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catman(8) System Manager's Manual catman(8) NAME catman - Creates or rebuilds formatted reference pages and the whatis database SYNOPSIS /usr/sbin/catman [ -M search_path ] [ -cnpvw ] [ section ... ] FLAGS Creates formatted versions of reference pages only in the set of direc- tories specified by search_path. The search_path argument has the form of a colon-separated list of directory names. The default search path (assuming MANPATH has not been set) is the following: /usr/share/man:/usr/dt/share/man:/usr/local/man The -M flag, unlike the MANPATH setting, overrides the default placement of the whatis database (in /usr/share/man). When the -M flag is included in a command that builds the whatis data- base, catman creates the database in the first directory in- cluded in search_path. Refer to the man(1) reference page for more information on the MANPATH variable. See DESCRIPTION for a list of locale direc- tives that can be included in search_path. Uses the gzip com- mand to compress preformatted output files. The -c flag has no effect when used with the -w flag. Prevents creation of the whatis database. Displays what would be done instead of doing it. Displays the name of each reference page file as it is be- ing processed. Causes only the whatis database to be created. No reformatting is done. PARAMETERS Specifies one or more reference page sections whose corresponding di- rectories are to be searched for files. If you do not specify this pa- rameter, the command searches for reference page source files in all section directories encountered in its search path. The section parameter affects creation of preformatted files, not the whatis database. The catman command always searches all section directories in its search path when creating the whatis database. DESCRIPTION The catman command creates formatted versions of the online reference pages from the nroff source files. The command also creates from the NAME entries in source files the whatis database that is used by the whatis and apropos commands. When catman is invoked, each reference page is examined and those whose preformatted versions are missing or out of date are created by nroff using the -man macro package. See man(5). An argument not starting with a - (single minus sign) is assumed to be a list of the reference sections to look in. If you do not specify a list, catman formats all reference pages in the search path. In gen- eral, sections are referenced by a single digit in the range 1 through 8. But, you can use any section allowed by the man command. The list of sections is applied to all reference page areas in the search path. If a .../man/cat? directory does not exist for a section, catman cre- ates the directory. The command recognizes and appropriately processes either compressed or uncompressed source files. By default, the command creates formatted files in uncompressed form; however, you can specify the -c flag to di- rect catman to compress its output files. When catman processes an un- compressed source file, any corresponding pointers are generated as symbolic links. When catman processes a compressed source file, any corresponding pointers are generated as hard links. Refer to man(1) for more information, including restrictions, that apply to pointers and compressed files. A reference page source file can include a multicharacter 7-bit ASCII subsection suffix appended to its name, following the section charac- ter. The subsection suffix, if it exists, must start with a letter. The formatted reference page file also includes the subsection suffix in its name. The catman command assumes that reference page source files can contain unprocessed tables and equations. Therefore, it automatically processes source files through tbl and neqn before invoking nroff. When catman processes a compressed file, the command automatically exe- cutes the gunzip -c command to uncompress the file before piping output to the other commands. Processing reference pages always invokes nroff with the -Tlp flag to format output for the term(4) lp device. See RESTRICTIONS for informa- tion appropriate for printers and some display devices. When you view preformatted reference page files directly with the more command, you should invoke more with the -svf flags. The vf flags en- sure that the pages display properly in cases where the nroff lp device driver generates special device control codes. The following locale directives can be included in the pathnames in search_path: The current locale name, for example, ja_JP.eucJP, that is defined for the LC_MESSAGES environment variable. The same as %L ex- cept that any "@" modifier on the locale name is removed. The language element of the current locale name, for example, ja. The territory el- ement of the current locale name, for example, JP. The codeset element from the current locale name, for example, eucJP. A single % (percent sign) character. These directives allow catman to use the current locale setting to find translated source files and create translated output files in an appropriate and predictable location. Refer to the i18n_intro(5) reference page for more information about locales and associated environment variables. RESTRICTIONS The following subsections discuss restrictions associated with both catman and its input and output files. Reference Page Pointers Refer to man(1) for introductory information on reference page pointers and general pointer restrictions. When processing reference page files, the catman command changes its directory to each reference page area in the search path. Some refer- ence pages assume this change of directory. Therefore, an attempt to format uncompressed reference pages can fail if any .so directives specifying partial pathnames do not start with man?