Documentation gap: manpage.md lacks reproducible example for generating curl man page

[sammydono]

Specify which documentation you found a problem with

manpage.md

The problem

The manpage.md documentation explains the managen tool and .d option files, but it does not provide a complete, step‑by‑step example showing how to generate the full curl.1 man page. New contributors may struggle to produce a working man page from source because the file list order, %options usage, and variable substitution (%DATE, %VERSION, %GLOBALS) are not illustrated.

Steps to Reproduce

Clone the curl repository:

git clone https://github.com/curl/curl

Navigate to the managen and .d option files directory.

Attempt to generate the full man page using:

managen mainpage [list of markdown option file names]

It’s unclear:

Which files should be listed and in what order

How %options is expanded

How variables like %DATE, %VERSION, %GLOBALS are applied

Proposed Change

Add a step‑by‑step example to manpage.md that includes:

The command to generate curl.1 from all .d files

An example file list (matching mainpage.idx)

Explanation for %options, %DATE, %VERSION, and %GLOBALS

Why It Matters

A reproducible example lowers the barrier for contributors, prevents mistakes, and improves documentation clarity, making it easier to generate updated man pages.

References / Related

manpage.md in the curl repository

curl repository: https://github.com/curl/curl

[bagder]

The manpage is created as a step in the normal build, so use cmake or configure as documented to build curl and it then also builds the manpage. But yes, this could be clarified.