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# Contributing to this manual {#chap-contributing}
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The [DocBook] and CommonMark sources of the NixOS manual are in the [nixos/doc/manual ](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/tree/master/nixos/doc/manual ) subdirectory of the [Nixpkgs ](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs ) repository.
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This manual uses the [Nixpkgs manual syntax ](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/unstable/#sec-contributing-markup ).
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You can quickly check your edits with the following:
```ShellSession
$ cd /path/to/nixpkgs
$ nix-build nixos/release.nix -A manual.x86_64-linux
```
If the build succeeds, the manual will be in `./result/share/doc/nixos/index.html` .
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**Contributing to the man pages**
The man pages are written in [DocBook] which is XML.
To see what your edits look like:
```ShellSession
$ cd /path/to/nixpkgs
$ nix-build nixos/release.nix -A manpages.x86_64-linux
```
You can then read the man page you edited by running
```ShellSession
$ man --manpath=result/share/man nixos-rebuild # Replace nixos-rebuild with the command whose manual you edited
```
If you're on a different architecture that's supported by NixOS (check nixos/release.nix) then replace `x86_64-linux` with the architecture.
`nix-build` will complain otherwise, but should also tell you which architecture you have + the supported ones.
[DocBook]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook