Re: man files to text editor
On Wed, Dec 17, 2003 at 11:26:27PM +0100, Jan Minar wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 17, 2003 at 04:55:29PM -0500, Lou Losee wrote:
> > > > Try man xxx | col -b > text-filename
> > >
> > > This actually should not work, you have to tell man(1) it should send the
> > > formatted manpage to stdout, instead of messing with the pager.
> > > Replace `foo' with the desired program name.
> > >
> > > $ man --pager cat foo | col -b > text-filename
>
> > Well perhaps it should not work, but it does. I have used the construct
> > for years now. In chasing down the man pager, it appears to default to
> > 'less'.
>
> Actually, it depends on certain environment variables, few configfiles,
> etc. In the default Debian setup, it won't work.
I think less is smart enough to know that it's being piped and so runs
as a filter, but it's probably not the default pager (since it's not
installed by default on a base install).
Ken
>
> > Try it you may like it - simple and quick.
>
> I meant ``it shouldn't work for you''--of course I tried it first ;-)
--
Ken Irving, Research Analyst, fnkci@uaf.edu, 907-474-6152
Water and Environmental Research Center
Institute of Northern Engineering
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
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