https://github.com/antiz96/zaman
A simple CLI tool to display (or save) man pages as PDFs.
https://github.com/antiz96/zaman
cli dmenu man manpage manpages manual page pages pdf rofi tool tools zaman zathura
Last synced: 4 months ago
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A simple CLI tool to display (or save) man pages as PDFs.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/antiz96/zaman
- Owner: Antiz96
- License: gpl-3.0
- Created: 2022-08-07T16:47:39.000Z (about 3 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-03-18T10:20:23.000Z (7 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-06-23T00:12:28.531Z (4 months ago)
- Topics: cli, dmenu, man, manpage, manpages, manual, page, pages, pdf, rofi, tool, tools, zaman, zathura
- Language: Shell
- Homepage:
- Size: 132 KB
- Stars: 11
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- Funding: .github/FUNDING.yml
- License: LICENSE
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README
# Zaman
## Table of contents
- [Description](#description)
- [Installation](#installation)
- [Usage](#usage)
- [Documentation](#documentation)
- [Contributing](#contributing)
- [License](#license)
## Description
A simple CLI tool to display (or save) man pages as PDFs files for an easier reading.
Zaman first looks for the default PDF reader defined in [XDG MIME Applications](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDG_MIME_Applications) and fallback to [Zathura](https://pwmt.org/projects/zathura/) if no default PDF reader is set.
It also allows to navigate through all the man pages available on the system through a dynamic menu via [Rofi](https://davatorium.github.io/rofi/) or [Dmenu](https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/).
## Installation
### AUR
Install the [zaman](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/zaman) AUR package (also check the list of optional dependencies for anything you may want or need).
### From Source
Install dependencies:
- Replace `zathura-pdf-poppler` by `zathura-pdf-mupdf` if you prefer to use the `mupdf` backend.
- Replace `rofi` by `dmenu` if you prefer to use that (provided by the `suckless-tools` package on Debian / Ubuntu).
- The second line are build dependencies (not required to run `zaman` once it is installed).
#### Debian / Ubuntu
```bash
sudo apt install man-db groff xdg-utils zathura zathura-pdf-poppler rofi
sudo apt install make bats scdoc
```
#### Fedora
```bash
sudo dnf install man-db groff groff-perl "perl(Compress::Zlib)" xdg-utils zathura zathura-pdf-poppler rofi
sudo dnf install make bats scdoc
```
#### Arch Linux
```bash
sudo pacman -S man-db groff xdg-utils zathura zathura-pdf-poppler rofi
sudo pacman -S --asdeps make bats scdoc
```
#### Alpine Linux
```bash
sudo apk add man-db groff xdg-utils zathura zathura-pdf-poppler rofi
sudo apk add make bats scdoc
```
#### Gentoo
```bash
sudo emerge man-db groff xdg-utils zathura zathura-pdf-poppler rofi
sudo emerge make bats scdoc
```
Download the archive of the [latest stable release](https://github.com/Antiz96/zaman/releases/latest) and extract it (alternatively, you can clone this repository with `git`).
To install `zaman`, go into the extracted/cloned directory and run the following command:
```bash
sudo make
sudo make test
sudo make install
```
Once the installation is complete, you may optionally clean up the directory of files generated during installation by running the following command:
```bash
sudo make clean
```
To uninstall `zaman`, go into the extracted/cloned directory and run the following command:
```bash
sudo make uninstall
```
## Usage
Run the `zaman` command in your terminal to display a list of all the available man pages on your system in a dynamic menu (via [Rofi](https://davatorium.github.io/rofi/) or [Dmenu](https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/)), allowing you to search for the one to display as a PDF.
Alternatively, you can directly specify the man page to open in the command (example below with the "ls" man page):
The man page is opened as a PDF file in the default PDF reader defined in [XDG Mime Applications](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDG_MIME_Applications) or in [Zathura](https://pwmt.org/projects/zathura/) if no default PDF reader is set.
You can export a specific man page in a PDF file called "man_`command`.pdf" in your current directory with the `-O` (or `--save`) option *(if you run `zaman -O` without specifying which man page to save, `zaman` will offer you to select one via rofi / dmenu)*:
Alternatively, you can specify the destination file with the `-o` (or `--output`) option:
## Documentation
See `zaman --help` and the [zaman(1) man page](https://github.com/Antiz96/zaman/blob/main/doc/man/zaman.1.scd).
## Contributing
See the [contributing guidelines](https://github.com/Antiz96/zaman/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).
## License
zaman is licensed under the [GPL-3.0 license](https://github.com/Antiz96/zaman/blob/main/LICENSE) (or any later version of that license).