Does /etc/profile need to set MANPATH?

[Mikhail Usenko]

On Mon, 20 Jul 2015 08:20:12 -0400
Michael DePaulo <...> wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 8:09 AM, Mikhail Usenko <cygwin@inbox.ru> wrote:
> > On Sat, 17 May 2014 10:37:30 +0200
> > Achim Gratz <...> wrote:
> >
> >> Corinna Vinschen writes:
> >> > Whatever, it looks like MANPATH can really go away.  Achim, do your worst.
> >>
> >> Done.
> >>
> >
> > Besides defining MANPATH (and the other variables such as INFOPATH and PATH which can be modified by the user's .bash_profile) /etc/profile also did export the MANPATH variable.
> > Now it does not and I suppose  that user's skeleton file /etc/skel/.bash_profile should provide user-defined MANPATH pro-forma as an exported environment variable or else it will have no effect.
> >
> > --
> > Mike
> [...]
> 
> Why does Cygwin need to define MANPATH by default? Cygwin uses
> /etc/man_db.conf, just like the Red Hat family of Linux distros. (The
> Debian family uses /etc/manpath.config).
> 

The point is that the current stanza for MANPATH in /etc/skel/.bash_profile
--- %< ---
# Set MANPATH so it includes users' private man if it exists
# if [ -d "${HOME}/man" ]; then
#   MANPATH="${HOME}/man:${MANPATH}"
# fi
--- >8 ---
is not useful because for:
1) if you run manpath from the command line in clean Cygwin installation you find out that
"${HOME}/man" is (and always remains) in your searching path by default even if you have no "${HOME}/man"
in your home directory path
2) if you are minded to add your private man pages like this:
MANPATH="${HOME}/my-man-pages:${MANPATH}"
it will not work. Now you should mark the variable for export:
export MANPATH="${HOME}/my-man-pages:${MANPATH}"

I suggest to change the skeleton file to something like this:
--- %< ---
# Set MANPATH so it includes users' private man
# export MANPATH="${HOME}/manpages:${MANPATH}"
--- >8 ---


-- 
Mike


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