Contributing to the Linux man-pages project

The following notes are written for people who want to help with work on the Linux man-pages package.

To begin with, read man-pages(7) for information about conventions that should be used in man pages for the man-pages package. You might also find it useful to look at the notes on maintaining man-pages. Please also read the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct.

You can help in the following ways:

• Subscribe to the linux-man mailing list (linux-man@vger.kernel.org) and participate in the discussion of work on man-pages.
  
  
• Send in bug reports about problems in existing pages.
  
  
• Write patches that improve existing pages.
  
  
• Contribute new pages (take a look at the list of missing pages), under a free license.
  
  
• Review new pages and patches sent by others. Review can include checking technical accuracy, and suggestions for improved wording, grammar, layout, and so on.
  
  
• Grep for the string "FIXME" in existing pages and write patches to fix the problems.
  
  
• Work on open bugs in the bugzilla.
  
  
• If you notice that a new release of the Linux kernel or glibc adds a new interface or changes an existing interface, then report a bug to ensure that the change gets documented. (Interfaces include not just system calls and library functions but also /proc files, ioctl(2) operations, netlink operations, and so on.)
  
  
• Provide input on, or assistance with, the tasks listed on the TODO page.
  
  
• Ask the man-pages maintainer to add you to the (manually maintained) distribution list of people who receive notification of new man-pages releases, and review the changes that have occurred during a release (read the changelog and/or do a diff -ruN between the directory trees for the current and previous releases).
  
  
• Subscribe to the linux-api mailing list (linux-api@vger.kernel.org), a list where (conscientious) kernel developers CC patches that change the kernel API. This provides a "heads up" on changes that may need documenting in manual pages.
  
  
• Review this website and suggest improvements to the design, formatting, and HTML usage. (Send mail to mtk.manpages@gmail.com.)