index.sgml

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   6                 <TITLE>mdocml | UNIX manpage compiler</TITLE>
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  10                         <A HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/"><IMG SRC="puffy.gif" ALT="Puffy" WIDTH="100" HEIGHT="91" STYLE="float: right"></A>
  11                         <B>mdocml</B> &#8211; UNIX manpage compiler, current version @VERSION@ (@VDATE@)
  12                 </P>
  13                 <P CLASS="subhead">
  14                         Sources: <A HREF="/snapshots/mdocml.tar.gz">current</A>,
  15                         <A HREF="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/?cvsroot=mdocml">cvsweb</A>
  16                         (<A HREF="/snapshots/">archives</A>)
  17                 </P>
  18                 <H1>
  19                         <A NAME="description">Description</A>
  20                 </H1>
  21                 <P>
  22                         <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is a suite of tools compiling <I><A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A></I>, the roff macro
  23                         package of choice for BSD manual pages, and <I><A HREF="man.7.html">man</A></I>, the predominant historical package for
  24                         UNIX manuals.
  25                         It is small, ISO C, <A CLASS="external" HREF="https://www.isc.org/downloads/software-support-policy/isc-license/">ISC</A>-licensed, and quite fast.
  26                 </P>
  27                 <P>
  28                         The tool set features <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A>,
  29                         based on the <A HREF="mandoc.3.html">libmandoc</A> validating compiler,
  30                         to format output for UNIX terminals (with
  31                         support for wide-character locales), XHTML, HTML, PostScript, and PDF.
  32                         It also includes <A HREF="preconv.1.html">preconv</A>, for recoding multibyte manuals;
  33                         <A HREF="demandoc.1.html">demandoc</A>, for emitting only text parts of manuals;
  34                         <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A>, for indexing manuals; and
  35                         <A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A>, <A HREF="whatis.1.html">whatis</A>, and
  36                         <A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi</A> (via <A HREF="catman.8.html">catman</A>) for semantic search of manual content.
  37                 </P>
  38                 <P>
  39                         <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> has predominantly been developed on OpenBSD
  40                         and is both an <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</A>
  41                         and a <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://bsd.lv/">BSD.lv</A> project.
  42                         We strive to support all interested free operating systems, in particular
  43                         <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.dragonflybsd.org/">DragonFly</A>,
  44                         <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.netbsd.org/">NetBSD</A>,
  45                         <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</A>,
  46                         <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.minix3.org/">Minix 3</A>,
  47                         and <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.gnu.org/">GNU</A>/Linux,
  48                         as well as all systems running the <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.pkgsrc.org/">pkgsrc</A> portable package build system.
  49                         All of these projects have helped to make <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> better, by providing feedback and advice,
  50                         bug reports, and patches.
  51                 </P>
  52                 <P>
  53                         <I>Disambiguation</I>: <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is often referred to by its installed binary, <Q>mandoc</Q>.
  54                 </P>
  55                 <H2>
  56                         <A NAME="sources">Sources</A>
  57                 </H2>
  58                 <P>
  59                         <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is in ISO C99 and should build and run on any modern system; however, you'll need <A
  60                         HREF="http://www.sqlite.org">sqlite3</A> to build <A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> (links to whatis),
  61                         <A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi</A>, and <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A>.
  62                         To build and install into <I>/usr/local/</I>, just run <CODE>make install</CODE>.
  63                         Be careful: the <B>preconv</B>, <B>apropos</B>, and <B>whatis</B> binary names are usually taken by existing utilities.
  64                 </P>
  65                 <H2>
  66                         Downstream
  67                 </H2>
  68                 <P>
  69                         Several systems come bundled with <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> utilities.
  70                         If your system does not appear below, the maintainers have not contacted me and it should not be considered
  71                         <Q>official</Q>, so please <A HREF="#contact">contact us</A> if you plan on maintaining a downstream version!
