On Sun, Mar 31, 2024 at 06:52:23PM +1100, Brendan O'Dea wrote: > > help2man does not output any tables by default (AIUI) but in case one > > adds text e.g. in their DESCRIPTION that includes tables, it won't work. > > help2man is intended to take `--help` output and massage it into a > manual page. The `--help` output still needs to be readable however, > since people do invoke `foo --help` from the command line. One option > would be to have help2man recognize markdown-format tables, which > would preserve the property of the `--help` output being readable. A > simpler option would be to add the table to an include file: > https://www.gnu.org/software/help2man/#Including-text
Sorry I probably wasn't clear: that's exactly what I meant. I added a table in the DESCRIPTION through --include and a [DESCRIPTION] section, that includes a table. > > While my issue is specific to the "tbl" preprocessor, man(1) supports > > other preprocessors, including eqn (e), grap (g), pic (p), tbl (t), > > vgrind (v), refer (r). See the `-p` argument. Perhaps help2man should > > just gain an argument to support adding arbitrary preprocessors to its > > output? > > I will look into that. #1049968 may also be useful context, in particular G. Branden Robinson's comments. Thanks, Faidon
