CATMAN(8) | System Manager's Manual | CATMAN(8)

# NAME

`catman` — format cat pages from man pages

# SYNOPSIS

`catman` | [`-knpsw`] [`-m` directory] [sections]

`catman` | [`-knpsw`] [`-M` directory] [sections]

# DESCRIPTION

`catman` creates formatted versions of the on-line manual pages from their nroff(1) source. Manual pages whose formatted versions are missing or out of date are regenerated. If manual pages are regenerated, `catman` also regenerates the whatis database.

The optional sections argument is one word, and contains the section numbers of all the sections to be checked. For example, if sections is ``13f8'', the manual pages in sections 1, 3f, and 8 will be checked and regenerated. If no sections argument is provided, `catman` will try to operate on all of the known manual sections.

The options are as follows:

`-k`
  Ignore errors from nroff when building manpages.
`-n`
  Do not create the whatis database.
`-p`
  Display the commands that would have been executed, but do not actually execute them.
`-s`
  Perform work silently; do not echo commands as they are executed. This flag is ignored if `-p` is specified.
`-w`
  Only create the whatis database.
`-m` directory
  Add directory to the set of directories to be updated.
`-M` directory
  Update manual pages in directory.

# SEE ALSO

apropos(1), man(1), whatis(1)

# BUGS

Currently does not handle hard links. Acts oddly on nights with full moons.

August 15, 2021 | NetBSD 11.99