Of course man pages are written in a format called troff. It’s not overly complicated and something you can easily get used to. But some times you don’t need to know the format to make a few minor changes. I have used this system many times to make notes in man pages (so when/if I have to refer back to them I don’t have to depend upon a fading memory) that aren’t necessary for all users (otherwise I would submit them to the maintainer). Now, after reading this article (and thanks to gmanedit), you will be able to edit your Linux man pages as well.

Installation

As you would expect, installation is simple. All you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Open up your Add/Remove Software utility.
2. Search for “gmanedit” (no quotes).
3. Select gmanedit for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.

There may be some dependencies to meet for the installation. But more than likely you will already have those met. Now, let’s get to using this handy tool.

Usage

Figure 1

In order to edit/save man pages you will have to open up gmanedit with root privileges. So open it up from command line by either first su‘ing to root or using sudo. The command to start is gmanedit. When you open up gmanedit you will see a fairly minimal interface. Although it looks like a standard, basic text editor, there is a bit more under the hood than that. For instance, the man pages you will be editing are typically in the tar.gz form. And by using this tool you do not have to unpack the files, edit the files, and repack the files. You simply open them, edit them, and save them.

The first tiny hiccup you might encounter is that, when you go to open up a man page, you won’t know where to look. Fear not…man pages are housed in /usr/share/man. Within that directory you will see numerous sub-directories. The directories you want to focus on are manX (Where X is a number). The only downfall of this system is that you might have to poke around within those directories to find the man page you need. Once you find the page, and have it open, it will look like that in Figure 1.

Obviously you will see the troff formatting – which might make you want to turn away. But – when you see the standard wording of the man page you might see sections you want/need to change. All you need to do is make your changes and save the man page. Now when you issue the man command your changes will be there.

Final thoughts

At first you might not see the handi-ness of this system, but after you use it for a while you will see how nice it is to be able to put your own personal notes within man pages – or be able to help the maintainers of man pages with issues.

All that needs to be done to find a specific user manual is to enter the manufacturer or model in the search form. It is possible to download the manuals that have been found right from the search result pages or to take a look at the user manual’s profile that not only includes the download as well but also member discussions and additional information about the manual.

Another interesting part of the site is the community which helps users solve problems with their devices. It is furthermore possible to create a user account and store manuals in that account for faster access and to participate in the discussion and community. The User Manual Site should be one of your first stops if you are looking for a user manual.