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7 <TITLE>mdocml | mdoc macro compiler</TITLE>
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16 <B>mdocml</B> – mdoc macro compiler
23 <A NAME="description">DESCRIPTION</A>
27 <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is a suite of tools compiling <Q>-<A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A></Q>, the
28 roff macro package of choice for BSD manual pages, and <Q>-<A HREF="man.7.html">man</A></Q>, the
29 predominant historical package for UNIX manuals. The mission of <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is to
30 deprecate <A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/" CLASS="external">groff</A>, the GNU troff
31 implementation, for displaying -mdoc pages whilst providing token support for -man.
35 Why? groff amounts to over 5 MB of source code, most of which is C++ and all of which is GPL. It runs
36 slowly, produces uncertain output, and varies in operation from system to system. mdocml strives to fix
37 this (respectively small, C, <A CLASS="external"
38 HREF="http://www.isc.org/software/license">ISC</A>-licensed, fast and regular).
42 <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> consists of the <A HREF="mdoc.3.html">libmdoc</A>, <A
43 HREF="man.3.html">libman</A>, and <A HREF="roff.3.html">libroff</A> validating compilers; and <A
44 HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A>, which interfaces with the compiler libraries to format output for UNIX
45 terminals, XHTML, HTML, and PostScript. <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is a <A CLASS="external"
46 HREF="http://bsd.lv/">BSD.lv</A> project.
50 <I>Disambiguation</I>: <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is often referred to by its installed binary,
58 <A NAME="sources">SOURCES</A>
62 <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is architecture- and system-neutral, written in plain-old C. The most
63 current version is <SPAN CLASS="attn">@VERSION@</SPAN>, dated <SPAN class="attn">@VDATE@</SPAN>. A full
64 <A HREF="ChangeLog.html">ChangeLog</A> (<A HREF="ChangeLog.txt">txt</A>) is written with each release.
71 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Current Sources">
76 <TD>Source archive</TD>
78 <A HREF="/snapshots/mdocml.tar.gz">/snapshots/mdocml.tar.gz</A>
79 (<A HREF="/snapshots/mdocml.md5">md5</A>)
83 <TD>Online source</TD>
85 <A HREF="http://mdocml.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/?cvsroot=mdocml">cvsweb</A>
95 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Downstream Sources">
100 <TD>DragonFly BSD</TD>
102 <A HREF="http://gitweb.dragonflybsd.org/dragonfly.git/tree/HEAD:/usr.bin/mandoc"
103 CLASS="external">usr.bin/mandoc</A>
109 <A HREF="http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/textproc/mdocml/"
110 CLASS="external">ports/textproc/mdocml</A>
116 <A HREF="http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/external/bsd/mdocml/"
117 CLASS="external">src/external/bsd/mdocml</A>
123 <A HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/mandoc/"
124 CLASS="external">src/usr.bin/mandoc</A>
134 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Archived Sources">
139 <TD>Source archive</TD>
141 <A HREF="/snapshots/">/snapshots/</A>
151 <A NAME="documentation">DOCUMENTATION</A>
155 These manuals are generated automatically and refer to the current snapshot.
158 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Documentation">
163 <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="man.3.html">man(3)</A></TD>
165 man macro compiler library
166 <SPAN STYLE="font-size: smaller;">
167 (<A HREF="man.3.txt">text</A> | <A HREF="man.3.ps">postscript</A>)
172 <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A></TD>
174 man language reference
175 <SPAN STYLE="font-size: smaller;">
176 (<A HREF="man.7.txt">text</A> | <A HREF="man.7.ps">postscript</A>)
181 <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc(1)</A></TD>
183 format and display UNIX manuals
184 <SPAN STYLE="font-size: smaller;">
185 (<A HREF="mandoc.1.txt">text</A> | <A HREF="mandoc.1.ps">postscript</A>)
190 <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc_char.7.html">mandoc_char(7)</A></TD>
192 mandoc special characters
193 <SPAN STYLE="font-size: smaller;">
194 (<A HREF="mandoc_char.7.txt">text</A> | <A
195 HREF="mandoc_char.7.ps">postscript</A>)
200 <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mdoc.3.html">mdoc(3)</A></TD>
202 mdoc macro compiler library
203 <SPAN STYLE="font-size: smaller;">
204 (<A HREF="mdoc.3.txt">text</A> | <A HREF="mdoc.3.ps">postscript</A>)
209 <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A></TD>
211 mdoc language reference
212 <SPAN STYLE="font-size: smaller;">
213 (<A HREF="mdoc.7.txt">text</A> | <A HREF="mdoc.7.ps">postscript</A>)
218 <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="roff.3.html">roff(3)</A></TD>
220 roff macro compiler library
221 <SPAN STYLE="font-size: smaller;">
222 (<A HREF="roff.3.txt">text</A> | <A HREF="roff.3.ps">postscript</A>)
227 <TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="roff.7.html">roff(7)</A></TD>
229 roff-mandoc language reference
230 <SPAN STYLE="font-size: smaller;">
231 (<A HREF="roff.7.txt">text</A> | <A HREF="roff.7.ps">postscript</A>)
239 See <Q><A CLASS="external" HREF="http://manpages.bsd.lv">Writing UNIX Manual Pages</A></Q> for a general
240 introduction to manpages and mdoc.
