使用 Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper 安装 man-db

项目链接

• 主页

命令和别名

• accessdb
• catman
• gaccessdb
• gapropos
• gcatman
• glexgrog
• gman
• gman-recode
• gmandb
• gmanpath
• gwhatis
• lexgrog
• mandb

项目历史

The man-db source tree carries copyright lines going back to John W. Eaton in 1990-1991, Graeme W. Wilford, Fabrizio Polacco, and later Colin Watson. The README identifies Colin Watson as current maintainer and points users to the manual for configuration and formatter details.

man-db's development reflects the long transition from historical Unix man-page lookup toward database-backed indexing. Its configuration and cache model track Filesystem Hierarchy Standard paths such as `/usr/share` for manual pages and `/var/cache/man` for cached cat pages, while preserving compatibility with older FSSTND layouts.

采用历史

The official man-db homepage lists use by several GNU/Linux distributions, including Arch Linux, Debian, Dragora, Fedora, Gentoo, openSUSE, and Ubuntu, and notes that it also compiles and runs on a number of proprietary Unix systems.

In package-manager culture, man-db is one of the packages users notice during installs and upgrades because `mandb` updates the manual-page index. It is infrastructure rather than an application: distributions depend on it to make `man`, `apropos`, and `whatis` fast and searchable.

使用方式

`mandb` initializes or manually updates index database caches, and the stored information is used by man-db utilities to improve speed and functionality. `manpath` computes manual search paths using the man-db configuration file and the user's environment.

The upstream documentation points packagers and builders to `./src/man_db.conf` and `man/man5/manpath.5` for configuration details. Installed paths depend on `sysconfdir`, while the upstream `manpath` manual documents `~/.manpath` as the default user configuration for `manpath -C`.

为什么软件包爱好者会关心

man-db is important to package nerds because it turns scattered manual pages from every installed package into a searchable local index. Its post-install hooks, cache ownership choices, setuid options, compression support, and path mapping influence how documentation behaves across a whole system.

It is also a classic distribution-integration package: the upstream tarball has defaults, but Linux distributions commonly patch paths or integrate it with package triggers, tmpfiles cleanup, and policy around `/usr/share/man` and `/var/cache/man`.

时间线

• 1990: Early man-db copyright lineage begins with John W. Eaton.
• 2001: README notes FHS manual roots `/usr/share` and `/var/cache/man` as current defaults for manual and cat hierarchies.
• 2020: GitLab project creation records the modern GitLab project presence.
• 2022: NEWS notes the Git repository transfer to https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db.
• 2025: man-db 2.13.1 was released with formatting, portability, and build fixes.

Related projects

• man-db is related to traditional Unix `man`, `apropos`, `whatis`, `catman`, and `makewhatis` implementations.
• It also depends on formatter tools such as groff or compatible nroff/troff implementations, and it is often compared with mandoc on systems that can use either as the manual-page viewer/searcher.

来源

• https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db
• https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/raw/main/NEWS.md
• https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/raw/main/README.md
• https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/raw/main/man/man1/manpath.man1
• https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/raw/main/man/man5/manpath.man5
• https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/raw/main/src/man_db.conf.in
• https://man-db.nongnu.org/