  72                 </P>
  73                 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Downstream Sources">
  74                         <COL WIDTH="175">
  75                         <COL>
  76                         <TBODY>
  77                                 <TR>
  78                                         <TD>DragonFly BSD</TD>
  79                                         <TD>
  80                                         <A HREF="http://gitweb.dragonflybsd.org/dragonfly.git/tree/HEAD:/contrib/mdocml" CLASS="external">contrib/mdocml</A> (1.12.3 sources)
  81                                         <A HREF="http://gitweb.dragonflybsd.org/dragonfly.git/tree/HEAD:/lib/libmandoc" CLASS="external">lib/libmandoc</A>
  82                                         <A HREF="http://gitweb.dragonflybsd.org/dragonfly.git/tree/HEAD:/usr.bin/mandoc" CLASS="external">usr.bin/mandoc</A> (build system)
  83                                         </TD>
  84                                 </TR>
  85                                 <TR>
  86                                         <TD>FreeBSD 10.0, -CURRENT</TD>
  87                                         <TD>
  88                                         <A HREF="http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/contrib/mdocml/" CLASS="external">contrib/mdocml</A> (1.12.1 sources)
  89                                         <A HREF="http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/usr.bin/mandoc/" CLASS="external">usr.bin/mandoc</A> (build system)
  90                                         </TD>
  91                                 </TR>
  92                                 <TR>
  93                                         <TD>FreeBSD 9.x, 8.x</TD>
  94                                         <TD>
  95                                         <A HREF="http://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/textproc/mdocml/" CLASS="external">ports/textproc/mdocml</A> (1.12.2 port)
  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/" CLASS="external">src/external/bsd/mdocml</A> (1.12.1 sources plus patches and build system)
 102                                         </TD>
 103                                 </TR>
 104                                 <TR>
 105                                         <TD>OpenBSD</TD>
 106                                         <TD>
 107                                         <A HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/mandoc/" CLASS="external">src/usr.bin/mandoc</A> (1.12.3 sources under active development and build system)
 108                                         </TD>
 109                                 </TR>
 110                                 <TR>
 111                                         <TD>pkgsrc</TD>
 112                                         <TD>
 113                                         <A HREF="http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/pkgsrc/textproc/mdocml/" CLASS="external">textproc/mdocml</A> (1.12.3 port)
 114                                         </TD>
 115                                 </TR>
 116                                 <TR>
 117                                         <TD>Minix3</TD>
 118                                         <TD>
 119                                         <A HREF="http://git.minix3.org/?p=minix.git;a=tree;f=external/bsd/mdocml" CLASS="external">external/bsd/mdocml</A> (1.10.9 sources and build system)
 120                                         </TD>
 121                                 </TR>
 122                                 <TR>
 123                                         <TD>Alpine Linux</TD>
 124                                         <TD>
 125                                         <A HREF="http://git.alpinelinux.org/cgit/aports/tree/main/mdocml" CLASS="external">aports/main/mdocml</A> (1.12.2 port)
 126                                         </TD>
 127                                 </TR>
 128                         </TBODY>
 129                 </TABLE>
 130                 <H1>
 131                         <A NAME="documentation">Documentation</A>
 132                 </H1>
 133                 <P>
 134                         These manuals are generated automatically and refer to the current release.
 135                         They are the authoritative documentation for the <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> system.
