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(standards.info)Man Pages

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Man Pages
=========

   In the GNU project, man pages are secondary.  It is not necessary or
expected for every GNU program to have a man page, but some of them do.
It's your choice whether to include a man page in your program.

   When you make this decision, consider that supporting a man page
requires continual effort each time the program is changed.  The time
you spend on the man page is time taken away from more useful work.

   For a simple program which changes little, updating the man page may
be a small job.  Then there is little reason not to include a man page,
if you have one.

   For a large program that changes a great deal, updating a man page
may be a substantial burden.  If a user offers to donate a man page,
you may find this gift costly to accept.  It may be better to refuse
the man page unless the same person agrees to take full responsibility
for maintaining it--so that you can wash your hands of it entirely.  If
this volunteer later ceases to do the job, then don't feel obliged to
pick it up yourself; it may be better to withdraw the man page from the
distribution until someone else agrees to update it.

   When a program changes only a little, you may feel that the
discrepancies are small enough that the man page remains useful without
updating.  If so, put a prominent note near the beginning of the man
page explaining that you don't maintain it and that the Texinfo manual
is more authoritative.  The note should say how to access the Texinfo
documentation.