How to Install mandb command on CentOS 8

How to Install mandb command on CentOS 8

 

mandb command is used on Linux servers to initialise or update the man index database cache. On CentOS servers, mandb command is provided by man-db package. You can install man-db package either using yum or dnf command.

Follow the below steps to install man-db package.
 

Step 1 : Log into CentOS 8 server as ‘root’ user

Steps 2 : Run the command ‘dnf install man-db’ to install man-db package

 

dnf install man-db
Failed to set locale, defaulting to C.UTF-8
CentOS-8 – AppStream 1.0 kB/s | 4.3 kB 00:04
CentOS-8 – Base 619 B/s | 3.9 kB 00:06
CentOS-8 – Extras 546 B/s | 1.5 kB 00:02
CentOS-8 – Extras 1.2 kB/s | 8.6 kB 00:06
Dependencies resolved.
===================================================================================================
Package Architecture Version Repository Size
===================================================================================================
Installing:
man-db x86_64 2.7.6.1-17.el8 BaseOS 887 k
Installing dependencies:
groff-base x86_64 1.22.3-18.el8 BaseOS 1.0 M
libpipeline x86_64 1.5.0-2.el8 BaseOS 54 k

Transaction Summary
===================================================================================================
Install 3 Packages

Total download size: 1.9 M
Installed size: 6.1 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y

 

Step 3 : Enter ‘y’ and press enter, if dnf ask for confirmation while installing the package

 
groff-base and libpipeline dependencies will be installed with man-db package.
 
 

How to Download and install man-db rpm

 

Steps 1 : Log into CentOS 8 server via ssh as ‘root’ user

Steps 2 : Download man-db package from centos.org website using wget command

 

wget http://mirror.centos.org/centos/8/BaseOS/x86_64/os/Packages/man-db-2.7.6.1-17.el8.x86_64.rpm

Saving to: ‘man-db-2.7.6.1-17.el8.x86_64.rpm’

man-db-2.7.6.1-17.el8.x8 100%[=================================>] 887.05K 297KB/s in 3.0s

2020-11-15 16:51:21 (297 KB/s) – ‘man-db-2.7.6.1-17.el8.x86_64.rpm’ saved [908340/908340]

 

Steps 3 : Run the command ‘rpm -Uvh man-db-2.7.6.1-17.el8.x86_64.rpm’ to install man-db rpm

 

# rpm -Uvh man-db-2.7.6.1-17.el8.x86_64.rpm

 
NOTE: You must install the required dependencies before installing the man-db package. The below dependencies are required:

groff-base
zlib
libpipeline
gzip
 

Step 4 : Run the command ‘mandb -V’ to verify installation by checking mandb version

 

[root@linux]# mandb -V
mandb 2.7.6.1

[root@linux]# mandb –version
mandb 2.7.6.1

 
 

How to uninstall/remove mandb command

 
mandb command is provided by man-db package, so uninstalling man-db package will remove the mandb command.

Step 1 : Log into CentOS 8 server as ‘root’ user

Step 2 : Run the command ‘dnf remove man-db’ to remove man-db package

 

yum remove man-db

Dependencies resolved.
===================================================================================================
Package Architecture Version Repository Size
===================================================================================================
Removing:
man-db x86_64 2.7.6.1-17.el8 @BaseOS 2.0 M
Removing unused dependencies:
groff-base x86_64 1.22.3-18.el8 @BaseOS 4.0 M
libpipeline x86_64 1.5.0-2.el8 @BaseOS 123 k

Transaction Summary
===================================================================================================
Remove 3 Packages

Freed space: 6.1 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y