 136                 </P>
 137
 138                 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Documentation">
 139                         <COL WIDTH="175">
 140                         <COL>
 141                         <TBODY>
 142                                 <TR>
 143                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos(1)</A></TD>
 144                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 145                                                 search the manual page database
 146                                         </TD>
 147                                 </TR>
 148                                 <TR>
 149                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="demandoc.1.html">demandoc(1)</A></TD>
 150                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 151                                                 emit only text of UNIX manuals
 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                                         </TD>
 159                                 </TR>
 160                                 <TR>
 161                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="preconv.1.html">preconv(1)</A></TD>
 162                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 163                                                 recode multibyte UNIX manuals
 164                                         </TD>
 165                                 </TR>
 166                                 <TR>
 167                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc.3.html">mandoc(3)</A></TD>
 168                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 169                                                 mandoc macro compiler library
 170                                         </TD>
 171                                 </TR>
 172                                 <TR>
 173                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="tbl.3.html">tbl(3)</A></TD>
 174                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 175                                                 roff table parser library for mandoc
 176                                         </TD>
 177                                 </TR>
 178                                 <TR>
 179                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="eqn.7.html">eqn(7)</A></TD>
 180                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 181                                                 eqn-mandoc language reference
 182                                         </TD>
 183                                 </TR>
 184                                 <TR>
 185                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A></TD>
 186                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 187                                                 man language reference
 188                                         </TD>
 189                                 </TR>
 190                                 <TR>
 191                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi(7)</A></TD>
 192                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 193                                                 cgi for manpage query and display
 194                                         </TD>
 195                                 </TR>
 196                                 <TR>
 197                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc_char.7.html">mandoc_char(7)</A></TD>
 198                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 199                                                 mandoc special characters
 200                                         </TD>
 201                                 </TR>
 202                                 <TR>
 203                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A></TD>
 204                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 205                                                 mdoc language reference
 206                                         </TD>
 207                                 </TR>
 208                                 <TR>
 209                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="roff.7.html">roff(7)</A></TD>
 210                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 211                                                 roff-mandoc language reference
 212                                         </TD>
 213                                 </TR>
 214                                 <TR>
 215                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="tbl.7.html">tbl(7)</A></TD>
 216                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 217                                                 tbl-mandoc language reference
 218                                         </TD>
 219                                 </TR>
 220                                 <TR>
 221                                         <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb(8)</A></TD>
 222                                         <TD VALIGN="top">
 223                                                 index UNIX manuals
 224                                         </TD>
 225                                 </TR>
 226                         </TBODY>
 227                 </TABLE>
 228                 <H2>
 229                         <A NAME="links">Supplementary Information</A>
 230                 </H2>
 231                 <UL>
 232                         <LI>
 233                                 <A HREF="http://manpages.bsd.lv/">Practical UNIX Manuals</A>: mdoc tutorial by Kristaps Dzonsons
 234                         </LI>
 235                         <LI>
 236                                 <A HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/faq/ports/specialtopics.html#Mandoc" CLASS="external">OpenBSD porting guide</A>
 237                                 chapter regarding manual pages
 238                         </LI>
 239                         <LI>
 240                                 <A HREF="press.html">Publications and media coverage</A>
 241                                 concerning mdocml and mandoc
 242                         </LI>
 243                         <LI>
 244                                 <A HREF="http://manpages.bsd.lv/history.html">History of UNIX Manpages</A>: a comprehensive overview by Kristaps Dzonsons
 245                         </LI>
 246                 </UL>
 247                 <H1>
 248                         <A NAME="contact">Contact</A>
 249                 </H1>
 250                 <P>
 251                         Use the mailing lists for bug-reports, patches, questions, etc.  Please check the
 252                         <A HREF="http://mdocml.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/TODO?cvsroot=mdocml">TODO</A> for known issues
 253                         before posting.  All lists are subscription-only: send a blank e-mail to the listed address to subscribe.  Beyond that,
 254                         contact Kristaps at <A HREF="http://mailhide.recaptcha.net/d?k=01M6h_w7twDp58ZgH57eWC_w==&amp;c=Q2DBUt401ePlSeupJFrq_Q==" TITLE="Reveal
 255                         this e-mail address">kris...</A>@bsd.lv.  Archives are available at <A HREF="http://gmane.org/" CLASS="external">Gmane</A>.
