XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-10   
   From: dan@djph.net   
      
   On 2025-10-30, Jeff Layman wrote:   
   > On 30/10/2025 10:28, Dan Purgert wrote:   
   >> On 2025-10-30, Jeff Layman wrote:   
   >>> On 29/10/2025 21:57, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   >>>> gunzip -c $(man -w bash) | groff -ktman -Tpdf | okular -   
   >>>   
   >>> (computer name):~$ gunzip -c $(man -w bash) | groff -ktman -Tpdf | okular -   
   >>>   
   >>> groff: fatal error: cannot load 'DESC' description file for device 'pdf'   
   >>> org.kde.okular.core: No plugin for mimetype '"application/x-zerosize"'.   
   >>   
   >> Chances are you've only got 'groff-base' installed, rather than the full   
   >> 'groff' package.   
   >> [...]   
   >>    3. "apt install groff" to install the full package.   
   >   
   > Successfully installed. There's quite a lot of it, but I've plenty of   
   > disk space.   
      
   Yeah, the "quite a lot" is why it's not installed by default, same as   
   other things like vim.  Most people don't need all the fluff, so I guess   
   the idea is to save space on the install ISOs.   
   >   
   >>    4. Run that command from Lawrence again   
   >   
   > It worked perfectly and that pdf is *much* easier to read than a   
   > screenful of "manual" instructions in the Terminal. I've saved it for   
   > future reference.   
      
   Great! Something you might want to consider here is making yourself a   
   little manpage wrapper script so you can get the PDF output for any   
   manpages you want to read.   
      
   Something like this ought to do it -- though admittedly this is rather   
   off the cuff, so might have an egregious error or three.   
      
     #!/usr/bin/env bash   
      
     #usage reminder if we forgot the input parameter, or had too many   
     if [[ $# -ne 1 ]]; then   
       printf "man2pdf error: incorrect number of parameters given.\n"   
       printf "usage: man2pdf  (e.g. man2pdf bash).\n"   
       exit 1   
     fi   
      
     #'man -w' will return 0 only if the manpage exists   
     if $(man -w $1 &>/dev/null ) ; then   
       gunzip -c $(man -w "$1") | groff -ktman -Tpdf | okular -   
     else   
       printf "man2pdf error: No manual page for \"$1\" found.\n"   
     fi   
      
   Save it as say "/usr/local/bin/man2pdf", and make sure it's executable.   
      
   Alternatively, in Mint, I believe that if you create a $HOME/bin/   
   directory, it will be added to your $PATH on the next login.  But that   
   has the "downside" of not being globally accessible then (mostly a   
   concern if you have multiple users on your PCs -- SO, kids,   
   just-for-banking, whatever).   
      
   --   
   |_|O|_|   
   |_|_|O| Github: https://github.com/dpurgert   
   |O|O|O| PGP: DDAB 23FB 19FA 7D85 1CC1  E067 6D65 70E5 4CE7 2860   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)