# man > manpath(5) [_MANPATH_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/MANPATH/5/markdown) /etc/manpath.config [_MANPATH_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/MANPATH/5/markdown) ## NAME manpath - format of the /etc/manpath.config file ## DESCRIPTION The manpath configuration file is used by the manual page utilities to assess users' manpaths at run time, to indicate which manual page hierarchies (manpaths) are to be treated as system hierarchies and to assign them directories to be used for storing cat files. If the environment variable $**MANPATH **is already set, the information contained within /etc/manpath.config will not override it. ## SEARCH PATH By default, man-db examines the user's $**PATH**. For each _path_element_ found there, it adds _manpath_element_ to the search path. If there is no **MANPATH_MAP **line in the configuration file for a given _path_element_, then it adds all of _path_element/../man_, _path_element/man_, _path_element/../share/man_, and _path_ele‐_ _ment/share/man_ that exist as directories to the search path. It then adds any **MANDATORY_MANPATH **entries from the configuration file to the search path. Finally, if the **--systems **option is used or the $**SYSTEM **environment variable is set, then that should consist of a sequence of operating system names separated by commas or colons. This acts as a template, expanding the search path once more to allow access to other operat‐ ing systems' manual pages: for each system name, man-db looks for that name as a subdirectory of each entry in the search path, and adds it to the final search path if it exists. A sys‐ tem name of **man **inserts the normal search path without subdirectories. For example, if the search path would otherwise have been _/usr/share/man:/usr/local/man_, and $**SYSTEM **is set to _newOS:man_, then the final search path will be _/usr/share/man/newOS:/usr/share/man:/usr/lo‐_ _cal/man/newOS:/usr/local/man_. The $**MANPATH **environment variable overrides man-db's default manual page search paths. Most users should not need to set it. Its syntax is similar to the $**PATH **environment variable: it consists of a sequence of directory names separated by colons. It overrides the default search path described above. If the value of $**MANPATH **starts with a colon, then the default search path is added at its start. If the value of $**MANPATH **ends with a colon, then the default search path is added at its end. If the value of $**MANPATH **contains a double colon (**::**), then the default search path is inserted in the middle of the value, between the two colons. ## FORMAT The following field types are currently recognised: **# _**comment_ Blank lines or those beginning with a **# **will be treated as comments and ignored. **MANDATORY_MANPATH _**manpath_element_ Lines of this form indicate manpaths that every automatically generated $**MANPATH** should contain. This will typically include _/usr/man_. **MANPATH_MAP _**path_element_ _manpath_element_ Lines of this form set up $**PATH **to $**MANPATH **mappings. For each _path_element_ found in the user's $**PATH**, _manpath_element_ will be added to the $**MANPATH**. **MANDB_MAP _**manpath_element_ [ _catpath_element_ ] Lines of this form indicate which manpaths are to be treated as system manpaths, and optionally where their cat files should be stored. This field type is particularly important if **man **is a setuid program, as (when in the system configuration file /etc/manpath.config rather than the per-user configuration file .manpath) it indicates which manual page hierarchies to access as the setuid user and which as the invoking user. The system manual page hierarchies are usually those stored under _/usr_ such as _/usr/man_, _/usr/local/man_ and _/usr/X11R6/man_. If cat pages from a particular _manpath_element_ are not to be stored or are to be stored in the traditional location, _catpath_element_ may be omitted. Traditional cat placement would be impossible for read only mounted manual page hier‐ archies and because of this it is possible to specify any valid directory hierarchy for their storage. To observe the **Linux FSSTND **the keyword **FSSTND **can be used in place of an actual directory. Unfortunately, it is necessary to specify **all **system man tree paths, including alter‐ nate operating system paths such as _/usr/man/sun_ and any **NLS locale **paths such as _/usr/man/de_DE.88591_. As the information is parsed line by line in the order written, it is necessary for any manpath that is a sub-hierarchy of another hierarchy to be listed first, otherwise an incorrect match will be made. An example is that _/usr/man/de_DE.88591_ must come before _/usr/man_. **DEFINE _**key_ _value_ Lines of this form define miscellaneous configuration variables; see the default con‐ figuration file for those variables used by the manual pager utilities. They include default paths to various programs (such as _grep_ and _tbl_), and default sets of argu‐ ments to those programs. **SECTION _**section_ ... Lines of this form define the order in which manual sections should be searched. If there are no **SECTION **directives in the configuration file, the default is: SECTION 1 n l 8 3 0 2 3type 5 4 9 6 7 If multiple **SECTION **directives are given, their section lists will be concatenated. If a particular extension is not in this list (say, 1mh) it will be displayed with the rest of the section it belongs to. The effect of this is that you only need to ex‐ plicitly list extensions if you want to force a particular order. Sections with ex‐ tensions should usually be adjacent to their main section (e.g. "1 1mh 8 ..."). **SECTIONS **is accepted as an alternative name for this directive. **MINCATWIDTH _**width_ If the terminal width is less than _width_, cat pages will not be created (if missing) or displayed. The default is 80. **MAXCATWIDTH _**width_ If the terminal width is greater than _width_, cat pages will not be created (if miss‐ ing) or displayed. The default is 80. **CATWIDTH _**width_ If _width_ is non-zero, cat pages will always be formatted for a terminal of the given width, regardless of the width of the terminal actually being used. This overrides **MINCATWIDTH **and **MAXCATWIDTH**. **NOCACHE** This flag prevents [**man**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/man/1/markdown) from creating cat pages automatically. ## BUGS Unless the rules above are followed and observed precisely, the manual pager utilities will not function as desired. The rules are overly complicated. 2.12.0 2023-09-23 [_MANPATH_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/MANPATH/5/markdown)