index.sgml

   1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
   2 <HTML>
   3         <HEAD>
   4                 <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8">
   5                 <LINK REL="stylesheet" HREF="index.css" TYPE="text/css" MEDIA="all">
   6                 <TITLE>mdocml | UNIX manpage compiler</TITLE>
   7         </HEAD>
   8         <BODY>
   9                 <P CLASS="head">
  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> and <A HREF="whatis.1.html">whatis</A>, for semantic search of manual content.
  46                         It is a <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://bsd.lv/">BSD.lv</A> project.
  47                 </P>
  48                 <P>
  49                         <I>Disambiguation</I>: <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is often referred to by its installed binary, <Q>mandoc</Q>.
  50                 </P>
  51                 <H2>
  52                         <A NAME="sources">Sources</A>
  53                 </H2>
  54                 <P>
  55                         <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is in plain-old ANSI C and should build and run on any modern system; however, you'll
  56                         need <A HREF="http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/berkeleydb/overview/index.html">libdb</A> to build <A
  57                         HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A>, <A HREF="whatis.1.html">whatis</A>, and <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A> (this
  58                         is installed by default on BSD UNIX systems &mdash; see the <I>Makefile</I> if you're running Linux).  To build and
  59                         install into <I>/usr/local/</I>, just run <CODE>make install</CODE>.  Be careful: the <B>preconv</B>, <B>apropos</B>,
  60                         and <B>whatis</B> binary names are usually taken by existing utilities.
  61                 </P>
  62                 <H2>
  63                         <A NAME="binaries">Binaries</A>
  64                 </H2>
  65                 <P>
  66                         Binary archives consist of pre-compiled binaries, manuals, and other necessary files.
  67                         Universal (Mac OS X) binaries are compiled for the PCC, i386, and x86_64 architectures.
  68                         Windows binaries are compiled with <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.mingw.org">MingW</A> for the 32-bit (i686) and
  69                         64-bit (x86_64) architectures.
  70                 </P>
  71                 <H2>
  72                         Downstream
  73                 </H2>
  74                 <P>
  75                         Several systems come bundled with <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> utilities.
  76                         If your system does not appear below, the maintainers have not contacted me and it should not be considered
  77                         <Q>official</Q>.
  78                         Please <A HREF="#contact">contact us</A> if you plan on maintaining a downstream version!
  79                 </P>
  80                 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Downstream Sources">
  81                         <COL WIDTH="175">
  82                         <COL>
  83                         <TBODY>
  84                                 <TR>
  85                                         <TD>DragonFly BSD</TD>
  86                                         <TD>
  87                                         <A HREF="http://gitweb.dragonflybsd.org/dragonfly.git/tree/HEAD:/usr.bin/mandoc"
  88                                                 CLASS="external">usr.bin/mandoc</A>
  89                                         </TD>
  90                                 </TR>
  91                                 <TR>
  92                                         <TD>FreeBSD</TD>
  93                                         <TD>
  94                                         <A HREF="http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/textproc/mdocml/"
  95                                                 CLASS="external">ports/textproc/mdocml</A>
  96                                         </TD>
  97                                 </TR>
  98                                 <TR>
  99                                         <TD>NetBSD</TD>
 100                                         <TD>
 101                                         <A HREF="http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/external/bsd/mdocml/"
 102                                                 CLASS="external">src/external/bsd/mdocml</A>
 103                                         </TD>
 104                                 </TR>
 105                                 <TR>
 106                                         <TD>OpenBSD</TD>
 107                                         <TD>
 108                                         <A HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/mandoc/"
 109                                                 CLASS="external">src/usr.bin/mandoc</A>
 110                                         </TD>
 111                                 </TR>
 112                                 <TR>
 113                                         <TD>pkgsrc</TD>
 114                                         <TD>
 115                                         <A HREF="http://pkgsrc.se/textproc/mdocml" CLASS="external">textproc/mdocml</A>
 116                                         </TD>
 117                                 </TR>
 118                         </TBODY>
 119                 </TABLE>
 120                 <H1>
 121                         <A NAME="documentation">Documentation</A>
 122                 </H1>
 123                 <P>
 124                         These manuals are generated automatically and refer to the current release.
 125                         They are the authoritative documentation for the <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> system.
