man2html - format a manual page in html
man2html [options] [file]
man2html converts a manual page as found in file (or stdin, in case no file argument, or the argument "-", is given) from man-style nroff into html, and prints the result on stdout. It does support tbl but does not know about eqn. The exit status is 0. If something goes wrong, an error page is printed on stdout. This can be used as a stand-alone utility, but is mainly intended as an auxiliary, to enable users to browse their man pages using a html browser like lynx(1), xmosaic(1) or netscape(1). The main part of man2html is the troff-to-html engine written by Richard Verhoeven (rcb5@win.tue.nl). It adds hyperlinks for the following constructs: foo(3x) "http://localhost/cgi-bin/man/man2html?3x+foo" method://string "method://string" www.host.name "http://www.host.name" ftp.host.name "ftp://ftp.host.name" name@host "mailto:name@host" <string.h> "file:/usr/include/string.h" (The first of these can be tuned by options - see below.) No lookup is done - the links generated need not exist. Also an index with internal hyperlinks to the various sections is generated, so that it is easier to find one's way in large man pages like bash(1).
When reading from stdin, it is not always clear how to do .so expansion. The -D option allows a script to define the working directory. -D pathname Strip the last two parts from the pathname, and do a chdir(dir) before starting the conversion. The -E option allows the easy generation of error messages from a cgi script. -E string Output an error page containing the given error message. The general form of a hyperlink generated for a man page reference is <method:cgipath><man2htmlpath><separator><manpage> with a default as shown above. The parts of this hyperlink are set using the various options. -h Set method:cgipath to http://localhost. -H host[.domain][:port] Set method:cgipath to http://host.domain:port. -l Set method:cgipath to lynxcgi:/usr/lib. -L dir Set method:cgipath to lynxcgi:dir. -M man2htmlpath Set the man2htmlpath to use. The default is /cgi- bin/man/man2html. -p Set separator to '/'. -q Set separator to '?'. This is the default. -r Use relative html paths, instead of cgi-bin paths. On a machine without running httpd, one can use lynx to browse the man pages, using the lynxcgi method. When some http daemon is running, lynx, or any other browser, can be used to browse the man pages, using the http method. The option -l (for `lynxcgi') selects the former behaviour. With it, the default cgipath is /usr/lib. In general, a cgi script can be called by <path_to_script>/<more_path>?<query> and the environment variables PATH_INFO and QUERY_STRING will be set to <more_path> and <query>, respectively. Since lynxcgi does not handle the PATH_INFO part, we generate hyperlinks with `?' as a separator by default. The option -p (for `path') selects '/' as a separator, while the option -q (for `query') selects '?' as a separator. The option -H host will specify the host to use (instead of localhost). A cgi script could use man2html -H $SERVER_NAME if the variable SERVER_NAME is set. This would allow your machine to act as a server and export man pages.
There are many heuristics. The output will not always be perfect. The lynxcgi method will not work if lynx was compiled without selecting support for it. There may be problems with security.
Richard Verhoeven was the original author of man2html. Michael Hamilton and Andries Brouwer subsequently improved on it. Federico Lucifredi <flucifredi@acm.org> is the current maintainer.
lynx(1), man(1), hman(1) 1 January 1998 man2html(1)
Personal Opportunity - Free software gives you access to billions of dollars of software at no cost. Use this software for your business, personal use or to develop a profitable skill. Access to source code provides access to a level of capabilities/information that companies protect though copyrights. Open source is a core component of the Internet and it is available to you. Leverage the billions of dollars in resources and capabilities to build a career, establish a business or change the world. The potential is endless for those who understand the opportunity.
Business Opportunity - Goldman Sachs, IBM and countless large corporations are leveraging open source to reduce costs, develop products and increase their bottom lines. Learn what these companies know about open source and how open source can give you the advantage.
Free Software provides computer programs and capabilities at no cost but more importantly, it provides the freedom to run, edit, contribute to, and share the software. The importance of free software is a matter of access, not price. Software at no cost is a benefit but ownership rights to the software and source code is far more significant.
Free Office Software - The Libre Office suite provides top desktop productivity tools for free. This includes, a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation engine, drawing and flowcharting, database and math applications. Libre Office is available for Linux or Windows.
The Free Books Library is a collection of thousands of the most popular public domain books in an online readable format. The collection includes great classical literature and more recent works where the U.S. copyright has expired. These books are yours to read and use without restrictions.
Source Code - Want to change a program or know how it works? Open Source provides the source code for its programs so that anyone can use, modify or learn how to write those programs themselves. Visit the GNU source code repositories to download the source.
Study at Harvard, Stanford or MIT - Open edX provides free online courses from Harvard, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley and other top Universities. Hundreds of courses for almost all major subjects and course levels. Open edx also offers some paid courses and selected certifications.
Linux Manual Pages - A man or manual page is a form of software documentation found on Linux/Unix operating systems. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and even abstract concepts.