# Guidance for porters: manual page content



## grahamperrin@ (Mar 20, 2022)

Unless I'm missing something, the FreeBSD Porter's Handbook offers no guidance on the basics of how to compose a manual page: 

page content, without markup.
What's an ideal point of reference, online?

There should be an explanation of what type of content, if anything, belongs under HISTORY.

Thanks


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## sidetone (Mar 20, 2022)

Are you looking for Porter's Handbook or Documentation Project Primer? https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/fdp-primer/manual-pages/


> 10.3.1. Manual Page Sections​





> HISTORYHistory of implementation


Porter's Handbook may be useful for some things, but a lot of that would need a documentation resource.

If I'm understanding, porting is relevant because it's for man page documentation of programs being ported, and because there may be some overlap with how a tree is updated. Is there already a particular manpage, to be imported?


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## grahamperrin@ (Mar 20, 2022)

OK, <https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/fdp-primer/manual-pages/#manual-pages-markup-sections>

Context: FreeBSD bug 262583 – sysutils/nsysctl: nsysctl(8) HISTORY implies that the utility is a feature of FreeBSD


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