MANPATH(1)

📦
version 2.13.1 · 11 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, fedora 43, fedora 44

💅 MANPATH — the manual pager utils glow-up 💅

okay bestie, so this is the manpath(1) page from the Manual pager utils squad, and it's literally the tool that tells you where your manual pages live. let's get into it 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

manpath — determine search path for manual pages

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

manpath [-qgdc?V] [-m system[,...]] [-C file]

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

okay so here's the tea. if $MANPATH is set, manpath will simply display its contents and issue a warning. that's it. that's the whole move. no thoughts, head empty, just showing you what you already set. 🙈

but if $MANPATH is not set? then manpath will determine a suitable manual page hierarchy search path and display the results. main character energy fr fr. 👑

the colon-delimited path is determined using information gained from the man-db configuration file — (/etc/man_db.conf) — and the user's environment. both of those things, together, bestie. the config file AND the env. no cap. 💖

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -q, --quiet — do not issue warnings. shhh. 🤫
  • -d, --debug — print debugging information. for when you need to see the receipts. 🔍
  • -c, --catpath — produce a catpath as opposed to a manpath. once the manpath is determined, each path element is converted to its relative catpath. it's giving transformation sequence ✨
  • -g, --global — produce a manpath consisting of all paths named as "global" within the man-db configuration file. the globals, the whole globals, and nothing but the globals 💅
  • -m system[,...], --systems=system[,...] — if this system has access to other operating systems' manual hierarchies, this option can be used to include them in the output of manpath. to include NewOS's manual page hierarchies use the option -m NewOS.

the system specified can be a combination of comma delimited operating system names. to include the native operating system's manual page hierarchies, the system name man must be included in the argument string. this option will override the $SYSTEM environment variable. override! it said override! 😭

  • -C file, --config-file=file — use this user configuration file rather than the default of ~/.manpath. pick your own file, be your own person 🫶
  • -?, --help — print a help message and exit. help is always there for you 🌈
  • --usage — print a short usage message and exit. the short version. the tl;dr. ✨
  • -V, --version — display version information. ✨

🌼 ENVIRONMENT 🌼

  • MANPATH — if $MANPATH is set, manpath displays its value rather than determining it on the fly.

see the SEARCH PATH section of manpath(5) for the default behaviour and details of how this environment variable is handled. go read manpath(5), bestie, it's right there and it knows things 💖

  • SYSTEM — if $SYSTEM is set, it will have the same effect as if it had been specified as the argument to the -m option. sneaky little shortcut, iykyk 👑

🦋 FILES 🦋

  • /etc/man_db.conf — man-db configuration file. the sacred text 🎀

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

apropos(1), man(1), whatis(1)

the whole friend group. go say hi. 🫶

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

  • Wilf. (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk).
  • Fabrizio Polacco (fpolacco@debian.org).
  • Colin Watson (cjwatson@debian.org).

absolute icons, all three of them 👑✨

💀 BUGS 💀

found a bug? not me being the one to tell you — go tell them, fr fr 😭

and that's the whole page bestie!! this was version 2.13.1, dated 2025-05-02, brought to you by the man-db girlies. slay, stay hydrated, and read your man pages 💅💖🌸
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