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This is help2man.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.8 from
help2man.texi.
INFO-DIR-SECTION GNU programming support
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* help2man: (help2man). Automatic manual page generation.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
This file documents the GNU `help2man' command which produces simple
manual pages from the `--help' and `--version' output of other commands.
Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software
Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a
translation approved by the Foundation.
File: help2man.info, Node: Top, Next: Overview, Up: (dir)
`help2man'
**********
`help2man' produces simple manual pages from the `--help' and
`--version' output of other commands.
* Menu:
* Overview:: Overview of `help2man'.
* Invoking help2man:: How to run `help2man'.
* Including text:: Including additional text in the output.
* --help recommendations:: Recommended formatting for --help output.
* Makefile usage:: Using `help2man' with `make'.
* Localised man pages:: Producing native language manual pages.
* Reports:: Reporting bugs or suggestions.
* Availability:: Obtaining `help2man'.
File: help2man.info, Node: Overview, Next: Invoking help2man, Prev: Top, Up: Top
1 Overview of `help2man'
************************
`help2man' is a tool for automatically generating simple manual pages
from program output.
Although manual pages are optional for GNU programs other projects,
such as Debian require them (*note Man Pages: (standards)Man Pages.)
This program is intended to provide an easy way for software authors
to include a manual page in their distribution without having to
maintain that document.
Given a program which produces reasonably standard `--help' and
`--version' outputs, `help2man' can re-arrange that output into
something which resembles a manual page.
File: help2man.info, Node: Invoking help2man, Next: Including text, Prev: Overview, Up: Top
2 How to Run `help2man'
***********************
The format for running the `help2man' program is:
`help2man' [OPTION]... EXECUTABLE
`help2man' supports the following options:
`-n STRING'
`--name=STRING'
Use STRING as the description for the `NAME' paragraph of the
manual page.
By default (for want of anything better) this paragraph contains
`manual page for PROGRAM VERSION'.
This option overrides an include file `[name]' section (*note
Including text::).
`-s SECTION'
`--section SECTION'
Use SECTION as the section for the man page. The default section
is 1.
`-m MANUAL'
`--manual=MANUAL'
Set the name of the manual section to SECTION, used as a centred
heading for the manual page. By default `User Commands' is used
for pages in section 1, `Games' for section 6 and `System
Administration Utilities' for sections 8 and 1M.
`-S SOURCE'
`--source=SOURCE'
The program source is used as a page footer, and often contains
the name of the organisation or a suite of which the program is
part. By default the value is the package name and version.
`-L LOCALE'
`--locale=LOCALE'
Select output locale (default `C'). Both the program and
`help2man' must support the given LOCALE (*note Localised man
pages::).
`-i FILE'
`--include=FILE'
Include material from FILE (*note Including text::).
`-I FILE'
`--opt-include=FILE'
A variant of `--include' for use in Makefile pattern rules which
does not require FILE to exist.
`-o FILE'
`--output=FILE'
Send output to FILE rather than `stdout'.
`-N'
`--no-info'
Suppress inclusion of a `SEE ALSO' paragraph directing the reader
to the Texinfo documentation.
`--help'
`--version'
Show help or version information.
By default `help2man' passes the standard `--help' and `--version'
options to the executable although alternatives may be specified using:
`-h OPTION'
`--help-option=OPTION'
help option string
`-v OPTION'
`--version-option=OPTION'
version option string
File: help2man.info, Node: --help recommendations, Next: Makefile usage, Prev: Including text, Up: Top
3 `--help' Recommendations
**************************
Here are some recommendations for what to include in your `--help'
output. Including these gives `help2man' the best chance at generating
a respectable man page, as well as benefitting users directly.
*Note Command-Line Interfaces: (GNU Coding Standards)Command-Line
Interfaces, and *Note Man Pages: (GNU Coding Standards)Man Pages, for
the official GNU standards relating to `--help' and man pages.
* A synopsis of how to invoke the program. If different usages of
the program have different invocations, then list them all. For
example (edited for brevity):
Usage: cp [OPTION]... SOURCE DEST
or: cp [OPTION]... SOURCE... DIRECTORY
...
Use `argv[0]' for the program name in these synopses, just as it
is, with no directory stripping. This is in contrast to the
canonical (constant) name of the program which is used in
`--version'.
* A very brief explanation of what the program does, including
default and/or typical behaviour. For example, here is `cp''s:
Copy SOURCE to DEST, or multiple SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY.
* A list of options, indented to column 2. If the program supports
one-character options, put those first, then the equivalent long
option (if any). If the option takes an argument, include that
too, giving it a meaningful name. Align the descriptions in a
convenient column, if desired. Note that to be correctly
recognised by `help2man' the description must be separated from
the options by at least two spaces and descriptions continued on
subsequent lines must start at the same column.
Here again is an (edited) excerpt from `cp', showing a short
option with an equivalent long option, a long option only, and a
short option only:
-a, --archive same as -dpR
--backup[=CONTROL] make a backup of each ...
