NAME
    man2html - format a manual page in html

SYNOPSIS
    man2html [options] [file]

DESCRIPTION
    man2html  converts a manual page as found in file (or stdin, in case no
    file argument, or the argument "-", is given) from man-style nroff into
    html, and prints the result on stdout. It does support tbl but does
    not know about eqn. The exit status is 0. If something goes wrong, an
    error page is printed on stdout.

    This can be used as a stand-alone utility, but is mainly intended as an
    auxiliary, to enable users to browse their man  pages using a html
    browser like lynx(1), xmosaic(1) or netscape(1).

    The main part of man2html is the troff-to-html engine written by
    Richard Verhoeven (rcb5@win.tue.nl). It adds hyperlinks for the fol-
    lowing constructs:

    foo(3x)   "http://localhost/cgi-bin/man/man2html?3x+foo"
    method://string  "method://string"
    www.host.name  "http://www.host.name"
    ftp.host.name  "ftp://ftp.host.name"
    name@host  "mailto:name@host"
    <string.h>  "file:/usr/include/string.h"

    (The first of these can be tuned by options - see below.) No lookup is
    done - the links generated need not exist. Also an index with internal
    hyperlinks to the various sections is generated, so that it is easier
    to find one's way in large man pages like bash(1).

OPTIONS
    When reading from stdin, it is not always clear how to do .so expan-
    sion. The -D option allows a script to define the working directory.

    -D pathname
    Strip the last two parts from the pathname, and do a chdir(dir)
    before starting the conversion.

    The -E option allows the easy generation of error messages from a cgi
    script.

    -E string
    Output an error page containing the given error message.

    The general form of a hyperlink generated for a man page reference is

    <method:cgipath><man2htmlpath><separator><manpage>

    with a default  as shown above. The parts of this hyperlink are set
    using the various options.

    -h   Set method:cgipath to http://localhost. This is the default.

    -H host[.domain][:port]
    Set method:cgipath to http://host.domain:port.

    -l   Set method:cgipath to lynxcgi:/home/httpd.

    -L dir Set method:cgipath to lynxcgi:dir.

    -M man2htmlpath
    Set the  man2htmlpath to  use.  The  default  is  /cgi-
    bin/man/man2html.

    -p   Set separator to '/'.

    -q   Set separator to '?'. This is the default.

    -r   Use relative html paths, instead of cgi-bin paths.

    On a machine without running httpd, one can use lynx to browse the man
    pages, using the lynxcgi method.  When some http daemon is running,
    lynx, or any other browser, can be used to browse the man pages, using
    the http method.  The option -l (for `lynxcgi') selects the former
    behaviour. With it, the default cgipath is /home/httpd.

    In general, a cgi script can be called by

    <path_to_script>/<more_path>?<query>

    and the environment variables PATH_INFO and QUERY_STRING will be set to
    <more_path> and <query>, respectively. Since lynxcgi does not handle
    the PATH_INFO part, we generate hyperlinks with `?' as a separator by
    default.  The option -p (for `path') selects '/' as a separator,  while
    the option -q (for `query') selects '?' as a separator.

    The option -H host will specify the host to use (instead of localhost).
    A cgi script could use

    man2html -H $SERVER_NAME

    if the variable SERVER_NAME is set. This would allow your machine to
    act as a server and export man pages.

BUGS
    There are many heuristics. The output will not always be perfect. The
    lynxcgi method will not work if lynx was compiled without selecting
    support for it. There may be problems with security.

SEE ALSO
    lynx(1),man(1)