LaTeX2man -
A Documentation Tool
Dr. Jürgen Vollmer
2017/10/06
Version 1.26
Latex2man
is a tool to translate UNIX manual pages written with
LaTeXinto a format understood by the UNIX man(1)-command.
Alternatively HTML, TexInfo, or LaTeX code can be produced too.
Output of parts of the text may be suppressed using the conditional text
feature (for this, LaTeX generation may be used).
Table of Contents
latex2man
[-ttransfile]
[-cCSSfile]
[-HMTL]
[-h]
[-V]
[-Cname]
[-achar]
infile
outfile
Latex2man
reads the file infile
and writes outfile.
The
input must be a LaTeX document using the latex2man
LaTeXpackage.
Latex2man
translates that document into the troff(1)
format using
the -man
macro package.
Using the -H
option, HTML code can be produced, instead of
troff(1).
With this option you can, optionally, specify a CSSfile
as an argument.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) allows you to control the appearance of the resulting HTML page.
See below for the names of CSS classes that are included in the HTML tags as attributes.
Using the -T
option, TexInfo code can be produced, instead of
troff(1).
Using the -M
option, troff(1)
input is produced.
Using the -L
option, LaTeX ouput can be produced, instead of
troff(1).
- -ttransfile
- Translation for user defined LaTeX macros.
- -cCSSfile
- If you use the -H
you can also specify a file that contains CSS
style sheets. The link to the CSS file is inserted into the generatedHTML output using the
specified CSSfile
filename.
- -M
- Produce output suitable for the man(1)
command (default).
- -H
- Instead of producing output suitable for the man(1)
command, HTML code is produced (despite the name of the command).
- -T
- Instead of producing output suitable for the man(1)
command, TexInfo code is produced (despite the name of the command). The
generated .texi-file
may be processed with makeinfo(1)
(to produce an .info-file)
which in turn may be installed using
install-info(1).
The Info tags @dircategory and
@direntry are provided.
- -L
- The LaTeX source is written to the outfile.
This is
useful in conjunction with the -Cname
option.
- -Cname
- Output the conditional text for name.
If more
than one name should be given use quotes: -C'name1 name2 ...'
The following names are defined automatically:
- -H defines HTML
- -T defines TEXI
- -M defines MAN
- -L defines LATEX
- -achar
- Is used only in conjunction with -T.
Background:
TexInfo ignores all blanks before the first word on a new line. In order
to produce some additional space before that word (using \SP) some
character has to be printed before the additional space. By default this
is a . (dot). The char
specifies an alternative for that first
character. Giving a blank to
-a
supresses the indentation of a line.
Note: only for the first \SP of a series that char
is printed.
- -h
- Show a help text.
- -V
- Show version information.
- latex2man.tex
- The LaTeX file containing this Man-page.
- latex2man.inc
- A file read with \input{..} .
- latex2man.sty
- The LaTeX package defining the environments and
commands.
- latex2man.cfg
- The configuration file for Latex2man
LaTeX-package.
- latex2man.css
- File containing example CSS definitions.
- latex2man.trans
- File containing example translations of user
defined LaTeX macros.
- fancyheadings.sty
- A LaTeX package used to typeset head- and
foot lines.
- fancyhdr.sty
- A LaTeX package used to typeset head- and foot
lines.
- rcsinfo.sty
- A LaTeX package used to extract and use RCS version
control information in LaTeX documents.
- latex2man.pdf
- The PDF version of this document.
LaTeX,TexInfo, troff(1),
groff(1),
makeinfo(1).
The LaTeX package latex2man
is used to write the Man-pages with
LaTeX.Since we translate into other text formats, not all LaTeX stuff can
be translated.
The latex2man
package accepts the following options:
- fancy
- use the LaTeX package fancyheadings.
- fancyhdr
- use the LaTeX package fancyhdr.
- nofancy
- neither the LaTeX package fancyheadings
nor
fancyhdr
are used.
The default option may be specified in the file latex2man.cfg.
The following environments are provided by the package:
- \begin{Name}{chapter}{name}{author}{info}{title}
- The
Name
environment takes five arguments: 1. the Man-page chapter,
2. the name of the Man-page, 3. the author, 4. some short information
about the tool printed in the footline of the Man-page, and 5. a text
which is used as title, for HTML and LaTeX (it's ignored for output of
the Man-page or TeXinfo. The Name
environment must be the first
environment in the document. Processing starts with this environment. Any
text before this is ignored (exception: the setVersion and
setDate commands). (Note: all arguments of \begin{Name} must
be written on one line).
