specify that manual pages for the section 36may be found in the directory. 37.Pp 38Directories named with a trailing slash character (``/'') are expected 39to contain subdirectories (see the keyword ``_subdir'' below) instead 40of manual pages. 41These subdirectories are searched instead of the directory. 42.Pp 43All directories (either explicitly specified or named with a trailing 44slash) may contain subdirectories. 45The 46.Xr man 1 47command 48automatically searches any subdirectory with the same name as the 49current machine type before the directory is searched. 50No specification of these subdirectories is necessary in the 51.Nm man.conf 52file. 53.Pp 54Section names are unrestricted except for the reserved words specified 55below; in general, however, it is best to avoid anything beginning with 56an underscore (``_'') in order to avoid future incompatibilities. 57.Pp 58The section named ``_default'' is the list of directories to be 59searched if no section is specified. 60.Pp 61The second type of line is preceded with a ``keyword''. 62The possible keywords and their meanings are as follows: 63.Pp 64.Bl -tag -width "_version" 65.It _subdir 66The list (in search order) of subdirectories which will be searched in 67any directory named with a trailing slash (``/'') character. This 68list is also used when a path is specified by the 69.Ev MANPATH 70environment 71variable or the 72.Fl M 73option. 74.It _version 75The version of the configuration file. 76.It _whatdb 77The full pathname (not just a directory path) for a database to be used 78by the 79.Xr apropos 1 80and 81.Xr whatis 1 82commands. 83.El 84.Pp 85Multiple specifications for all types of lines (except for ``_version'') 86are cumulative and the entries are used in the order listed in the file; 87multiple entries may be listed per line, as well. 88.Pp 89Empty lines or lines whose first non-whitespace character is a hash 90mark (``#'') are ignored. 91.Sh EXAMPLES 92Given the following 93.Nm man.conf 94file: 95.Bd -literal -offset indent 96_version BSD.1 97_subdir cat1 cat2 cat3 98_default /usr/share/man/ 99sect3 /usr/share/man/cat3 100.Ed 101.Pp 102The default 103.Xr mktemp 3 104manual page should be stored in 105.Dq Pa /usr/share/man/cat3/mktemp.0 . 106Any 107.Tn VAX 108architecture specific version of it should be stored in 109.Dq Pa cat3/vax/mktemp.0 . 110.Pp 111The command 112.Dq Li man mktemp 113would search the subdirectories 114.Dq Pa cat1 115.Dq Pa cat2 , 116and 117.Dq Pa cat3 , 118in 119.Dq Pa /usr/share/man , 120in that order, for 121.Dq Pa mktemp.0''. 122If a subdirectory with the same name as the current machine type 123existed in any of them, it would be searched as well. 124.Pp 125The command 126.Dq Li man sect3 mktemp 127would only search 128.Dq Li /usr/share/man/cat3 129and any possible per machine subdirectory. 130.Sh FILES 131.Bl -tag -width /etc/man.conf -compact 132.It Pa /etc/man.conf 133Standard manual directory search path. 134.El 135.Sh SEE ALSO 136.Xr apropos 1 , 137.Xr machine 1 , 138.Xr man 1 , 139.Xr whatis 1 , 140.Xr whereis 1 141