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mandb man page

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mandb(8)                      Manual pager utils                      mandb(8)




NAME

       mandb - create or update the manual page index caches


SYNOPSIS

       mandb [-dqsuc|-h|-V] [manpath]


DESCRIPTION

       mandb  is  used  to initialise or manually update index database caches
       that are usually maintained by man.   The  caches  contain  information
       relevant  to the current state of the manual page system and the infor-
       mation stored within them is used by the man-db  utilities  to  enhance
       their speed and functionality.

       When  creating  or  updating  an index, mandb will warn of bad ROFF .so
       requests, bogus manual page filenames and manual pages from  which  the
       whatis cannot be parsed.

       Supplying mandb with an optional colon-delimited path will override the
       internal system manual page  hierarchy  search  path,  determined  from
       information found within the man-db configuration file.


DATABASE CACHES

       mandb  can  be  compiled  with  support  for  any  one of the following
       database types.


       Name                Type          Async   Filename
       ----------------------------------------------------------
       Berkeley db         Binary tree   Yes     index.bt
       GNU gdbm v >= 1.6   Hashed        Yes     index.db
       GNU gdbm v <  1.6   Hashed        No      index.db
       UNIX ndbm           Hashed        No      index.(dir|pag)

       Those database types that support asynchronous updates provide enhanced
       speed at the cost of possible corruption in the event of unusual termi-
       nation.  In an unusual case where this has occured, it may be necessary
       to  rerun  mandb  with  the  -c  option to re-create the databases from
       scratch.


OPTIONS

       -d, --debug
              Produce debugging information.

       -q, --quiet
              Produce no warnings.

       -s, --no-straycats
              Do not spend time looking  for  or  adding  information  to  the
              databases regarding stray cats.

       -p, --no-purge
              Do  not spend time checking for deleted manual pages and purging
              them from the databases.

       -c, --create
              By default, mandb will try  to  update  any  previously  created
              databases.   If  a  database  does not exist, it will create it.
              This option forces mandb to delete previous  databases  and  re-
              create  them  from scratch, and implies --no-purge.  This may be
              necessary if a database becomes corrupt or  if  a  new  database
              storage scheme is introduced in the future.

       -u, --user-db
              Create  user  databases only, even with write permissions neces-
              sary to create system databases.

       -t, --test
              Perform correctness checks on  manual  pages  in  the  hierarchy
              search  path.   With  this option, mandb will not alter existing
              databases.

       -h, --help
              Show the usage message, then exit.

       -V, --version
              Show the version, then exit.


EXIT STATUS

       0      Successful program execution.

       1      Usage, syntax, or configuration file error.

       2      Operational error.

       3      A child process failed.


DIAGNOSTICS

       The following warning messages can be emitted during database building.

       <filename>: whatis parse for page(sec) failed
              An  attempt  to extract whatis line(s) from the given <filename>
              failed.  This is usually due to a poorly  written  manual  page,
              but if many such messages are emitted it is likely that the sys-
              tem contains non-standard manual pages  which  are  incompatible
              with  the  man-db whatis parser.  See the WHATIS PARSING section
              in lexgrog(1) for more information.

       <filename>: is a dangling symlink
              <filename> does not exist but is referenced by a symbolic  link.
              Further  diagnostics  are usually emitted to identify the <file-
              name> of the offending link.

       <filename>: bad symlink or ROFF `.so' request
              <filename> is either a symbolic link  to,  or  contains  a  ROFF
              include request to, a non existent file.

       <filename>: ignoring bogus filename
              The  <filename>  may  or  may not be a valid manual page but its
              name is invalid.  This is usually due to a manual page with sec-
              tional extension <x> being put in manual page section <y>.

       <filename_mask>: competing extensions
              The  wildcard  <filename_mask>  is  not unique.  This is usually
              caused by the existence of both a  compressed  and  uncompressed
              version  of  the  same manual page.  All but the most recent are
              ignored.


FILES

       /etc/manpath.config
              man-db configuration file.

       /usr/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)
              A traditional global index database cache.

       /var/catman/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)
              An alternate or FSSTND compliant global index database cache.

       /var/cache/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)
              An FHS compliant global index database cache.


SEE ALSO

       man(1), lexgrog(1), manpath(5), catman(8).

       The WHATIS PARSING section formerly in this manual page is now part  of
       lexgrog(1).


AUTHOR

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



2.4.1                          07 September 2001                      mandb(8)


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