/. Optional Section Directories The /usr/share/man/man? directories for sections C, L, F, n, l, p, o, 0, and 9 are optional. Only your system administrator can create them. Once they are created, however, catman will create the corresponding .../man/cat? directories whenever it receives a request to format ref- erence pages in one of those sections. The whatis Database The whatis (man -f) and apropos (man -k) commands fail unless the whatis database exists in the /usr/share/man directory or, if the com- mand includes the -M flag, in the search path specified with that flag. The operating system can optionally install a /usr/share/man/whatis file that is useful during system configuration tasks. However, you must recreate this file manually if you install reference pages that are not included in subsets for the operating system product; other- wise, entries for the additional reference pages are not included in the whatis database. You create or recreate the whatis file when you invoke catman without specifying the -n flag. You can also specify the -w flag to create the whatis file without creating or updating preformatted reference pages in the cat? directories. An update installation procedure or a setld command that processes ref- erence page subsets for the operating system itself may selectively re- move or add specific whatis database entries to help keep the database up to date. However, this feature is of limited use in making sure that the whatis database remains current with respect to the reference pages that are actually available on the system. As already mentioned, selective update is not supported by most of the optional software products that can load reference pages to the system. Furthermore, se- lective update has database location dependencies. For selective up- date to work, the whatis entries for all operating system product ref- erence pages (including those for CDE) must reside in /usr/share/man/whatis. In other words, automatic and selective revi- sion of the whatis database does not work correctly if the whatis data- base is rebuilt in a directory other than /usr/share/man or if the sys- tem administrator creates a CDE-specific whatis database in the /usr/dt/share/man directory. Therefore, do not rely on automatic update of the whatis database to ensure that its entries reflect the current set of reference pages in- stalled on the system. It is strongly recommended that you always use the catman command to manually rebuild the database as the last task following a completed series of software product installations. Default Formatting Is Not Appropriate for All Devices The catman command formats reference pages for the nroff lp device. The lp device driver, as supplied by the operating system, is set to generate output for Digital Equipment Corporation video terminals, but not for all printers or third-party terminals. If your system adminis- trator changes the supplied setting for the lp device, all preformatted reference page files created by man or catman should be deleted and then reformatted for the new lp device. Preformatted reference pages may not be in a format suitable for print- ing on your hardcopy printers. To format a reference page for a spe- cific printer, move to the reference page area and issue a command such as the following: % cd /usr/share/man % gunzip -c man1/ls.1.gz |tbl |neqn |nroff -Tdevice -man -h | lpr -Pmyprinter Replace the device argument with /usr/share/lib/term/tabdevice, where device is the name of a device listed in term(4). The lpr device set- ting, because it supports primitive line printers, is least likely to cause problems that are related to escape sequences that the device cannot handle. On the other hand, if the reference page has tables and the device is not capable of reverse line movements, column entries in- tended to be in the same row may not align correctly. Preformatted reference pages also might not be in a format suitable for display on non-Digital video terminals. To format a reference page for a specific display device, move to the reference page directory and is- sue a command such as the following: % cd /usr/share/man % gunzip -c man1/ls.1 |tbl |neqn |nroff -Tdevice -man -h | more -svf Replace the device argument with /usr/share/lib/term/tabdevice, where device is the name of a device listed in term(4). EXIT VALUES The catman command returns 0 (zero) on success and >0 (greater than zero) on failure. EXAMPLES To create or update compressed preformatted files for reference pages and also create or rebuild the whatis database, enter: catman -c To create uncompressed preformatted files only for sections 1, 2, and 3, enter: catman 123 This command also creates or rebuilds the whatis database. The new database contains entries for reference pages in all sec- tions (not just 1, 2, and 3) that are found in the search path. To create or rebuild the whatis database without creating or up- dating formatted files, enter: catman -w To create compressed preformatted files for all refer- ence pages in the search path but not rebuild the whatis data- base, enter: catman -c -n FILES Main reference page area Directories containing source files for most reference pages Directories containing preformatted files for most ref- erence pages Reference page area for the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) Directories containing source files for CDE reference pages Di- rectories containing preformatted files for CDE reference pages Local (site-specific) reference page area Directories containing source files for local reference pages Directories containing preformatted files for local reference pages The whatis database created or modified by catman unless the -M flag is specified Command script to make the whatis data- base Program used by the mkwhatis command to extract data from refer- ence pages RELATED INFORMATION Commands: man(1), neqn(1), nroff(1), tbl(1) Files: term(4), man(5), rsml(5) delim off catman(8)