# catman

## NAME



           catman - create or update the pre-formatted manual pages
    


## SYNOPSIS



           **catman**[**-d?V**] [**-M** _path_] [**-C** _file_] [_section_] ...
    


## DESCRIPTION



           **catman** is used to create an up to date set of pre-formatted manual
           pages known as cat pages.  Cat pages are generally much faster to
           display than the original manual pages, but require extra storage
           space.  The decision to support cat pages is that of the local
           administrator, who must provide suitable directories to contain
           them.
    
           The options available to **catman** are the manual page hierarchies
           and sections to pre-format.  The default hierarchies are those
           specified as system hierarchies in the man-db configuration file,
           and the default sections are either the colon-delimited contents
           of the environment variable $**MANSECT** or the standard set compiled
           into **man** if $**MANSECT** is undefined.  Supplying **catman** with a set of
           whitespace-delimited section names will override both of the
           above.
    
           **catman** makes use of the **index** database cache associated with each
           hierarchy to determine which files need to be formatted.
    


## OPTIONS



           **-d** , **--debug**
                  Print debugging information.
    
           **-M** _path_ , **--manpath=**_path_
                  Specify an alternate colon-delimited manual page hierarchy
                  search path.  By default, this is all paths indicated as
                  system hierarchies in the man-db configuration file.
    
           **-C** _file_ , **--config-file=**_file_
                  Use this user configuration file rather than the default of
                  _~/.manpath_.
    
           **-?** , **--help**
                  Print a help message and exit.
    
           **--usage**
                  Print a short usage message and exit.
    
           **-V** , **--version**
                  Display version information.
    


## ENVIRONMENT



           **MANSECT**
                  If $**MANSECT** is set, its value is a colon-delimited list of
                  sections and it is used to determine which manual sections
                  to search and in what order.  The default is "1 n l 8 3 0 2
                  3type 5 4 9 6 7", unless overridden by the **SECTION**
                  directive in _/usr/local/etc/man_db.conf_.
    
           **MANPATH**
                  If $**MANPATH** is set, its value is interpreted as the colon-
                  delimited manual page hierarchy search path to use.
    
                  See the **SEARCH PATH** section of manpath(5) for the default
                  behaviour and details of how this environment variable is
                  handled.
    


## FILES



           _/usr/local/etc/man_db.conf_
                  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.
    


## BUGS



           https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/issues
           https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=man-db
    


* * *