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mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx -- tthhee ddaattaabbaassee ccaacchheedd mmaannuuaall ppaaggeerr ssuuiittee _G_r_a_e_m_e _W_. _W_i_l_f_o_r_d _<_e_e_p_2_g_w_@_e_e_._s_u_r_r_e_y_._a_c_._u_k_> This document describes the setup, maintenance and use of a generic online manual page system with spe- cial reference to man_db-2.3.x and it's advanced features. mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 UUNNIIXX is a registered trademark of the X/Open Company, Ltd. NFS is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe in the United States. The general conventions used throughout this manual include +o file names and paths in _i_t_a_l_i_c, eg. _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n. +o variable strings (usually path components) enclosed within <> and in _i_t_a_l_i_c, eg. _<_s_e_c_>, +o program names in bboolldd, eg. mmaann. _____ +o comman_d_s__t_h_a_t__c_a_n_ be typed at a shell prompt in a |_b_o_x_|_, eg. |_m_a_n__f_o_o_b_a_r_|_. +o environment variables denoted as follows: $EENNVV__VVAARR Copyright (C) 1995 Graeme W. Wilford Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this per- mission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified ver- sions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copy- ing, provided that the entire resulting derived work is dis- tributed under the terms of a notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above condi- tions for modified versions, except that this permission no- tice may be stated in a translation approved by the copy- right holder. mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 11.. IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn 11..11.. mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx man_db-2.3.x is a package that is designed to provide users with online information in a fast and friendly manner while at the same time offering flexibility to the system adminis- trator. It is made up of several user programs: ++oo mmaann - an interface to the on-line reference manuals ++oo wwhhaattiiss - search the manual page names ++oo aapprrooppooss - search the manual page names and descriptions ++oo mmaannppaatthh - determine search path for manual pages several maintenance programs: ++oo mmaannddbb - create or update the manual page index caches ++oo ccaattmmaann - create or update the pre-formatted manual pages and a special pre-formatter that knows about compressed manual pages ++oo zzssooeelliimm - satisfy .so requests in roff input In addition to these compiled programs, there are two shell scripts, mmkkccaattddiirrss and cchheecckkmmaann in the _t_o_o_l_s subdirectory. These scripts aid the creation of cat directories and check for duplicated manual pages, respectively. The following manual pages are provided with this package to explain correct format and usage. mmaann(1), wwhhaattiiss(1), aapprroo-- ppooss(1), mmaannppaatthh(1), mmaannppaatthh(5), mmaannddbb(8), ccaattmmaann(8) and zzssooeelliimm(1). 11..11..11.. TThhee ccoonncceepptt man_db-2.3.x originally started out life as program suite man-1.1B, written by John W. Eaton <jwe@che.utexas.edu> and maintained by Rik Faith <faith@cs.unc.edu> to which support proposed by the newly formed FFSSSSTTNNDD committee regarding cat directories was added. Since then, man_db-2.3.x's most innovative feature: the database cache scheme1 has been significantly developed. The basic idea was to reduce manual page search times to a mini- mum. The following piece of text is included from the man_db-2.2 distribution: The theory: If you go to a library to take a book out, what do you do? ____________________ 1 originally conceived after observing the actions of the perl based manual pager suite, man-pl written by Tom Chris- tiansen <tchrist@convex.com> 11 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 a) Go and look where it might be on a micro- fiche/terminal, take a look where it is supposed to be on the shelf, and then go look at the new arrivals if it's not where it's supposed to be? OR b) Start at one end of the ground floor, look along every bookshelf until you've completed that floor, then go up a level and start again until you've found what you're looking for? Since then the database iinnddeexx scheme has evolved greatly. Every manual page and stray cat page on the system is regis- tered in an iinnddeexx database cache which stores various details about the file including the timestamp, the location and the whatis2 information. This information is kept up to date by mmaann which looks for filesystem changes each time it is invoked. 11..22.. TThhee mmaannuuaall ppaaggee ssyysstteemm The simplest manual page system will have a single manual page hierarchy. This will typically be _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n beneath which will be several subdirectories of the form _m_a_n_<_s_e_c_> where _<_s_e_c_> is 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77 or 88. These are referred to as _s_e_c_t_i_o_n_s of the manual. Others may exist and they are not restricted to single character names. eg. _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n_/_m_a_n_f_o_o is a valid section subdirectory. Other common sections include 99, nn, ll, pp and oo. Within these section subdirectories reside the manual pages themselves. Their filenames follow the pattern _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n_/_m_a_n_<_s_e_c_>_/_<_n_a_m_e_>_._<_s_e_c_>_<_e_x_t_> where in most cases _<_e_x_t_> is an empty string. An example is manual page ccpp ____________________ 2 one line description of the manual page 22 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n_/_m_a_n_1_/_c_p_._1 which resides in _s_e_c_t_i_o_n 11 and has no special _e_x_t_e_n_s_i_o_n. 11..33.. SSeeccttiioonnss ooff tthhee mmaannuuaall The manual is split up into sections to ease access and to cater for manual pages that share the same name. It is com- mon for a program and function to share the same name. kkiillll is a good example. This is both a program which can be used to send a process a signal and an operating system call with similar functionality. Their manual pages are stored under sections 11 and 22 respectively. Thus, sections are used to separate out the program manual pages from the function man- ual pages and so on. The table below shows the _s_e_c_t_i_o_n num- bers of the manual followed by the types of pages they con- tain. +--------+------------------------------------------------------+ |Section | Section contents | +--------+------------------------------------------------------+ | 1 | user executable programs or shell commands | | 2 | system calls (functions provided by the kernel) | | 3 | library calls (functions within system libraries) | | 