role="package">doc-base</systemitem> package documentation for more
information.
</para>
+<para>
+Debian policy (section 12.1) directs that manual pages should accompany every
+program, utility, and function, and suggests them for other objects like
+configuration files. If the work you are packaging does not have such manual
+pages, consider writing them for inclusion in your package, and submitting them
+upstream.
+</para>
+<para>
+The manpages do not need to be written directly in the troff format. Popular
+source formats are Docbook, POD and reST, which can be converted using
+<command>xsltproc</command>, <command>pod2man</command> and
+<command>rst2man</command> respectively. To a lesser extent, the <command>
+help2man</command>program can also be used to write a stub.
+</para>
</section>
<section id="bpp-other">