help2man(1): make simple manual page

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
--help: print this help, then exit
--version: print version number, then exit

EXECUTABLE should accept `--help' and `--version' options although alternatives may be specified using:

-h, --help-option=STRING: help option string
-v, --version-option=STRING: version option string

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 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.