4 | special files (usually found in _/_d_e_v) | | 5 | file formats and conventions eg. _/_e_t_c_/_p_a_s_s_w_d | | 6 | games | | 7 | macro packages and conventions eg. mmaann(7), ggrrooffff(7). | | 8 | system administration commands | | 9 | kernel routines [Non standard] | | n | new [obsolete] | | l | local [obsolete] | | p | public [obsolete] | | o | old [obsolete] | +--------+------------------------------------------------------+ 11..44.. TThhee ffoorrmmaatt ooff mmaannuuaall ppaaggeess The format in which manual pages are stored is NNRROOFFFF/TTRROOFFFF or more generally ROFF. This is a typesetter style language3 which requires formatting before being viewed. In fact some manual pages require pre-format processing to cor- rectly format tables or equations. If the page is to be viewed on screen in a text environment, NNRROOFFFF is used as the primary formatter. If the page is to be printed or displayed in a graphical environment, TTRROOFFFF is ____________________ 3 similar in some aspects to TTeeXX 33 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 used. Traditionally, TTRROOFFFF formatted files for a CC//AA//TT (Com- puter aided Typesetter) which is now obsolete. The GGNNUU ROFF (GGRROOFFFF4) suite of programs offer a choice of output types including XX, ddvvii and ppoossttssccrriipptt. When config- uring man_db-2.3.x, the preference is to use GGRROOFFFF rather than TTRROOFFFF. 11..55.. AArrgguummeennttss ttoo ccoonnffiigguurree To allow the configuration program, ccoonnffiigguurree, to be non- interactive, it can be passed various options to alter the default settings. Generic ccoonnffiigguurree options are discussed in _d_o_c_s_/_I_N_S_T_A_L_L. Options that are specific to the man_db-2.3.x package are described below. --enable-debug By default, the configuration process creates produc- tion quality Makefiles. This option, which takes no argument, changes certain values to aid in debugging man_db-2.3.x. It does not alter the physical behaviour of any of the programs. --enable-setuid[=ARG] By default, mmaann will be installed as a setuid program to user man. Use this option with an argument to change the setuid owner. --disable-setuid Use this option to install mmaann as a non-setuid program and to change the default cat and database files' access flags to allow users to modify them. --with-device=DEVICE Use this flag to alter the default output device used by NNRROOFFFF. DEVICE is passed to NNRROOFFFF with the -T option. ccoonnffiigguurree will test that NNRROOFFFF will run with the sup- plied device argument. --with-db=LIBRARY configure will look for database interface libraries in the order Berkeley DB, gdbm and finally ndbm and will #define appropriate variables relative to the first one found. To override the built in order on platforms hav- ing a choice of interface library, use this option to specify which library to use. ____________________ 4 Written and maintained by James Clark <jjc@jclark.com> 44 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 22.. TThhee ssppeecciiffiiccss ooff SSeeccttiioonnss 22..11.. PPaacckkaaggee ssppeecciiffiicc mmaannuuaall ppaaggee sseeccttiioonnss The use of package specific manual page sections is discour- aged as packages large enough to warrant their own section probably contain manual pages that span other sections. An example might be package ffoooo that has it's own section _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n_/_m_a_n_f_o_o which contains manual pages describing it's programs, the library routines it offers and the format of several of its configuration files. These pages would normally be allocated to sections 11, 33 and 55 respectively and thus combining them all under section ffoooo is misleading. Subtle problems will arise if there are any base name-space clashes with standard manual pages, eg. eexxiitt(3), eexxiitt(foo) and the order in which they should be shown. There are two standard solutions to this problem. (1) Create a separate manual page hierarchy for the pack- age's manual pages such as _/_u_s_r_/_l_o_c_a_l_/_p_a_c_k_a_g_e_s_/_f_o_o_/_m_a_n (2) Install the pages in their relevant sections, with a unique extension appended to the filename such that _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n_/_m_a_n_f_o_o_/_e_x_i_t_._f_o_o would instead be installed as _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n_/_m_a_n_1_/_e_x_i_t_._1_f_o_o Only (2) offers a complete solution to manual page ordering problems and allows users to access the desired page directly. 22..22.. SSeelleeccttiinngg aa sseeccttiioonn ttyyppee 22..22..11.. SSppeecciiffyyiinngg aa sseeccttiioonn This is done via use of the section argument to man ____________ |_m_a_n__1__e_x_i_t_|_ will look for _e_x_i_t_._1_* in section 11 of the manual. If _e_x_i_t_._1 exists, it will be displayed in preference to _e_x_i_t_._1_f_o_o 55 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 _______________ |_m_a_n__1_f_o_o__e_x_i_t_|_ will look for _e_x_i_t_._1_f_o_o_* in section 11 of the manual. The asterisk (*) represents a wild-card of any type or length, including length zero. For an argument to be interpreted as a section name rather than a page name, it must either begin with a digit, or be included in the standard section list. The default section list is defined in _i_n_c_l_u_d_e_/_m_a_n_c_o_n_f_i_g_._h to be 11, nn, ll, 88, 33, 22, 55, 44, 99, 66 and 77. This should be modified in order and content to meet the local conventions. Every subdirectory section name in the entire system must be in the list, including sections found in imported manual page hierarchies. The order is important because in normal operation, mmaann will only display the first manual page it finds that meets the search criteria. Using the ----aallll argu- ment will cause mmaann to attempt to display all manual pages that meet the criteria. See mmaann(1) for further information. Having an excess of sections listed will not slow mmaann down. 22..22..22.. SSppeecciiffyyiinngg aann eexxtteennssiioonn If the section is unknown, but the package extension is, it is possible to use the extension argument _________________ |_m_a_n__-_e__f_o_o__e_x_i_t_|_ to search in all sections for manual pages named _e_x_i_t from package _f_o_o. 66 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 33.. FFiilleessyysstteemm ssttrruuccttuurree 33..11.. MMaannuuaall ppaaggee hhiieerraarrcchhiieess It is often common for manual page systems to have more than one manual page hierarchy. Indeed one of the systems I use has the following globally accessible hierarchies _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n _/_u_s_r_/_l_o_c_a_l_/_m_a_n _/_u_s_r_/_l_o_c_a_l_/_t_e_x_/_m_a_n _/_u_s_r_/_l_o_c_a_l_/_p_b_m_/_m_a_n _/_u_s_r_/_X_1_1_R_6_/_m_a_n _/_u_s_r_/_o_p_e_n_w_i_n_/_m_a_n _/_u_s_r_/_l_o_c_a_l_/_p_a_c_k_a_g_e_s_/_p_v_m_/_m_a_n A full system $MMAANNPPAATTHH would be a colon separated list of these directories The order is important, and is observed by man_db's search algorithms. The order is very much related to the users $PPAATTHH environment variable, and should be set on a per user basis, or not set at all. If a user's $PPAATTHH causes _/_u_s_r_/_l_o_c_a_l_/_p_a_c_k_a_g_e_s_/_b_i_n_/_f_o_o_b_a_r to be executed in preference to _/_u_s_r_/_b_i_n_/_f_o_o_b_a_r, it is essential that ____________ |_m_a_n__f_o_o_b_a_r_|_ displays the manual page located within _/_u_s_r_/_l_o_c_a_l_/_p_a_c_k_a_g_e_s_/_m_a_n rather than within _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n To ensure correct order, the program mmaannppaatthh may be used to set the $MMAANNPPAATTHH environment variable. See mmaannppaatthh(1) and mmaannppaatthh(5) for details. 