macOS
Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install man2htmllocal Homebrew formula metadata
brew
Install man2html with Homebrew, apt, dnf, pacman
Convert nroff man pages to HTML. Version 3.0.1 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.
install
Additional install commands
Linux
Debian aptverified · 92%
sudo apt install man2htmlDebian stable package indexes · man2html · source: deb.debian.org
Fedora dnfverified · 92%
sudo dnf install man2htmlFedora Rawhide package metadata · man2html · source: dl.fedoraproject.org
Arch Linux pacmanverified · 92%
sudo pacman -S man2htmlArch Linux sync databases · man2html · source: geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com
overview
Package summary
Convert nroff man pages to HTML
Project links
Commands and aliases
- man2html
history
Project history and usage
man2html is a Perl program that reads formatted nroff text from standard input and writes an HTML document to standard output. The official site also documents a CGI program for browsing a system's manual pages through a web browser.
Project history
The official NonGNU page says man2html was maintained solely by Earl Hood before it became a Savannah project in May 2003. The last pre-Savannah public release was version 3.0.1 in 1997, which the project continued to make available from CPAN-era distribution locations and the Savannah download area.
After the Savannah move, the project lived in GNU Savannah's NonGNU infrastructure with CVS, mailing-list archives, and project downloads. That makes it a small but historically useful bridge between roff manual pages and early web-based documentation browsing.
Adoption history
man2html appears in traditional Unix and Linux packaging because it solves a narrow problem with few moving parts: convert formatted manual-page output into HTML, optionally behind a CGI interface. Its package-manager role is mostly as a compatibility utility rather than a modern documentation platform.
Homebrew, Debian, Fedora, Arch, and Ubuntu package names show continuing downstream availability even though the upstream history is sparse and old.
How it is used
The CLI reads formatted nroff from standard input and emits HTML on standard output, which makes it naturally scriptable with `man`, `nroff`, or documentation-generation jobs. The CGI component is for hypertext navigation over installed man pages.
Because it works on formatted nroff rather than owning a whole man-page database, man2html is often paired with existing manual systems rather than replacing them.
Why package nerds care
man2html is package-nerd interesting because it preserves an older Unix documentation pattern: turn local manual pages into web pages without introducing a large documentation stack.
Its official sources are thin, so the safe history is short: Earl Hood maintenance, a 1997 pre-Savannah release, and migration to Savannah in 2003.
Timeline
- 1997: Last pre-Savannah public release, version 3.0.1.
- 2003: man2html became a Savannah project.
- 2003: The official NonGNU page records the Savannah, CVS, and mailing-list project links.
Related projects
- man2html sits beside man-db, mandoc, groff, nroff, and CGI manual-page browsers in the Unix documentation ecosystem.
- Its role overlaps with HTML output modes in newer tools such as mandoc, but its design is simpler and older.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: green
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
Risk classifier
green risk · low confidence · appliance
Why
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals
Signals
- metadata:no-higher-risk-signals
Install behavior
- No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
- Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 13 platform targets.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
man2html | cli | global executable |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-07-08
manager version3.0.1
manager updated
local dataok
upstreamnot checked
latest detectednot detected
https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/man2html/
- infoNo package-manager update timestamp was available.low confidence
- infoRelease/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories.https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/man2html/none confidence
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:man2html |
|---|---|
| Version | 3.0.1 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Package manager page | https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/man2html |
| Homepage | https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/man2html/ |
| Repository | https://savannah.nongnu.org/cvs?group=man2html |
| Upstream docs | https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/man2html |
| License | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Source archive | https://www.mhonarc.org/release/misc/man2html3.0.1.tar.gz |
| Bottle | available (on arm64_big_sur, arm64_linux, arm64_monterey, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, arm64_ventura, big_sur, catalina, monterey, sonoma, ventura, x86_64_linux) |
| Homebrew post-install | not defined |
| Service | none declared |
registry facts
Source database details
| Source Database | Homebrew formula API |
|---|---|
| Tap | homebrew/core |
| Full Name | man2html |
| Version Scheme | 0 |
| Revision | 0 |
| Bottle Stable Root URL | https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core |
| Deprecated | no |
| Disabled | no |
| Keg Only | no |
| URL Keys |
|
source database matches
Other package-manager records
Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.
Debian apt95%
man2html 1.6g-16
browse man pages in your web browser
http://users.actrix.gen.nz/michael/vhman2html.html
sudo apt install man2html- Section: doc
- Architecture: amd64
- 10 dependencies
- 3 optional deps
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Man2html
Debian apt95%
man2html-base 1.6g-16
convert man pages into HTML format
http://users.actrix.gen.nz/michael/vhman2html.html
sudo apt install man2html-base- Section: doc
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: man2html
- 1 dependencies
- 2 optional deps
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Man2html
Ubuntu apt95%
man2html 1.6g-16
browse man pages in your web browser
http://users.actrix.gen.nz/michael/vhman2html.html
sudo apt install man2html- Section: universe/doc
- Architecture: amd64
- 10 dependencies
- 3 optional deps
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Man2html
Ubuntu apt95%
man2html-base 1.6g-16
convert man pages into HTML format
http://users.actrix.gen.nz/michael/vhman2html.html
sudo apt install man2html-base- Section: universe/doc
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: man2html
- 1 dependencies
- 2 optional deps
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Man2html
dnf95%
man2html 1.6-41.g.fc44
Convert man pages to HTML - CGI scripts
http://www.kapiti.co.nz/michael/vhman2html.html
sudo dnf install man2html- License: GPL-2.0-or-later AND GPL-1.0-or-later AND man2html
- Category: Unspecified
- Architecture: x86_64
- Source Package: man2html
- 7 dependencies
- 2 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Man2html
dnf95%
man2html-core 1.6-41.g.fc44
Convert man pages to HTML
http://www.kapiti.co.nz/michael/vhman2html.html
sudo dnf install man2html-core- License: GPL-2.0-or-later AND GPL-1.0-or-later AND man2html
- Category: Unspecified
- Architecture: x86_64
- Source Package: man2html
- 2 dependencies
- 1 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Man2html
pacman95%
man2html 3.0.1-10
A Unix manpage-to-HTML converter
https://www.nongnu.org/man2html/
sudo pacman -S man2html- License: GPL-2.0-or-later
- Architecture: any
- 2 dependencies
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Man2html
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- Nucleus package database
- av.db category and tag curation
- cross-ecosystem install command graph
- curated package history
- external package-manager database matches
- package relationship graph
- package version freshness
- package-page enrichment