mandb
NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION DATABASE CACHES OPTIONS DIAGNOSTICS FILES SEE ALSO AUTHOR
mandb - create or update the manual page index caches
mandb [__-dqsuc__? [''manpath''?
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 information 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.
mandb can be compiled with support for any one of the following database types.
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 occured, it may be necessary to rerun mandb with the -c option to re-create the databases from scratch.
-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 necessary 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.
The following warning messages can be emitted during database building.
An attempt to extract whatis line(s) from the given WHATIS PARSING__ section in lexgrog(1) for more information.
The
The wildcard
/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.
man(1), lexgrog(1), manpath(5), catman(8).
The WHATIS PARSING section formerly in this manual page is now part of lexgrog(1).
Wilf. (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk). Fabrizio Polacco (fpolacco@debian.org). Colin Watson (cjwatson@debian.org).
