MANPATH(5) /etc/man_db.conf MANPATH(5) manpath - /etc/man_db.conf manpath manpath (manpath) cat $MANPATH/etc/man_db.conf man-db $PATH path_element manpath_element path_element MANPATH_MAP path_element/../manpath_element/manpath_element/../share/man path_element/share/man MANDATORY_MANPATH 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 operating 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 system 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/local/man/newOS: /usr/local/man. $MANPATH man-db $PATH $MANPATH $MANPATH :: # # MANDATORY_MANPATH manpath_element $MANPATH manpath /usr/man MANPATH_MAP path_element manpath_element $PATH $MANPATH $PATH path_element manpath_element $MANPATH MANDB_MAP manpath_element [ catpath_element ] manpath manpath cat man setuid ( /etc/man_db.conf .manpath ) setuid /usr /usr/man, /usr/local/man /usr/X11R6/man manpath_element cat catpath_element cat () cat Linux FSSTND"FSSTND" man /usr/man/sun NLS /usr/man/de_DE.88591 manpath/usr/man/de_DE.88591 /usr/man DEFINE ( grep tbl) SECTION ... SECTION SECTION 1 n l 8 3 0 2 3type 5 4 9 6 7 SECTION 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 explicitly list extensions if you want to force a particular order. Sections with extensions should usually be adjacent to their main section (e.g. "1 1mh 8 ..."). SECTIONS MINCATWIDTH () cat 80 MAXCATWIDTH () cat 80 CATWIDTH cat MINCATWIDTH MAXCATWIDTH NOCACHE man(1) cat BUGS https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/issues https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=man-db 2.13.1 2025-05-02 MANPATH(5)