help2man (1) - Linux Manuals

help2man: generate a simple manual page

NAME

help2man - generate a simple manual page

SYNOPSIS

help2man [OPTION]... EXECUTABLE

DESCRIPTION

`help2man' generates a man page out of `--help' and `--version' output.

-n, --name=STRING

description for the NAME paragraph

-s, --section=SECTION

section number for manual page (1, 6, 8)

-m, --manual=TEXT

name of manual (User Commands, ...)

-S, --source=TEXT

source of program (FSF, Debian, ...)

-L, --locale=STRING

select locale (default "C")

-i, --include=FILE

include material from `FILE'

-I, --opt-include=FILE

include material from `FILE' if it exists

-o, --output=FILE

send output to `FILE'

-p, --info-page=TEXT

name of Texinfo manual

-N, --no-info

suppress pointer to Texinfo manual

-l, --libtool

exclude the `lt-' from the program name

--help

print this help, then exit

--version

print version number, then exit

EXECUTABLE should accept `--help' and `--version' options and produce output on stdout although alternatives may be specified using:

-h, --help-option=STRING

help option string

-v, --version-option=STRING

version option string

--version-string=STRING

version string

--no-discard-stderr

include stderr when parsing option output

INCLUDE FILES

Additional material may be included in the generated output with the --include and --opt-include options. The format is simple:

 [section]
 text

 /pattern/
 text

Blocks of verbatim *roff text are inserted into the output either at the start of the given [section] (case insensitive), or after a paragraph matching /pattern/.

Patterns use the Perl regular expression syntax and may be followed by the i, s or m modifiers (see perlre(1)).

Lines before the first section or pattern which begin with `-' are processed as options. Anything else is silently ignored and may be used for comments, RCS keywords and the like.

The section output order (for those included) is:

 NAME
 SYNOPSIS
 DESCRIPTION
 OPTIONS
 ENVIRONMENT
 FILES
 EXAMPLES
 other
 AUTHOR
 REPORTING BUGS
 COPYRIGHT
 SEE ALSO

Any [NAME] or [SYNOPSIS] sections appearing in the include file will replace what would have automatically been produced (although you can still override the former with --name if required).

Other sections are prepended to the automatically produced output for the standard sections given above, or included at other (above) in the order they were encountered in the include file.

AVAILABILITY

The latest version of this distribution is available on-line from:

 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/help2man/

AUTHOR

Written by Brendan O'Dea <bod [at] debian.org>

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to <bug-help2man [at] gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.