- \begin{Table}[width]{columns}
- The Table
environment takes two arguments: the first optional one specifies
a width of the last column, the second one gives the number of columns.
For example:
\begin{Table}[2cm]{3}
Here & am & I \\\hline
A 1 & A 2 & A 3 1 2 3 4 5 A 3 1 2 3 4 5 \\
B 1 & B 2 & B 3 \\
\end{Table}
will be typeset as:
Here |
am |
I |
A 1 |
A 2 |
A 3 1 2 3 4 5 A 3 1 2 3 4 5 |
B 1 |
B 2 |
B 3 |
If no optional width
argument is given, all entries are
typeset left justified.
The width
is a length measured absolutly in cm.
Processing with LaTeX a p{width} column is typeset
as last column. The translation to troff(1)
commands
results in a lw(width)
column specification. Translating
to HTML and TexInfo ignores the width
parameter.
\hline may be used.
If the Man-page is formatted with troff(1)
and tables are used, the
tbl(1)
preprocessor should be called, usually by giving
a -t
to the call of troff(1).
When viewing the generated
manula page using man(1),
tbl(1)
is called automatically.
- \begin{Description}
- is the same as \begin{description}
- \begin{Description}[label]
- is similar to
\begin{description}, but the item labels have at minimum the size
of the (optional) word label.
The difference is visible only
in the DVI and PDF-output, not in the troff, TexInfo or HTML output.
- a
- |a \begin{description}
- ab
- |ab
- abc
- |abc
- a
- |a \begin{Description}
- ab
- |ab
- abc
- | abc
- a
- |a \begin{Description}[aa]
- ab
- |ab
- abc
- |abc
The following environments are accepted:
- description
- enumerate
- itemize
- verbatim
- center
They may be nested:
The following commands are provided:
- \Opt{option}
- Option: \Opt{-o} will be typeset as -o.
- \Arg{argument}
- Argument: \Arg{filename} will be typeset as
filename.
- \OptArg{option}{argument}
- Option with Argument:
\OptArg{-o}{filename} will be typeset as -ofilename.
- \OptoArg{option}{argument}
- Option with optional Argument:
\OptoArg{-o}{filename} will be
typeset as -o[filename].
- \oOpt{option}
- Optional option, e.g. \oOpt{-o} will be
typeset as [-o].
- \oArg{argument}
- Optional argument, e.g. \oArg{filename}
will be typeset as [filename].
- \oOptArg{option}{argument}
- Optional option with argument, e.g.
\oOptArg{-o}{filename} will be typeset as [-ofilename].
- \oOptoArg{option}{argument}
- Optional option with optional
argument, e.g.
\oOptoArg{-o}{filename} will be typeset as [-o[filename]].
- \File{filename}
- used to typeset filenames, e.g.
\File{filename} will be typeset as filename.
- \Prog{prog}
- used to typeset program names, e.g.
\Prog{latex2man} will be typeset as latex2man.
- \Cmd{command}{chapter}
- used to typeset references to other
commands, e.g.
\Cmd{latex2man}{1} will be typeset as latex2man(1).
- \Bar
- is typeset as |.
- \Bs
- (BackSlash) is typeset as \.
- \Tilde
- is typeset as a ~.
- \Dots
- is typeset as ...
- \Bullet
- us typeset as *.
- \setVersion{..}
- set .. as version information.
- \setVersionWord{..}
- set .. for the word Version:
in
the footline.
The default is \setVersionWord{Version:}.
- \Version
- returns the version information.
- \setDate{..}
- sets .. as date information.
- \Date
- returns the date information.
- \Email{..}
- use to mark an Email address:
\Email{Juergen.Vollmer@informatik-vollmer.de} is typeset as:
Juergen.Vollmer@informatik-vollmer.de.
- \URL{..}
- use to mark an URL:
\URL{http://www.foo.de/\Tilde vollmer} is typeset as
http://www.foo.de/~vollmer.
- \LatexManEnd
- the input file is read and processed until reading
end-of-file or
\LatexManEnd (at the beginning of a line).
LaTeXignores this command.
- \Lbr, \Rbr
- is typeset as [ and ] (these variants are
needed only somtimes like in
\item[FooBar\LBr xx \Lbr]. Usually [ ] will work.
