This man2html is actually called VH-Man2html which is Richard Verhoeven's Man2html as modified and packaged up by Michael Hamilton.
Man2html can be used to view man pages using your web browser. Man2html can translate both man(7) and mandoc (BSD) macro styles. It generates html directly from gnroff(1) and gtbl(1) macro source without the need for tbl/groff/nroff (sorry eqn isn't supported). It generates links to other man pages and C include files. Supporting CGI scripts allow you to browse HTML-ised whatis(1) subject indexes and name-only indexes. You can optionally add glimpse(1) (a text indexing package) to do full text searches.
There are five ways of requesting pages:
http://localhost/cgi-bin/man2htmlYou can either save this location as a bookmark or use an editor to insert the following lines into an appropriate place in a top level document.
<H3><A HREF="http://localhost/cgi-bin/man2html">Linux Manual Pages</A></H3>
The netscape-man(1) script allows you to enter man page requests at the command line with the output presented in Netscape. If you are already running netscape, the script will pass the request to the existing browser. You can can use your shell to alias the name to something shorter if you wish.
Man2html has been tested with netscape(1) version 2.0 (I recommend Helvetica fonts) and with lynx(1) (lynx can't do tables). Output for a large number of pages has been verified with weblint(1). Man2html has also been tested as a server to other UNIX hosts.
The manwhatis CGI script uses the /usr/man/whatis (see whatis(1)) file to build a man page index. If this job has never been run (perhaps because you turn your machine off at night when cron might be scheduled to run it), you can build it by becoming the root user and entering:
/usr/sbin/makewhatis /usr/man /usr/X11R6/man /usr/local/manWARNING: makewhatis in Caldera 1.0 takes about 30 minutes on my 486DX66. I have a modified version of makewhatis so that it does exactly the same job in only 1.5 minutes. My modified version is now available as part of man-1.4g.tar.gz:
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Manual-pagersTo use the Glimpse full text searching, you will need to install glimpse in /usr/bin. Redhat rpm users can get glimpse from
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/non-free/glimpse-3.0-1.i386.rpmThe glimpse home ftp site is cs.arizona.edu. N.B. glimpse is not freely redistributable for commercial use. Having installed glimpse, you will need to build a glimpse index in /var/man2html. This doesn't take too long - about 3 minutes on my 486DX2/66 16MB machine. As root do:
/usr/bin/glimpseindex -H /var/man2html /usr/man/man* /usr/X11R6/man/man* /usr/local/man/man* /opt/man/man* chmod +r /var/man2html/.glimpse*This could be set up as a cron job in /etc/crontab, e.g. (the following must be all on one line):
21 04 * * 1 root /usr/bin/glimpseindex -H /var/man2html /usr/man/man* /usr/X11R6/man/man* /usr/local/man/man* /opt/man/man* ; chmod +r /var/man2html/.glimpse*To serve man pages to remote hosts, all that is required is a httpd daemon that sets the environment variable SERVER_NAME correctly. The only problem you might have with this, is if your server machine has dual-names.
Permission is granted to distribute, modify and use this program as long as this comment is not removed or changed.
My modifications, packaging and scripts are copyright (c) 1996 Michael Hamilton (michael@actrix.gen.nz). All rights reserved.
Permission is hereby granted, without written agreement and without license or royalty fees, to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose, provided that the above copyright notice and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies of this software.
IN NO EVENT SHALL MICHAEL HAMILTON BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF MICHAEL HAMILTON HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
MICHAEL HAMILTON SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE SOFTWARE PROVIDED HEREUNDER IS ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND MICHAEL HAMILTON HAS NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.
http://wsinwp01.win.tue.nl:1234/maninfo.html
BSD mandoc support, indexing scripts, Makefile, man pages, and other packaging were added by Michael Hamilton (michael@actrix.gen.nz).
Maintenance and enhancement requests for this version should be directed to Michael Hamilton (michael@actrix.gen.nz).