path_helper(8) BSD System Manager's Manual path_helper(8)NAME
path_helper -- helper for constructing PATH environment variable
SYNOPSIS
path_helper [-c | -s]
DESCRIPTION
The path_helper utility reads the contents of the files in the directories /etc/paths.d and /etc/manpaths.d and appends their contents to the
PATH and MANPATH environment variables respectively. (The MANPATH environment variable will not be modified unless it is already set in the
environment.)
Files in these directories should contain one path element per line.
Prior to reading these directories, default PATH and MANPATH values are obtained from the files /etc/paths and /etc/manpaths respectively.
Options:
-c Generate C-shell commands on stdout. This is the default if SHELL ends with "csh".
-s Generate Bourne shell commands on stdout. This is the default if SHELL does not end with "csh".
NOTE
The path_helper utility should not be invoked directly. It is intended only for use by the shell profile.
Mac OS X March 15, 2007 Mac OS X
Check Out this Related Man Page
MANPATH(5) /etc/man_db.conf MANPATH(5)NAME
manpath - format of the /etc/man_db.conf file
DESCRIPTION
The manpath configuration file is used by the manual page utilities to assess users' manpaths at run time, to indicate which manual page
hierarchies (manpaths) are to be treated as system hierarchies and to assign them directories to be used for storing cat files.
If the environment variable $MANPATH is already set, the information contained within /etc/man_db.conf will not override it.
FORMAT
The following field types are currently recognised:
# comment
Blank lines or those beginning with a # will be treated as comments and ignored.
MANDATORY_MANPATH manpath_element
Lines of this form indicate manpaths that every automatically generated $MANPATH should contain. This will typically include
/usr/man.
MANPATH_MAP path_element manpath_element
Lines of this form set up $PATH to $MANPATH mappings. For each path_element found in the user's $PATH, manpath_element will be
added to the $MANPATH.
MANDB_MAP manpath_element [ catpath_element ]
Lines of this form indicate which manpaths are to be treated as system manpaths, and optionally where their cat files should be
stored. This field type is particularly important if man is a setuid program, as (when in the system configuration file
/etc/man_db.conf rather than the per-user configuration file .manpath) it indicates which manual page hierarchies to access as the
setuid user and which as the invoking user.
The system manual page hierarchies are usually those stored under /usr such as /usr/man, /usr/local/man and /usr/X11R6/man.
If cat pages from a particular manpath_element are not to be stored or are to be stored in the traditional location, catpath_element
may be omitted.
Traditional cat placement would be impossible for read only mounted manual page hierarchies and because of this it is possible to
specify any valid directory hierarchy for their storage. To observe the Linux FSSTND the keyword `FSSTND can be used in place of an
actual directory.
Unfortunately, it is necessary to specify all system man tree paths, including alternate operating system paths such as /usr/man/sun
and any NLS locale paths such as /usr/man/de_DE.88591.
As the information is parsed line by line in the order written, it is necessary for any manpath that is a sub-hierarchy of another
hierarchy to be listed first, otherwise an incorrect match will be made. An example is that /usr/man/de_DE.88591 must come before
/usr/man.
DEFINE key value
Lines of this form define miscellaneous configuration variables; see the default configuration file for those variables used by the
manual pager utilities. They include default paths to various programs (such as grep and tbl), and default sets of arguments to
those programs.
SECTION section ...
Lines of this form define the order in which manual sections should be searched. If there are no SECTION directives in the configu-
ration file, the default is:
SECTION 1 n l 8 3 0 2 5 4 9 6 7
If multiple SECTION directives are given, their section lists will be concatenated.
If a particular extension is not in this list (say, 1mh) it will be displayed with the rest of the section it belongs to. The
effect of this is that you only need to explicitly list extensions if you want to force a particular order. Sections with exten-
sions should usually be adjacent to their main section (e.g. "1 1mh 8 ...").
SECTIONS is accepted as an alternative name for this directive.
MINCATWIDTH width
If the terminal width is less than width, cat pages will not be created (if missing) or displayed. The default is 80.
MAXCATWIDTH width
If the terminal width is greater than width, cat pages will not be created (if missing) or displayed. The default is 80.
CATWIDTH width
If width is non-zero, cat pages will always be formatted for a terminal of the given width, regardless of the width of the terminal
actually being used. This should generally be within the range set by MINCATWIDTH and MAXCATWIDTH.
NOCACHE
This flag prevents man(1) from creating cat pages automatically.
BUGS
Unless the rules above are followed and observed precisely, the manual pager utilities will not function as desired. The rules are overly
complicated.
2.6.3 2012-09-17 MANPATH(5)