33..22.. SSeettttiinngg tthhee MMAANNPPAATTHH If using a Bourne style login shell such as bbaasshh, kksshh, or zzsshh, the commands export MANPATH MANPATH=`manpath -q` 77 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 can be added to $$HHOOMMEE_/_._p_r_o_f_i_l_e If using a C style login shell such as ccsshh or ttccsshh, the com- mands setenv MANPATH `manpath -q` can be added to $$HHOOMMEE_/_._l_o_g_i_n N.B. $PPAATTHH must be set prior to using mmaannppaatthh. The setting of $MMAANNPPAATTHH is actually unnecessary as the man_db-2.3.x utilities will dynamically determine the manpath if $MMAANNPPAATTHH is unset. 33..33.. OOtthheerr OOSS''ss mmaannuuaall ppaaggeess It is common to have collections of heterogeneous computer systems linked together in a network. In some circumstances5 it is advantageous to be able to access the manual pages of these other systems directly from your system. This feature is known as alternate system support. The accepted way to setup this support is to NFS mount the respective systems' manual page hierarchies under the native manual page hierar- chies. An example: +--------+-----------------------+ |System | Manual page hierarchy | +--------+-----------------------+ |<local> | /usr/man | |newOS | /usr/man/newOS | |userix | /usr/man/userix | |<local> | /usr/local/man | |newOS | /usr/local/man/newOS | |userix | /usr/local/man/userix | +--------+-----------------------+ Rather than have multiple NFS mounts from a single machine, this may be accomplished by NFS mounting _<_o_t_h_e_r_-_s_y_s_>_:_/_u_s_r somewhere on the local system and using symbolic links within the manual hierarchies. To access these _a_l_t_e_r_n_a_t_e _s_y_s_t_e_m_s using mmaann use the --mm option, eg. __________________________________________ |_m_a_n__-_-_a_l_l__-_-_s_y_s_t_e_m__u_s_e_r_i_x_:_n_e_w_O_S__5__p_a_s_s_w_d_|_ ____________________ 5 writing portable software instantly comes to mind 88 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 would provide manual pages showing the structure of _/_e_t_c_/_p_a_s_s_w_d on systems uusseerriixx and nneewwOOSS in that order. A manual page would _n_o_t be displayed about the local systems conventions. Please read the relevant man_db utility's man- ual page for further and more specific information. 33..44.. NNLLSS mmaannuuaall ppaaggeess NLS manual pages should be put in NLS subdirectories of a standard manual page hierarchy. A table illustrating the concept is reproduced from the "Linux Filesystem Structure"6 (FFSSSSTTNNDD) manual from which further information may be obtained. +---------+----------------+-----------------+----------------------+ |Language | Territory | Character Set | Directory | +---------+----------------+-----------------+----------------------+ |English | -- | ASCII | /usr/man/en | |English | United Kingdom | ASCII | /usr/man/en_GB | |English | United States | ASCII | /usr/man/en_US | |French | Canada | ISO 8859-1 | /usr/man/fr_CA | |French | France | ISO 8859-1 | /usr/man/fr_FR | |German | Germany | ISO 646 | /usr/man/de_DE.646 | |German | Germany | ISO 6937 | /usr/man/de_DE.6937 | |German | Germany | ISO 8859-1 | /usr/man/de_DE.88591 | |German | Switzerland | ISO 646 | /usr/man/de_CH.646 | |Japanese | Japan | JIS | /usr/man/ja_JP.jis | |Japanese | Japan | SJIS | /usr/man/ja_JP.sjis | |Japanese | Japan | UJIS (or EUC-J) | /usr/man/ja_JP.ujis | +---------+----------------+-----------------+----------------------+ Each of these directories are then interpreted as manual page hierarchies themselves and may contain the usual sec- tion subdirectories. Access to NLS manual pages is achieved via use of the sseettllooccaallee(3) function which queries user environment variables to determine the current locale. Internally to the man_db utilities, this locale string is appended to each manpath element and the resultant NLS man- path element is searched before the standard manpath ele- ment. In this way, an NLS manual page that matches the search criteria will be shown before or in place of the standard American English page. If a user's $MMAANNPPAATTHH consists of or is determined as _/_u_s_r_/_l_o_c_a_l_/_m_a_n_:_/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n_:_/_u_s_r_/_X_1_1_R_6_/_m_a_n ____________________ 6 written and maintained by Daniel Quinlan <quin- lan@yggdrasil.com> 99 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 and their locale is set to ddee__DDEE, the command ________________________________ |_m_a_n__-_-_s_y_s_t_e_m__u_s_e_r_i_x_:_m_a_n__f_o_o_b_a_r_|_ would produce the following internal man_db manpath elements _/_u_s_r_/_l_o_c_a_l_/_m_a_n_/_u_s_e_r_i_x_/_d_e___D_E _/_u_s_r_/_l_o_c_a_l_/_m_a_n_/_u_s_e_r_i_x _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n_/_u_s_e_r_i_x_/_d_e___D_E _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n_/_u_s_e_r_i_x _/_u_s_r_/_X_1_1_R_6_/_m_a_n_/_u_s_e_r_i_x_/_d_e___D_E _/_u_s_r_/_X_1_1_R_6_/_m_a_n_/_u_s_e_r_i_x _/_u_s_r_/_l_o_c_a_l_/_m_a_n_/_d_e___D_E _/_u_s_r_/_l_o_c_a_l_/_m_a_n _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n_/_d_e___D_E _/_u_s_r_/_m_a_n_/_m_a_n _/_u_s_r_/_X_1_1_R_6_/_m_a_n_/_d_e___D_E _/_u_s_r_/_X_1_1_R_6_/_m_a_n ffoooobbaarr would be searched for in the order of manual page hierarchies listed. 33..44..11.. IISSOO 88885599--11 ((llaattiinn11)) mmaannuuaall ppaaggeess By default NNRROOFFFF will format manual pages into a form suit- able for a typewriter style device, e.g. a terminal screen. GGNNUU NNRROOFFFF is capable7 of formatting ROFF into a form suit- able for 8-bit latin1 capable output devices. To enable out- put for such a device, give the option --with-device=DEVICE to ccoonnffiigguurree where DEVICE is the suitable and supported out- put format, in this case llaattiinn11. 