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When I build some source in custom location, i.e.:

configure --prefix=$HOME/.local

and then, make install..., man pages are copied in ~/.local/share/man/ but inaccessible from man command

How can I make man recognise pages in my custom location?

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1 Answer 1

up vote 3 down vote accepted

For one-off manpage reading, just point man at the specific file:

man ~/.local/share/man/manX/manpage.1.gz

Otherwise, if you want to always check ~/.local/share, then set the MANPATH environment variable for your user session (typically in your .bashrc file). To check what the current MANPATH is, do:


you'll probably want to append :$HOME/local/.share/man to the end of that.

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Thanks. Interestingly MANPATH has already $HOME/.local/man but not $HOME/.local/share/man. I added export MANPATH=$HOME/.local/share/man:$MANPATH in .bashrc –  zetah Mar 14 '12 at 6:21

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