3.6: What should be in a manual page?
Description
This article is from the Apple II GNO FAQ, by Devin Reade with numerous contributions by others.
3.6: What should be in a manual page?
A#3.6: Whatever is necessary. However, there are some standard sections
for manual pages, based on which section (chapter) the manual
page is in. Templates with the suggested manual page formats
are available in the file
templates[version_number].shk
at the usual ftp sites.
For programs in particular (typically Chapters 1, 6, and 8), here
are some sections that should be in the man page. The order of
the first three are mandatory due to how some automated tools
work. The sequence on the remainder are suggested:
NAME - name and one line description
SYNOPSIS - list of options and arguments
DESCRIPTION - a detailed description
OPTIONS - explanation of the flags
ENVIRONMENT - relevant environment variables and their
semantics, if appropriate
FILES - related files, if appropriate
BUGS - known bugs, if appropriate
AUTHOR - your name and contact info, typically
an email address. Include your smail
address at your own risk.
LEGALITIES - Commercial, freeware, shareware, public
domain, copyleft, ... ?
ATTRIBUTIONS - Give credit when due. For example, if
your binary was linked with the ORCA
libraries, you should be including the
Run-Time Licence from Appendix C of the
ORCA/C manual.
SEE ALSO - related manual pages or other documents
Continue to:
My Books
