index.sgml

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  10                         <B>mdocml</B> &#8211; UNIX manpage compiler, current version @VERSION@ (@VDATE@)
  11                 </P>
  12                 <P CLASS="subhead">
  13                         Sources: <A HREF="/snapshots/mdocml.tar.gz">current</A>,
  14                         <A HREF="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/?cvsroot=mdocml">cvsweb</A>
  15                         (<A HREF="/snapshots/">archives</A>)
  16                         |
  17                         Binaries: <A
  18                         HREF="/binaries/mdocml-win32.zip">windows 32-bit</A>, <A
  19                         HREF="/binaries/mdocml-win64.zip">windows 64-bit</A>, <A
  20                         HREF="/binaries/mdocml-macosx.zip">mac os x</A>
  21                         (<A HREF="/binaries/">archives</A>)
  22                 </P>
  23                 <H1>
  24                         <A NAME="description">Description</A>
  25                 </H1>
  26                 <P>
  27                         <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is a suite of tools compiling <I><A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A></I>, the roff macro
  28                         package of choice for BSD manual pages, and <I><A HREF="man.7.html">man</A></I>, the predominant historical package for
  29                         UNIX manuals.  The mission of <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is to deprecate <A
  30                         HREF="http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/" CLASS="external">groff</A>, the GNU troff implementation, for displaying <I>mdoc</I>
  31                         pages whilst providing token support for <I>man</I>.
  32                 </P>
  33                 <P>
  34                         Why?  groff amounts to over 5 MB of source code, most of which is C++ and all of which is GPL.  It runs slowly, produces
  35                         uncertain output, and varies in operation from system to system.  mdocml strives to fix this (respectively small, C, <A
  36                         CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.isc.org/software/license">ISC</A>-licensed, fast and regular).
  37                 </P>
  38                 <P>
  39                         <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> consists of the <A HREF="mandoc.3.html">libmandoc</A> validating compiler and <A
  40                         HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A>, which interfaces with the compiler library to format output for UNIX terminals (with
  41                         support for wide-character locales), XHTML, HTML, PostScript, and PDF.
  42                         It also includes <A HREF="preconv.1.html">preconv</A>, for recoding multibyte manuals;
  43                         <A HREF="demandoc.1.html">demandoc</A>, for emitting only text parts of manuals;
  44                         <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A>, for indexing manuals; and
  45                         <A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A>, <A HREF="whatis.1.html">whatis</A>, and
  46                         <A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi</A> (via <A HREF="catman.8.html">catman</A>) for semantic search of manual content.
  47                         It is a <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://bsd.lv/">BSD.lv</A> project.
  48                 </P>
  49                 <P>
  50                         <I>Disambiguation</I>: <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is often referred to by its installed binary, <Q>mandoc</Q>.
  51                 </P>
  52                 <H2>
  53                         <A NAME="sources">Sources</A>
  54                 </H2>
  55                 <P>
  56                         <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is in plain-old ANSI C and should build and run on any modern system; however, you'll
  57                         need <A HREF="http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/berkeleydb/overview/index.html">libdb</A> to build <A
  58                         HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A>, <A HREF="whatis.1.html">whatis</A>, <A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi</A>, <A
  59                         HREF="catman.8.html">catman</A>, and <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A> (this is installed by default on BSD UNIX
  60                         systems &mdash; see the <I>Makefile</I> if you're running Linux).  To build and install into <I>/usr/local/</I>, just
  61                         run <CODE>make install</CODE>.  Be careful: the <B>preconv</B>, <B>apropos</B>, and <B>whatis</B> binary names are
  62                         usually taken by existing utilities.
  63                 </P>
  64                 <H2>
  65                         <A NAME="binaries">Binaries</A>
  66                 </H2>
  67                 <P>
  68                         Binary archives consist of pre-compiled binaries, manuals, and other necessary files.
  69                         Universal (Mac OS X) binaries are compiled for the PCC, i386, and x86_64 architectures.
  70                         Windows binaries are compiled with <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.mingw.org">MingW</A> for the 32-bit (i686) and
  71                         64-bit (x86_64) architectures.
  72                 </P>
  73                 <H2>
  74                         Downstream
  75                 </H2>
  76                 <P>
  77                         Several systems come bundled with <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> utilities.
  78                         If your system does not appear below, the maintainers have not contacted me and it should not be considered
  79                         <Q>official</Q>.
