Man page: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:29, 26 January 2016

A standard for presenting software documentation in, the UNIX manual page format is a simple ASCII type text file that features a few control codes alongside formatting conventions that help to organise and display the documentation on different devices. This form of documentation often shows up with software packages ported from UNIX or UNIX-like operating systems.

UNIX manual pages can be viewed with any text editor. But for formatted output a special viewer accompanied with a working text formatting system is required.

Tools

OS/2 text & programmers editors with man file support

Elvis - Man file syntax support included by default - Open source - Current

OS/2 text formatter

awf - nroff-like for old ms-sh
Cawf] - nroff-like text formatter
GNU groff - working version together with man 1.1

OS/2 utilities for viewing man pages

DrMan 1.3 - PM viewer that allos you to view UNIX style man and info files.
Simple Man - Viewer
GNU man 1.0 - Viewer - Outdated
GNU man 1.1 - Viewer (also needs a pager)
xman - X11 based viewer included in XFree86/2

OS/2 utilities for converting man pages

Man2TXT - Man to txt converter
Help2man - Converts text to man format, used to convert a programs output to man pages or to create dummy man pages.

DOS text & programmers editors with man file support

Elvis - Man file syntax support included by default - Open source - Current

The above is not an exhaustive list BTW.

Links

History of UNIX man pages
Unix Programmer's Manual (1971-11-03) 1st Edition

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-A standard for presenting software documentation in, the man format is a simple [[ASCII]] type text file that feature a few control codes alongside formatting conventions that help organise and display the documentation. This form of documentation is commonly used in the [[UNIX]] world and often shows up with software packages ported from one of those OS's.
+A standard for presenting software documentation in, the [[UNIX]] manual page format is a simple [[ASCII]] type text file that features a few control codes alongside formatting conventions that help to organise and display the documentation on different devices. This form of documentation often shows up with software packages ported from UNIX or UNIX-like operating systems.
-Man pages can be viewed with any text editor but a special viewer makes them slightly easier to traverse.
+UNIX manual pages can be viewed with any text editor. But for formatted output a special viewer accompanied with a working text formatting system is required.
 ==Tools==
@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 * [http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/wp/awf.zip awf] - nroff-like for old ms-sh
 * [http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/wp/cawf410.zip Cawf]] - nroff-like text formatter
-* [http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/wp/lout336.zip lout] - multi-lingual document formatting system
+* [http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/wp/gnugroff.zip GNU groff] - working version together with man 1.1
-* [http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/wp/groff-1.21_os2.zip GNU Groff] - man page formatter
 ===OS/2 utilities for viewing man pages===
 * [http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/wp/drman-1.3.zip DrMan 1.3] - PM viewer that allos you to view [[UNIX]] style man and info files.
 * [http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/misc/simpleman.zip Simple Man] - Viewer
-* [http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/dev/help/gnuman.zip GNU man] - Viewer - Outdated
+* [http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/dev/help/gnuman.zip GNU man 1.0] - Viewer - Outdated
-* [http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/dev/help/man11.zip Man 1.1] - Viewer
+* [http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/dev/help/man11.zip GNU man 1.1] - Viewer (also needs a pager)
 * xman - X11 based viewer included in [[XFree86/2]]