cannot read manpages

[Derek Broughton]

astraljava at kapsi.fi wrote:

>> Luca Ferrari wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> a fresh 7.04 installation results in the following:
>>>
>>> root at backup:~# man ssh-add
>>> Reformatting ssh-add(1), please wait...
>>> man: can't execute /usr/bin/pager: No such file or directory
> 
> Isn't that usually a symlink to `less` or `more`, or what have you? Maybe
> via /etc/alternatives. In this case it would mean that you don't have that
> symlink set, so try first:
> 
> $ ls -l /etc/alternatives/pager
> 
> ...and if that's not set either, then I guess you can do:
> 
> $ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/less /usr/bin/pager

NOOOOOOO!!   Never, ever, do that.

# update-alternatives --list pager

shows the possible alternatives.  You can choose which one, or set a new
one, via update-alternatives.  If you start bypassing update-alternatives
you cause problems for package installation down the line.  Something (not
ME of course!) changed the links for slocate on my system, and I must have
spent two weeks trying to get it fixed correctly.
-- 
derek