  80                         Please <A HREF="#contact">contact us</A> if you plan on maintaining a downstream version!
  81                 </P>
  82                 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Downstream Sources">
  83                         <COL WIDTH="175">
  84                         <COL>
  85                         <TBODY>
  86                                 <TR>
  87                                         <TD>DragonFly BSD</TD>
  88                                         <TD>
  89                                         <A HREF="http://gitweb.dragonflybsd.org/dragonfly.git/tree/HEAD:/usr.bin/mandoc"
  90                                                 CLASS="external">usr.bin/mandoc</A>
  91                                         </TD>
  92                                 </TR>
  93                                 <TR>
  94                                         <TD>FreeBSD</TD>
  95                                         <TD>
  96                                         <A HREF="http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/textproc/mdocml/"
  97                                                 CLASS="external">ports/textproc/mdocml</A>
  98                                         </TD>
  99                                 </TR>
 100                                 <TR>
 101                                         <TD>NetBSD</TD>
 102                                         <TD>
 103                                         <A HREF="http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/external/bsd/mdocml/"
 104                                                 CLASS="external">src/external/bsd/mdocml</A>
 105                                         </TD>
 106                                 </TR>
 107                                 <TR>
 108                                         <TD>OpenBSD</TD>
 109                                         <TD>
 110                                         <A HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/mandoc/"
 111                                                 CLASS="external">src/usr.bin/mandoc</A>
 112                                         </TD>
 113                                 </TR>
 114                                 <TR>
 115                                         <TD>pkgsrc</TD>
 116                                         <TD>
 117                                         <A HREF="http://pkgsrc.se/textproc/mdocml" CLASS="external">textproc/mdocml</A>
 118                                         </TD>
 119                                 </TR>
 120                         </TBODY>
 121                 </TABLE>
 122                 <H1>
 123                         <A NAME="documentation">Documentation</A>
 124                 </H1>
 125                 <P>
 126                         These manuals are generated automatically and refer to the current release.
 127                         They are the authoritative documentation for the <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> system.
 128                 </P>
 129
 130                 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Documentation">
 131                         <COL WIDTH="175">
 132                         <COL>
 133                         <TBODY>
 134                                 <TR>
 135                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos(1)</A></TD>
 136                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 137                                                 search the manual page database
 138                                                         (<A HREF="apropos.1.txt">text</A> |
 139                                                         <A HREF="apropos.1.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 140                                                         <A HREF="apropos.1.pdf">pdf</A> |
 141                                                         <A HREF="apropos.1.ps">ps</A>)
 142                                         </TD>
 143                                 </TR>
 144                                 <TR>
 145                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="demandoc.1.html">demandoc(1)</A></TD>
 146                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 147                                                 emit only text of UNIX manuals
 148                                                         (<A HREF="demandoc.1.txt">text</A> |
 149                                                         <A HREF="demandoc.1.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 150                                                         <A HREF="demandoc.1.pdf">pdf</A> |
 151                                                         <A HREF="demandoc.1.ps">ps</A>)
 152                                         </TD>
 153                                 </TR>
 154                                 <TR>
 155                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc(1)</A></TD>
 156                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 157                                                 format and display UNIX manuals
 158                                                         (<A HREF="mandoc.1.txt">text</A> |
 159                                                         <A HREF="mandoc.1.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 160                                                         <A HREF="mandoc.1.pdf">pdf</A> |
 161                                                         <A HREF="mandoc.1.ps">ps</A>)
 162                                         </TD>
 163                                 </TR>
 164                                 <TR>
 165                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="preconv.1.html">preconv(1)</A></TD>
 166                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 167                                                 recode multibyte UNIX manuals
 168                                                         (<A HREF="preconv.1.txt">text</A> |
 169                                                         <A HREF="preconv.1.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 170                                                         <A HREF="preconv.1.pdf">pdf</A> |
 171                                                         <A HREF="preconv.1.ps">ps</A>)
 172                                         </TD>
 173                                 </TR>
 174                                 <TR>
 175                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="whatis.1.html">whatis(1)</A></TD>
 176                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 177                                                 search the manual page database
 178                                                         (<A HREF="whatis.1.txt">text</A> |
 179                                                         <A HREF="whatis.1.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 180                                                         <A HREF="whatis.1.pdf">pdf</A> |
 181                                                         <A HREF="whatis.1.ps">ps</A>)
 182                                         </TD>
 183                                 </TR>
 184                                 <TR>
 185                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc.3.html">mandoc(3)</A></TD>
 186                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 187                                                 mandoc macro compiler library
 188                                                         (<A HREF="mandoc.3.txt">text</A> |
 189                                                         <A HREF="mandoc.3.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 190                                                         <A HREF="mandoc.3.pdf">pdf</A> |
 191                                                         <A HREF="mandoc.3.ps">ps</A>)
 192                                         </TD>
 193                                 </TR>
 194                                 <TR>
 195                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A></TD>
