INSTALL

   1 $Id: INSTALL,v 1.1 2014/08/08 16:45:39 schwarze Exp $
   2
   3 Installing mdocml, the portable mandoc distribution
   4 ---------------------------------------------------
   5
   6 The mandoc manpage compiler toolset is a suite of tools compiling
   7 mdoc(7), the roff(7) macro language of choice for BSD manual pages,
   8 and man(7), the predominant historical language for UNIX manuals.
   9 For general information, see:  http://mdocml.bsd.lv/
  10
  11 Before manually installing mandoc on your system, please check
  12 whether the newest version of mandoc is already installed by default
  13 or available via a binary package or a ports system.  A list of the
  14 latest bundled and ported versions of mandoc for various operating
  15 systems is maintained at:  http://mdocml.bsd.lv/ports.html
  16
  17 If mandoc is installed, you can check the version by typing:  mandoc -V
  18 The version contained in this distribution tarball is listed near
  19 the beginning of the file "Makefile".  Regarding how packages and
  20 ports are maintained for your operating system, please consult your
  21 operating system documentation.
  22
  23
  24 To install mandoc manually, the following steps are needed:
  25
  26 1. Decide whether you want to build just the basic tools mandoc(1),
  27 preconv(1) and demandoc(1) or whether you also want to build the
  28 database tools apropos(1) and makewhatis(8).  For the latter, a
  29 working installation of SQLite is required, see: http://sqlite.org/
  30 The recommended version of SQLite is 3.8.4.3 or newer.  The mandoc
  31 toolset is known to work with version 3.7.5 or newer.  Versions
  32 older than 3.8.3 may not achieve full performance due to the
  33 missing SQLITE_DETERMINISTIC optimization flag.  Versions older
  34 than 3.8.0 may not show full error information if opening a database
  35 fails due to the missing sqlite3_errstr() API.  Both are very minor
  36 problems, apropos(1) is fully usable with SQLite 3.7.5.
  37 The database tools also require Marc Espie's ohash(3) library;
  38 if your system does not have it, the bundled compatibility version
  39 will be used, so you probably need not worry about it.
  40
  41 2. If you choose to build the database tools, too, decide whether
  42 you also want to build the CGI program, man.cgi(8).
  43
  44 3. Read the beginning of the file "Makefile" from "USER SETTINGS"
  45 to "END OF USER SETTINGS" and edit it as required.  In particular,
  46 disable "BUILD_TARGETS += db-build" if you do not want database
  47 support or enable "BUILD_TARGETS += cgi-build" if you do want
  48 the CGI program.
  49
  50 4. Run the command "make".  No separate "./configure" or "make
  51 depend" steps are needed.  The former is run automatically by "make".
  52 The latter is a maintainer target.  If you merely want to build the
  53 released version as opposed to doing active development, there is
  54 no need to regenerate the dependency specifications.  Any
  55 POSIX-compatible make, in particular both BSD make and GNU make,
  56 is supposed to work.
  57
  58 5. Run the command "make -n install" and check whether everything
  59 will be installed to the intended places.  Otherwise, edit the *DIR
  60 variables in the Makefile until it is.
  61
  62 6. Run "sudo make install".  Instead, if you intend to build a binary
  63 package using some kind of fake root mechanism, you may need a
  64 command like "make DESTDIR=... install".  Read the *-install targets
  65 in the "Makefile" to understand how DESTDIR is used.
  66
  67
  68 If you want to check whether automatic configuration works well
  69 on your platform, consider the following:
  70
  71 The mandoc package intentionally does not use GNU autoconf because
  72 we consider that toolset a blatant example of overengineering that
  73 is obsolete nowadays, since all modern operating systems are now
  74 reasonably close to POSIX and do not need arcane shell magic any
  75 longer.  If your system does need such magic, consider upgrading
  76 to reasonably modern POSIX-compliant tools rather than asking for
  77 autoconf-style workarounds.
  78
  79 As far as mandoc is using any features not mandated by ANSI X3.159-1989
  80 ("ANSI C") or IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 ("POSIX") that some modern systems
  81 do not have, we intend to provide autoconfiguration tests and
  82 compat_*.c implementations.  Please report any that turn out to be
  83 missing.  Note that while we do strive to produce portable code,
  84 we do not slavishly restrict ourselves to POSIX-only interfaces.
  85 For improved security and readability, we do use well-designed,
  86 modern interfaces like reallocarray(3) even if they are still rather
  87 uncommon, of course bundling compat_*.c implementations as needed.
  88
  89 Where mandoc is using ANSI C or POSIX features that some systems
  90 still lack and that compat_*.c implementations can be provided for
  91 without too much hassle, we will consider adding them, too, so
  92 please report whatever is missing on your platform.
  93
  94 The following steps can be used to manually check the automatic
  95 configuration on your platform:
  96
  97 1. Run "make clean".
  98
  99 2. Run "make config.h"
 100
 101 3. Read the file "config.log".  It shows the compiler commands used
 102 to test the libraries installed on your system and the standard
 103 output and standard error output these commands produce.  Watch out
 104 for unexpected failures.  Those are most likely to happen if headers
 105 or libraries are installed in unusual places or interfaces defined
 106 in unusual headers.  You can also look at the file "config.h" and
 107 check that no expected "#define HAVE_*" lines are missing.  The
 108 list of tests run can be found in the file "configure".
 109
 110
 111 In case you have questions or want to provide feedback, look at:
 112 http://mdocml.bsd.lv/contact.html
 113
 114 Consider subscribing to the discuss@ mailing list mentioned on that
 115 page.  If you intend to help with the development of mandoc, consider
 116 subscribing to the tech@ mailing list, too.
 117
 118 Enjoy using the mandoc toolset!
 119 Ingo Schwarze, Karlsruhe, August 2014