HELP2MAN(1) GNU help2man 1.49.3 HELP2MAN(1)
User Commands User Commands
December 2022
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
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HELP2MAN(1) GNU help2man 1.49.3 HELP2MAN(1)
User Commands User Commands
December 2022
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
other
ENVIRONMENT
FILES
EXAMPLES
AUTHOR
REPORTING BUGS
COPYRIGHT
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HELP2MAN(1) GNU help2man 1.49.3 HELP2MAN(1)
User Commands User Commands
December 2022
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.
Placement of the text within the section may be explicitly requested
by using the syntax [<section], [=section] or [>section] to place the
additional text before, in place of, or after the default output
respectively.
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@debian.org>
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <bug-help2man@gnu.org>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright c 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022
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.
SEE ALSO
The full documentation for help2man is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
If the info and help2man programs are properly installed at your site,
the command
info help2man
should give you access to the complete manual.
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