DOKUWIKI vs MAN
A detailed comparison of DokuWiki Markup and Unix Man Page — file size, quality, compatibility, and which format to choose for your workflow.
Technical Specifications
| Specification | .DOKUWIKI | .MAN |
|---|---|---|
| MIME type | text/x-dokuwiki | text/troff |
| Extension | .dokuwiki, .txt (stored) | — |
| Native engine | DokuWiki (PHP) | — |
| Extensions | — | .man, .1, .2, .3, .4, .5, .6, .7, .8 |
| Markup | — | troff / groff with mdoc or man macro package |
| Renderer | — | groff + less (terminal), groff → PostScript/PDF/HTML |
| First shipped | — | Unix First Edition (1971) |
Strengths Comparison
.DOKUWIKI Strengths
- No database — just flat files.
- Easy syntax.
- Git-friendly.
- Simple self-hosting.
.MAN Strengths
- Universal Unix-like OS documentation since 1971.
- Plain text with simple troff markup — tiny files.
- Section system cleanly separates commands from APIs from config files.
- Renders to terminal, PostScript, HTML, or PDF.
- Every Unix programmer knows the format.
Limitations
.DOKUWIKI — Limitations
- Scales poorly past ~10 000 pages.
- Smaller community than MediaWiki.
- Limited standardization.
.MAN — Limitations
- Terse by design — bad for tutorials or beginner-friendly intros.
- Troff syntax is arcane and difficult for modern authors.
- No interactive examples or live-editable snippets.
- Mostly replaced by web docs, cheat sheets, and --help output for modern tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
DOKUWIKI (DokuWiki Markup) is a document format used to store paginated text, with optional formatting, tables, images, hyperlinks, headers and footers. It sits in the documents & text family and is typically associated with a specific office suite or publishing pipeline that defined the format and ships the canonical reader.
MAN (Unix Man Page) is a document format used to store paginated text, with optional formatting, tables, images, hyperlinks, headers and footers. It sits in the documents & text family and is typically associated with a specific office suite or publishing pipeline that defined the format and ships the canonical reader.
Modern office suites — Microsoft Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice Writer, Apple Pages — open most DOKUWIKI files with reasonable fidelity. If your installed software does not support DOKUWIKI, convert to DOCX or PDF first using KaijuConverter; both open in virtually every reader, including free online viewers.
Modern office suites — Microsoft Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice Writer, Apple Pages — open most MAN files with reasonable fidelity. If your installed software does not support MAN, convert to DOCX or PDF first using KaijuConverter; both open in virtually every reader, including free online viewers.
Upload the DOKUWIKI to KaijuConverter and pick DOCX, PDF, ODT, RTF, HTML, Markdown, or plain text. Our pipeline runs LibreOffice headlessly plus pandoc for text formats — the same engines behind professional document pipelines. Styles, tables, images, and hyperlinks survive the conversion intact.
Yes, to a high degree. Standard fonts, headings, lists, tables, images, hyperlinks and page structure transfer cleanly. Custom fonts substitute to the closest match if not embedded; obscure layout features unique to DOKUWIKI (frames, legacy macros) may flatten to static content in the target format.
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