Man pages from custom location

Question

When I build some source in custom location, i.e.:

configure --prefix=$HOME/.local

and then, make install..., man pages are copied in ~/.local/share/man/ but inaccessible from man command

How can I make man recognise pages in my custom location?

Answer 1

For one-off manpage reading, just point man at the specific file:

man ~/.local/share/man/manX/manpage.1.gz

Otherwise, if you want to always check ~/.local/share, then set the MANPATH environment variable for your user session (typically in your .bashrc file). To check what the current MANPATH is, do:

manpath

you'll probably want to append :$HOME/local/.share/man to the end of that.