docbook2X is a software package that converts DocBook documents into the traditional Unix man page format and the GNU Texinfo format.
It is free software under a MIT-style license.
Notable features include table support for man pages, internationalization support, and easy customization of the output using XSLT. (Easy, because unlike other converters, the docbook2X stylesheets are written in a modular way, and the character escaping and whitespace issues with the man-page and Texinfo formats are encapsulated away from the user.)
The latest release of docbook2X is version 0.8.8. This was released on March 3, 2007. See the change log for what's new since the last version.
You can find it (and older versions of docbook2X) at the SourceForge download pages.
The Debian GNU/Linux distribution also has a docbook2X package. However, it is still based on the older 0.8.3 release.
There is also a docbook2man-sgmlspl package available which only contains the older SGML-based DocBook–to–man-pages converter that you might have been using. I will not be updating this package again; I highly recommend you switch to the new version of docbook2X, which supports both XML and SGML.
You can also read the online documentation for the latest release.
There are also detailed instructions on building and installing it on your system. That document also lists other software that docbook2X depends on which you must install first before docbook2X.
You can convert small DocBook refentry pages
to man pages online right in your Web browser.
Here is an excerpt from a VCR manual, as a man page: PostScript, DocBook XML source, Generated man page source.
It illustrates tbl (tables)
rendering in man pages.
The HTML rendering of the Texinfo conversion of docbook2X’s DocBook documentation, produced by docbook2X itself and the --html option of makeinfo.
docbook2X sometimes even produces output of a quality exceeding even hand-written man pages! Here is a sample: Postscript, DocBook XML source (from doclifter + manual fixes), Generated man page source.
You can view the CVS repository here; or it can be accessed directly with:
pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:
/cvsroot/docbook2x
There is no password, and the modules are docbook2X and docbook2man-sgmlspl.
The mailing list “docbook2X-discuss” is for any docbook2X development discussion and user support. You can read the archives with Gmane.