 196                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 197                                                 man language reference
 198                                                         (<A HREF="man.7.txt">text</A> |
 199                                                         <A HREF="man.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 200                                                         <A HREF="man.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 201                                                         <A HREF="man.7.ps">ps</A>)
 202                                         </TD>
 203                                 </TR>
 204                                 <TR>
 205                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi(7)</A></TD>
 206                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 207                                                 cgi for manpage query and display
 208                                                         (<A HREF="man.cgi.7.txt">text</A> |
 209                                                         <A HREF="man.cgi.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 210                                                         <A HREF="man.cgi.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 211                                                         <A HREF="man.cgi.7.ps">ps</A>)
 212                                         </TD>
 213                                 </TR>
 214                                 <TR>
 215                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="eqn.7.html">eqn(7)</A></TD>
 216                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 217                                                 eqn-mandoc language reference
 218                                                         (<A HREF="eqn.7.txt">text</A> |
 219                                                         <A HREF="eqn.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 220                                                         <A HREF="eqn.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 221                                                         <A HREF="eqn.7.ps">ps</A>)
 222                                         </TD>
 223                                 </TR>
 224                                 <TR>
 225                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc_char.7.html">mandoc_char(7)</A></TD>
 226                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 227                                                 mandoc special characters
 228                                                         (<A HREF="mandoc_char.7.txt">text</A> |
 229                                                         <A HREF="mandoc_char.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 230                                                         <A HREF="mandoc_char.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 231                                                         <A HREF="mandoc_char.7.ps">ps</A>)
 232                                         </TD>
 233                                 </TR>
 234                                 <TR>
 235                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A></TD>
 236                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 237                                                 mdoc language reference
 238                                                         (<A HREF="mdoc.7.txt">text</A> |
 239                                                         <A HREF="mdoc.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 240                                                         <A HREF="mdoc.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 241                                                         <A HREF="mdoc.7.ps">ps</A>)
 242                                         </TD>
 243                                 </TR>
 244                                 <TR>
 245                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="roff.7.html">roff(7)</A></TD>
 246                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 247                                                 roff-mandoc language reference
 248                                                         (<A HREF="roff.7.txt">text</A> |
 249                                                         <A HREF="roff.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 250                                                         <A HREF="roff.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 251                                                         <A HREF="roff.7.ps">ps</A>)
 252                                         </TD>
 253                                 </TR>
 254                                 <TR>
 255                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="tbl.7.html">tbl(7)</A></TD>
 256                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 257                                                 tbl-mandoc language reference
 258                                                         (<A HREF="tbl.7.txt">text</A> |
 259                                                         <A HREF="tbl.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 260                                                         <A HREF="tbl.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 261                                                         <A HREF="tbl.7.ps">ps</A>)
 262                                         </TD>
 263                                 </TR>
 264                                 <TR>
 265                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="catman.8.html">catman(8)</A></TD>
 266                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 267                                                 update a man.cgi manpage cache
 268                                                         (<A HREF="catman.8.txt">text</A> |
 269                                                         <A HREF="catman.8.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 270                                                         <A HREF="catman.8.pdf">pdf</A> |
 271                                                         <A HREF="catman.8.ps">ps</A>)
 272                                         </TD>
 273                                 </TR>
 274                                 <TR>
 275                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb(8)</A></TD>
 276                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 277                                                 index UNIX manuals
 278                                                         (<A HREF="mandocdb.8.txt">text</A> |
 279                                                         <A HREF="mandocdb.8.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 280                                                         <A HREF="mandocdb.8.pdf">pdf</A> |
 281                                                         <A HREF="mandocdb.8.ps">ps</A>)
 282                                         </TD>
 283                                 </TR>
 284                         </TBODY>
 285                 </TABLE>
 286                 <H1>
 287                         <A NAME="contact">Contact</A>
 288                 </H1>
 289                 <P>
 290                         Use the mailing lists for bug-reports, patches, questions, etc.  Please check the
 291                         <A HREF="http://mdocml.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/TODO?cvsroot=mdocml">TODO</A> for known issues
 292                         before posting.  All lists are subscription-only: send a blank e-mail to the listed address to subscribe.  Beyond that,
 293                         contact Kristaps at <A HREF="http://mailhide.recaptcha.net/d?k=01M6h_w7twDp58ZgH57eWC_w==&amp;c=Q2DBUt401ePlSeupJFrq_Q==" TITLE="Reveal
 294                         this e-mail address">kris...</A>@bsd.lv.  Archives are available at <A HREF="http://gmane.org/" CLASS="external">Gmane</A>.
