1.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1991 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)man.conf.5 5.6 (Berkeley) 05/10/91 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt MAN.CONF 5 10.Sh NAME 11.Nm man.conf 12.Nd configuration file for 13.Xr man 1 14.Sh DESCRIPTION 15The 16.Xr man 1 , 17.Xr apropos 1 , 18and 19.Xr whatis 1 20commands 21search for manual pages or their database files as specified by the 22.Nm man.conf 23file. 24Manual pages are expected to be preformatted (see 25.Xr nroff 1 ) 26and named with a trailing ``.0''. 27.Pp 28The 29.Nm man.conf 30file contains two types of lines. 31.Pp 32The first type of line is a ``section'' line, which contains a 33section name followed by a directory path. 34Lines in this format specify that manual pages for the section 35may be found in the directory. 36.Pp 37Directories named with a trailing slash character (``/'') are expected 38to contain subdirectories (see the keyword ``_subdir'' below) instead 39of manual pages. 40These subdirectories are searched instead of the directory. 41.Pp 42All directories (either explicitly specified or named with a trailing 43slash) may contain subdirectories. 44The 45.Xr man 1 46command 47automatically searches any subdirectory with the same name as the 48current machine type before the directory is searched. 49No specification of these subdirectories is necessary in the 50.Nm man.conf 51file. 52.Pp 53Section names are unrestricted except for the reserved words specified 54below; in general, however, it is best to avoid anything beginning with 55an underscore (``_'') in order to avoid future incompatibilities. 56.Pp 57The section named ``_default'' is the list of directories to be 58searched if no section is specified. 59.Pp 60The second type of line is preceded with a ``keyword''. 61The possible keywords and their meanings are as follows: 62.Pp 63.Bl -tag -width indent 64.It _subdir 65The list (in search order) of subdirectories which will be searched in 66any directory named with a trailing slash (``/'') character. This 67list is also used when a path is specified by the 68.Ev MANPATH 69environment 70variable or the 71.Fl M 72option. 73.It _version 74The version of the configuration file. 75.It _whatdb 76The full pathname (not just a directory path) for a database to be used 77by the 78.Xr apropos 1 79and 80.Xr whatis 1 81commands. 82.El 83.Pp 84Multiple specifications for all types of lines (except for ``_version'') 85are cumulative and the entries are used in the order listed in the file; 86multiple entries may be listed per line, as well. 87.Pp 88Empty lines or lines whose first non-whitespace character is a hash 89mark (``#'') are ignored. 90.Sh EXAMPLES 91Given the following 92.Nm man.conf 93file: 94.Bd -literal -offset indent 95_version BSD.1 96_subdir cat1 cat2 cat3 97_default /usr/share/man/ 98sect3 /usr/share/man/cat3 99.Ed 100.Pp 101The default 102.Xr mktemp 3 103manual page should be stored in 104.Dq Pa /usr/share/man/cat3/mktemp.0 . 105Any 106.Tn VAX 107architecture specific version of it should be stored in 108.Dq Pa cat3/vax/mktemp.0 . 109.Pp 110The command 111.Dq Li man mktemp 112would search the subdirectories 113.Dq Pa cat1 114.Dq Pa cat2 , 115and 116.Dq Pa cat3 , 117in 118.Dq Pa /usr/share/man , 119in that order, for 120.Dq Pa mktemp.0''. 121If a subdirectory with the same name as the current machine type 122existed in any of them, it would be searched as well. 123.Pp 124The command 125.Dq Li man sect3 mktemp 126would only search 127.Dq Li /usr/share/man/cat3 128and any possible per machine subdirectory. 129.Sh FILES 130.Bl -tag -width /etc/man.conf -compact 131.It Pa /etc/man.conf 132Standard manual directory search path. 133.El 134.Sh SEE ALSO 135.Xr apropos 1 , 136.Xr machine 1 , 137.Xr man 1 , 138.Xr whatis 1 , 139.Xr whereis 1 140.Sh HISTORY 141The 142.Nm 143file format 144.Ud . 145