7.4.3 Man and Info doc Attributes

AutoOpts includes AutoGen templates for producing abbreviated man pages and for producing the invoking section of an info document. To take advantage of these templates, you must add several attributes to your option definitions.

`doc'

First, every flag definition must have a doc attribute defined and many will need an arg-name attribute as well. The doc text should be in plain sentences with minimal formatting. The Texinfo commands @code, and @var will have its enclosed text made into \fB entries in the man page, and the @file text will be made into \fI entries. The arg-name attribute is used to display the option's argument in the man page.

`arg-name'

If an option has an argument, the argument should have a name for documentation purposes. It will default to arg-type, but it will likely be clearer with something else like, file-name instead of string (the type).

`prog-man-descrip'

`prog-info-descrip'

Then, you need to supply a brief description of what your program does. If you already have a detail definition, this may be sufficient. If not, or if you need special formatting for one of the manual formats, then you will need either a definition for prog-man-descrip or prog-info-descrip or both. These will be inserted verbatim in the man page document and the info document, respectively.

`man-doc'

Finally, if you need to add man page sections like SEE ALSO or USAGE or other, put that text in a man-doc definition. This text will be inserted verbatim in the man page after the OPTIONS section and before the AUTHOR section.