All submissions to man-pages must be licensed using a license that permits the page to be freely redistributed and modified. Include that license or a reference to it, in the source code of the man page.
There are many such licenses, but in the interests of minimizing the number of licenses in man-pages, it is preferred that you use one of the following:
man-pages does not include pages under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). This is a purely pragmatic decision, made because the GFDL is problematic for Debian, one of the most widely used distributions.
To use this license, just include the following at the top of the page source, and substitute the appropriate pieces:
.\" Copyright (c) <year>, <copyright holder> .\" .\" %%%LICENSE_START(VERBATIM) .\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this .\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are .\" preserved on all copies. .\" .\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of .\" this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that .\" the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of .\" a permission notice identical to this one. .\" .\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this .\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date. The author(s) assume. .\" no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting. .\" from the use of the information contained herein. The author(s) may. .\" not have taken the same level of care in the production of this. .\" manual, which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working. .\" professionally. .\" .\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by .\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work. .\" %%%LICENSE_END
You can license under the GPL by including the following text at the top of the page source, and substituting the appropriate pieces. Licensing under GPLv2 is preferred, because so far only v2 of the GPL is used in any man pages, and we'd prefer to avoid further license proliferation.
.\" Copyright (c) <year>, <copyright holder> .\" .\" %%%LICENSE_START(GPLv2+_DOC_FULL) .\" This is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or .\" modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as .\" published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of .\" the License, or (at your option) any later version. .\" .\" The GNU General Public License's references to "object code" .\" and "executables" are to be interpreted as the output of any .\" document formatting or typesetting system, including .\" intermediate and printed output. .\" .\" This manual is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, .\" but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of .\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the .\" GNU General Public License for more details. .\" .\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public .\" License along with this manual; if not, see .\" <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. .\" %%%LICENSE_END
To use this license, just include the following at the top of the page source, and substitute the appropriate pieces:
.\" Copyright (c) <year>, <copyright holder> .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" %%%LICENSE_START(BSD_3_CLAUSE) .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in .\" the documentation and/or other materials provided with the .\" distribution. .\" * Neither the name of the <organization> .\" nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or .\" promote products derived from this software without specific prior .\" written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY <copyright-holder> .\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT .\" LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS .\" FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE <copyright-holder> .\" BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, .\" OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT .\" OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; .\" OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF .\" LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING .\" NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS .\" SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. .\" %%%LICENSE_END