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Saner defaults for MANPATH #2565

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Saner defaults for MANPATH #2565

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jvassev
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@jvassev jvassev commented Dec 6, 2018

Very few systems explicitly define the manpath. When installing on
arbitrary linux, the nix-installed manapages are not discovered. To do
so always add NIX_LINK, then /usr/share/man if it exists.

@vcunat
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vcunat commented Dec 7, 2018

I can't see how /usr/share/man is relevant to nix-installed man pages.

@edolstra
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edolstra commented Dec 7, 2018

The problem with setting MANPATH is that it overrides man's default search path, which might include more entries than /usr/share/man (e.g. /usr/local/share/man).

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vcunat commented Dec 7, 2018

Hmm, I see the problem (or one at least). The behavior of man searching "relative" to $PATH still isn't common, I guess? For example, with the default man from nixpkgs we don't need any $MANPATH at all and it just works thanks to $PATH.

@jvassev
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jvassev commented Dec 7, 2018

This is how I got here:

  1. install nix on centos using the documented way to do so
  2. nix-env -i tree
  3. man tree
  4. "No manual entry for tree"

If I just define MANPATH then tree's man page is found.

Also it makes sense to include /usr/local/share/man in the default case as well.

@jvassev
Saner default for MANPATH
7fe5566 
Very few systems explicitly define the manpath. When installing on
arbitrary linux, the nix-installed manapages are not discovered. To do
so always add NIX_LINK, then /usr/share/man if it exists.
@jvassev
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jvassev commented Dec 7, 2018 •
edited

@vcunat

Yes, the man on centos is version 1.6f. If I install man from nixpkgs I get version 1.6g which finds all man pages.

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vcunat commented Dec 9, 2018

Right, that seems the best work-around to me. We might still improve compatibility with legacy man versions, but honestly I don't feel like putting energy into that.

@matthewbauer matthewbauer mentioned this pull request Jun 8, 2020
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I marked this as stale due to inactivity. → More info

@stale stale bot added the stale label Feb 13, 2021
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stale bot commented Apr 16, 2022

I closed this issue due to inactivity. → More info

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@jvassev @vcunat @edolstra