Convert info/texinfo to man?

Question

I prefer to view man pages rather than info.

Is it possible to convert/view the info content in the man format?

E.g. info -o - --subnodes tar | less but in a more readable format

I am asking because man tar says at the top:

NOTE This manpage is a short description of GNU tar. For a detailed discussion, including examples and usage recommendations, refer to the GNU Tar Manual available in texinfo format. If the info reader and the tar documentation are properly installed on your system, the command

@jesse_b I'm on Arch but Ubuntu has the same note in man tar (updated) — laktak, Dec 22 '20 at 19:01
Hmm, man only says '--checkpoint-action=ACTION Run ACTION on each checkpoint.' but info contains a whole chapter? — laktak, Dec 22 '20 at 19:05
@jesse_b that’s because info shows man pages if there’s no actual info file. Install tar-doc and you’ll see the difference... — Stephen Kitt, Dec 22 '20 at 19:13

Stephen Kitt · Answer 1 · 2020-12-22T22:00:26.753

3

You can use info2pod’s info2man tool to convert info pages into man pages. See the Debian package for patches to allow info2man to work with Perl 5.

edited Dec 22 '20 at 22:00

answered Dec 22 '20 at 19:17

Stephen Kitt

434,908

Thanks but the link times out for me... – laktak Dec 22 '20 at 19:24
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/info2man/ – jesse_b Dec 22 '20 at 19:30
@jesse_b Thanks, I can't get it to install on arch - says :: Unable to build perl4-corelibs - makepkg exited with code: 4 even after I installed sudo pacman -S perl-perl4-corelibs (arch has perl 5) – laktak Dec 22 '20 at 19:42
The Debian package has patches which you can use to make the program work with Perl 5. – Stephen Kitt Dec 22 '20 at 21:57

Convert info/texinfo to man?

1 Answers1