10.2 Man pages

A package can also include man pages (but see the GNU standards on this matter, Man Pages in The GNU Coding Standards.) Man pages are declared using the ‘MANS’ primary. Generally the man_MANS macro is used. Man pages are automatically installed in the correct subdirectory of mandir, based on the file extension. They are not automatically included in the distribution.

By default, man pages are installed by ‘make install’. However, since the GNU project does not require man pages, many maintainers do not expend effort to keep the man pages up to date. In these cases, the no-installman option will prevent the man pages from being installed by default. The user can still explicitly install them via ‘make install-man’.

Here is how the documentation is handled in GNU cpio (which includes both Texinfo documentation and man pages):

info_TEXINFOS = cpio.texi
man_MANS = cpio.1 mt.1
EXTRA_DIST = $(man_MANS)

Texinfo source and info pages are all considered to be source for the purposes of making a distribution.

Man pages are not currently considered to be source, because it is not uncommon for man pages to be automatically generated. For the same reason, they are not automatically included in the distribution.