MANPATH(5)		      /etc/manpath.config		    MANPATH(5)



NAME
       manpath - format of the /etc/manpath.config 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 hier
       archies	(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/manpath.config will not override it.

FORMAT
       The following field types are currently recognised:

       # comment
	      Blank  lines or those beginning with a # will be treated as com
	      ments 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 users $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/manpath.config 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, cat
	      path_element may be omitted.

	      Traditional cat placement would  be  impossible  for  read  only
	      mounted manual page hierarchies and because of this it is possi
	      ble 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 vari
	      ous programs (such as grep and tbl), and default sets  of  argu
	      ments to those programs.

BUGS
       Unless  the rules above are followed and observed precisely, the manual
       pager utilities will not function as desired.   The  rules  are	overly
       complicated.



2.4.3				  2005-07-03			    MANPATH(5)