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authorIngo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>2015-03-27 00:18:14 +0000
committerIngo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>2015-03-27 00:18:14 +0000
commit074c6d1936d6996a35651157dfc1aa6783e8b52a (patch)
tree14532cfc8f6d15af3dd69ae03acc0d67771739ee /man.conf.5
parentfc24b5d84e98c44e14dac3af031fac65cdc7a9f6 (diff)
downloadmandoc-074c6d1936d6996a35651157dfc1aa6783e8b52a.tar.gz
Add man.conf(5). After adding some additional functionality,
one of the next steps will be to use it in addition to manpath(1) rather than as an alternative to it.
Diffstat (limited to 'man.conf.5')
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diff --git a/man.conf.5 b/man.conf.5
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+.\" $Id$
+.\"
+.\" Copyright (c) 2015 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
+.\"
+.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
+.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
+.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
+.\"
+.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
+.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
+.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
+.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
+.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
+.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
+.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
+.\"
+.Dd $Mdocdate$
+.Dt MAN.CONF 5
+.Os
+.Sh NAME
+.Nm man.conf
+.Nd configuration file for man(1)
+.Sh DESCRIPTION
+The
+.Nm
+configuration file allows to specify non-standard directory trees
+for use by the
+.Xr man 1 ,
+.Xr apropos 1 ,
+and
+.Xr makewhatis 8
+utilities.
+Its presence and all directives are optional.
+.Pp
+This file is an ASCII text file.
+Leading whitespace on lines, lines starting with
+.Sq # ,
+and blank lines are ignored.
+Words are separated by whitespace.
+The first word on each line is the name of a configuration directive.
+.Pp
+The following directives are supported:
+.Bl -tag -width Ds
+.It Ic manpath Ar path
+Specify that the absolute
+.Ar path
+contains a tree of manual pages, and that
+.Xr man 1 ,
+.Xr apropos 1 ,
+and
+.Xr makewhatis 8
+shall use it by default.
+Each such tree is supposed to contain subdirectories
+whose names consist of the strings
+.Sq man
+and/or
+.Sq cat
+followed by the names of sections, usually single digits.
+The former are supposed to contain unformatted manual pages in
+.Xr mdoc 7
+and/or
+.Xr man 7
+format; file names are supposed to end with the name of the section
+preceded by a dot.
+The latter are supposed to contain preformatted manual pages;
+file names are supposed to end with
+.Ql .0 .
+Creating a
+.Xr mandoc.db 5
+database with
+.Xr makewhatis 8
+in each directory configured with
+.Ic manpath
+is recommended and necessary for
+.Xr apropos 1
+to work, but not strictly required for
+.Xr man 1 .
+.Pp
+Specifying at least one
+.Ic manpath
+directive does not append to the default search path
+but instead overrides it.
+The order of
+.Ic manpath
+directives determines the manual page search order.
+.It Ic _whatdb Ar path Ns Cm /whatis.db
+This directive provides the same functionality as
+.Ic manpath ,
+but using a historic and misleading syntax.
+It is kept for backward compatibility for now,
+but will eventually be removed.
+.El
+.Sh FILES
+.Pa /etc/man.conf
+.Sh EXAMPLES
+The following configuration file reproduces the defaults:
+Installing it is equivalent to not having a file
+.Nm
+at all.
+.Bd -literal -offset indent
+manpath /usr/share/man
+manpath /usr/X11R6/man
+manpath /usr/local/man
+.Ed
+.Sh SEE ALSO
+.Xr apropos 1 ,
+.Xr man 1 ,
+.Xr makewhatis 8
+.Sh HISTORY
+A relatively complicated
+.Nm
+file format first appeared in
+.Bx 4.3 Reno .
+For
+.Ox 5.8 ,
+it was redesigned from scratch, aiming for simplicity.
+.Sh AUTHORS
+.An Ingo Schwarze Aq Mt schwarze@openbsd.org