Recently loaded up a bunch of man pages for other systems ("man -m SYSTEM") for
use across installs under /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/...

To make these usable I added short symlinks in those directories, added those to
/etc/man_db.conf (attached) with associated catpaths, then ran mandb -p
(--no-purge), which took a long time.

I was surprised when I looked at the log (attached, with lots of man directory
indexing stripped), that mandb -p decide to scan my C drive and perform the
undocumented action of removing Windows localization cat directories that it
considers obsolete e.g.
"...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Windows/en-US...
"
which is kind of worrisome, especially when the complete path is not shown!

Question is why does mandb scan the whole drive, think Windows cat directories
are its property, delete them while running with -p, and suggestions for how I
can stop mandb doing that, including configuration or system changes, or
approaches to mandb patches, I can make to do that?

I have renamed /etc/postinstall/zp_man-db.sh temporarily to avoid future 
surprises.

--------------------
MANPATH is the result of a profile script developed over the years to set up all
useful man directories on various systems, without duplicates, depending on
whether they are accessible from each system at login.

$ echo $MANPATH
/usr/local/man:/usr/man:/usr/ssl/man:/usr/share/sendmail/man:/usr/share/texmf-dist/doc/man:/proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man:/proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/cygwin32/usr/share/man:/proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/ubuntu/usr/share/man:/proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/ast/src/lib/libast/man:/proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/ast/arch/cygwin.i386/man:

