{"id":6581,"date":"2018-09-07T11:54:26","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T07:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.howtoforge.com\/linux-manpath-command\/"},"modified":"2018-09-07T11:54:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T07:54:26","slug":"linux-manpath-command-tutorial-for-beginners-5-examples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/linux-manpath-command-tutorial-for-beginners-5-examples\/","title":{"rendered":"Linux manpath Command Tutorial for Beginners (5 Examples)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Man pages in Linux is the go to spot for first-level support when it comes to command line utilities. As most of you would know, you just write ‘man [command-name]’ and the corresponding man page pops up. But do you know the path where these man pages are searched for?<\/p>\n

In this tutorial, we will discuss manpath<\/strong>, a utility that shows you this information. But before we start with the explanation, it’s worth mentioning that all examples here have been tested on an Ubuntu 18.04 LTS machine.<\/p>\n

Linux manpath tutorial<\/h2>\n

The manpath command in Linux helps you determine search path for manual pages. Following is its syntax:<\/p>\n

manpath [-qgdc?V] [-m system[,…]] [-C file]<\/p>\n

And here’s how the tool’s man page describes it:<\/p>\n

 If\u00a0 $MANPATH is set, manpath will simply display its contents and issue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a warning.\u00a0 If not, manpath will determine a suitable manual page hier?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 archy search path and display the results.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The\u00a0 colon-delimited\u00a0 path\u00a0 is determined using information gained from\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the man-db configuration file - (\/etc\/manpath.config)\u00a0 and\u00a0 the\u00a0 user's\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 environment.<\/p><\/pre>\n
Following are some Q&A-styled examples that should give you a good idea on how the manpath command works.<\/p>\n
Q1. How the manpath command works?<\/h2>\n
Basic usage is pretty straight forward – just execute ‘manpath’ sans any option.<\/p>\n
manpath<\/p>\n
For example, here’s what the above command produced in output on my system:<\/p>\n
\/usr\/local\/man:\/usr\/local\/share\/man:\/usr\/share\/man<\/pre>\n
So you can see, manpath produces a colon separated list of paths for manual pages.<\/p>\n
Note that you can use the -g command line option in case you want to produce a manpath consisting of all paths named as ‘global’ within the man-db configuration file.<\/p>\n
Q2. How to have catpath in output instead of manpath?<\/h2>\n
For this, use the -c command line option.<\/p>\n
manpath -c<\/p>\n
Here’s how the tool’s man page explains this operation:<\/p>\n
Once the manpath is determined, each path element is converted to its relative catpath.<\/pre>\n
For example, here’s the output produced on my system:<\/p>\n
\/var\/cache\/man\/oldlocal:\/var\/cache\/man\/local:\/var\/cache\/man<\/pre>\n
Q3. How to make manpath print debugging information?<\/h2>\n
For this, use the -d command line option.<\/p>\n
manpath -d<\/p>\n
For example, here’s the output this command produced on my system:<\/p>\n
\"How<\/a><\/p>\n
Agreed, you may not use this option very frequently, but you should at least be aware of it in case you need to debug the tool’s output.<\/p>\n
Q4. How to make manpath access other OS’ manual hierarchies?<\/h2>\n
For this, use the -m command line option. Here’s how the tool’s man page explains this option:<\/p>\n
-m system[,...], --systems=system[,...]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If\u00a0 this\u00a0 system\u00a0 has access to other operating sys?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 tem's manual hierarchies, this option can be used to\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 include\u00a0 them\u00a0 in the output of manpath.\u00a0 To include\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 NewOS's manual page hierarchies use\u00a0 the\u00a0 option\u00a0 -m\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 NewOS.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The\u00a0 system\u00a0 specified can be a combination of comma\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 delimited operating system names.\u00a0\u00a0 To\u00a0 include\u00a0 the\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 native\u00a0 operating\u00a0 system's manual page hierarchies,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the system name man must be included in the argument\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 string.\u00a0 This option will override the $SYSTEM envi?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ronment variable.<\/p><\/pre>\n
Q5. How to make manpath use a custom config file?<\/h2>\n
By default, manpath fetches information from the following file:<\/p>\n
\/etc\/manpath.config<\/pre>\n
However, if you want, you can force manpath to read any other file. This you can do using -C command line option.<\/p>\n
manpath -C NEWFILE-PATH<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
If your Linux command line work involves dealing with man pages, the manpath command is a helpful tool for you. Here, in this tutorial, we have discussed majority of manpath command line options. For more info on the tool, head to its man page<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n\"Himanshu <\/p>\n
About Himanshu Arora<\/strong><\/p>\n
Himanshu Arora has been working on Linux since 2007. He carries professional experience in system level programming, networking protocols, and command line. In addition to HowtoForge, Himanshu’s work has also been featured in some of world’s other leading publications including Computerworld, IBM DeveloperWorks, and Linux Journal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Man pages in Linux is the go to spot for first-level support when it comes to command line utilities. As most of you would know, you just write ‘man [command-name]’ and the corresponding man page pops up. But do you know the path where these man pages are searched for? In this tutorial, we will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-36"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afaghhosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}