Can man pages be converted to html and/or pdf format?

The command man bash produces a lot of output. What I desire would be to either search the results or print the results to paper. So, is there a way to convert a man page to a html and/or pdf document.

I would prefer the answer work for not only man bash, but rather for any man page.

I know the output from man bash has been posted on the internet, but usually these posts are not current.

Solution 1:

Yes, there are numerous tools to convert manual pages to HTML and PDF.

UNIX Approach

Converting a man page to HTML, PDF, and text provides detailed instructions for macOS:

cat /usr/share/man/man1/osascript.1 | groff -mandoc -Thtml >man_osascript.html

If the file ends in .gz, then substitute the following.

gunzip --to-stdout /usr/share/man/man8/cupsfilter.8.gz | groff -mandoc -Thtml >man_cupsfilter.html

For converting from HTML to PDF:

cupsfilter man_osascript.html > man_osascript.pdf

For other tool chains, see these related questions:

• How do I convert Linux man pages to HTML without using groff?
• What's the easy way to convert all man pages to html?
• Convert all Linux man pages to text / html or markdown

pandoc

Another approach is to use the popular pandoc tool. This tool can convert manual pages to a wide range of formats.

Link x-man-page

macOS's Terminal.app offers a x-man-page URL scheme for pretty printing manual pages. Try opening the link below to see the ls man page:

x-man-page://ls

Solution 2:

man -t yourcommand | open -fa "Preview"

where yourcommand is the one you want the man page of.

$ man -t tmutil | open -fa "Preview"