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
# gdbm
#
# This file is used by the man-db package to configure the man and cat paths.
# It is also used to provide a manpath for those without one by examining
# their PATH environment variable. For details see the manpath(5) man page.
#
# Lines beginning with `#' are comments and are ignored. Any combination of
# tabs or spaces may be used as `whitespace' separators.
#
# There are three mappings allowed in this file:
# --------------------------------------------------------
# MANDATORY_MANPATH                     manpath_element
# MANPATH_MAP           path_element    manpath_element
# MANDB_MAP             global_manpath  [relative_catpath]
#---------------------------------------------------------
# every automatically generated MANPATH includes these fields
#
#MANDATORY_MANPATH                      /usr/src/pvm3/man
#
MANDATORY_MANPATH                       /usr/man
MANDATORY_MANPATH                       /usr/share/man
MANDATORY_MANPATH                       /usr/local/share/man
#---------------------------------------------------------
# set up PATH to MANPATH mapping
# ie. what man tree holds man pages for what binary directory.
#
#               *PATH*        ->        *MANPATH*
#
MANPATH_MAP     /bin                    /usr/share/man
MANPATH_MAP     /usr/bin                /usr/share/man
MANPATH_MAP     /sbin                   /usr/share/man
MANPATH_MAP     /usr/sbin               /usr/share/man
MANPATH_MAP     /usr/local/bin          /usr/local/man
MANPATH_MAP     /usr/local/bin          /usr/local/share/man
MANPATH_MAP     /usr/local/sbin         /usr/local/man
MANPATH_MAP     /usr/local/sbin         /usr/local/share/man
MANPATH_MAP     /usr/X11R6/bin          /usr/X11R6/man
MANPATH_MAP     /usr/bin/X11            /usr/X11R6/man
MANPATH_MAP     /usr/games              /usr/share/man
MANPATH_MAP     /opt/bin                /opt/man
MANPATH_MAP     /opt/sbin               /opt/man
#---------------------------------------------------------
# For a manpath element to be treated as a system manpath (as most of those
# above should normally be), it must be mentioned below. Each line may have
# an optional extra string indicating the catpath associated with the
# manpath. If no catpath string is used, the catpath will default to the
# given manpath.
#
# You *must* provide all system manpaths, including manpaths for alternate
# operating systems, locale specific manpaths, and combinations of both, if
# they exist, otherwise the permissions of the user running man/mandb will
# be used to manipulate the manual pages. Also, mandb will not initialise
# the database cache for any manpaths not mentioned below unless explicitly
# requested to do so.
#
# In a per-user configuration file, this directive only controls the
# location of catpaths and the creation of database caches; it has no effect
# on privileges.
#
# Any manpaths that are subdirectories of other manpaths must be mentioned
# *before* the containing manpath. E.g. /usr/man/preformat must be listed
# before /usr/man.
#
#               *MANPATH*     ->        *CATPATH*
#
MANDB_MAP       /usr/man                /var/cache/man/fsstnd
MANDB_MAP       /usr/share/man          /var/cache/man
MANDB_MAP       /usr/local/man          /var/cache/man/oldlocal
MANDB_MAP       /usr/local/share/man    /var/cache/man/local
MANDB_MAP       /usr/X11R6/man          /var/cache/man/X11R6
MANDB_MAP       /opt/man                /var/cache/man/opt
#               *MANPATH*                   ->                  *CATPATH*
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/centos     
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/centos
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/darwin     
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/darwin
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/debian     
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/debian
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/freebsd    
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/freebsd
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/hpux       
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/hpux
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/netbsd     
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/netbsd
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/openbsd    
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/openbsd
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/ports      
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/ports
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/redhat     
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/redhat
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/solaris    
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/solaris
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/suse       
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/suse
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/ubuntu     
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/ubuntu
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man/x          
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/x
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/share/man            
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/local
MANDB_MAP       /proc/cygdrive/c/usr/local/man                  
/proc/cygdrive/c/var/cache/man/oldlocal
#
#---------------------------------------------------------
# Program definitions.  These are commented out by default as the value
# of the definition is already the default.  To change: uncomment a
# definition and modify it.
#
#DEFINE         pager   less
#DEFINE         cat     cat
#DEFINE         tr      tr '\255\267\264\327' '\055\157\047\170'
#DEFINE         grep    grep
#DEFINE         troff   groff -mandoc
#DEFINE         nroff   nroff -mandoc
#DEFINE         eqn     eqn
#DEFINE         neqn    neqn
#DEFINE         tbl     tbl
#DEFINE         col     col
#DEFINE         vgrind  
#DEFINE         refer   refer
#DEFINE         grap    
#DEFINE         pic     pic -S
#
#DEFINE         compressor      gzip -c7
#---------------------------------------------------------
# Misc definitions: same as program definitions above.
#
#DEFINE         whatis_grep_flags               -i
#DEFINE         apropos_grep_flags              -iEw
#DEFINE         apropos_regex_grep_flags        -iE
#---------------------------------------------------------
# Section names. Manual sections will be searched in the order listed here;
# the default is 1, n, l, 8, 3, 0, 2, 5, 4, 9, 6, 7. Multiple SECTION
# directives may be given for clarity, and will be concatenated together in
# the expected way.
# If a particular extension is not in this list (say, 1mh), it will be
# displayed with the rest of the section it belongs to. The effect of this
# is that you only need to explicitly list extensions if you want to force a
# particular order. Sections with extensions should usually be adjacent to
# their main section (e.g. "1 1mh 8 ...").
#
SECTION         1 1p 8 2 3 3p 4 5 6 7 9 0p n
#
#---------------------------------------------------------
# Range of terminal widths permitted when displaying cat pages. If the
# terminal falls outside this range, cat pages will not be created (if
# missing) or displayed.
#
#MINCATWIDTH    80
#MAXCATWIDTH    80
#
# If CATWIDTH is set to a non-zero number, cat pages will always be
# formatted for a terminal of the given width, regardless of the width of
# the terminal actually being used. This should generally be within the
# range set by MINCATWIDTH and MAXCATWIDTH.
#
#CATWIDTH       0
#
#---------------------------------------------------------
# Flags.
# NOCACHE keeps man from creating cat pages.
#NOCACHE
/usr/bin/mandb: warning: $MANPATH set, appending /etc/man_db.conf
...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/$GetCurrent...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/$Recycle.Bin...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/AMD...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/bin...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/Config.Msi...
/usr/bin/mandb: can't search directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Config.Msi: Permission 
denied
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/dev...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/etc...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/home...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/inetpub...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/lib...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/Logs...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/MSOCache...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/OEM...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/PerfLogs...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/proc...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/Program Files...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/Program Files (x86)...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/ProgramData...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/Recovery...
/usr/bin/mandb: can't search directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Recovery: Permission 
denied
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/run...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/sbin...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/Swsetup...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/System Volume Information...
/usr/bin/mandb: can't search directory /proc/cygdrive/c/System Volume 
Information: Permission denied
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/tmp...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/Users...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/usr...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/var...
Processing manual pages under /proc/cygdrive/c/Windows...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/bg-BG...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/cs-CZ...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/da-DK...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/de-DE...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/el-GR...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/en-GB...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/en-US...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/es-ES...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/es-MX...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/et-EE...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/fi-FI...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/fr-CA...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/fr-FR...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/hr-HR...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/hu-HU...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/it-IT...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/ja-JP...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/ko-KR...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/lt-LT...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/lv-LV...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/nb-NO...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/nl-NL...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/pl-PL...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/pt-BR...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/pt-PT...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/ro-RO...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/ru-RU...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/sk-SK...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/sl-SI...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/sr-Latn-CS...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/sr-Latn-RS...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/sv-SE...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/tr-TR...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/uk-UA...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/zh-CN...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/zh-HK...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Boot/zh-TW...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Program Files (x86)/gs...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Program Files/gs...
Removing obsolete cat directory /proc/cygdrive/c/Windows/en-US...
0 man subdirectories contained newer manual pages.
0 manual pages were added.
0 stray cats were added.

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