49
15
I hope my question isn't too trivial, but I've never actually needed to know this before.
In which directory can I find the files of the man pages, i.e. the read-only text file opened when you type man foo? I assume different distros may keep them in slightly different places, so if it makes any difference I run Ubuntu 10.04.
Yitzchak
Posted 2011-08-03T15:12:29.130
Reputation: 4 084
61
Use manpath to see the directories used by your system, and man --where --all foo to find a specific manual page of foo.
The standard location is /usr/share/man according to Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, and /usr/man is usually a symlink to that directory.
Other locations can be defined in /etc/manpath.config or /etc/man_db.conf (exact location varies). For example, /usr/local/share/man is almost always included.
In addition, man tries to find manual pages for every directory specified in $PATH – for example, if you added /opt/plan9/bin to $PATH, man will automatically search /opt/plan9/man and /opt/plan9/bin/man.
If the $MANPATH environment variable is set, however, it will override all other sources.
user1686
Posted 2011-08-03T15:12:29.130
Reputation: 283 655
6
In the files that end with .gz when using whereis:
whereis man
output:
man: /usr/bin/man /usr/bin/X11/man /usr/local/man /usr/share/man /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz /usr/share/man/man7/man.7.gz
Example with grep:
whereis grep
output:
grep: /bin/grep /usr/share/man/man1/grep.1.gz
minor update on how to read these gz files:
info /usr/share/man/man1/grep.info.gz
zcat /usr/share/man/man1/grep.1.gz | less
or if it is in the name.number.gz format:
zcat /usr/share/man/man1/grep.1.gz | less
# or more readable
man /usr/share/man/man1/grep.1.gz
jmunsch
Posted 2011-08-03T15:12:29.130
Reputation: 239
4whereis tells you the location of a program, so doing whereis man will tell you where the man executable is stored, but not the man pages themselves. – jff – 2016-06-29T01:31:56.300
4@jff is incorrect here. From the manual page for whereis: 'whereis - locate the binary, source, and manual page files for a command'. Using whereis -m grep will restrict output just to the location of the manual page files. – Nick Kennedy – 2018-06-18T15:51:16.327
4
They should be under /usr/share/man.
John T
Posted 2011-08-03T15:12:29.130
Reputation: 149 037
I know this question is for Ubuntu, but if anybody from macOS is here, the equivalent is
man -w -a foo. It appears Apple'smandoes not have the longer--whereand--alloptions – Max Coplan – 2019-11-23T20:29:28.777