MAN.CONF(5)                 BSD Programmer's Manual                MAN.CONF(5)

NAME
     man.conf - configuration file for man(1)

DESCRIPTION
     The man(1),  apropos(1),  and whatis(1) commands search for manual pages
     or their database files as specified by the man.conf file.  Manual pages
     are expected to be preformatted (see nroff(1))  and named with a trailing
     ``.0''.

     The man.conf file contains two types of lines.

     The first type of line is a ``section'' line, which contains a section
     name followed by a directory path.  Lines in this format specify that
     manual pages for the section may be found in the directory.

     Directories named with a trailing slash character (``/'') are expected to
     contain subdirectories (see the keyword ``_subdir'' below) instead of
     manual pages.  These subdirectories are searched instead of the directo-
     ry.

     All directories (either explicitly specified or named with a trailing
     slash) may contain subdirectories.  The man(1) command automatically
     searches any subdirectory with the same name as the current machine type
     before the directory is searched.  No specification of these subdirecto-
     ries is necessary in the man.conf file.

     Section names are unrestricted except for the reserved words specified
     below; in general, however, it is best to avoid anything beginning with
     an underscore (``_'') in order to avoid future incompatibilities.

     The section named ``_default'' is the list of directories to be searched
     if no section is specified.

     The second type of line is preceded with a ``keyword''.  The possible
     keywords and their meanings are as follows:

     _subdir
             The list (in search order) of subdirectories which will be
             searched in any directory named with a trailing slash (``/'')
             character.  This list is also used when a path is specified by
             the MANPATH environment variable or the -M option.

     _version
             The version of the configuration file.

     _whatdb
             The full pathname (not just a directory path) for a database to
             be used by the apropos(1) and whatis(1) commands.

     Multiple specifications for all types of lines (except for ``_version'')
     are cumulative and the entries are used in the order listed in the file;
     multiple entries may be listed per line, as well.

     Empty lines or lines whose first non-whitespace character is a hash mark
     (``#'') are ignored.

EXAMPLES
     Given the following man.conf file:

           _version        BSD.1
           _subdir         cat1 cat2 cat3
           _default        /usr/share/man/
           sect3           /usr/share/man/cat3

     The default mktemp(3) manual page should be stored in
     ``/usr/share/man/cat3/mktemp.0''. Any VAX architecture specific version
     of it should be stored in ``cat3/vax/mktemp.0''.

     The command ``man mktemp'' would search the subdirectories ``cat1''
     ``cat2'', and ``cat3'', in ``/usr/share/man'', in that order, for
     ``mktemp.0''.'' If a subdirectory with the same name as the current ma-
     chine type existed in any of them, it would be searched as well.

     The command ``man sect3 mktemp'' would only search
     ``/usr/share/man/cat3'' and any possible per machine subdirectory.

FILES
     /etc/man.conf  Standard manual directory search path.

SEE ALSO
     apropos(1),  machine(1),  man(1),  whatis(1),  whereis(1)

HISTORY
     The man.conf file format currently under development.

                                March 27, 1993                               2