diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'man/man8/mandb.man8')
| -rw-r--r-- | man/man8/mandb.man8 | 226 |
1 files changed, 226 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/man/man8/mandb.man8 b/man/man8/mandb.man8 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..186a1d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/man/man8/mandb.man8 @@ -0,0 +1,226 @@ +'\" t +.\" Man page for mandb +.\" +.\" Copyright (C) 1994, 1995, Graeme W. Wilford. (Wilf.) +.\" Copyright (C) 2001-2019 Colin Watson. +.\" +.\" You may distribute under the terms of the GNU General Public +.\" License as specified in the file docs/COPYING.GPLv2 that comes with the +.\" man-db distribution. +.\" +.\" Tue Apr 26 12:56:44 BST 1994 Wilf. (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk) +.\" +.pc +.TH %thmandb% 8 "%date%" "%version%" "Manual pager utils" +.SH NAME +%mandb% \- create or update the manual page index caches +.SH SYNOPSIS +.B %mandb% +.RB [\| \-dqsucpt?V \|] +.RB [\| \-C +.IR file \|] +.RI [\| manpath \|] +.br +.B %mandb% +.RB [\| \-dqsut \|] +.RB [\| \-C +.IR file \|] +.B \-f +.IR filename \ .\|.\|. +.SH DESCRIPTION +.B %mandb% +is used to initialise or manually update +.B index +database caches. +The caches contain information relevant to the current state of the manual +page system and the information stored within them is used by the man-db +utilities to enhance their speed and functionality. + +When creating or updating an +.BR index , +.B %mandb% +will warn of bad ROFF .so requests, bogus manual page filenames and +manual pages from which the +.B whatis +cannot be parsed. + +Supplying +.B %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. +.SH "DATABASE CACHES" +.B %mandb% +can be compiled with support for any one of the following database types. + +.TS +tab (@); +l l l. +Name@Async@Filename +_ +Berkeley db@Yes@\fIindex.bt\fR +GNU gdbm@Yes@\fIindex.db\fR +UNIX ndbm@No@\fIindex.(dir|pag)\fR +.TE + +Those database types that support asynchronous updates provide enhanced +speed at the cost of possible corruption in the event of unusual +termination. +In an unusual case where this has occurred, it may be necessary to rerun +.B %mandb% +with the +.B \-c +option to re-create the databases from scratch. +.SH OPTIONS +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR \-d ", " \-\-debug +Print debugging information. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR \-q ", " \-\-quiet +Produce no warnings. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR \-s ", " \-\-no-straycats +Do not spend time looking for or adding information to the databases +regarding stray cats. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR \-p ", " \-\-no-purge +Do not spend time checking for deleted manual pages and purging them from +the databases. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR \-c ", " \-\-create +By default, +.B %mandb% +will try to update any previously created databases. +If a database does not exist, it will create it. +This option forces +.B %mandb% +to delete previous databases and re-create them from scratch, and implies +.B \-\-no-purge. +This may be necessary if a database becomes corrupt or if a new database +storage scheme is introduced in the future. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR \-u ", " \-\-user-db +Create user databases only, even with write permissions necessary to create +system databases. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR \-t ", " \-\-test +Perform correctness checks on manual pages in the hierarchy search path. +With this option, +.B %mandb% +will not alter existing databases. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR \-f ", " \-\-filename +Update only the entries for the given filename. +This option is not for general use; it is used internally by +.B %man% +when it has been compiled with the +.B MAN_DB_UPDATES +option and finds that a page is out of date. +It implies +.B \-p +and disables +.B \-c +and +.BR \-s . +.TP +.BI \-C\ file \fR,\ \fB\-\-config\-file= file +Use this user configuration file rather than the default of +.IR ~/.manpath . +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR \-? ", " \-\-help +Show the usage message, then exit. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .B \-\-usage +Print a short usage message and exit. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR \-V ", " \-\-version +Show the version, then exit. +.SH "EXIT STATUS" +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .B 0 +Successful program execution. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .B 1 +Usage, syntax, or configuration file error. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .B 2 +Operational error. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .B 3 +A child process failed. +.SH DIAGNOSTICS +The following warning messages can be emitted during database building. +.TP +.B <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 system contains non-standard +manual pages which are incompatible with the man-db whatis parser. +See the +.B WHATIS PARSING +section in +.BR lexgrog (1) +for more information. +.TP +.B <filename>: is a dangling symlink +<filename> does not exist but is referenced by a symbolic link. +Further diagnostics are usually emitted to identify the <filename> of the +offending link. +.TP +.B <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. +.TP +.B <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 sectional extension <x> being put +in manual page section <y>. +.TP +.B <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. +.SH FILES +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .I %manpath_config_file% +man-db configuration file. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .I /var/cache/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag) +An FHS compliant global +.I index +database cache. +.PP +Older locations for the database cache included: +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .I /usr/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag) +A traditional global +.I index +database cache. +.TP +.if !'po4a'hide' .I /var/catman/index.(bt|db|dir|pag) +An alternate or FSSTND +compliant global +.I index +database cache. +.SH "SEE ALSO" +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR lexgrog (1), +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR %man% (1), +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR manpath (5), +.if !'po4a'hide' .BR %catman% (8) +.PP +The +.B "WHATIS PARSING" +section formerly in this manual page is now part of +.BR lexgrog (1). +.SH AUTHOR +.nf +.if !'po4a'hide' Wilf.\& (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk). +.if !'po4a'hide' Fabrizio Polacco (fpolacco@debian.org). +.if !'po4a'hide' Colin Watson (cjwatson@debian.org). +.fi +.SH BUGS +.if !'po4a'hide' https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/issues +.br +.if !'po4a'hide' https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=man-db |