33..44..22.. DDiissppllaayyiinngg llaattiinn11 cchhaarraacctteerrss oonn aa LLiinnuuxx vviirrttuuaall tteerrmmiinnaall To enable console based viewing of latin1 characters on a Linux system, you must have the kbd8 package installed. The following commands included within an initialisation file such as _/_e_t_c_/_r_c_._d_/_r_c_._l_o_c_a_l will enable the display of latin1 fonts on the first 5 virtual terminals. ---< part of /etc/rc.d/rc.local >--- ____________________ 7 see nnrrooffff(5) for the output device formats available with your NNRROOFFFF 8 written and maintained by Andries Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl>. Version 0.90 and above does not require the use of mmaappssccrrnn as illustrated in the script. 1100 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 # sort out the vt font if [ -x /bin/setfont ]; then /bin/setfont /etc/kbd/consolefonts/lat1-16.psf fi # load the keymap transformation to do when activating new font if [ -x /bin/mapscrn ]; then /bin/mapscrn /etc/kbd/consoletrans/trivial fi # enable new font for t in 1 2 3 4 5; do echo -n -e "\033(K" > /dev/tty$t done ---< part of /etc/rc.d/rc.local >--- For display under the "X Window System", a suitable 8 bit clean terminal emulator is required. 33..44..33.. VViieewwiinngg AASSCCIIII ppaaggeess ffoorrmmaatttteedd ffoorr llaattiinn11 oouuttppuutt ddeevviiccee When formatting an ASCII manual page for a latin1 output device, GGNNUU NNRROOFFFF will take advantage of the extra charac- ters available and will always produce a text page contain- ing some latin1 (8-bit) symbols. The table9 below, taken from mmaann(1) illustrates the differences. +--------------------+-------+------------+-------+ |Description | Octal | ISO 8859-1 | ASCII | +--------------------+-------+------------+-------+ |continuation hyphen | 255 | - | - | |bullet (middle dot) | 267 | +o | o | |acute accent | 264 | ' | ' | |multiplication sign | 327 | x | x | +--------------------+-------+------------+-------+ To display such symbols on a 7 bit terminal or terminal emu- lator, they must be translated back into standard ASCII. The --77 option with mmaann will enable this simple reverse transla- tion. This option may be useful if your site has both 7 and 8-bit capable output devices and nroff is using the latin1 output device to format manual pages. ____________________ 9 The ISO 8859-1 and ASCII columns of this table will be identical if this manual was formatted for an ASCII based typewriter display, i.e. using NNRROOFFFF in it's native mode. 1111 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 33..55.. CCaatt ppaaggeess It has become standard practice to store the formatted man- ual pages on disk so that subsequent requests for the manual page do not have to involve the formatting process. These pre-formatted manual pages are known as _c_a_t pages. Although cat pages require additional disk storage requirements, they provide a substantial speed increase and their use is recom- mended. The automatic support of storing and using cat pages is brought about by simply creating suitable directories for them. 33..66.. CCaatt ppaaggee hhiieerraarrcchhiieess Traditionally, cat pages were stored under the same manual hierarchy as their source manual pages, in _c_a_t_<_s_e_c_> subdi- rectories rather than _m_a_n_<_s_e_c_>. This situation is rather limiting in several situations +o When it is advantageous to mount _/_u_s_r as a read-only filesystem. Cat pages cannot be supported in this situa- tion without use of symbolic links to various other areas of the filesystem. This situation is a greater problem if the media itself is read-only, such as CD-ROM. +o When NFS mounting alternate OS's manual page hierarchies. The alternate system may be under someone else's control and they may not want cat pages stored on their system. In fact it is usually a good idea to export the manual page filesystems read-only, or import them that way. It is possible to avoid the problems, this time with even more symbolic links that may need periodic updating. +o If there is a mixture of normal cat files and stray cats10, it is very difficult to periodically _t_r_i_m the cat space disk usage by removing seldom accessed cat files. To avoid all of these problems simultaneously, it was decided to support local cat page directory caches. 33..77.. LLooccaall ccaatt ppaaggee ddiirreeccttoorryy ccaacchheess Any location for cat page hierarchy may be specified in the man_db configuration file. The location of the database cache associated with each manual page hierarchy will always be at the root of the cat page hierarchy. By default, the cat page hierarchy shadows the manual page hierarchy. The FFSSSSTTNNDD proposes _/_v_a_r_/_c_a_t_m_a_n as the location for such ____________________ 10 cat files that have no source manual page, i.e. they cannot be recreated. 1122 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 directories although man_db-2.3.x allows any directory hier- archy to be used. The FFSSSSTTNNDD path transformation rule is as follows _/_u_s_r_/_<_h_i_e_r_a_r_c_h_y_>_/_m_a_n_/_<_l_o_c_a_l_e_>_/_m_a_n_<_s_e_c_>_/_p_a_g_e_._<_s_e_c_>_<_e_x_t_> should be formatted into the cat file _/_v_a_r_/_c_a_t_m_a_n_/_<_h_i_e_r_a_r_c_h_y_>_/_<_l_o_c_a_l_e_>_/_c_a_t_<_s_e_c_>_/_p_a_g_e_._<_s_e_c_>_<_e_x_t_> where the _<_l_o_c_a_l_e_> directory component may be missing and _<_e_x_t_> may be an empty string. The suggestion is that stray cats are located in the tradi- tional hierarchy under _/_u_s_r whereas re-creatable cat pages are stored under the local writable hierarchy _/_v_a_r_/_c_a_t_m_a_n_. mmaann follows strict rules in determining which file is dis- played. As an example, the following route is taken if all three files exist. (1) Check relative time stamps of the manual file and the traditional cat file. If the cat file is up to date (has a more recent time stamp), display it. (2) The traditional cat file is out of date. Check rela- tive time stamps of the manual file and the alternate cat file. If the cat file is up to date, display it. (3) The alternate cat file is out of date. Format the manual file and display the result in the foreground, while updating the alternate cat file in the back- ground. 1133 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 44.. CCoommpprreessssiioonn 44..11.. CCoommpprreesssseedd mmaannuuaall ppaaggeess It is possible to maintain a system of compressed manual pages. The use of this feature is not recommended for sys- tems that have adequate disk space to store their manual pages uncompressed. Subsequent decompression of these manual pages will cause several bottlenecks in the formatting pro- cess. Presently, the compression extension/decompressor pairs must be known at compile time although any number may be defined and used. The following structure is predefined in man_db-2.3.x +----------+--------------+ |Extension | Decompressor | +----------+--------------+ |gz | gzip -dc | |z | gzip -dc | |Z | compress -dc | +----------+--------------+ It is a relatively easy operation to include further pairs in this structure. See _i_n_c_l_u_d_e_/_c_o_m_p___s_r_c_._h for details and an example. Support for compressed manual pages is compiled into the man_db-2.3.x utilities by default. To completely disable this support, edit _i_n_c_l_u_d_e_/_c_o_n_f_i_g_._h and comment out the fol- lowing line #define COMP_SRC 1 This will enable a minor speed increase, but note that sup- port for stray cats with any compression extension other than the default will also be disabled. 