catman

catman [-u] [-n overdir] [-M pathlist] [-p string] [-r prompt] [section …]

-u
    Update only: regenerate cat pages older than source man files

-n overdir
    Override top-level cat directory (default: cat)

-M pathlist
    Specify directories containing man? subdirectories

-p string
    Use prologue file string for nroff processing

-r prompt
    Prompt before overwriting newer cat pages with older ones

section …
    Process only listed sections (e.g., 1, 8, n); all if omitted

catman is a utility that generates or updates preformatted manual pages, known as cat pages, from their troff/nroff source files.

Manual pages are typically stored in source form (e.g., under /usr/share/man/man1/) and formatted on demand by man(1). catman preprocesses them into plain-text cat pages (e.g., /usr/share/man/cat1/) for faster display without real-time formatting.

It scans specified sections (1-9, n, l) or all by default, running nroff(1) on each source file. This was common in early Unix systems to improve performance on slow hardware.

Key uses include system administration for building local man caches or handling custom man directories. Output uses standard terminal formatting via /etc/catman.rc or prologue files.

On modern Linux, usage has declined as man now compresses pages (gz/bz2) and formats efficiently on-the-fly, often making static cat pages unnecessary.

Deprecated on modern systems; man formats/compresses pages dynamically. May not exist on minimal installs. Requires nroff and source man pages.

Reads /etc/catman.rc or /etc/man.config for paths and macros.
Uses -man macro package by default.

Cat pages go to $MANPATH/catN/ where N is section (1-9, l, n, cat1 etc.).

Originated in SVR3/SVR4 Unix (1980s) as part of man system; ported to Linux via man-db or util-linux packages. Usage peaked pre-2000s with slow disks.

man(1), nroff(1), apropos(1), mandb(8)