How can I configure where the UNIX “man” command is searching for manual pages?
In general, the man command on almost any UNIX system uses the MANPATH environment variable, which holds a colon-separated list of man page directories. Just edit your shell initialization file (~/.bashrc for example) to set this variable automatically at login time.
Alternative: It’s the file /etc/manpath.config where man is searching for manual pages on Mac OS X. If you administer your Mac OS X system yourself, you can just add one line per man page directory to this file.
Type the command man manpath for further explanation.