man page
Man page format is a text format for help files. It is widely used on Unix and related computer systems. It is based on troff format.
Contents |
How to display
Man pages can be displayed by a standard utility named man. They are usually first installed in a central location.
The man utility can display files directly, without needing them to be installed, but the way to do that depends on the implementation. To display a file named, say, xyzformat.5, at least one of the following commands is likely to work:
$ man xyzformat.5 $ man ./xyzformat.5 $ man -l xyzformat.5 $ nroff -man xyzformat.5 $ groff -man -Tutf8 xyzformat.5
If all else fails, read the manual:
$ man man
Specifications
Typical man pages are written with the man or mdoc formats, occasionally with a bit of pure troff sprinkled in.
- man: https://www.mankier.com/7/man, or run
man 7 man- This page also lists a few troff directives sometimes seen in man pages. You will want to be able to process these too.'
- See also roff(7) for what BSDs consider necessary.
- mdoc: https://mandoc.bsd.lv/man/mdoc.7.html, or run
man 7 mandoc_mdoc- This is the semantic, "modern" way of writing manpages, and there are macros for the program name, the synopsis, ... everything.
Writing a man page
Normally specific software is used to create a man page, however, one can do that via a regular text editor.
| code | meaning |
|---|---|
| .TH | First command (see below) |
| .SH | Section header |
| .SS | Subheading |
| .P | Paragraph |
| .HP | Paragraph with heading indent |
| .RS | Start nested indentation |
| .RE | End nested indentation |
| .I | Italics |
| .B | Bold |
| .\" | Comment |
The first command (non-comment block) is often (but not necessarily) .TH, it's format consists of the following:
| block name | meaning | example |
|---|---|---|
| name | Name of the command that is being documented | command |
| section | Manual section (depending on what the command is, if it is software, then 1) | 1 |
| centre-footer | Usually a date of editing of the manual page | "2015 April 23" |
| left-footer | Text that goes in the bottom left | |
| centre-header | Text that goes in the top centre |
- Todo: There seems to be .IX block that often duplicates what other blocks do. What is it?
- OpenBSD roff(7) says it's a pod2man thing for table of contents.