- \LBr, \RBr
- is typeset as { and } (these variants are
needed when using { or } as arguments to macros.
- \Circum
- is typeset as ^.
- \Percent
- is typeset as %.
- \TEXbr
- If processed with LaTeX causes a linebreak (i.e. is
equivalent to \\).In the output of latex2man
this macro is
ignored.
- \TEXIbr
- If TexInfo output is generated, causes a linebreak (i.e. is
equivalent to \\),otherwise ignored.
- \MANbr
- If Man-Page output is generated, causes a linebreak (i.e. is
equivalent to \\),otherwise ignored.
- \HTMLbr
- If HTML output is generated, causes a linebreak (i.e. is
equivalent to \\),otherwise ignored.
- \medskip
- An empty line.
- \SP
- Produces some extra space, works also at the beginning of lines.
The code of the second line looks like:
\SP abc \SP\SP xx\\:
abc xx
abc xx
abc xx
Note: Due to some ``problems'' with TexInfo, the lines starting with
\SP
have a leading . (dot) in the TexInfo output,
see -achar.
- \rcsInfo $Id ...$
- if the LaTeX package rcsinfo
is used,
this command is used to extract the date of the Man-page.
- \rcsInfoLongDate
- if the LaTeX package rcsinfo
is used, this
command is used to typeset the date coded in the $Id ..$ string.
The following standard LaTeX commands are accepted:
- \section{..}
- The section
macro takes one argument: the
name of the Man-page section. Each Man-page consists of several sections.
Usually there are the following sections in a Man-page: Name
(special handling as environment, c.f. above), Synopsis,
Description,
Options,
Files,
See Also,
Diagnostics,
Return Values,
Bugs,
Author,
version,
etc.
Synopsis
must be the first section after the Name
environment.
Note: Do not use LaTeX-macrosin section names.
- \subsection{..}
- works as well as
- \subsubsection{..}
- those.
- \emph{..}
- \emph{example} is typeset as example.
- \textbf{..}
- \textbf{example} is typeset as example.
- \texttt{..}
- \texttt{example} is typeset as example.
- \underline{..}
- \underline{example} is typeset as
example of underline.
- \date{..}
- uses .. as date.
- \verb+..+
- but only + is allowed as delimiter.
- $<$
- is typeset as <.
- $>$
- is typeset as >.
- $<=$
- is typeset as <=.
- $>=$
- is typeset as >=.
- $=$
- is typeset as =.
- $<>$
- is typeset as <>.
- $\ge$
- is typeset as $>$.
- $\le$
- is typeset as $<=$.
- $\leftarrow$
- is typeset as $<--$.
- $\Leftarrow$
- is typeset as $<==$.
- $\rightarrow$
- is typeset as $-->$.
- $\Rightarrow$
- is typeset as $==>$.
- \{
- is typeset as {.
- \}
- is typeset as }.
- \$
- is typeset as $.
- \$
- is typeset as $,should be used inside macro
arguments.
- \_
- is typeset as _.
- \&
- is typeset as &.
- \#
- is typeset as #.
- \%
- is typeset as %.
- \,
- is typeset as smaller blank - - (between the two -)
- \-
- is used to mark hyphenation in a word.
- \\
- is typeset as a linebreak or marks the end of a column in the
Table
environment.
- \
- (a \ followed by a blank) is typeset as a blank,
although it cannot be used at the beginning of a line to make indentation
(see the \SP
command).
- ~
- is typeset as a blank.
- \copyright
- is typeset as ©.
- \noindent
-
- \hline
- inside a Table
environment.
- \item
- inside a itemize,
enumerate,
or
description
environment.
- \today
- 06 October 2017 (see also the rcsinfo
LaTeXpackage).
- \ss,\"a, ...
- \ss = ß, \"a= ä, \"o= ö, \"u= ü,
\"A= Ä, \"O= Ö, \"U= Ü. It is allowed to surround these
macros in { and } in all places, even inside other macros, e.g.
\textbf{\"a\"o\"u\"A\"O\"U\ss}
\textbf{\"a}{\"o}{\"u}{\"A}{\"O}{\"U}{\ss}}
\textbf{äöüÄÖÜß}
äöüÄÖÜß äöüÄÖÜß äöüÄÖÜß
If these letters are used in their LATIN-1 8-bit coding, they are
translated into the equivalent letter of the desired output format.