 126                 </P>
 127
 128                 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Documentation">
 129                         <COL WIDTH="175">
 130                         <COL>
 131                         <TBODY>
 132                                 <TR>
 133                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos(1)</A></TD>
 134                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 135                                                 search the manual page database
 136                                                         (<A HREF="apropos.1.txt">text</A> |
 137                                                         <A HREF="apropos.1.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 138                                                         <A HREF="apropos.1.pdf">pdf</A> |
 139                                                         <A HREF="apropos.1.ps">ps</A>)
 140                                         </TD>
 141                                 </TR>
 142                                 <TR>
 143                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="demandoc.1.html">demandoc(1)</A></TD>
 144                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 145                                                 emit only text of UNIX manuals
 146                                                         (<A HREF="demandoc.1.txt">text</A> |
 147                                                         <A HREF="demandoc.1.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 148                                                         <A HREF="demandoc.1.pdf">pdf</A> |
 149                                                         <A HREF="demandoc.1.ps">ps</A>)
 150                                         </TD>
 151                                 </TR>
 152                                 <TR>
 153                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc(1)</A></TD>
 154                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 155                                                 format and display UNIX manuals
 156                                                         (<A HREF="mandoc.1.txt">text</A> |
 157                                                         <A HREF="mandoc.1.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 158                                                         <A HREF="mandoc.1.pdf">pdf</A> |
 159                                                         <A HREF="mandoc.1.ps">ps</A>)
 160                                         </TD>
 161                                 </TR>
 162                                 <TR>
 163                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="preconv.1.html">preconv(1)</A></TD>
 164                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 165                                                 recode multibyte UNIX manuals
 166                                                         (<A HREF="preconv.1.txt">text</A> |
 167                                                         <A HREF="preconv.1.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 168                                                         <A HREF="preconv.1.pdf">pdf</A> |
 169                                                         <A HREF="preconv.1.ps">ps</A>)
 170                                         </TD>
 171                                 </TR>
 172                                 <TR>
 173                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="whatis.1.html">whatis(1)</A></TD>
 174                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 175                                                 search the manual page database
 176                                                         (<A HREF="whatis.1.txt">text</A> |
 177                                                         <A HREF="whatis.1.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 178                                                         <A HREF="whatis.1.pdf">pdf</A> |
 179                                                         <A HREF="whatis.1.ps">ps</A>)
 180                                         </TD>
 181                                 </TR>
 182                                 <TR>
 183                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc.3.html">mandoc(3)</A></TD>
 184                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 185                                                 mandoc macro compiler library
 186                                                         (<A HREF="mandoc.3.txt">text</A> |
 187                                                         <A HREF="mandoc.3.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 188                                                         <A HREF="mandoc.3.pdf">pdf</A> |
 189                                                         <A HREF="mandoc.3.ps">ps</A>)
 190                                         </TD>
 191                                 </TR>
 192                                 <TR>
 193                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A></TD>
 194                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 195                                                 man language reference
 196                                                         (<A HREF="man.7.txt">text</A> |
 197                                                         <A HREF="man.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 198                                                         <A HREF="man.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 199                                                         <A HREF="man.7.ps">ps</A>)
 200                                         </TD>
 201                                 </TR>
 202                                 <TR>
 203                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="eqn.7.html">eqn(7)</A></TD>
 204                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 205                                                 eqn-mandoc language reference
 206                                                         (<A HREF="eqn.7.txt">text</A> |
 207                                                         <A HREF="eqn.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 208                                                         <A HREF="eqn.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 209                                                         <A HREF="eqn.7.ps">ps</A>)
 210                                         </TD>
 211                                 </TR>
 212                                 <TR>
 213                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc_char.7.html">mandoc_char(7)</A></TD>
 214                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 215                                                 mandoc special characters
 216                                                         (<A HREF="mandoc_char.7.txt">text</A> |
 217                                                         <A HREF="mandoc_char.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 218                                                         <A HREF="mandoc_char.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 219                                                         <A HREF="mandoc_char.7.ps">ps</A>)
 220                                         </TD>
 221                                 </TR>
 222                                 <TR>
 223                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A></TD>
 224                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 225                                                 mdoc language reference
 226                                                         (<A HREF="mdoc.7.txt">text</A> |
 227                                                         <A HREF="mdoc.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 228                                                         <A HREF="mdoc.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 229                                                         <A HREF="mdoc.7.ps">ps</A>)
 230                                         </TD>
 231                                 </TR>
 232                                 <TR>
 233                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="roff.7.html">roff(7)</A></TD>
 234                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 235                                                 roff-mandoc language reference
 236                                                         (<A HREF="roff.7.txt">text</A> |
 237                                                         <A HREF="roff.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 238                                                         <A HREF="roff.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 239                                                         <A HREF="roff.7.ps">ps</A>)
 240                                         </TD>
 241                                 </TR>
 242                                 <TR>
 243                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="tbl.7.html">tbl(7)</A></TD>
 244                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 245                                                 tbl-mandoc language reference
 246                                                         (<A HREF="tbl.7.txt">text</A> |
 247                                                         <A HREF="tbl.7.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 248                                                         <A HREF="tbl.7.pdf">pdf</A> |
 249                                                         <A HREF="tbl.7.ps">ps</A>)
 250                                         </TD>
 251                                 </TR>
 252                                 <TR>
 253                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb(8)</A></TD>
 254                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 255                                                 index UNIX manuals
 256                                                         (<A HREF="mandocdb.8.txt">text</A> |
 257                                                         <A HREF="mandocdb.8.xhtml">xhtml</A> |
 258                                                         <A HREF="mandocdb.8.pdf">pdf</A> |
 259                                                         <A HREF="mandocdb.8.ps">ps</A>)
 260                                         </TD>
 261                                 </TR>
 262                         </TBODY>
 263                 </TABLE>
 264                 <H1>
 265                         <A NAME="contact">Contact</A>
 266                 </H1>
 267                 <P>
 268                         Use the mailing lists for bug-reports, patches, questions, etc.  Please check the
 269                         <A HREF="http://mdocml.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/TODO?cvsroot=mdocml">TODO</A> for known issues
 270                         before posting.  All lists are subscription-only: send a blank e-mail to the listed address to subscribe.  Beyond that,
 271                         contact Kristaps at <A HREF="http://mailhide.recaptcha.net/d?k=01M6h_w7twDp58ZgH57eWC_w==&amp;c=Q2DBUt401ePlSeupJFrq_Q==" TITLE="Reveal
 272                         this e-mail address">kris...</A>@bsd.lv.  Archives are available at <A HREF="http://gmane.org/" CLASS="external">Gmane</A>.
