pip install pnu-libmanconf

libmanconf — library for handling man(1) and manpath(1) configuration files

import libmanconf

String, String, List libmanconf.read_man_conf_files(Integer debug_level = 0, String manpath_so_far = '')

The read_man_conf_files() function reads the configuration files located at "/etc/man.conf" and "/usr/local/etc/man.d/*.conf" to configure the manual search path, locales and utility set used by man(1) and related utilities.

The function takes an optional argument debug_level with an integer value from 0 (default) to 3, to print increasingly detailed information on standard error output.

It can also take another optional argument manpath_so_far with a colon separated string of already added directories to the manual path, in order to check for duplicate entries.

It returns a triplet consisting of:

• a string containing colon separated existing MANPATH directories
• a string containing colon separated locales (for example, "fr_FR.UTF-8:ja_JP.eucJP")
• a list containing processors (for example, ["TBL_JA=/usr/local/bin/gtbl", "NROFF_JA=/usr/local/bin/groff -man -dlang=ja_JP.eucJP"])

apropos(1), man(1), man.conf(5), manpath(1), whatis(1)

The libmanconf library is not a standard UNIX one.

It tries to follow the PEP 8 style guide for Python code.

To be tested under Windows.

This library was made for the PNU project to factor code for the man(1) and manpath(1) commands.

It is available under the 3-clause BSD license.

Hubert Tournier

The man.conf(5) manual page is largely based on the one written for FreeBSD by Gordon Tetlow.