E.g. Ä
becomes Ä
in HTML and @"A
in texinfo.
- \input{..}
- Read and process the given filename.
Please note: the name of the LaTeX-macrosand its arguments must be contained in one line.
latex2man
preprocesses the LaTeX input to allow text to be used
conditionally. A special sort of LaTeX comment is used for that purpose.
- %@% IF condition %@%
- %@% ELSE %@%
- %@% END-IF %@%
A line must contain only such a comment and nothing else. condition
is
a boolean expression containing ``names'' and operators. The names given with
the -Cname
option have the value ``true'', while all other names
occuring in the expression are assumed to be ``false''. If the evaluation of
the boolean expression results in the value ``true'', the text in the
``then''-part is used and the text in the optional ``else''-part is skipped
(and vice versa). The IF/ELSE/END-IF
may be nested. As boolean
operators the following are allowed:
|| |
boolean or |
&& |
boolean and |
! |
negation
|
( and ) for grouping are allowed.
For example:
%@% IF abc %@%
abc set
%@% IF xyz %@%
xyz set
%@% ELSE %@%
xyz NOT set
%@% END-IF %@%
%@% ELSE %@%
abc NOT set
%@% IF xyz || !XYZ %@%
xyz OR !XYZ set
%@% ELSE %@%
xyz OR !XYZ NOT set
%@% END-IF %@%
%@% END-IF %@%
Run this manual page through latex2man
with e.g.
-C'abc XYZ'
and have a look to the generated output.
(If simply running the LaTeX-document through LaTeX,all lines are shown in the
.dvi file).
abc NOT set
xyz OR !XYZ set
To check the conditional text feature, when latex2man
is called with
- -CHTML
- the lines 1a, 2b, 3b, and 4b;
- -CTEXI
- the lines 1b, 2a, 3b, and 4b;
- -CMAN
- the lines 1b, 2b, 3a, and 4b;
- -CLATEX
- the lines 1b, 2b, 3b, and 4a;
- calling LaTeX without preprocessing
- all lines
should be shown:
1a. This text occurs only when viewing the HTML output.
2b. The TEXI conditional was not set.
3b. The MAN conditional was not set.
4b. The LATEX conditional was not set.
The user macro translation file (given by the [-ttransfile])
contains
Perl
commands specifying the translation of LaTeX macros defined by
the user. These macros may have none, one or two arguments. The following code
is expected:
- Comments start with a # up to the end of the line.
- For a macro \foo with no arguments, the following code must be
specified:
- Translation to Man-Pages
-
$manMacro{'foo'} = '...';
- Translation to HTML
-
$htmlMacro{'foo'} = '...';
- Translation to TexInfo
-
$texiMacro{'foo'} = '...';
where ... is the translation.
- For a macro \foo{..} with one argument, the following code must be
specified:
- Translation to Man-Pages
-
$manMacro1a{'foo'} = '...';
$manMacro1b{'foo'} = '...';
- Translation to HTML
-
$htmlMacro1a{'foo'} = '...';
$htmlMacro1b{'foo'} = '...';
- Translation to TexInfo
-
$texiMacro1a{'foo'} = '...';
$texiMacro1b{'foo'} = '...';
where ... is the translation. The 1a code is used before the
argument, while 1b is typeset after the argument is set.
- For a macro \foo{..}{..} with two arguments, the following code
must be specified:
- Translation to Man-Pages
-
$manMacro2a{'foo'} = '...';
$manMacro2b{'foo'} = '...';
$manMacro2c{'foo'} = '...';
- Translation to HTML
-
$htmlMacro2a{'foo'} = '...';
$htmlMacro2b{'foo'} = '...';
$htmlMacro2c{'foo'} = '...';
- Translation to TexInfo
-
$texiMacro2a{'foo'} = '...';
$texiMacro2b{'foo'} = '...';
$texiMacro2c{'foo'} = '...';
where ... is the translation. The 2a code is used before the
first argument, 2b between the two arguments and 2c is
typeset after the second argument is set.
- The file latex2man.trans contains some example code.
This
{is}
\texttt{a}
$test$
_of_
verbatim
<this is no HTML tag> and no @* TexInfo command
This is a \subsection.
This is a \subsubsection.
This is another \subsubsection.
- Empty lines are typeset as paragraph separators.
- The arguments of the LaTeX commands must not be split over several
lines.
