--- man.el.~1.187.~	2009-11-25 09:08:03.000000000 +1100
+++ man.el	2009-11-25 09:26:02.000000000 +1100
@@ -754,13 +754,17 @@
    ((memq action '(t nil))
     (let ((table '()))
       (with-temp-buffer
+	(setq default-directory "/") ;; in case inherited doesn't exist
         ;; Actually for my `man' the arg is a regexp.  Don't know how
         ;; standard that is.  Also, it's not clear what kind of
         ;; regexp are accepted: under GNU/Linux it seems it's ERE-style,
         ;; whereas under MacOSX it seems to be BRE-style and
         ;; doesn't accept backslashes at all.  Let's not bother to
         ;; quote anything.
-        (call-process "man" nil '(t nil) nil "-k" (concat "^" string))
+ 	(let ((process-connection-type nil) ;; pipe
+	      (process-environment (copy-sequence process-environment)))
+	  (setenv "COLUMNS" "999") ;; don't truncate long names
+	  (call-process "man" nil '(t nil) nil "-k" (concat "^" string)))
         (goto-char (point-min))
         (while (re-search-forward "^[^ \t\n]+" nil t)
           (push (match-string 0) table)))