| MAN.CONF(5) | File Formats Manual | MAN.CONF(5) | 
man.conf —
man.conf file contains the default configuration
  used by man(1),
  apropos(1),
  whatis(1),
  catman(8), and
  makemandb(8) to find manual
  pages and information about manual pages (e.g., the
  whatis(1) database).
Manual pages are located by searching an ordered set of
    directories called the “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
    nroff(1) and
    mdoc(7)). Formatted manual pages
    are normally named with a trailing
    ‘.0’ suffix.
The man.conf file contains comment and
    configuration lines. Comment lines start with the
    ‘#’ 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 ‘_’
    character. The following control keywords are currently defined:
_build.’ followed by some suffix. The
      first field of a _build line contains a man page
      suffix specification. The suffix specification may contain the normal
      shell globbing characters (not including csh-style curly
      braces). The rest of the _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 ‘%s’ in the shell command
      line, and it will be replaced by the name of the file which is being
      formatted._crunch%s’ in the shell command line, and
      it will be replaced by the name of the output file._default_mandb\’)._subdir/’) character. This list is also
      used, even if there is no trailing slash character, when a path is
      specified to the man(1) utility
      by the user, by the MANPATH environment variable,
      or by the -M and -m
      options._suffix.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 (not
      including csh-style curly braces)._version_⟨machine⟩-m. For example, on an amd64, the
      _amd64 control keyword is used, where
      ‘x86’ is supplied by default as an
      alternate machine path to also search.Section configuration lines in man.conf
    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
    (‘\’). Section keywords must not start
    with the ‘_’ character.
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 ‘/’)
    completely replace the current man search path directory with their
  content.
Section configuration lines with absolute directory paths ending
    with a trailing slash character are expected to contain subdirectories of
    manual pages, (see the keyword _subdir above). The
    _subdir subdirectory list is not applied to absolute
    section directories if there is no trailing slash.
In addition to the above rules, the
    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 man.conf file.
Multiple specifications for all types of
    man.conf 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.
man.conf file:
_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
By default, the command “man
    mktemp” will search for
    mktemp.⟨digit⟩
    and mktemp.tbl in the directories
    /usr/share/man/cat1,
    /usr/share/man/cat2, and
    /usr/share/man/cat3. If on a machine of type
    “vax”, the subdirectory vax in each
    directory would be searched as well, before the directory was searched.
If mktemp.tbl was found first, the command
    “tbl ⟨manual
    page⟩ | nroff -man” would be run
    to build a man page for display to the user.
The command “man sect3
    mktemp” would search the directories
    /usr/share/man/old/cat3 and
    /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.
| June 18, 2022 | NetBSD 10.1 |