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install wikiman

Installing and Setting Up Wikiman

Wikiman is a command-line tool that provides offline access to documentation from various sources, including Arch Wiki, Gentoo Wiki, FreeBSD docs, tldr-pages, and DevDocs. This tutorial will guide you through installing the binary package and downloading the required documentation sources.

Prerequisites

  • A Debian-based Linux distribution (the provided package is a .deb file).
  • wget or curl installed (for downloading files).
  • sudo privileges for installing the package and copying files to system directories.

Step 1: Install the Wikiman Binary

Download the .deb package from the official releases page and install it using dpkg.

# Download the .deb package
wget https://github.com/filiparag/wikiman/releases/download/2.14.1/wikiman-2.14.1-1_any.deb

# Install the package
sudo dpkg -i wikiman-2.14.1-1_any.deb

If you encounter dependency errors, run:

sudo apt-get install -f

Step 2: Download the Documentation Sources

Wikiman needs documentation sources to function. Download all the required source tarballs into a single directory (e.g., ~/wikiman-sources). Create the directory and navigate into it:

mkdir ~/wikiman-sources
cd ~/wikiman-sources

Now download the source archives:

wget https://github.com/filiparag/wikiman/releases/download/2.14.1/freebsd-docs_20260110.source.tar.xz
wget https://github.com/filiparag/wikiman/releases/download/2.14.1/gentoo-wiki_20260110.source.tar.xz
wget https://github.com/filiparag/wikiman/releases/download/2.14.1/tldr-pages_20260110.source.tar.xz
wget https://github.com/filiparag/wikiman/releases/download/2.14.1/arch-wiki_20260110.source.tar.xz
wget https://github.com/filiparag/wikiman/releases/download/2.14.1/devdocs_20260110.source.tar.xz

Note: The filenames include a date (e.g., 20260110). Future releases may have different dates; adjust the URLs accordingly.

Step 3: Extract the Archives

Extract all downloaded .tar.xz files. You can do this one by one or use a simple loop:

for f in *.tar.xz; do
    echo "Extracting $f..."
    tar -xf "$f"
done

This will create several directories (like freebsd, gentoo, tldr, arch, devdocs) inside your current folder.

Step 4: Copy the Extracted Documentation

The extracted documentation folders need to be placed in /usr/share/doc so that Wikiman can find them. Use sudo to copy them recursively:

sudo cp -R * /usr/share/doc/

This copies all extracted directories (and any other files) to /usr/share/doc. If you prefer to copy only the documentation folders, you can be more specific, but the wildcard works as long as only the extracted directories are present.

Step 5: Verify the Installation

Run Wikiman to test if everything is set up correctly:

wikiman --help

You can also search for a topic, e.g.:

wikiman grep

Wikiman should display results from the available documentation sources.

Additional Notes

  • The sources are large; ensure you have enough disk space (several hundred MB).
  • If you ever need to update the documentation, repeat Steps 2–4 with the latest tarballs.
  • For more details on configuring Wikiman, refer to the official repository.

Troubleshooting

  • Permission denied: Make sure you used sudo when copying to /usr/share/doc.
  • No documentation found: Verify that the extracted directories exist in /usr/share/doc and contain files. Wikiman expects them to be directly under /usr/share/doc (e.g., /usr/share/doc/arch-wiki).
  • Missing dependencies: Run sudo apt install -f after installing the .deb to fix any missing packages.

You now have a fully functional offline documentation system! Enjoy exploring the wealth of information at your fingertips.