Annotation of src/usr.bin/man/man.conf.5, Revision 1.2
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34: .\" @(#)man.conf.5 8.5 (Berkeley) 1/2/94
35: .\"
36: .Dd January 2, 1994
37: .Dt MAN.CONF 5
38: .Os
39: .Sh NAME
40: .Nm man.conf
41: .Nd configuration file for
42: .Xr man 1
43: .Sh DESCRIPTION
44: The
45: .Xr man 1 ,
46: .Xr apropos 1 ,
47: and
48: .Xr whatis 1
49: commands
50: search for manual pages or their database files as specified by the
51: .Nm man.conf
52: file.
53: Manual pages are normally expected to be preformatted (see
54: .Xr nroff 1 )
55: and named with a trailing ``.0''.
56: .Pp
57: The
58: .Nm man.conf
59: file contains two types of lines.
60: .Pp
61: The first type of line is a ``section'' line, which contains a
62: section name followed by one or more directory paths.
63: The directory paths may contain the normal shell globbing characters,
64: including curly braces (``{}''); to escape a shell globbing character,
65: precede it with a backslash (``\e'').
66: Lines in this format specify that manual pages for the section
67: may be found in the following directories.
68: .Pp
69: Directories named with a trailing slash character (``/'') are expected
70: to contain subdirectories of manual pages, (see the keyword ``_subdir''
71: below) instead of manual pages.
72: These subdirectories are searched instead of the directory.
73: .Pp
74: Before searching any directory for a manual page, the
75: .Xr man 1
76: command always searches the subdirectory with the same name
77: as the current machine type, if it exists.
78: No specification of these subdirectories is necessary in the
79: .Nm man.conf
80: file.
81: .Pp
82: Section names are unrestricted except for the reserved words specified
83: below; in general, you should avoid anything with a leading underscore
84: (``_'') to avoid future incompatibilities.
85: .Pp
86: The section named ``_default'' is the list of directories that will
87: be searched if no section is specified by the user.
88: .Pp
89: The second type of line is preceded with a ``keyword''.
90: The possible keywords and their meanings are as follows:
91: .Pp
92: .Bl -tag -width "_version"
93: .It _build
94: Man file names, regardless of their format, are expected to end in
95: a ``.*'' pattern, i.e. a ``.'' followed by some suffix.
96: The first field of a _build line lists a suffix which indicates
97: files which need to be reformated or manipulated in some way before
98: being displayed to the user.
99: The suffix may contain the normal shell globbing characters (NOT
100: including curly braces (``{}'')).
101: The rest of the line must be a shell command line, the standard
102: output of which is the manual page in a format which may be directly
103: displayed to the user.
104: Any occurrences of the string ``%s'' in the shell command line will
105: be replaced by the name of the file which is being reformatted.
106: .It _subdir
107: The list (in search order) of subdirectories which will be searched in
108: any directory named with a trailing slash (``/'') character.
109: This list is also used when a path is specified to the
110: .Xr man 1
111: utility by the user, using the
112: .Ev MANPATH
113: environment variable or the
114: .Fl M
115: and
116: .Fl m
117: options.
118: .It _suffix
119: Man file names, regardless of their format are expected to end in
120: a ``.*'' pattern, i.e. a ``.'' followed by some suffix.
121: Each field of a _suffix line is a suffix which indicates
122: files which do not need to be reformatted or manipulated
123: in any way, but which may be directly displayed to the user.
124: Each suffix may contain the normal shell globbing characters (NOT
125: including curly braces (``{}'')).
126: .It _version
127: The version of the configuration file.
128: .It _whatdb
129: The full pathname (not just a directory path) for a database to be used
130: by the
131: .Xr apropos 1
132: and
133: .Xr whatis 1
134: commands.
135: .El
136: .Pp
137: Multiple specifications for all types of lines are cumulative and the
138: entries are used in the order listed in the file; multiple entries may
139: be listed per line, as well.
140: .Pp
141: Empty lines or lines whose first non-whitespace character is a hash
142: mark (``#'') are ignored.
143: .Sh EXAMPLES
144: Given the following
145: .Nm man.conf
146: file:
147: .Bd -literal -offset indent
148: _version BSD.2
149: _subdir cat[123]
150: _suffix .0
151: _build .[1-9] nroff -man %s
152: _build .tbl tbl %s | nroff -man
153: _default /usr/share/man/
154: sect3 /usr/share/man/{old/,}cat3
155: .Ed
156: .Pp
157: By default, the command
158: .Dq Li man mktemp
159: will search for
160: ``mktemp.<any_digit>'' and ``mktemp.tbl''
161: in the directories
162: .Dq Pa /usr/share/man/cat1 ,
163: .Dq Pa /usr/share/man/cat2 ,
164: and
165: .Dq Pa /usr/share/man/cat3 .
166: If on a machine of type ``vax'', the subdirectory ``vax'' in each
167: directory would be searched as well, before the directory was
168: searched.
169: .Pp
170: If ``mktemp.tbl'' was found first, the command
171: .Dq Li tbl <manual page> | nroff -man
172: would be run to build a man page for display to the user.
173: .Pp
174: The command
175: .Dq Li man sect3 mktemp
176: would search the directories
177: .Dq Pa /usr/share/man/old/cat3
178: and
179: .Dq Pa /usr/share/man/cat3 ,
180: in that order, for
181: the mktemp manual page.
182: If a subdirectory with the same name as the current machine type
183: existed in any of them, it would be searched as well, before each
184: of them were searched.
185: .Sh FILES
186: .Bl -tag -width /etc/man.conf -compact
187: .It Pa /etc/man.conf
188: Standard manual directory search path.
189: .El
190: .Sh SEE ALSO
191: .Xr apropos 1 ,
192: .Xr machine 1 ,
193: .Xr man 1 ,
194: .Xr whatis 1 ,
195: .Xr whereis 1 ,
196: .Xr fnmatch 3 ,
197: .Xr glob 3
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