4.3BSD-UWisc/man/cat8/catman.8

CATMAN(8)           UNIX Programmer's Manual            CATMAN(8)



NAME
     catman - create the cat files for the manual

SYNOPSIS
     /etc/catman [ -p ] [ -n ] [ -w ] [ -M _p_a_t_h ] [ sections ]

DESCRIPTION
     _C_a_t_m_a_n creates the preformatted versions of the on-line
     manual from the nroff input files.  Each manual page is
     examined and those whose preformatted versions are missing
     or out of date are recreated.  If any changes are made, _c_a_t_-
     _m_a_n will recreate the whatis database.

     If there is one parameter not starting with a `-', it is
     taken to be a list of manual sections to look in.  For exam-
     ple

          catman 123

     will cause the updating to only happen to manual sections 1,
     2, and 3.

     Options:

     -n   prevents creations of the whatis database.

     -p   prints what would be done instead of doing it.

     -w   causes only the whatis database to be created.  No
          manual reformatting is done.

     -M   updates manual pages located in the set of directories
          specified by _p_a_t_h (/usr/man by default).  _P_a_t_h has the
          form of a colon (`:') separated list of directory
          names, for example `/usr/local/man:/usr/man'.  If the
          environment variable `MANPATH' is set, its value is
          used for the default path.

     If the nroff source file contains only a line of the form
     `.so manx/yyy.x', a symbolic link is made in the catx direc-
     tory to the appropriate preformatted manual page.  This
     feature allows easy distribution of the preformatted manual
     pages among a group of associated machines with _r_d_i_s_t(_1).
     The nroff sources need not be distributed to all machines,
     thus saving the associated disk space.  As an example, con-
     sider a local network with 5 machines, called mach1 through
     mach5.  Suppose mach3 has the manual page nroff sources.
     Every night, mach3 runs _c_a_t_m_a_n via _c_r_o_n(_8) and later runs
     _r_d_i_s_t with a distfile that looks like:






Printed 12/27/86          May 28, 1986                          1






CATMAN(8)           UNIX Programmer's Manual            CATMAN(8)



          MANSLAVES = ( mach1 mach2 mach4 mach5 )

          MANUALS = (/usr/man/cat[1-8no] /usr/man/whatis)

          ${MANUALS} -> ${MANSLAVES}
                  install -R;
                  notify root;


FILES
     /usr/man              default manual directory location
     /usr/man/man?/*.*     raw (nroff input) manual sections
     /usr/man/cat?/*.*     preformatted manual pages
     /usr/man/whatis       whatis database
     /usr/lib/makewhatis   command script to make whatis database

SEE ALSO
     man(1), cron(8), rdist(1)

BUGS
     Acts oddly on nights with full moons.


































Printed 12/27/86          May 28, 1986                          2