- Do not nest calls to macros.
- Except the mentioned environment and macros, the usage of other LaTeX
environments or macros are not translated. Their usage will cause garbage
in the output.
- latex2man requires Perl version >= 5.0004_03.
- If you want to install the system with the distributed Makefile,
you need GNU-make.
If you don't have it, you should execute the
steps shown in the Makefile
manually.
The table below shows the names of CSS classes that will be included in the HTML tags as attributes.
You can specify the CSS style properties in the CSSfile
for these classes:
HTML tag
|
Class
|
Style applies to |
body |
|
the body of the HTML page |
h1 |
titlehead |
the title at the top of the HTML page specified as an argument to the Name
environment |
h4 |
authorhead |
the author at the top of the HTML page specified as an argument to the Name
environment |
h4 |
datehead |
the date at the top of the HTML page |
h4 |
versionhead |
the man page version at the top of the HTML page specified as an argument to the setVersion
macro |
h2 |
sectionname |
a section title specified as an argument to the section
macro |
h4 |
subsectionname |
a subsection title specified as an argument to the subsection
macro |
h5 |
subsubsectionname |
a subsubsection title specified as an argument to the subsubsection
macro |
font |
progname |
a program name specified as an argument to the Prog
macro |
font |
filename |
a file name specified as an argument to the File
macro |
font |
commandname |
a command name specified as an argument to the Cmd
macro |
font |
textstyle |
all text that is not an argument to some LaTeX or latex2man macro |
font |
optstyle |
a name of an option specified as an argument to the Opt,
oOpt,
OptArg,
oOptArg
or oOptoArg
macros |
font |
argstyle |
a name of an argument specified as an argument to the Arg,
oArg,
OptArg,
oOptArg
or oOptoArg
macros |
a, font |
urlstyle |
a URL specified as an argument to the URL
macro |
a, font |
urlstyle.link |
subclass of urlstyle class |
a, font |
urlstyle.visited |
subclass of urlstyle class |
a, font |
urlstyle.hover |
subclass of urlstyle class |
a, font |
emailstyle |
an email specified as an argument to the Email
macro |
a, font |
emailstyle.link |
subclass of emailstyle class |
a, font |
emailstyle.visited |
subclass of emailstyle class |
a, font |
emailstyle.hover |
subclass of emailstyle class |
table |
tablestyle |
a table specified as a Table
environment |
tr |
rowstyle |
a row of a table specified as a Table
environment |
td |
cellstyle |
a cell of a table specified as a Table
environment |
- Leading . and '
-
Now leading . and ' in generation troff output should work propperly,
since a \& is added. Therfore the \Dot macro has been deleted.
Thanks to Frank.Schilder@Mathematik.Tu-Ilmenau.De.
Testcase 1:
- '\n'
- ...
Testcase 2:
.foobar
Testcase 3:
...
abc ...abc . efg ' 123
- % in verbatim
- A % in a \verb and verbatim-environment was not
emitted correctly. Thanks to Aleksey Nogin nogin@cs.caltech.edu
for the bug report and bug fix.
% abc
% abc %
but ignore comments following this:
- Perl
- latex2man
requires Perl version >= 5.0004_03.
- Make
- If you want to install the system with the distributed
Makefile,
you need GNU-make.
If you don't have it, you
should execute the steps shown in the Makefile
manually.
- LaTeX
- LaTeX2e is required.
Please check the file latex2man-CHANGES.html
for the list of changes and
acknowledgment to people contributing bugfixes or enhancements.
Version: 1.26 of 2017/10/06.
- Copyright
- © 1998, Dr. Jürgen Vollmer, Am Rennbuckel 21,
D-76185 Karlsruhe, Germany,
Juergen.Vollmer@informatik-vollmer.de
The most recent version of Latex2man
may be found on my homepage
http://www.informatik-vollmer.de/software/latex2man.html.
- License
- This program can be redistributed and/or modified under the
terms of the LaTeX Project Public License Distributed from CTAN archives
in directory macros/latex/base/lppl.txt;
either version 1 of the
License, or any later version.
- Misc
- If you find this software useful, please send me a postcard from
the place where you are living.
Dr. Jürgen Vollmer
Am Rennbuckel 21
D-76185 Karlsruhe
Email: Juergen.Vollmer@informatik-vollmer.de
WWW: http://www.informatik-vollmer.de.