Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.uoknor.edu!news.nodak.edu!netnews1.nwnet.net!news.u.washington.edu!root From: kargl@troutmask.apl.washington.edu Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: [Q] How to create MAN pages? Date: 1 Mar 1996 00:47:24 GMT Organization: Applied Phyics Lab Lines: 73 Message-ID: <4h5hes$pa1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> References: <4h511u$528@news.neocom.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: troutmask.apl.washington.edu Harold Smorodin wrote in article <4h511u$528@news.neocom.ca> : > >Could someone describe the step by step process of creating a man page >and / or point me to some documentation? man 7 mdoc man 7 mdoc.samples > >I am running FBSD 2.1R and have not been able to find any details on >the topic of creating man pages in any of the documentation. > >I also have the following questions: > >1. What directory should the source text for man pages be placed in >the FreeBSD system? Is there a convention for this? In your .cshrc file (if you use tcsh, csh, ...) put the following line setenv MANPATH /usr/local/man:/usr/X11R6/man:/usr/share/man:$HOME/man Everutime you start an interactive csh the MANPATH get set to MANPATH=/usr/local/man:/usr/X11R6/man:/usr/share/man:/users/kargl/man Now, /usr/local/man <--- man pages from locally install packages /usr/X11R6/man <--- X-window system man pages /usr/share/man <--- man pages for FreeBSD /users/kargl/man <--- personal man pages Every time you execute ``man'' the search path is MANPATH. > >2. Is there a template or program that I should use to create the >source text? I am thinking in terms of I enter the text and the >program or template supplies the formatting codes. Use any available man page that in near the format you want. > >3. If I must use a text editor such as vi to manually embed >formatting codes into the source text, where do I find a list of these >codes and their meanings? man mdoc > >4. Is the man program a formatter/viewer, or just a viewer? If the >latter, what formatting program do I use to produce the formatted man >page? > >5. What directory should the formatted man page be placed in? Is >there a convention for this? man will place (compressed) formatted man pages in subdirectories man/cat# where # is the section number for the man page. > >6. Can the man page text be stored in compressed format? If yes, >which compression program do I use? Does the man program decompress >it automatically upon access? yes. gzip. yes Steven G. Kargl | Phone: 206-685-4677 | Applied Physics Lab | Fax: 206-543-6785 | Univ. of Washington |---------------------| 1013 NE 40th St | FreeBSD 2.x-STABLE | Seattle, WA 98105 |---------------------|