This is current/amd64 on a PC. It seems that if MANPATH is set (to something nonempty), the settings in /etc/man.conf get ignored:
$ cat /etc/man.conf output paper a4 $ man -Tps true | grep PageSize %%BeginFeature: *PageSize Letter <</PageSize [612 790]>>setpagedevice $ env | grep MAN MANPATH=/home/hans/man:/usr/local/man:/usr/share/man:/usr/X11R6/man $ export MANPATH= $ man -Tps true | grep Size %%BeginFeature: *PageSize A4 <</PageSize [595 841]>>setpagedevice Jan