44..22.. CCoommpprreesssseedd ccaatt ppaaggeess man_db-2.3.x compresses cat files by default. During config- uration, ccoonnffiigguurree will try to find ggzziipp and if so, all cat files produced by mmaann will be compressed with ggzziipp --77cc and have a ..ggzz extension appended. If ggzziipp is not found, ccoommpprreessss --cc 1144 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 is used as the compressor and the extension ..ZZ is appended. To store cat files in an uncompressed state and to disable compressed extension processing completely, edit _i_n_c_l_u_d_e_/_c_o_n_f_i_g_._h and comment out the following line #define COMP_CAT 1 44..22..11.. SSttrraayy ccaattss Normally, mmaann will only look for cat files with the default compression extension. The default compression extension is dependent on the default compressor and may be an empty string if the support for compressed cats is disabled. It is possible for a system to be supplied with stray cat files located in the traditional cat page hierarchy. To make matters worse, they may have compression extensions other than the default and reside on read-only media. In such circumstances, stray cat files will be accepted with any compression extension that is also supported for manual pages. This special treatment of stray cat pages is removed if sup- port for compressed manual pages is turned off or not avail- able. 1155 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 55.. FFoorrmmaattttiinngg As already pointed out in the introduction, there are two primary formatters common to UUNNIIXX: NNRROOFFFF and TTRROOFFFF. In the following sections, I will use the term TTRROOFFFF to describe the typesetter formatter and NNRROOFFFF to describe the typewriter formatter. The term ROFF will be used to describe a generic formatter. 55..11.. GGRROOFFFF If using the GGRROOFFFF package, there is a further choice, GGRROOFFFF itself. Essentially, GGRROOFFFF forms a pipeline of processors including TTRROOFFFF and an output processor which translates the ditroff produced by TTRROOFFFF into the appropriate output for- mat. The default output format, or device, for GGRROOFFFF is PostScript. Anything else must be specified using the device argument. To illustrate GGRROOFFFF, the command _______________________ |_g_r_o_f_f__-_T_d_v_i__/_d_e_v_/_n_u_l_l_|_ will form the following pipeline troff -Tdvi /dev/null | grodvi If GGRROOFFFF is tied to mmaann''ss --TT option, it is still possible for mmaann to produce ditroff via use of the --ZZ option. In GGRROOFFFF 1.09, NNRROOFFFF is bundled as a shell script that calls GGRROOFFFF, which in turn calls TTRROOFFFF with the default options --WWaallll --mmttttyy--cchhaarr --TTaasscciiii, passing the result through ggrroottttyy before it finally reaches the screen. It is imperative that the script does not pass pre- processing options to GGRROOFFFF command line as mmaann takes care of this separately. The file _t_o_o_l_s_/_n_r_o_f_f___s_c_r_i_p_t may be used as a basis for an NNRROOFFFF script if your system is without one. 55..22.. DDeevviicceess Both NNRROOFFFF and GGRROOFFFF may allow output device selection. As mentioned previously, classic NNRROOFFFF produces output suitable for a typewriter device, classic TTRROOFFFF produces output suit- able for a CC//AA//TT and GGRROOFFFF produces output suitable for a PostScript interpreting device. 55..33.. MMaaccrrooss There are several ROFF macros in existence that are suitable for manual pages. Unfortunately, they tend to be incompati- ble with each other. 1166 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 During configuration, ccoonnffiigguurree will attempt to determine a suitable macro for the local system's manual page collec- tion. It attempts to use NNRROOFFFF with the following three macro packages: +--------------+----------------+---------------+ |macro package | macro filename | nroff command | +--------------+----------------+---------------+ |andoc | tmac.andoc | nroff -mandoc | |an | tmac.an | nroff -man | |doc | tmac.doc | nroff -mdoc | +--------------+----------------+---------------+ The first that succeeds is used. Macro aannddoocc is suitable for manual pages written using either aann or ddoocc macro commands, but not both. 55..44.. PPrree--ffoorrmmaatt pprroocceessssoorrss ((pprree--pprroocceessssoorrss)) Manual pages may require pre-processing by any of the fol- lowing +--------+----+------------------+ |Program | ID | Pre-processes | +--------+----+------------------+ |eqn | e | equations | |tbl | t | tables | |grap | g | graphs | |pic | p | pictures | |refer | r | A bibliography | |vgrind | v | program listings | +--------+----+------------------+ It is possible to assign a default pre-processor list that all manual pages will be passed through prior to the primary formatter. By default, this is empty. To define a default list, edit _i_n_c_l_u_d_e_/_m_a_n_c_o_n_f_i_g_._h and un-comment the following line /* #define DEFAULT_MANROFFSEQ "t" */ which will enable ttbbll processing by default. To change the list, replace the tt with a suitable string of processor ID's. Pre-process options may be provided at run time in various forms, but in general the pre-processors required by each manual page is indicated in the first line of the manual page itself. See mmaann(1) for details. 