 273                 </P>
 274                 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Mailing Lists">
 275                         <COL WIDTH="175">
 276                         <COL>
 277                         <TBODY>
 278                                 <TR>
 279                                         <TD>
 280                                                 disc<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
 281                                                 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01KQ80PFH5n3BBNpF5Gs4sRg==&amp;c=EV1QytpQqTHSItc2IXvZyocgYLPnG5K0JKw_gwMC9yc=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
 282                                         </TD>
 283                                         <TD>
 284                                                 bug-reports, general questions, and announcements
 285                                         </TD>
 286                                 </TR>
 287                                 <TR>
 288                                         <TD>
 289                                                 tec<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
 290                                                 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01qDX_iV0RlUOarEvb6mR28g==&amp;c=gRXsTjza0NNCFPaYu-Taj2tF0pmYZSc90EZkFkhkxgo=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
 291                                         </TD>
 292                                         <TD>
 293                                                 patches and system discussions
 294                                         </TD>
 295                                 </TR>
 296                                 <TR>
 297                                         <TD>
 298                                                 sou<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
 299                                                 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01prQrAZhhl2EbIwVcRfABsQ==&amp;c=KtTW4Yic9xk-8g40KzJoca4fR3MYXv28g8NC6OQV-T8=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
 300                                         </TD>
 301                                         <TD>
 302                                                 source commit messages
 303                                         </TD>
 304                                 </TR>
 305                         </TBODY>
 306                 </TABLE>
 307                 <H1>
 308                         <A NAME="news">News</A>
 309                 </H1>
 310                 <P CLASS="news">
 311                         xx-xx-2011: version 1.12.1
 312                 </P>
 313                 <P>
 314                         Significant work on <A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> and <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A>.  These tools are
 315                         now much more robust and in line with other manpage systems.  A <A HREF="whatis.1.html">whatis</A> implementation is now
 316                         handled as an <A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> mode.
 317                 </P>
 318                 <P CLASS="news">
 319                         08-10-2011: version 1.12.0
 320                 </P>
 321                 <P>
 322                         This version features a new, work-in-progress <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A> output mode: -<B>Tman</B>.  This mode
 323                         allows a system maintainer to distribute <A HREF="man.7.html">man</A> media for older systems that may not natively
 324                         support <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A>, such as old Solaris systems.
 325                         The -<B>Ofragment</B> option was added to <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A>'s -<B>Thtml</B> and -<B>Txhtml</B> modes.
 326                 </P>
 327                 <P>
 328                         While adding features, an <A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> utility has been merged from the mandoc-tools sandbox.
 329                         This interfaces with <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A> for semantic search of manual content.  <A
 330                         HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> is different from the traditional <B>apropos</B> primarily in allowing keyword search
 331                         (such as for functions, utilities, etc.) and regular expressions.
 332                         Note that the calling syntax for <B>apropos</B> is likely to change as it settles down.
 333                 </P>
 334                 <P>
 335                         In documentation news, the <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A> and <A HREF="man.7.html">man</A> manuals have been made
 336                         considerably more readable by adding <I>MACRO OVERVIEW</I> sections, by moving the gory details of the <I>LANGUAGE
 337                         SYNTAX</I> to the <A HREF="roff.7.html">roff</A> manual, and by moving the very technical <I>MACRO SYNTAX</I> sections
 338                         down to the bottom of the page.
 339                 </P>
 340                 <P>
 341                         Furthermore, for <A HREF="tbl.7.html">tbl</A>, the -<B>Tascii</B> mode horizontal spacing of tables was rewritten
 342                         completely.  It is now compatible with <A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/" CLASS="external">groff</A>, both
 343                         with and without frames and rulers.  Nesting of indented blocks is now supported in <A HREF="man.7.html">man</A>, and
 344                         several bugs were fixed regarding indentation and alignment.  The page headers in <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A> are now
 345                         nicer for very long titles.
 346                 </P>
 347                 <P>
 348                         See <A HREF="http://mdocml.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/index.sgml?cvsroot=mdocml">cvsweb</A> for
 349                         historical notes.
 350                 </P>
 351                 <P CLASS="foot">
 352                         <SMALL>
 353                                 Copyright &#169; 2008&#8211;2011
 354                                 <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://kristaps.bsd.lv">Kristaps Dzonsons</A>,
 355                                 $Date: 2011/11/29 11:21:47 $
 356                         </SMALL>
 357                 </P>
 358         </BODY>
 359 </HTML>