This is a demonstration project using help_to_man. USAGE ----- To use it: 0. Ensure your program emits help text with -h. (stdout or stderr is fine) 1. Copy the help_to_man script into your man/ directory, and re-name it your_program.X.sh where X is the manpage section you want (usually 1). [It's sufficiently short to be copied in its entirety every time.] 2. Edit it. Set the following: NAME Your program's name BINARY The binary path in the source tree (once built, it is called with -h) SYNOPSIS A few words to summarise SECTION The section to place it in. Usually 1. See "man man" for a list. SOURCE The group of commands in which this belongs, if appropriate. DATE Documentation date. SEE_ALSO A list of other man pages, in the form: "manpageA (1)" "manpageB (1)" LEADING_SPACE Prevent re-wrapping of the output of -h, if desired. LICENSE License AUTHOR Author/email. 3. In the makefile, run: bash man/your_program.X.sh #Must be bash, not sh. 4. This generates the files: man/your_program.X.bz2 #Preview with man. man/your_program.X.html #Preview with links 5. Installation: manpages go in /usr/local/share/man/manX/ 6. The html version is something of an afterthought, but may also be of use. TRICKS ------ When documenting a file-format, the Makefile has probably already installed the documentation elsewhere. (usually /usr/local/share/doc/APPLICATION/format-description.txt) However, a basic man-page should exist (usually for section 5). 1. copy help_to_man.sh as format_description.5.sh 2. Set the value of BINARY to the following: BINARY="fudge.sh See: /usr/local/share/doc/APPLICATION/format_description.txt" 3. Create a script called fudge.sh in the same directory: #!/bin/sh echo ${@%-h} 4. The result is a man-page with all the usual sections, but whose description just reads "See: /usr/local/share/doc/APPLICATION/format_description.txt" WWW --- Make www builds the release for the web, i.e. this documentation and a tarball.