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= Possible implementations = = Deployment =
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There are three known implementations of "man to web" archive generators. The current `manpages.debian.org` service is powered by [[https://github.com/Debian/debiman|debiman]], running on `manziarly.debian.org`.
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== Current codebase ==

The [[https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/ddp/man-cgi/|current codebase]] is a set of Perl and bash CGI scripts that dynamically generate (and search through) manpages.

== Ubuntu ==

Ubuntu has their own manpage repository at https://manpages.ubuntu.com/. Their [[https://code.launchpad.net/ubuntu-manpage-repository|codebase]] is partly Python, Perl and Bash.

== New codebase ==

A new codebase written by dgilman is available in [[https://github.com/dgilman/manpages|github]]. It is a simple Python script with a sqlite backend.

== MVP ==

The Minimum Viable Product for this project is a service that creates an HTML version of all the manpages of all the packages available in Debian, for all supported suites (including [[LTS]]).

`apropos(1)` functionality is considered extra that can be implemented later with already indexing tools like Xapian (or the web frontend, Omega), Lucene / Solr, Elastic search, or a simple homegrown javascript-based search (like readthedocs uses).

A possible design would be:

1. fetch all manpages from the archive, store them on disk (makes them usable for tools like [[http://manpages.ubuntu.com/dman|dman]] that browses remote webpages)
2. convert manpages to HTML so they are readable in a web browser
3. index HTML pages in a search engine of some sort

parts 1 and 2 would be generated on some VM and stored on `manziarly` (see below). parts 3 would be a separate (pair or?) server(s?) to run the search cluster.

the above could be formalized as patches to the [[https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/mirror/dsa-puppet.git/|dsa-puppet manifests]].

next steps:

1. write the MVP, maybe based on David's work
2. ask (through a [[rt.debian.org]] ticket) access to the `manpages` group
3. deploy a first dump of the manpages there
4. make a puppet manifest or document how to deploy the scripts
5. ask DSA to deploy the new code, test
6. if it works, fix the `manpages.debian.org` DNS to point to the static.d.o DNS. at this point, the MVP is in place
7. make search work...

= Hardware =

The old service used to run on `glinka.debian.org`. [[Teams/DSA]] requested the service should be moved to `manziarly.debian.org`.

`manziarly` is the master server for static file servers in the Debian.org infrastructure. Files saved there are rsync'd to multiple frontend servers. How this is configured is detailed in the [[https://dsa.debian.org/howto/static-mirroring/|static-mirroring]] DSA documentation, but basically, we would need to ask the DSA team for an extra entry for manpages.d.o there to server static files.
Details on how to make changes to the site are in the [[https://manpages.debian.org/faq.html|FAQ]].
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You can also subscribe to this wiki page to get updates, which also functions as a ad-hoc forum. You can also subscribe to this wiki page to get updates, which also functions as an ad-hoc forum.

https://manpages.debian.org/ is a service providing online manpages in HTML format for the public.

Current status

Deployment

The current manpages.debian.org service is powered by debiman, running on manziarly.debian.org.

Details on how to make changes to the site are in the FAQ.

Forum

Discussions about manpages.debian.org can take place on the regular Teams/DDP channels, for example the #debian-doc IRC channel and debian-doc@lists.debian.org mailing list.

You can also subscribe to this wiki page to get updates, which also functions as an ad-hoc forum.