1 .. include:: ../header.txt
3 ==============================
4 manpage writer for Docutils_
5 ==============================
7 :Author: Engelbert Gruber
8 :Contact: docutils-develop@lists.sourceforge.net
11 :Copyright: This document has been placed in the public domain.
13 This writer generates man pages from reStructuredText. Man pages (short
14 for "manual pages") are the way Unix systems have provided reference
15 material to the user on demand, at the shell prompt or in printed and
16 bound manuals, since 1971. Some GNU projects offer a similar resource
17 with the Texinfo system.
19 Man pages are usually formatted with a typesetting language and program
20 called ``troff``. *man* is a macro package for ``troff``. OpenBSD,
21 NetBSD, and some GNU/Linux distributions use an alternative program,
22 ``mandoc``, that does not support any typesetting features that cannot
23 be exercised in a terminal emulator, but supports enough *man* and
24 ``troff`` syntax that it can meet many users' needs. This writer
25 produces a dialect that is supported by both programs.
27 Historically, the program for formatting on terminals is called
28 ``nroff``. When details of the output device are not important, we can
29 refer to the language and its system as *roff*.
38 Man pages are organized into numbered sections. A system's *intro*\(1)
39 or *man*\(1) page lists them. For example, section 1 documents
40 user commands, and section 3 presents programming library functions.
41 You will find a "printf" page in both sections; the notations
42 *printf*\(1) and *printf*\(3) distinguish them.
44 A man page can discuss several topics; for example, the *gzip*\(1) page
45 documents the ``gzip``, ``gunzip``, and ``zcat`` commands. A man page's
46 topic list is followed by a summary description containing key words
47 that enable the page to located quickly with the ``apropos`` command.
49 A rST document's title becomes the man page's identifier, and the
50 subtitle its summary description. The title and docinfo populate the
51 the man page's header and footer.
53 Each man page is organized by a standardized set of section headings;
54 see References_. Use additional section headings at your discretion
55 only if the standard set does not serve. Man pages support one level of
56 subsection headings to further organize a section heading's material.
58 The beginning of a formatted man page might look like this::
60 man(1) Manual pager utils man(1)
63 man - an interface to the system reference manuals
66 man [-c|-w|-tZT device] [-adhu7V] [-m system[,...]] [-L locale]
68 It would have a page footer with further information::
70 noman 1.2.3 2021‐02‐08 man(1)
72 It could be produced by the following *roff* input.
76 .TH man 1 2021-02-08 "noman 1.2.3" "Manual pager utils"
78 man \- an interface to the system reference manuals
81 .RB [ \-c | \-w | \-tZT
84 We can write rST to produce the foregoing.
92 --------------------------------------------
93 an interface to the system reference manuals
94 --------------------------------------------
99 :Manual group: Manual pager utils
104 ``man`` ``[-c|-w|-tZT device] [-adhu7V] [-m system[,...]] [-L locale]``
106 The *man-db* project's own *man* page, which may be installed as
107 *man*\(1) or *gman*\(1), explains the sectional organization of the
108 manuals (in both senses).
113 Consult man pages from section 7: *man*, *man-pages*, *groff_man* and
116 .. [LMHT] `Linux Man Page Howto <https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Man-Page/>`__.
121 * Newlines, line breaks, and sentences
123 One should try to comply with the `troff line break rules`__ after
124 ``.``, ``?``, and ``!`` punctuation signs in the rST source. Use a
125 new line or two spaces to start a new sentence.
127 Avoid line breaks after ``.``, ``?``, and ``!`` signs that do not end
128 a sentence. You can escape a line break with a backslash. In rST,
129 escaped whitespace is removed, so precede the backslash by a space::
131 We recommend the works of E. T. A. \
134 __ https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/manual/groff.html#Sentences
136 A man page viewer on a terminal might merge consecutive blank lines,
137 but this is not done on typesetting devices like printers. Check your
138 output with a PostScript or PDF viewer before printing it.
140 * [LMHT]_ Filenames are always in italics, except in C language
141 preprocessor inclusions in the SYNOPSIS section. Use::
143 .I /usr/include/stdio.h
147 .B #include <stdio.h>
149 .. _Docutils: https://docutils.sourceforge.io/