1177 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 55..55.. FFoorrmmaatt ssccrriippttss It is very likely that alternate systems manual pages may require non-standard macro packages or possibly even special pre-processors. To tackle such problems, special format scripts may be created on a per manual hierarchy basis. If the file _<_m_a_n_u_a_l___h_i_e_r_a_r_c_h_y_>_/_m_a_n_d_b___n_f_m_t exists and is executable, it is expected to be able to cor- rectly format a manual page originating from _<_m_a_n_- _u_a_l___h_i_e_r_a_r_c_h_y_> to its standard output. It will be supplied with either two or three arguments: +o manual page filename +o pre-processor string +o ouput device (optional) Similarly, if the option --TT_<_d_e_v_i_c_e_> or --tt was supplied to mmaann and the file _<_m_a_n_u_a_l___h_i_e_r_a_r_c_h_y_>_/_m_a_n_d_b___t_f_m_t exists and is executable, it will be used in the same way. An example of such a script, supplied by Markus Armbruster <armbru@pond.sub.org>, who provided support for external formatter scripts, can be found as _t_o_o_l_s_/_m_a_n_d_b___[_n_t_]_f_m_t The script can be used as both a NNRROOFFFF and TTRROOFFFF/GGRROOFFFF for- mat script and can be installed as _m_a_n_d_b___n_f_m_t and hard linked to _m_a_n_d_b___t_f_m_t after modification appropriate for your particular site. 1188 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 66.. TThhee iinnddeexx ddaattaabbaassee ccaacchheess As mentioned in the introduction, man_db-2.3.x uses database lookups to search for manual page locations and information. When performing a manual page lookup or a basic wwhhaattiiss search, the databases are searched in _k_e_y _-_> _c_o_n_t_e_n_t mode and are as fast as the underlying databases can be. When performing aapprrooppooss or special wwhhaattiiss searches, the databases are searched in a linear way, which although far more expensive than _k_e_y_e_d lookup, is no worse than tradi- tional text based file searching. 66..11.. iinnddeexx ddaattaabbaassee llooccaattiioonn The databases are always located at the root of the cat page hierarchy, whether this is the same as the manual page hier- archy or not. As file locking mechanisms are employed to ensure that concurrent processes do not update a database simultaneously, it is almost imperative that the databases reside on a local filesystem since file locking across NFS filesystems may be unavailable or flaky. To avoid such prob- lems, mmaann can be compiled without database maintenance sup- port. See the section titled "Modes of operation" for details. 66..11..11.. MMaannuuaall hhiieerraarrcchhiieess wwiitthh nnoo iinnddeexx ddaattaabbaassee It is possible for the man_db-2.3.x utilities to operate without aid from an index database. Under such circum- stances, search methods will resort to file globbing and whatis type searches are performed on any traditional whatis text databases that may exist. Only the traditional cat hierarchy is searched for cat files. 66..11..22.. UUsseerr mmaannuuaall ppaaggee hhiieerraarrcchhiieess A user may have any number of personal manual page hierar- chies listed in their $MMAANNPPAATTHH. By default, mmaann will main- tain mmaannddbb created databases at the root of user manual page hierarchies. The definition of a user manual hierarchy is that it does not have an entry in the man_db configuration file. See mmaannppaatthh(5) for details. 66..22.. CCoonntteennttss ooff aann iinnddeexx ddaattaabbaassee There are four kinds of entry in an index database. (1) A direct entry regarding a particular manual page. Manual pages that are unique in terms of name use just a single entry in the database and can be looked 1199 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 up by simply using the name as the key. (2) A common name index entry that lists the extensions of all of the manual pages sharing the common index entry name. Manual pages that share common names, but have differing extensions each have a single database entry, but this time they are looked up with a key comprised of their name and their extension. The entire set of common named pages also has an com- mon name index entry that informs of the extensions available. (3) An indirect entry that has a pointer to the real entry. Manual pages that are whatis references to a particular page do not physically exist so they have a pointer to the entry containing the location of the real manual page. (4) Special identification entries. There are two special key names, "$mtime$" that references an integer describing the last modification time of the database and "$version$" that identifies the database storage scheme version. In the following entries, the character "|" will be used to separate the fields. In reality a tab is used. Direct and indirect entries takes the form: _<_n_a_m_e_> _-_> _<_e_x_t_>_|_<_s_e_c_>_|_<_m_t_i_m_e_>_|_<_I_D_>_|_<_r_e_f_>_|_<_c_o_m_p_>_|_<_w_h_a_t_i_s_> Common name index entries take the form: _<_n_a_m_e_> _-_> _|_<_e_x_t_1_>_|_<_e_x_t_2_>_|_<_e_x_t_3_>_| _._._. _<_e_x_t_n_> and common name direct or indirect entries take the form: _<_n_a_m_e_>_|_<_e_x_t_> _-_> _<_e_x_t_>_|_<_s_e_c_>_|_<_m_t_i_m_e_>_|_<_I_D_>_|_<_r_e_f_>_|_<_c_o_m_p_>_|_<_w_h_a_t_i_s_> where in each case the filename being represented is formed as _<_m_a_n_u_a_l___h_i_e_r_a_r_c_h_y_>_/_m_a_n_<_s_e_c_>_/_<_n_a_m_e_>_._<_e_x_t_>_._<_c_o_m_p_> in the case of a manual page, or _<_c_a_t___h_i_e_r_a_r_c_h_y_>_/_c_a_t_<_s_e_c_>_/_<_n_a_m_e_>_._<_e_x_t_>_._<_c_o_m_p_> in the case of a stray cat. If any of the fields would be empty, a single "-" is stored in its place. _<_c_o_m_p_> represents the compression extension. 2200 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 _<_m_t_i_m_e_> is an integer representing the last modification time of the manual page, _<_r_e_f_> points to the entry contain- ing the location of the real page and _<_I_D_> is one of the following identification letters. +---+------------+--------------------------------------------------------+ |ID | #define | Description | +---+------------+--------------------------------------------------------+ |A | ULT_MAN | ultimate manual page, the full source nroff file | |B | SO_MAN | manual page containing a .so request to an ULT_MAN | |C | WHATIS_MAN | virtual whatis referenced page pointing to an ULT_MAN | |D | STRAY_CAT | cat page with no source manual page | |E | WHATIS_CAT | virtual whatis referenced page pointing to a STRAY_CAT | +---+------------+--------------------------------------------------------+ The _I_D illustrates the precedence. Some types of manual page can be referenced by several means, e.g. .so requested and whatis referred. In such a case, only one reference must be stored in the database, the precedence level decides which. 