 256                 </P>
 257                 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Mailing Lists">
 258                         <COL WIDTH="175">
 259                         <COL>
 260                         <TBODY>
 261                                 <TR>
 262                                         <TD>
 263                                                 disc<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
 264                                                 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01KQ80PFH5n3BBNpF5Gs4sRg==&amp;c=EV1QytpQqTHSItc2IXvZyocgYLPnG5K0JKw_gwMC9yc=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
 265                                         </TD>
 266                                         <TD>
 267                                                 bug-reports, general questions, and announcements
 268                                         </TD>
 269                                 </TR>
 270                                 <TR>
 271                                         <TD>
 272                                                 tec<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
 273                                                 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01qDX_iV0RlUOarEvb6mR28g==&amp;c=gRXsTjza0NNCFPaYu-Taj2tF0pmYZSc90EZkFkhkxgo=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
 274                                         </TD>
 275                                         <TD>
 276                                                 patches and system discussions
 277                                         </TD>
 278                                 </TR>
 279                                 <TR>
 280                                         <TD>
 281                                                 sou<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
 282                                                 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01prQrAZhhl2EbIwVcRfABsQ==&amp;c=KtTW4Yic9xk-8g40KzJoca4fR3MYXv28g8NC6OQV-T8=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
 283                                         </TD>
 284                                         <TD>
 285                                                 source commit messages
 286                                         </TD>
 287                                 </TR>
 288                         </TBODY>
 289                 </TABLE>
 290                 <H1>
 291                         <A NAME="news">News</A>
 292                 </H1>
 293                 <P CLASS="news">
 294                         xx-xx-2014: version 1.13.0
 295                 </P>
 296                 <P>
 297                          The <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A> tools (<A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A>, <A
 298                         HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> (absorbing whatis), and <A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi</A>) have been re-written to
 299                         use <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.sqlite.org">sqlite3</A> as a database.
 300                 </P>
 301                 <P CLASS="news">
 302                         31-12-2013: version 1.12.3
 303                 </P>
 304                 <P>
 305                         In the <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A> SYNOPSIS, line breaks and hanging indentation
 306                         now work correctly for .Fo/.Fa/.Fc and .Fn blocks.
 307                         Thanks to Franco Fichtner for doing part of the work.
 308                 </P>
 309                 <P>
 310                         The <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A> .Bk macro got some addititonal bugfixes.
 311                 </P>
 312                 <P>
 313                         In <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A> macro arguments, double quotes can now be quoted
 314                         by doubling them, just like in <A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A>.
 315                         Thanks to Tsugutomo ENAMI for the patch.
 316                 </P>
 317                 <P>
 318                         At the end of <A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A> macro lines, end-of-sentence spacing
 319                         now works.  Thanks to Franco Fichtner for the patch.
 320                 </P>
 321                 <P>
 322                         For backward compatibility, the <A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A> parser now supports the
 323                         man-ext .UR/.UE (uniform resource identifier) block macros.
 324                 </P>
 325                 <P>
 326                         The <A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A> parser now handles closing blocks that are not open
 327                         more gracefully.
 328                 </P>
 329                 <P>
 330                         The <A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A> parser now ignores blank lines right after .SH and .SS.
 331                 </P>
 332                 <P>
 333                         In the <A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A> formatter, reset indentation when leaving a block,
 334                         not just when entering the next one.
 335                 </P>
 336                 <P>
 337                         The <A HREF="roff.7.html">roff(7)</A> .nr request now supports incrementing and decrementing
 338                         number registers and stops parsing the number right before the first non-digit character.
 339                 </P>
 340                 <P>
 341                         The <A HREF="roff.7.html">roff(7)</A> parser now supports the alternative escape sequence
 342                         syntax \C'uXXXX' for Unicode characters.
 343                 </P>
 344                 <P>
 345                         The <A HREF="roff.7.html">roff(7)</A> parser now parses and ignores the .fam (font family)
 346                         and .hw (hyphenation points) requests and the \d and \u escape sequences.
 347                 </P>
 348                 <P>
 349                         The <A HREF="roff.7.html">roff(7)</A> manual got a new ESCAPE SEQUENCE REFERENCE.
 350                 </P>
 351                 <P CLASS="news">
 352                         05-10-2013: version 1.12.2
 353                 </P>
 354                 <P>
 355                         The <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A> to <A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A> converter,
 356                         to be called as <CODE>mandoc -Tman</CODE>, is now fully functional.
 357                 </P>
 358                 <P>
 359                         The <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc(1)</A> utility now supports the <CODE>-Ios</CODE> (default operating system)
 360                         input option, and the <CODE>-Tutf8</CODE> output mode now actually works.
 361                 </P>
 362                 <P>
 363                         The <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb(8)</A> utility no longer truncates existing databases when starting to build new ones,
 364                         but only replaces them when the build actually succeeds.
