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SebMa
Asked: 2022-07-06 01:08:54 +0800 CST

Missing manpages on a Ubuntu LTS 22.04 Server minimal install

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I've installed a 22.04 LTS Ubuntu Server as a minimal install and installed the following packages :

vim man-db manpages dialog bash-completion screen

Now when I run man ls, ubuntu is asking me to run the unminimize command although the man packages are already installed :

$ dpkg -l | egrep "man-db|manpages"
ii  isc-dhcp-common                       4.4.1-2.3ubuntu2.1                      amd64        common manpages relevant to all of the isc-dhcp packages
ii  man-db                                2.10.2-1                                amd64        tools for reading manual pages
ii  manpages                              5.10-1ubuntu1                           all          Manual pages about using a GNU/Linux system

And the directory /usr/share/man/man1 is empty :

$ ls /usr/share/man/man1
$ man -w ls
This system has been minimized by removing packages and content that are
not required on a system that users do not log into.

To restore this content, including manpages, you can run the 'unminimize'
command. You will still need to ensure the 'man-db' package is installed.

and mandb outputs :

$ sudo mandb
Purging old database entries in /usr/share/man...
Processing manual pages under /usr/share/man...
Purging old database entries in /usr/share/man/id...
Processing manual pages under /usr/share/man/id...
...
Processing manual pages under /usr/local/man...
mandb: can't update index cache /var/cache/man/oldlocal/8087: No such file or directory
0 man subdirectories contained newer manual pages.
0 manual pages were added.
0 stray cats were added.
0 old database entries were purged.
$

The strangest thing is this :

$ ls $(dpkg -L coreutils | grep man1/ls.1)
ls: cannot access '/usr/share/man/man1/ls.1.gz': No such file or directory

Found this :

$ dpkg -S bin/man
man-db: /usr/bin/manpath
local diversion from: /usr/bin/man
local diversion to: /usr/bin/man.REAL
man-db: /usr/bin/man
local diversion from: /usr/bin/man
local diversion to: /usr/bin/man.REAL
man-db: /usr/bin/mandb
man-db: /usr/bin/man-recode
$ head $(which man)
#!/bin/sh
echo "This system has been minimized by removing packages and content that are"
echo "not required on a system that users do not log into."
echo ""
echo "To restore this content, including manpages, you can run the 'unminimize'"
echo "command. You will still need to ensure the 'man-db' package is installed."
$ man.REAL -w ls
No manual entry for ls

How can this be solved without having to unminimize Ubuntu ?

server

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    The "minimized" Ubuntu makes some rules in /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/excludes, which include excluding man and all manpages from being installed. It also switches the man binary to be a file that outputs the message you saw about a minimized Ubuntu. You can edit the file /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/excludes and comment out the following line:

    path-exclude=/usr/share/man

    Then, you can apt update and install man and manpages

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