please:~# emerge man
Calculating dependencies ...done!
>>> emerge (1 of 1) sys-apps/man-1.5l-r2 to /
>>> md5 ;-) man-1.5l.tar.gz
>>> Unpacking source...
>>> Unpacking man-1.5l.tar.gz to /home/portage/portage/man-1.5l-r2/work
 * Applying man-1.5l-search-order.patch...                                                                [ ok ]
  * Applying man-1.5l-groff-1.18.patch...                                                                  [ ok ]
   * Applying man-1.5l-wrong-quotes.patch...                                                                [ ok ]
    * Applying man-1.5l-util_c-segfault.patch...                                                             [ ok ]
     * Applying man-1.5l-redhat-patches.patch...                                                              [ ok ]
      * Applying man-1.5l-locale-debug-info.patch...                                                           [ ok ]
      >>> Source unpacked.
      nls
      checking for gcc
      checking for ANSI C header files
      checking for POSIX.1 header files
      checking for BSD string and memory functions
      checking whether sys/types.h defines uid_t
      checking for Xenix
      checking how to get alloca
      checking for nls
      checking for getopt.h
      Checking echo to see how to suppress newlines...
      ...using -n.
      Testing whether grep needs -s or -q ... -q

      Assuming you want to be able to handle the nroff source for man pages.

      Assuming the following ways to invoke the various commands and filters:
      troff command:  /usr/bin/groff -Tps -mandoc
      nroff command:  /usr/bin/nroff -Tlatin1 -c -mandoc
      jnroff command: /usr/bin/groff -Tnippon -mandocj
      eqn command:    /usr/bin/geqn -Tps
      neqn command:   /usr/bin/geqn -Tlatin1
      jneqn command:  /usr/bin/geqn -Tnippon
      tbl command:    /usr/bin/gtbl
      col command:    /usr/bin/col
      vgrind command: missing
      refer command:  /usr/bin/refer
      grap command:   missing
      pic command:    /usr/bin/pic
      pager command:  /usr/bin/less -is
      cmp command:    /usr/bin/cmp -s
      cat command:    /usr/bin/cat
      awk command:    /usr/bin/awk

      It seems that no col is needed, since you use groff.

      Assuming that binaries go to /usr/bin, the configuration file
      goes to /etc, makewhatis to /usr/sbin, and the man pages
      to /usr/share/man/man*.
      ./configure: line 1: prefix: command not found

      Using localedir /usr/share/locale/%L/%N

      Setting the default section search order to 1 8 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 tcl n l p o.

      Assuming that formatted pages should be compressed.
      Using /bin/bzip2 for compression.

      Assuming the following ways to invoke the various decompressors:
      gunzip command:         /bin/gunzip -c
      bzip2 command:          /bin/bzip2 -c -d
      pcat command:           missing
      zcat command:           /bin/zcat
      fcat command:           missing
      unyabba command:        missing

      Created Makefile and conf_script. Now do "make" and "make install".

      cd src; ../conf_script Makefile
      Creating Makefile from Makefile.in
      cd src; make
      make[1]: Entering directory `/home/portage/portage/man-1.5l-r2/work/man-1.5l/src'
      colorgcc -march=athlon-mp -O3 -pipe -fforce-addr -fomit-frame-pointer -funroll-loops -falign-functions=4  -s  makemsg.c   -o makemsg
      ./makemsg ../msgs/mess.en gripedefs.h msg.c
      colorgcc -c -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -march=athlon-mp -O3 -pipe -fforce-addr -fomit-frame-pointer -funroll-loops -falign-functions=4 -I. -DSTDC_HEADERS -DPOSIX -DDO_COMPRESS -DGREPSILENT="'q'" man.c
      man.c: In function `do_global_apropos':
      man.c:1107: `q' undeclared (first use in this function)
      man.c:1107: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
      man.c:1107: for each function it appears in.)
      make[1]: *** [man.o] Error 1
      make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/portage/portage/man-1.5l-r2/work/man-1.5l/src'
      make: *** [source] Error 2

      !!! ERROR: sys-apps/man-1.5l-r2 failed.
      !!! Function src_compile, Line 71, Exitcode 2
      !!! (no error message)