help2man

Convert --help and --version to man page.

Similar Projects

• GNU help2man Generate manpage for any program with --help and --version. Written in perl.
• click-man Generate manpage for click-based python program. Written in python.
• cli2man Generate manpage and markdown for any program with --help and --version. Written in python.
• This project: Generate manpage, markdown or any format (if you provide a jinja template) for any program with --help and --version or any argparse-based python program.

Intention

This a python version of GNU help2man. It solves the following problems¹:

GNU help2man cannot convert argparse correctly

Because argparse outputs:

usage: help2man [-h] ...
                executable ...

Convert --help and --version to man page.

positional arguments:
  executable            executable program name
  ...

options:
  -h                    show this help message and exit
  ...

help2man will ignore positional arguments: and options: because it only detect Options:. And it only detect first line as synopsis and detect other lines as description incorrectly.

GNU help2man cannot customize template

I provide help2man --template XXX and help2man --template-file XXX to do it. The template language is jinja2. See template as examples.

GNU help2man don't provide any programming API

Now you can use it in python. If you want to generate man pages automatically when you build a python project, you can see setuptools-generate:

See document to know more.