Question

how to write Man Page documentation ? i have a group project written in C and my job is to write man page documentstion. can anyone please explain it and how to write and please provide example.

thank you

Answer 1

Man page

A man page (short for manual page) is a form of software documentation usually found on a Unix or Unix-like operating system. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and even abstract concepts. A user may invoke a man page by issuing the man command.By default, man typically uses a terminal pager program such as more or less to display its output.

Some examples of man page

Common examples include: OPTIONS, EXIT STATUS, RETURN VALUE, ENVIRONMENT, BUGS, FILES, AUTHOR, REPORTING BUGS, HISTORY and COPYRIGHT. Manual pages can be written either in the old man macros, the new doc macros, or a combination of both ( mandoc ).

commands for formatting man pages

.\ " text -- to put comments
.TH name section center-footer left-footer center-header --used to set title,header and footer lines
.SH t -- creates section heading
.ss t -- creates sub heading
.p -- starts new paragraph
.HP --starts paragraph with hanging indent
.RS .RE -- starts and end a nested indentation.
.I -- italics text.
.B t --- to boldcase text

Hope this will help you.