-b like --backup but ...
For programs that take many options, it may be desirable to split
the option list into sections such as `Global', `Output control',
or whatever makes sense in the particular case. It is usually
best to alphabetise (by short option name first, then long) within
each section, or the entire list if there are no sections.
* Any useful additional information about program behaviour, such as
influential environment variables, further explanation of options,
etc. For example, `cp' discusses `VERSION_CONTROL' and sparse
files.
* A few examples of typical usage, at your discretion. One good
example is usually worth a thousand words of description, so this
is highly recommended.
* In closing, a line stating how to email bug reports. Typically,
MAILING-ADDRESS will be `bug-PROGRAM@gnu.org'; please use this
form for GNU programs whenever possible. It's also good to
mention the home page of the program, other mailing lists, etc.
The `argp' and `popt' programming interfaces let you specify option
descriptions for `--help' in the same structure as the rest of the
option definition; you may wish to consider using these routines for
option parsing instead of `getopt'.
File: help2man.info, Node: Including text, Next: --help recommendations, Prev: Invoking help2man, Up: Top
4 Including Additional Text in the Output
*****************************************
Additional static text may be included in the generated manual page by
using the `--include' and `--opt-include' options (*note Invoking
help2man::).
The format for files included with these option 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 (*note perlre(1): (*manpages*)perlre.)
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 is:
NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
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.
File: help2man.info, Node: Makefile usage, Next: Localised man pages, Prev: --help recommendations, Up: Top
5 Using `help2man' With `make'
******************************
A suggested use of `help2man' in Makefiles is to have the manual page
depend not on the binary, but on the source file(s) in which the
`--help' and `--version' output are defined.
This usage allows a manual page to be generated by the maintainer and
included in the distribution without requiring the end-user to have
`help2man' installed.
An example rule for the program `prog' could be:
prog.1: $(srcdir)/main.c
-$(HELP2MAN) --output=$@ --name='an example program' ./prog
The value of `HELP2MAN' may be set in `configure.in' using either of:
AM_MISSING_PROG(HELP2MAN, help2man, $missing_dir)
for `automake', or something like:
AC_PATH_PROG(HELP2MAN, help2man, false // No help2man //)
for `autoconf' alone.
File: help2man.info, Node: Localised man pages, Next: Reports, Prev: Makefile usage, Up: Top
6 Producing Native Language Manual Pages.
*****************************************
Manual pages may be produced for any locale supported by both the
program and `help2man'(1) with the `--locale' (`-L') option.
help2man -L fr_FR@euro -o cp.fr.1 cp
6.1 Changing the Location of Message Catalogs
=============================================
When creating localised manual pages from a program's build directory it
is probable that the translations installed in the standard location
will not be (if installed at all) correct for the version of the
program being built.
A preloadable library is provided with `help2man' which will
intercept `open(2)' calls for message catalogs for the domain given by
`$TEXTDOMAIN' and re-map the requests to the appropriate file under
`./po' (or `$LOCALEDIR' if given).
So for example:
LD_PRELOAD="hacklocaledir.so preloadable_libintl.so" TEXTDOMAIN=PROG \
help2man -L fr_FR@euro -i PROG.fr.h2m -o PROG.fr.1 PROG
will translate requests by PROG for
`/usr/share/locale/fr/LC_MESSGAES/PROG.mo' to `po/fr.gmo'.
Notes:
* The generalisation of `fr_FR@euro' to `fr' in the example above is
done by `gettext', if a more specific match were available it
would also have been re-mapped.
* The inclusion of `preloadable_libintl.so' in `$LD_PRELOAD' is
required only for cases (such as `glibc') where `gettext' is built
into libc (where `__open' would otherwise be satisfied internally).
* This preload hack has only been tested against `glibc' 2.3.1 and
`gettext' 2.3.1 on a GNU/Linux system; let me know if it does (or
doesn't) work for you (*note Reports::).
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) `help2man' currently supports `fr_FR' and `pl_PL' (*note
Reports:: for how to submit other translations).
File: help2man.info, Node: Reports, Next: Availability, Prev: Localised man pages, Up: Top
7 Reporting Bugs or Suggestions
*******************************
If you find problems or have suggestions about this program or manual,
please report them to <bug-help2man@gnu.org>.
Note to translators: when submitting new translations for
`po/help2man.pot' please additionally translate `help2man.h2m' (used to
augment the manual pages for `help2man').
File: help2man.info, Node: Availability, Prev: Reports, Up: Top
8 Obtaining `help2man'
**********************
The latest version of this distribution is available on-line from:
`ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/help2man/'
Tag Table:
Node: Top1112
Node: Overview1819
Node: Invoking help2man2526
Node: --help recommendations4697
Node: Including text8115
Node: Makefile usage9652
Node: Localised man pages10591
Ref: Localised man pages-Footnote-112391
Node: Reports12505
Node: Availability12963
End Tag Table