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Manual Page Search Parameters

MANPATH(1) General Commands Manual MANPATH(1)

manpathdisplay search path for manual pages

manpath [-Ldq]

The manpath utility determines the user's manual search path from the user's PATH, and local configuration files. This result is echoed to the standard output.

Output manual locales list instead of the manual path.
Print extra debugging information.
Suppresses warning messages.

The manpath utility constructs the manual path from two sources:

  1. From each component of the user's PATH for the first of:
    • pathname/man
    • pathname/MAN
    • If pathname ends with /bin: pathname/../share/man and pathname/../man
  2. The configuration files listed in the FILES section for MANPATH entries.
The information from these locations is then concatenated together.

If the -L flag is set, the manpath utility will search the configuration files listed in the FILES section for MANLOCALE entries.

The following environment variables affect the execution of manpath:

If set with the -L flag, causes the utility to display a warning and the value, overriding any other configuration found on the system.
If set, causes the utility to display a warning and the value, overriding any other configuration found on the system.
Influences the manual path as described in the IMPLEMENTATION NOTES.

/etc/man.conf
System configuration file.
/usr/local/etc/man.d/*.conf
Local configuration files.

apropos(1), man(1), whatis(1), man.conf(5)

March 11, 2017 macOS