Linux: Convert Man Page to Text

Convert Man Page to Text

man ls | col -bx > ~/manpage_ls.txt

• col -b formats the man page to plain text. (It removes control chars. (Control chars are used to make text bold, etc.)).
• col -x convert tabs to spaces.

How to read a non-compressed man page without the “man” command?

nroff -man n43921.man | col -b

This is convenient when you need to read a man-page file once without adding the dir to $MANPATH.

How to read a compressed man page without the “man” command?

cat n43921.1 | compress -cd - | nroff -man | col -b

How to read a unformatted man page?

nroff -man ftpshut.8

The “man” command is essentially

nroff -e -man filename | more -s