Man pages are not installed with Nix 2.26.1

[hja3]

Platform

• Linux: OpenMandriva
• macOS
• WSL

Additional information

Performed a multi-user installation the usual way (i.e. via https://nixos.org/download/), which completed without error. After installation, however, I discovered that the man pages for the nix- utilities are unavailable.

Output

Output

[user@laptop ~]$ nix-env --version
nix-env (Nix) 2.26.1
[user@laptop ~]$ nix-env --help
No manual entry for nix-env
[user@laptop ~]$ ls -al /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/share/
total 0
dr-xr-xr-x 1 user user 44 Jan  1  1970 .
dr-xr-xr-x 1 user user 42 Jan  1  1970 ..
dr-xr-xr-x 1 user user 22 Jan  1  1970 bash-completion
dr-xr-xr-x 1 user user 40 Jan  1  1970 fish
dr-xr-xr-x 1 user user 28 Jan  1  1970 zsh

As shown in the output above, the nix-env --help command fails and the man directory in the default profile is absent.

Checklist

• checked latest Nix manual (source)
• checked open installer issues and pull requests for possible duplicates

---

Add 👍 to issues you find important.

[devatbosch]

Hi @hja3 ,

I would like to take a look on this issue, Could you please share, If there is something else I also need to take care while reproducing this issue at my end?

Meanwhile let me try...

[abathur]

What does echo $MANPATH report? Does it work if you run MANPATH= man nix?

[hja3]

MANPATH is empty

[user@laptop ~]$ echo $MANPATH

The manpath command produces the following output

[user@laptop ~]$ manpath
/home/user/.nix-profile/share/man:/usr/local/share/man:/usr/share/man

Man pages for programs installed into my personal nix profile work as they should.

Trying out the command you suggest did not appear to work

[user@laptop ~]$ MANPATH= man nix
No manual entry for nix
[user@laptop ~]$ MANPATH=man nix
error: no subcommand specified
Try 'nix --help' for more information.

Switching over to root's profile, on 2.26.1 I get the following output

[root@laptop user]# nix-env --version
nix-env (Nix) 2.26.1
[root@laptop user]# manpath
/usr/share/man:/usr/local/share/man
[root@laptop user]# nix-env --help
No manual entry for nix-env

Switching profiles to a generation with nix 2.24.12 installed, results in the following

[root@laptop user]# nix-env --switch-generation 6
switching profile from version 1 to 6
[root@laptop user]# nix-env --version
nix-env (Nix) 2.24.12
[root@laptop user]# manpath
/root/.nix-profile/share/man:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/share/man:/usr/share/man:/usr/local/share/man
[root@laptop user]# nix-env --help
nix‐env(1)                                 General Commands Manual                                 nix‐env(1)

Name
       nix‐env ‐ manipulate or query Nix user environments

Synopsis
       nix‐env  operation  [options]  [arguments…]  [‐‐option  name  value] [‐‐arg name value] [‐‐argstr name
       value] [{‐‐file | ‐f} path] [{‐‐profile | ‐p} path] [‐‐system‐filter system] [‐‐dry‐run]
...

Everying works as it should.

Finally, from my user account, on 2.24.12, I get the following output

[user@laptop ~]$ nix-env --version
nix-env (Nix) 2.24.12
[user@laptop ~]$ manpath
/home/user/.nix-profile/share/man:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/share/man:/usr/local/share/man:/usr/share/man
[user@laptop ~]$ nix-env --help
nix‐env(1)                                 General Commands Manual                                 nix‐env(1)

Name
       nix‐env ‐ manipulate or query Nix user environments
...

It has properly configured both the user profile and default profile man paths, and everything works as it should.

As far as I can tell, the problem is that the man pages for 2.26.1 are simply absent.

[hja3]

While man pages for nix- commands does not appear to be available on 2.26.1, documentation for the experimental nix command does seem to work. Both nix --help and nix env --help display the documentation pages they ought to, for example.