 295                 </P>
 296                 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Mailing Lists">
 297                         <COL WIDTH="175">
 298                         <COL>
 299                         <TBODY>
 300                                 <TR>
 301                                         <TD>
 302                                                 disc<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
 303                                                 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01KQ80PFH5n3BBNpF5Gs4sRg==&amp;c=EV1QytpQqTHSItc2IXvZyocgYLPnG5K0JKw_gwMC9yc=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
 304                                         </TD>
 305                                         <TD>
 306                                                 bug-reports, general questions, and announcements
 307                                         </TD>
 308                                 </TR>
 309                                 <TR>
 310                                         <TD>
 311                                                 tec<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
 312                                                 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01qDX_iV0RlUOarEvb6mR28g==&amp;c=gRXsTjza0NNCFPaYu-Taj2tF0pmYZSc90EZkFkhkxgo=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
 313                                         </TD>
 314                                         <TD>
 315                                                 patches and system discussions
 316                                         </TD>
 317                                 </TR>
 318                                 <TR>
 319                                         <TD>
 320                                                 sou<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
 321                                                 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01prQrAZhhl2EbIwVcRfABsQ==&amp;c=KtTW4Yic9xk-8g40KzJoca4fR3MYXv28g8NC6OQV-T8=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
 322                                         </TD>
 323                                         <TD>
 324                                                 source commit messages
 325                                         </TD>
 326                                 </TR>
 327                         </TBODY>
 328                 </TABLE>
 329                 <H1>
 330                         <A NAME="news">News</A>
 331                 </H1>
 332                 <P CLASS="news">
 333                         xx-xx-2011: version 1.12.1
 334                 </P>
 335                 <P>
 336                         Significant work on <A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> and <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A>.  These tools are
 337                         now much more robust and in line with other manpage systems.  A <A HREF="whatis.1.html">whatis</A> implementation is now
 338                         handled as an <A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> mode.  These tools are also able to minimally handle pre-formatted
 339                         pages, that is, those already formatted by another utility such as GNU troff.
 340                 </P>
 341                 <P>
 342                         The <A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi</A> script is also now available for wider testing.  It interfaces with <A
 343                         HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A> manuals cached by <A HREF="catman.8.html">catman</A>.  HTML output is generated
 344                         on-the-fly by <A HREF="mandoc.3.html">libmandoc</A> or internal methods to convert pre-formatted pages.
 345                 </P>
 346                 <P>
 347                         Lastly, the mailing list archive for the discuss and tech lists are being hosted by <A CLASS="external"
 348                         HREF="http://www.gmane.org">Gmane</A> at <A HREF="http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.tools.mdocml.user"
 349                         CLASS="external">gmane.comp.tools.mdocml.user</A> and <A HREF="http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.tools.mdocml.devel"
 350                         CLASS="external">gmane.comp.tools.mdocml.devel</A>, respectively.
 351                 </P>
 352                 <P CLASS="news">
 353                         08-10-2011: version 1.12.0
 354                 </P>
 355                 <P>
 356                         This version features a new, work-in-progress <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A> output mode: -<B>Tman</B>.  This mode
 357                         allows a system maintainer to distribute <A HREF="man.7.html">man</A> media for older systems that may not natively
 358                         support <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A>, such as old Solaris systems.
 359                         The -<B>Ofragment</B> option was added to <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A>'s -<B>Thtml</B> and -<B>Txhtml</B> modes.
 360                 </P>
 361                 <P>
 362                         While adding features, an <A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> utility has been merged from the mandoc-tools sandbox.
 363                         This interfaces with <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A> for semantic search of manual content.  <A
 364                         HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> is different from the traditional <B>apropos</B> primarily in allowing keyword search
 365                         (such as for functions, utilities, etc.) and regular expressions.
 366                         Note that the calling syntax for <B>apropos</B> is likely to change as it settles down.
 367                 </P>
 368                 <P>
 369                         In documentation news, the <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A> and <A HREF="man.7.html">man</A> manuals have been made
 370                         considerably more readable by adding <I>MACRO OVERVIEW</I> sections, by moving the gory details of the <I>LANGUAGE
 371                         SYNTAX</I> to the <A HREF="roff.7.html">roff</A> manual, and by moving the very technical <I>MACRO SYNTAX</I> sections
 372                         down to the bottom of the page.
 373                 </P>
 374                 <P>
 375                         Furthermore, for <A HREF="tbl.7.html">tbl</A>, the -<B>Tascii</B> mode horizontal spacing of tables was rewritten
 376                         completely.  It is now compatible with <A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/" CLASS="external">groff</A>, both
 377                         with and without frames and rulers.  Nesting of indented blocks is now supported in <A HREF="man.7.html">man</A>, and
 378                         several bugs were fixed regarding indentation and alignment.  The page headers in <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A> are now
 379                         nicer for very long titles.
 380                 </P>
 381                 <P>
 382                         See <A HREF="http://mdocml.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/index.sgml?cvsroot=mdocml">cvsweb</A> for
 383                         historical notes.
 384                 </P>
 385                 <P CLASS="foot">
 386                         <SMALL>
 387                                 Copyright &#169; 2008&#8211;2011
 388                                 <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://kristaps.bsd.lv">Kristaps Dzonsons</A>,
 389                                 $Date: 2011/12/14 23:17:12 $
 390                         </SMALL>
 391                 </P>
 392         </BODY>
 393 </HTML>