From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Dec 29 19:38:12 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F34FD1065679 for ; Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:38:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dougb@FreeBSD.org) Received: from mail2.fluidhosting.com (mx21.fluidhosting.com [204.14.89.4]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3E3798FC1A for ; Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:38:12 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 28131 invoked by uid 399); 29 Dec 2009 19:38:10 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO foreign.dougb.net) (dougb@dougbarton.us@127.0.0.1) by localhost with ESMTPAM; 29 Dec 2009 19:38:10 -0000 X-Originating-IP: 127.0.0.1 X-Sender: dougb@dougbarton.us Message-ID: <4B3A5AA4.1020507@FreeBSD.org> Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:38:12 -0800 From: Doug Barton Organization: http://SupersetSolutions.com/ User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (X11/20091206) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Vikram Dhillon References: <200912281106.nBSB67UA078764@freefall.freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 0.96.0 OpenPGP: id=D5B2F0FB Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD doc list , Gavin Atkinson Subject: Re: Current unassigned doc problem reports X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:38:13 -0000 Vikram Dhillon wrote: > Thanks a lot for getting back to me, I see that there are some > problems that involve writing a man-page. I don't know how to do that, > can you please point me to some links that can help me in doing so. There are example man page files in /usr/share/examples/mdoc. They form a good basis to get you started. That's what I use whenever I have to write one from scratch. Of course you can always read the nroff and mdoc man pages, although they are pretty dense. There are also a lot of good examples for "how do I do ?" in the man pages in the base. In general it's better to avoid using the pages in src/contrib as examples since they are not always "the state of the art." To check the output of the page you're writing, you do this: nroff -mdoc example.1 | more After that it's basically a process of trial and error. :) We have some people who are quite good with nroff/mdoc who are always glad to help. Writing man pages is something that not a lot of people are willing to tackle, so this is an area where help is particularly welcome. Good luck, Doug -- Improve the effectiveness of your Internet presence with a domain name makeover! http://SupersetSolutions.com/