66..22..11.. FFaavvoouurriinngg ssttrraayy ccaattss With the above rules of precedence, it is possible for a valid stray cat page to be replaced by a whatis referred page sharing identical name-space. If you would like to see the stray cat page kkiillll(1) instead of the bbaasshh__bbuuiillttiinnss(1) page referenced by kkiillll(1) edit _l_i_b_d_b_/_d_b___s_t_o_r_a_g_e_._h and un-comment the following line /* #define FAVOUR_STRAYCATS */ 66..22..22.. AAcccceessssddbb A simple program, aacccceessssddbb is included with man_db-2.3.x. It will output the data contained within a man_db database in a human readable form. By default, it will _d_u_m_p the data from _/_v_a_r_/_c_a_t_m_a_n_/_i_n_d_e_x_._<_d_b_-_t_y_p_e_>, where _<_d_b_-_t_y_p_e_> is dependent on the database library in use. Supplying an argument to aacccceessssddbb will override this default. Tabs are replaced in the output by a tilde "~" in the _k_e_y field and a single space in the _c_o_n_t_e_n_t field aacccceessssddbb is not compiled by default. Type _______________ |_m_a_k_e__a_c_c_e_s_s_d_b_|_ in the src directory to compile it. 2211 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 66..22..33.. EExxaammppllee ddaattaabbaassee As an example of both aacccceessssddbb and the database storage method, the output of ___________________________ |_s_r_c_/_a_c_c_e_s_s_d_b__m_a_n_/_i_n_d_e_x_._b_t_|_ after first running _______________ |_s_r_c_/_m_a_n_d_b__m_a_n_|_ from the top level build directory is included below. $mtime$ -> "795987034" $version$ -> "2.3.1" apropos -> "1 1 795981542 A - - search the manual page names and descriptions" catman -> "8 8 795981544 A - - create or update the pre-formatted manual pages" man -> "1 1 795981542 A - - an interface to the on-line reference manuals" mandb -> "8 8 795981544 A - - create or update the manual page index caches" manpath -> " 1 5" manpath~1 -> "1 1 795981542 A - - determine search path for manual pages" manpath~5 -> "5 5 795981543 A - - format of the /etc/man_db.config file" whatis -> "1 1 795981543 A - - search the manual page names" zsoelim -> "1 1 795981543 A - - satisfy .so requests in roff input" 66..33.. DDaattaabbaassee ttyyppeess man_db-2.3.x has support for various low level database libraries commonly in use today. The interfaces to the libraries are known as +o ndbm (UUNNIIXX) +o gdbm (GGNNUU) +o btree (Berkeley DB) man_db-2.3.x currently does not hold more than one database open at any time, so +o dbm (UUNNIIXX) support could be added in the future. 66..44.. lliimmiittaattiioonnss The general differences and limitations are best compared in a table. 2222 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 +------+-------------+----------+-----------------+--------------+-----------+ | | | File | Content memory | Concurrent | | |Name | Type | +---------+-------+ | Shareable | | | | name | type | limit | access | | +------+-------------+----------+---------+-------+--------------+-----------+ |ndbm | hash | index11 | static | 1Kb | none | no | |gdbm | hash | index.db | dynamic | - | file locking | no | |btree | binary tree | index.bt | static | - | none | yes | +------+-------------+----------+---------+-------+--------------+-----------+ Those types that have no built in concurrent access strat- egy, are provided with fflloocckk(2) based file locking by man_db-2.3.x. As bbttrreeee is noticeably faster when doing mmaann searches, mainly due to the fast initialization of the databases, it is the preferred library interface. ccoonnffiigguurree will look for bbttrreeee, ggddbbmm and then finally nnddbbmm routines when configuring man_db-2.3.x. 66..55.. SShhaarriinngg ddaattaabbaasseess iinn aa hheetteerrooggeenneeoouuss eennvviirroonnmmeenntt It may be necessary or advantageous to share databases across platforms, regardless of the potential file locking problems. An example would be a user having a personal manual page hierarchy in an NFS based home directory environment, whereby the home directory is held on and mounted from a single machine in a heterogeneous network. In this context, the database cache will have the same name and reside in the same place on all machines. There are at least two ways to deal with this problem. +o Hack the _i_n_c_l_u_d_e_/_m_a_n_c_o_n_f_i_g_._h file on each platform to provide a unique database name for each system. No databases will be shared. +o Install and use the Berkeley DB database interface library on each platform. These databases can be shared across big-endian/little-endian platforms although a database created on a big-endian platform will suffer a small access penalty when used by a litle-endian machine and vice-versa. ____________________ 11 ndbm databases are physically represented by two files: _i_n_d_e_x_._d_i_r and _i_n_d_e_x_._p_a_g but are referred to simply as _i_n_d_e_x by the interface routines. 2233 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 77.. MMiisscceellllaanneeoouuss 77..11.. MMooddeess ooff ooppeerraattiioonn The man_db utilities can operate in many different modes, allowing varying degrees of freedom, functionality and secu- rity. No mode requires that the manual page hierarchies be writable. (1) Default mode mmaann is setuid to the user MAN_OWNER which is `man' by default and is changeable via options to ccoonnffiigguurree. mmaannddbb, if run by the superuser or MAN_OWNER, creates globally accessible index databases owned by MAN_OWNER. Once the databases are created, mmaann will update entries in them if it finds newly installed manual pages or delete entries if manual pages are removed. In this mode it is possible for a malicious mmaann user to delib- erately lock a database as a writer, thus denying read access to other users. If cat directories exist and have the correct permis- sions, mmaann will take care of producing cat files. These will be owned by MAN_OWNER. The default permis- sions of both cat files and databases is 0644. (2) No man database updates This mode also requires mmaann to be setuid, but is favoured where databases must be shared in an environ- ment unfriendly to kernel locking procedures, eg. NFS. It also prevents possible `denial of service' attacks by malicious mmaann users as mmaann never opens the databases as a writer in this mode. To replace the functionality lost by disallowing mmaann write access to the databases, mmaannddbb must be rerun whenever new manual pages are installed. Failure to do so will result in mmaann being unable to find and display the newly added manual pages. As mmaannddbb lacks the ability to delete database entries for manual pages that have been removed, it is necessary to use the ----ccrreeaattee flag whenever manual pages are removed from the filesystem. Each index database may be owned by an arbitrary user who will have subsequent write access to the database. Cat files are created in the same way as for mode (1) above. To use the man_db utilities in this mode, edit _i_n_c_l_u_d_e_/_m_a_n_c_o_n_f_i_g_._h and comment out `#define MAN_DB_UPDATES' (3) No man database updates or cat production mmaann is installed not setuid. This mode of operation probably offers the highest level of security but it requires higher levels of maintenance than other modes due to the restrictions imposed upon mmaann. Each 2244 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 database is owned by an arbitrary user as in mode (2). Each cat hierarchy is also owned by an arbitrary user who is responsible for creating cat files using ccaattmmaann whenever new manual files are installed. mmaann will be completely passive in it's action, ie. no index databases will be written to and no cat files are ever produced. To use the man_db utilities in this mode, supply the option `--disable-setuid' to ccoonnffiigguurree