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.\"	@(#)man.conf.5	8.5 (Berkeley) 1/2/94
.\"
.Dd June 18, 2022
.Dt MAN.CONF 5
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm man.conf
.Nd configuration file for manual pages
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
file contains the default configuration used by
.Xr man 1 ,
.Xr apropos 1 ,
.Xr whatis 1 ,
.Xr catman 8 ,
and
.Xr makemandb 8
to find manual pages and information about manual pages (e.g., the
.Xr whatis 1
database).
.Pp
Manual pages are located by searching an ordered set of directories
called the
.Dq man path
for a file that matches the name of the requested page.
Each directory in the search path usually has a set of subdirectories
in it (though this is not required).
When subdirectories are used, there are normally two subdirectories
for each section of the manual.
One subdirectory contains formatted copies of that section's manual
pages that can be directly displayed to a terminal, while the other
section subdirectory contains unformatted copies of the pages (see
.Xr nroff 1
and
.Xr mdoc 7 ) .
Formatted manual pages are normally named with a trailing
.Ql \&.0
suffix.
.Pp
The
.Nm
file contains comment and configuration lines.
Comment lines start with the
.Ql #
character.
Blank lines are also treated as comment lines.
Configuration lines consist of a configuration keyword followed by a
configuration string.
There are two types of configuration keywords: control keywords and
section keywords.
Control keywords must start with the
.Ql _
character.
The following control keywords are currently defined:
.Bl -tag -width Ic
.It Ic _build
Identifies the set of suffixes used for manual pages that must be
formatted for display and the command that should be used to format
them.
Manual file names, regardless of their format, are expected to end in a
.Dq \&.*
pattern, i.e. a
.Ql \&.
followed by some suffix.
The first field of a
.Ic _build
line contains a man page suffix specification.
The suffix specification may contain the normal shell globbing characters
.Po
.Em not
including csh-style curly braces
.Pc .
The rest of the
.Ic _build
line is a shell command line whose standard
output is a formatted manual page that can be directly displayed to
the user.
There should be exactly one occurrence of the string
.Ql %s
in the shell command line, and it will
be replaced by the name of the file which is being formatted.
.It Ic _crunch
Used by
.Xr catman 8
to determine how to crunch formatted pages
which originally were compressed man pages.
The first field lists a suffix which indicates what kind of compression was
used to compress the man page.
The rest of the line must be a shell command line, used to compress the
formatted pages.
There should be exactly one occurrence of the string
.Ql %s
in the shell command line, and it will
be replaced by the name of the output file.
.It Ic _default
Contains the system-wide default man path used to search for man pages.
.It Ic _mandb
Defines the full pathname (not just a directory path) for a database to
be used by the
.Xr apropos 1
and
.Xr whatis 1
commands.
The pathname may contain the normal shell globbing characters,
including csh-style curly braces;
to escape a shell globbing character,
precede it with a backslash
.Pq Ql \e .
.It Ic _subdir
Contains the list (in search order) of section subdirectories which will
be searched in any man path directory named with a trailing slash
.Pq Ql /
character.
This list is also used, even if there is no trailing slash character,
when a path is specified to the
.Xr man 1
utility by the user, by the
.Ev MANPATH
environment variable, or by the
.Fl M
and
.Fl m
options.
.It Ic _suffix
identifies the set of suffixes used for formatted man pages
(the
.Ql \&.0
suffix is normally used here).
Formatted man pages can be directly displayed to the user.
Each suffix may contain the normal shell globbing characters
.Po
.Em not
including csh-style curly braces
.Pc .
.It Ic _version
Contains the version of the configuration file.
.It Ic _ Ns Aq Ar machine
Defines additional paths to be searched for the particular
.Ar machine
hardware name whose literal value is taken from
.Xr uname 1
.Fl m .
For example, on an amd64, the
.Ic _amd64
control keyword is used, where
.Ql x86
is supplied by default as an alternate machine path to also search.
.El
.Pp
Section configuration lines in
.Nm
consist of a section keyword naming the section and a configuration
string that defines the directory or subdirectory path that the section's
manual pages are located in.
The path may contain the normal shell globbing characters,
including csh-style curly braces;
to escape a shell globbing character,
precede it with a backslash
.Pq Ql \e .
Section keywords must not start with the
.Ql _
character.
.Pp
A section path may contain either a list of absolute directories or
a list of relative directories (but not both).
Relative directory paths are treated as a list of subdirectories that
are appended to the current man path directory being searched.
Section configuration lines with absolute directory paths (starting with
.Ql / )
completely replace the current man search path directory with their
content.
.Pp
Section configuration lines with absolute directory paths ending
with a trailing slash character are expected to contain subdirectories
of manual pages, (see the keyword
.Ic _subdir
above).
The
.Ic _subdir
subdirectory list is not applied to absolute section directories
if there is no trailing slash.
.Pp
In addition to the above rules, the
.Xr man 1
command also always checks in each directory that it searches for
a subdirectory with the same name as the current machine type.
If a machine-specific subdirectory is found, it is also searched
before the parent directory is.
This allows the manual to contain machine-specific man pages.
Note that the machine subdirectory does not need to be specified
in the
.Nm
file.
.Pp
Multiple specifications for all types of
.Nm
configuration lines are
cumulative and the entries are used in the order listed in the file;
multiple entries may be listed per line, as well.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
.It Pa /etc/man.conf
Standard manual configuration file.
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
Given the following
.Nm
file:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
_version	BSD.2
_subdir		cat[123]
_suffix		.0
_build		.[1-9]	nroff -man %s
_build		.tbl	tbl %s | nroff -man
_i386		x86
_default	/usr/share/man/
sect3		/usr/share/man/{old/,}cat3
.Ed
.Pp
By default, the command
.Dq Li man mktemp
will search for
.Pa mktemp. Ns Aq Ar digit
and
.Pa  mktemp.tbl
in the directories
.Pa /usr/share/man/cat1 ,
.Pa /usr/share/man/cat2 ,
and
.Pa /usr/share/man/cat3 .
If on a machine of type
.Dq vax ,
the subdirectory
.Pa vax
in each
directory would be searched as well, before the directory was
searched.
.Pp
If
.Pa mktemp.tbl
was found first, the command
.Dq Li tbl Ao Ar manual page Ac Li \&| nroff -man
would be run to build a man page for display to the user.
.Pp
The command
.Dq Li man sect3 mktemp
would search the directories
.Pa /usr/share/man/old/cat3
and
.Pa /usr/share/man/cat3 ,
in that order, for
the mktemp manual page.
If a subdirectory with the same name as the current machine type
existed in any of them, it would be searched as well, before each
of them were searched.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr apropos 1 ,
.Xr machine 1 ,
.Xr man 1 ,
.Xr whatis 1 ,
.Xr whereis 1 ,
.Xr fnmatch 3 ,
.Xr glob 3 ,
.Xr catman 8 ,
.Xr makemandb 8