Man Page to Haddock Converter
FileFlip converts Man Page to Haddock entirely inside your browser, using Pandoc compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert a Man Page file to Haddock?#
- Drop your Man Page file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to Haddock and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 65.8 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs Pandoc on your own machine.
- Save the Haddock file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting Man Page to Haddock lose quality?#
Not in the sense of pixels or samples. Converting Man Page to Haddock rebuilds the file in Haddock's own model rather than re-encoding it, so everything Haddock can represent comes through exactly and anything it cannot has to be dropped. Expect the words to come through exactly and the page breaks to move.
Is it safe to convert Man Page files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts Man Page files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What Man Page to Haddock actually does to the file#
Converting Man Page to Haddock runs on Pandoc, downloads 65.8 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, rebuilds the file in the target's own model, keeps selectable text and page layout.
| Engine | Pandoc |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | One step: Man Page → Haddock |
| Downloaded to your browser | 65.8 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Rebuilt in the target's model |
| You get back | One file |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
What survives the conversion
| What is in the file | This conversion | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Selectable text | Kept | Carried through into the converted file. |
| Page layout | Kept | Carried through into the converted file. |
What is a Man Page file?#
A MAN file is Unix manual page source, plain text marked up with the roff man macros that the man command formats into the page you read with `man <command>`.
Write a man page directly when shipping a command-line tool that needs to answer to `man` on Unix-like systems.
Convert a man page to HTML or Markdown when the documentation needs to live on a website instead of a terminal.
What is a Haddock file?#
A Haddock file holds documentation written in Haddock markup, the comment syntax Haskell's own documentation generator reads out of source files to build a module's API reference.
Write Haddock markup directly in Haskell source comments so `cabal haddock` can generate the package's API documentation.
Convert Haddock markup to Markdown when the same text needs to appear in a README or a project website outside the generated API docs.
Man Page to Haddock questions people ask#
How do I read a .man file?
Running `man ./file.man` or `groff -man -T utf8 file.man` renders a .man file the way the man command normally displays it. Opened directly in a text editor it shows the raw troff macros instead of formatted text.
What do the man page sections like 1, 5 and 8 mean?
Man pages are grouped into numbered sections: 1 for commands, 2 for system calls, 3 for library functions, 5 for file formats, and 8 for system administration commands, among others. The number is why `man 5 passwd` and `man 1 passwd` can point to two different pages.
Can I write a man page without learning troff?
Yes. Tools like Pandoc, help2man and ronn generate a man page from Markdown or a program's own help text, which is the normal workflow rather than writing the troff macros by hand.
Why does man output look different from a normal document?
A man page is formatted by troff's man macros for a fixed-width terminal, not a page layout engine, so it uses bold and underline instead of varied fonts, images or complex tables.