and edit _i_n_c_l_u_d_e_/_m_a_n_c_o_n_f_i_g_._h, commenting out `#define MAN_DB_UPDATES' and `#define MAN_CATS' after running ccoonnffiigguurree. (4) Wide open mmaann is installed not setuid. This mode is similar in operation to the majority of vendor supplied, non setuid, cat file supporting manual pager suites. It is not recommended. The databases are owned by an arbi- trary user who maintains them using mmaannddbb. mmaann does not update the databases. Cat files are produced and stored in world writable cat directories and have world write access themselves. To use the man_db utilities in this mode, supply the option `--disable-setuid' to ccoonnffiigguurree, edit _i_n_c_l_u_d_e_/_m_a_n_c_o_n_f_i_g_._h and comment out `#define MAN_DB_UPDATES' and change the definition of CATMODE from 0644 to 0666. Other variations can also be used. In fact it is possible for mmaann to actually create index databases, usually the job of mmaannddbb, for users private manual page hierarchies. This is enabled by editing _i_n_c_l_u_d_e_/_m_a_n_c_o_n_f_i_g_._h and un-commenting the `/* #define MAN_DB_CREATES */' line. man_db-2.2 operated in this manner. In summary, _i_n_c_l_u_d_e_/_m_a_n_c_o_n_f_i_g_._h contains definitions for +o MAN_DB_CREATES +o MAN_DB_UPDATES +o MAN_CATS +o CATMODE +o DBMODE and the setuid installation and operation of mmaann is modified by supplying either of the following options to ccoonnffiigguurree: +o --enable-setuid=USER +o --disable-setuid 77..22.. NNLLSS mmeessssaaggee ccaattaalloogguueess man_db-2.3.x has built in support for native language mes- sage catalogues. That is, it can issue messages in the 2255 mmaann__ddbb--22..33..xx mmaannuuaall vv00..55 AApprriill 1188,, 11999955 locale of the users choice. This will only occur if the locale's translation has been written. Before undertaking a translation, please contact the author who will be maintain- ing a list of such activity. Currently, the following translations exist +o *none* 77..33.. CCrreeddiittss I would like to thank the following people for their time, effort, support, ideas and code which went into man_db-2.3.x Markus Armbruster <armbru@pond.sub.org> Caleb Epstein <epstein_caleb@jpmorgan.com> Zoltan Hidvegi <hzoli@cs.elte.hu> Nils Magnus <magnus@unix-ag.uni-kl.de> Daniel Quinlan <quinlan@yggdrasil.com> 2266 Glossary manual page A file containing descriptions related to the use of a function or program or the structure of a file. The name of the file is formed from the title of the manual page followed by a period followed by the name of the section that it resides in, optionally followed by an extension. The format of the file is NNRROOFFFF and may be compressed, having a suitable compression extension appended. cat page A formatted manual page suitable for viewing in a ter- minal. stray cat page A cat page that does not have a relative manual page on the system, ie. only the cat page was supplied or the manual page was removed after the cat page had been created. section Each manual page or cat page hierarchy is divided into sections, each section having it's own directory. man- ual page hierarchy section names begin with `man' and cat page sections with `cat'. extension A package may provide manual pages with filenames end- ing in a package-specific extension name. This allows manual pages with the same title to coexist in the same manual page hierarchy and section without sharing the same filename. It also provides a further mechanism for man to select the correct manual page. manual page hierarchy A directory tree divided into manual page sections, each containing a collection of manual pages. cat page hierarchy A directory tree divided into cat page sections, each containing a collection of cat pages. traditional cat page hierarchy The same location as the manual page hierarchy. alternate cat page hierarchy A separate location to that of the traditional cat page hierarchy. ii traditional cat page A cat page located in a traditional cat page hierarchy. alternate cat page A cat page located in an alternate cat page hierarchy. iiii Contents 1. Introduction ...................................... 1 1.1 man_db-2.3.x ................................. 1 1.1.1 The concept ........................... 1 1.2 The manual page system ....................... 2 1.3 Sections of the manual ....................... 3 1.4 The format of manual pages ................... 3 1.5 Arguments to configure ....................... 4 2. The specifics of Sections ......................... 5 2.1 Package specific manual page sections ........ 5 2.2 Selecting a section type ..................... 5 2.2.1 Specifying a section .................. 5 2.2.2 Specifying an extension ............... 6 3. Filesystem structure .............................. 7 3.1 Manual page hierarchies ...................... 7 3.2 Setting the MANPATH .......................... 7 3.3 Other OS's manual pages ...................... 8 3.4 NLS manual pages ............................. 9 3.4.1 ISO 8859-1 (latin1) manual pages ...... 10 3.4.2 Displaying latin1 characters on a Linux virtual terminal ....................... 10 3.4.3 Viewing ASCII pages formatted for latin1 output device ......................... 11 3.5 Cat pages .................................... 12 3.6 Cat page hierarchies ......................... 12 3.7 Local cat page directory caches .............. 12 4. Compression ....................................... 14 4.1 Compressed manual pages ...................... 14 4.2 Compressed cat pages ......................... 14 4.2.1 Stray cats ............................ 15 5. Formatting ........................................ 16 5.1 GGRROOFFFF ........................................ 16 5.2 Devices ...................................... 16 5.3 Macros ....................................... 16 5.4 Pre-format processors (pre-processors) ....... 17 5.5 Format scripts ............................... 18 6. The index database caches ......................... 19 6.1 index database location ...................... 19 6.1.1 Manual hierarchies with no index database ..................................... 19 6.1.2 User manual page hierarchies .......... 19 6.2 Contents of an index database ................ 19 6.2.1 Favouring stray cats .................. 21 6.2.2 Accessdb .............................. 21 6.2.3 Example database ...................... 22 6.3 Database types ............................... 22 ii 6.4 limitations .................................. 22 6.5 Sharing databases in a heterogeneous envi- ronment ........................................... 23 7. Miscellaneous ..................................... 24 7.1 Modes of operation ........................... 24 7.2 NLS message catalogues ....................... 25 7.3 Credits ...................................... 26 iiii