How to make "man" pages

[Matthew Seaman]

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On 31/03/2010 08:54:25, Fbsd1 wrote:
> OK i want to write a man page from scratch. So lets say i want to use
> /usr/share/man/man2/jail.2.gz as my starting sample. How do I convert
> this .gz file to a plain text file so I can edit it with ee?

   % cp /usr/share/man/man2/jail.2.gz .
   % gunzip jail.2.gz
   % mv jail.2 myname.2
   % ee myname.2

> And how do
> I turn the edited text file back in to a man page .gz file?

To compress the groff source:

   % gzip myname.2

To render the groff source as ascii text (what the man(1) command does):

   % groff -mdoc -Tascii myname.2 | less

or

   % gzcat myname.2.gz | groff -mdoc -Tascii | less

In general though, you should keep the man page source uncompressed
while you're working on it and within the port; install it uncompressed
and leave it to the ports machinery to compress it after installation.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

- -- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
                                                  Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
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