doc: Update man page to include more information on profiles

3 files changed, 24 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/doc/valac.1 b/doc/valac.1
index e132074e2..a1c0c3a9f 100644
--- a/doc/valac.1
+++ b/doc/valac.1
@@ -172,7 +172,17 @@ Write code tree to FILE
 Keep temporary files
 .TP
 \fB\-\-profile\fR=\fI\,PROFILE\/\fR
-Use the given profile instead of the default, options are 'gobject' or 'posix'
+Minimum runtime dependency: 'gobject' (default) or 'posix' (minimal libc)
+.RS
+\fIgobject\fR enables GLib's GType runtime type system. The runtime environment
+will usually require libgobject and its small number of dependencies.
+\fIposix\fR removes the dependency on GLib and disables the runtime type
+system. The profile either generates alternative code or errors at compile time
+if a Vala language feature is used that requires the runtime type system. This
+is useful for writing code, for example, that targets microcontrollers or
+for extremely small system utilities or container images. The runtime
+environment will usually require a small subset of the ISO C standard library.
+.RE
 .TP
 \fB\-q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR
 Do not print messages to the console
diff --git a/doc/valac.h2m b/doc/valac.h2m
index 70740811d..97995fa5d 100644
--- a/doc/valac.h2m
+++ b/doc/valac.h2m
@@ -23,6 +23,18 @@ or \fB--no-color\fR are declared then \fB--color\fR=\fIauto\fR is used where
 output is colored when stderr is a terminal.
 .RE
 
+/Minimum runtime dependency/
+.RS
+\fIgobject\fR enables GLib's GType runtime type system. The runtime environment
+will usually require libgobject and its small number of dependencies.
+\fIposix\fR removes the dependency on GLib and disables the runtime type
+system. The profile either generates alternative code or errors at compile time
+if a Vala language feature is used that requires the runtime type system. This
+is useful for writing code, for example, that targets microcontrollers or
+for extremely small system utilities or container images. The runtime
+environment will usually require a small subset of the ISO C standard library.
+.RE
+
 /Enable support for ABI stability/
 .RS
 This changes the current behaviour to output public members of classes and
diff --git a/doc/valadoc.1 b/doc/valadoc.1
index a74d05e36..8e6411e2e 100644
--- a/doc/valadoc.1
+++ b/doc/valadoc.1
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Base source directory
 Define SYMBOL
 .TP
 \fB\-\-profile\fR=\fI\,PROFILE\/\fR
-Use the given profile instead of the default, options are 'gobject' or 'posix'
+Minimum runtime dependency: 'gobject' (default) or 'posix' (minimal libc)
 .TP
 \fB\-\-enable\-experimental\fR
 Enable experimental features