help2man

Generate a man page for an executable

$ help2man [executable]

Specify the "name" paragraph in the man page

$ help2man [executable] --name [name]

Specify the section for the man page (defaults to 1)

$ help2man [executable] --section [section]

Output to a file instead of stdout

$ help2man [executable] --output [path/to/file]

Display detailed help

$ help2man --help

help2man [OPTION]... EXECUTABLE

`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

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 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.

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

ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/help2man/

Report bugs to <bug-help2man@gnu.org>.

Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021 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.

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.

Written by Brendan O'Dea <bod@debian.org>