Man Pages and PDF export

Include (require 'ox-man) in your .emacs file. This feature only works with the new org-export facility.

There is only one type of document available to create man pages, therefore there are no classes. However the following customizations are available:

• The #+TITLE: line is used to set the name of the command in the Man page's title line.
• The #+MAN_CLASS_OPTIONS: line contains one available option:

  :section-id

  Defines the section id to be placed in the Man Page. Defaults to "1". (string)

M-x org-man-export-to-man

Converts buffer to a man page the assumptions that it was Org mode syntax. For an Org file like myfile.org the Groff file will be myfile.man. The file will be overwritten without warning.

M-x org-man-export-to-pdf

Converts buffer to a PDF file under the assumptions that it was Org mode syntax. It uses Groff as its typesetter engine.

Groff uses the tbl preprocessor for table exports but the Groff export process also supports the specification of labels, captions and table options with the use of the #+ATTR_MAN: line. The following options are available to modify table behavior.

:divider

Places vertical bars between the different columns. (boolean)

:placement

Defines where the table will be placed in the line. There are two possible values: center or left. (symbol)

:boxtype

Defines the box type. (symbol) The following values are supported:

box

Creates a border only. Default

doublebox

Creates a border with two lines.

allbox

Creates a table in which all cells are divided.

none

No borders.

:title-line

Forces the first row to be centered bold. (boolean)

:diable-caption

Captions are placed by default. This will disable its creation. (boolean)

:expand

Expands the table across the width of the page.

The Groff export will honor columns definitions placed on top of a given table in Org mode and propagates those definitions as tbl commands.

Man pages do support the use of tables, however the definition in man.conf needs to invoke tbl when the man command is executed. This is to ensure that tables are rendered correctly.

Man export supports source highlight. See Source highlight in Groff export for details on how to configure this feature in your system.

One important difference is the name of the variable used to enable its use, the name is org-e-man-source-highlight. Albeit its name is analogous for the one used in the Groff export, the name indicates its used to be specific for Man pages.

Groff commands can be exported literally by surrounding the text on a pair of #+BEGIN_MAN/#+END_MAN lines. These are a couple of commands that can be useful during export to control the output.

#+BEGIN_MAN
.bp
#+END_MAN

Page break. Skips to a new page.

#+BEGIN_MAN
.DS C
.EQ


.EN
.DE
.EC
#+END_MAN

EQN escape. This is used to add equations in your exported document. The Groff export uses the eqn processor to add them in your output. EQN statements must be placed between .EQ and .EN.

#+BEGIN_MAN
.EX

.EE
#+END_MAN

Example start and end. Text must be placed between .EX and .EE. Using #+BEGIN_EXAMPLE/#+END_EXAMPLE or #+begin_src dummy/#+end_src does the same with commands that are compatible on all platforms.

The following items are partially or not supported during Man pages exports.

Images

Images are not supported.

.EX/.EQ

These are not used on export. They are implemented using .nf/.fi pairs for compatibility with legacy systems. Use embedded Man Pages commands to use these.

.UR/UE and .MT/ME

These are not used on export to ensure support with legacy systems. Use embedded Man Pages commands to use these.

.SY/OP/YS

These are not used on export. Use embedded Man pages commands to use these.