NAME
docbook-to-man — convert DocBook SGML into roff -man macros
SYNOPSIS
docbook-to-man [source.sgml] [>] [destination.1]
DESCRIPTION
The docbook-to-man tool is a batch converter that transforms UNIX-style
manpages from the DocBook SGML DTD into nroff/troff -man macros.
docbook-to-man is the shell command that runs the low-level components
to translate a single DocBook SGML document instance (whose document
element is <RefEntry>) into pretty-much vanilla -man macros, with
tables rendered in tbl.
This is not the original version by Fred Dalrymple, but one with the
ANS Modifications by David Bolen (db3l@ans.net).
This manual page and some small changes are by W. Borgert
debacle@debian.org for Debian GNU/Linux. Permission is granted to
copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU
Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published
by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-
Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts.
White space and special characters
If you want to use tabs in your manpage you should use
<programlisting>, <literal> or <screen> and invoke docbook-to-man with
INSTANT_OPT set to a tab character. Be aware that multiple tabs will be
collapsed into one.
When you want to collapse white space into one, you should invoke
docbook-to-man with INSTANT_OPT set to a space character.
Special characters like \, ’ or . will not be interpreted if you set
INSTANT_OPT to a space or tab character.
ENVIRONMENT
If the variable INSTANT_OPT is not set, the instant(1) is called with
the parameter -d by docbook-to-man. If you don’t want this, e.g. if
you want to use some special characters literally in your SGML file,
you can set INSTANT_OPT to just a space character:
INSTANT_OPT=" " docbook-to-man src.sgml > dst.1
Note: The better way to use special characters like ^ or > is to write
them in the SGML way, i.e. ⁁ or >.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1996 X Consortium
Copyright (c) 1996 Dalrymple Consulting
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE X CONSORTIUM OR DALRYMPLE CONSULTING BE LIABLE
FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF
CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH
THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Except as contained in this notice, the names of the X Consortium and
Dalrymple Consulting shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to
promote the sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior
written authorization.
See also
instant(1) and transpec(5)
docbook-to-man(1)