 365                 </P>
 366                 <P>
 367                         The <A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A> parser now supports the <EM>PD</EM> macro (paragraph distance),
 368                         and (for GNU man-ext compatibility only) <EM>EX</EM> (example block) and <EM>EE</EM> (example end).
 369                         Plus several bugfixes regarding indentation, line breaks, and vertical spacing,
 370                         and regarding <EM>RS</EM> following <EM>TP</EM>.
 371                 </P>
 372                 <P>
 373                         The <A HREF="roff.7.html">roff(7)</A> parser now supports the <EM>\f(BI</EM> (bold+italic) font escape,
 374                         the <EM>\z</EM> (zero cursor advance) escape and the <EM>cc</EM> (change control character)
 375                         and <EM>it</EM> (input line trap) requests.
 376                         Plus bugfixes regarding the <EM>\t</EM> (tab) escape, nested escape sequences, and conditional requests.
 377                 </P>
 378                 <P>
 379                         In <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A>, several bugs were fixed related to UTF-8 output of quoting enclosures,
 380                         delimiter handling, list indentation and horizontal and vertical spacing,
 381                         formatting of the <EM>Lk</EM>, <EM>%U</EM>, and <EM>%C</EM> macros,
 382                         plus some bugfixes related to the handling of syntax errors like badly nested font blocks,
 383                         stray <EM>Ta</EM> macros outside column lists, unterminated <EM>It Xo</EM> blocks,
 384                         and non-text children of <EM>Nm</EM> blocks.
 385                 </P>
 386                 <P>
 387                         In <A HREF="tbl.7.html">tbl(7)</A>, the width of horizontal spans and the vertical spacing around tables was corrected,
 388                         and in <A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A> files, a crash was fixed that was triggered by some particular unclosed <EM>T{</EM> macros.
 389                 </P>
 390                 <P>
 391                         For mandoc developers, we now provide a <A HREF="tbl.3.html">tbl(3)</A> library manual and <CODE>gmdiff</CODE>,
 392                         a very small, very simplistic groff-versus-mandoc output comparison tool.
 393                 </P>
 394                 <H2>
 395                         <A>History</A>
 396                 </H2>
 397                 <UL>
 398                         <LI>
 399                                 <A HREF="NEWS">Release notes</A> going back to release 1.9.15, February 18, 2010.
 400                                 Briefly explaining the most important changes in each release in relatively easy terms.
 401                                 Very many changes are not mentioned here.
 402                         </LI>
 403                         <LI>
 404                                 <A HREF="history.html">Development history</A> going back to the beginning of the project, November 22, 2008.
 405                                 One-line entries for important commits, releases, merges, hackathons and talks.
 406                                 Makes it easy to find out who did what, and when, and when it became available where.
 407                                 However, this is still incomplete, mentioning only a small fraction of all commits,
 408                                 and to keep the size down, the individual entries are extremely terse and technical.
 409                                 Feel free to look up more details and longer explanations about individual entries
 410                                 in the ChangeLog or in CVS.
 411                         </LI>
 412                         <LI>
 413                                 <A HREF="ChangeLog">CVS ChangeLog</A> going back to the beginning of the project.
 414                                 Very technical information of varying quality, strictly chronological.
 415                                 All commits are mentioned, but some messages neglect to mention some changes.
 416                                 Partly terse, partly detailed and verbose.  In any case, the ChangeLog is very long -
 417                                 more than 25,000 lines, more than 700 kB.
 418                         </LI>
 419                         <LI>
 420                                 <A HREF="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/?cvsroot=mdocml">CVS</A> web interface, going back to the beginning of the project.
 421                                 Source code, diffs and commit messages for each source file.  The real thing.
 422                         </LI>
 423                 </UL>
 424                 <P CLASS="foot">
 425                         <SMALL>
 426                                 Copyright &#169; 2008&#8211;2011
 427                                 <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://kristaps.bsd.lv">Kristaps Dzonsons</A>,
 428                                 &#169; 2013 Ingo Schwarze,
 429                                 $Date: 2013/12/31 17:47:17 $
 430                         </SMALL>
 431                 </P>
 432         </BODY>
 433 </HTML>