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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | DATABASE CACHES | OPTIONS | EXIT STATUS | DIAGNOSTICS | FILES | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR | BUGS | COLOPHON |
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MANDB(8) Manual pager utils MANDB(8)
mandb - create or update the manual page index caches
mandb [-dqsucpt?V] [-C file] [manpath]
mandb [-dqsut] [-C file] -f filename ...
mandb is used to initialise or manually update 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 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.
Name Async Filename
──────────────────────────────────────
Berkeley db Yes index.bt
GNU gdbm Yes index.db
UNIX ndbm No index.(dir|pag)
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 mandb with the -c option to re-create
the databases from scratch.
-d, --debug
Print 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.
-f, --filename
Update only the entries for the given filename. This
option is not for general use; it is used internally by man
when it has been compiled with the MAN_DB_UPDATES option
and finds that a page is out of date. It implies -p and
disables -c and -s.
-C file, --config-file=file
Use this user configuration file rather than the default of
~/.manpath.
-?, --help
Show the usage message, then exit.
--usage
Print a short usage message and exit.
-V, --version
Show the version, then exit.
0 Successful program execution.
1 Usage, syntax, or configuration file error.
2 Operational error.
3 A child process failed.
The following warning messages can be emitted during database
building.
<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 WHATIS PARSING section in lexgrog(1) for more
information.
<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.
<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.
<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>.
<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.
/usr/local/etc/man_db.conf
man-db configuration file.
/var/cache/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)
An FHS compliant global index database cache.
Older locations for the database cache included:
/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.
lexgrog(1), man(1), manpath(5), catman(8)
The WHATIS PARSING section formerly in this manual page is now
part of lexgrog(1).
Wilf. ([email protected]).
Fabrizio Polacco ([email protected]).
Colin Watson ([email protected]).
https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/issues
https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=man-db
This page is part of the man-db (manual pager suite) project.
Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://www.nongnu.org/man-db/⟩. If you have a bug report for this
manual page, send it to [email protected]. This page was
obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://gitlab.com/cjwatson/man-db⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At that
time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2025-05-19.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
[email protected]
2.13.1 2025-05-02 MANDB(8)
Pages that refer to this page: apropos(1), lexgrog(1), man(1), mansect(1), whatis(1), catman(8)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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