setting a MANPATH environment variable?

[peyrol]

I use LMDE 64 bit with Mate and bash. I'm trying to install TkMan. Here is what happens when I try to run it:

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david@achernar:~$ tkman
You must set a MANPATH environment variable,
which is a colon-separated list of directories in which
to find man pages, for example /usr/man:/usr/share/man.
(See the help page for an explanation of why
alternatives to the MANPATH are a bad thing.)
david@achernar:~$


How do I set environment variables?
What directories should be on the list for man pages?
Should this be added to a login script somewhere?

Multiple thanks in advance.

[stratus_ss]

environment variables are set like this

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MANPATH=/usr/man:/usr/share/man
export MANPATH


If you want these changes to stick, and to be sure they always persist I usually put a line in /etc/profile. For example the last two lines in my profile contain a custom path variable

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PATH=/usr/bin/jdk1.5.0_11/bin/:/u/DLC/dlcv102b/:/u/DLC/dlcv102b/bin:$PATH:/opt/dell/srvadmin/bin:/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin
export PATH


This makes sure that every time the system is booted, I have a very custom path for my needs