247 <A NAME="contact">CONTACT</A>
251 Please use the mailing lists for bug-reports, patches, questions, etc. Beyond that, contact
253 HREF="http://mailhide.recaptcha.net/d?k=01M6h_w7twDp58ZgH57eWC_w==&c=Q2DBUt401ePlSeupJFrq_Q=="
254 TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address">kris...</A>@bsd.lv.
258 You may also subscribe to several mailing lists (these require subscription, which is
259 moderated). An archive is not yet available on-line, although you may request one once
263 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Mailing Lists">
269 disc<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
270 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01KQ80PFH5n3BBNpF5Gs4sRg==&c=EV1QytpQqTHSItc2IXvZyocgYLPnG5K0JKw_gwMC9yc=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
272 <TD>bug-reports, general questions, and announcements</TD>
276 tec<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
277 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01qDX_iV0RlUOarEvb6mR28g==&c=gRXsTjza0NNCFPaYu-Taj2tF0pmYZSc90EZkFkhkxgo=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
279 <TD>patches and system discussions</TD>
283 sou<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
284 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01prQrAZhhl2EbIwVcRfABsQ==&c=KtTW4Yic9xk-8g40KzJoca4fR3MYXv28g8NC6OQV-T8=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
286 <TD>source commit messages</TD>
295 <A NAME="news">NEWS</A>
299 <SPAN CLASS="date">XX-07-2010</SPAN>:
303 Purely a bug-fix and polish release. Highlights:
306 <LI>fix <Q>Sm</Q> handling</LI>
307 <LI>fix end-of-sentence handling for embedded sentences</LI>
308 <LI>polish <A HREF="man.7.html">man</A> documentation</LI>
309 <LI>document all <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A> macros</LI>
310 <LI>polish <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A> -Tps output</LI>
311 <LI>lots of internal clean-ups in character escapes</LI>
312 <LI>un-break literal contexts in <A HREF="man.7.html">man</A> documents</LI>
313 <LI>improve -Thtml output for -man</LI>
314 <LI>add <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A> -Tpdf support</LI>
319 <SPAN CLASS="date">12-07-2010</SPAN>:
323 Lots of features developed during both <A CLASS="external"
324 HREF="http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/mandoc_ps/">Summer of Code</A> and the
325 <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.openbsd.org">OpenBSD</A> c2k10 hackathon:
328 <LI>minimal <Q>ds</Q> <A HREF="roff.7.html">roff</A> symbols are supported</LI>
329 <LI><Q>Bk</Q> <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A> support</LI>
330 <LI>beautified SYNOPSIS section output</LI>
331 <LI>variable font-width and paper-size support in <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A>
333 <LI>acceptance of scope-block breakage in <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A></LI>
334 <LI>clarify error message status</LI>
335 <LI>many minor bug-fixes and formatting issues resolved</LI>
340 <SPAN CLASS="date">19-06-2010</SPAN>:
344 Small release featuring text-decoration in <SPAN CLASS="flag">-Tps</SPAN> output, a few
345 minor relaxations of errors, and some optimisations.
350 <SPAN CLASS="date">07-06-2010</SPAN>:
354 This primarily focusses on the <Q>Bl</Q> and <Q>It</Q> macros described in <A
355 HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A>. Multi-line column support is now fully compatible with
356 groff, as are implicit list entries for columns. Removed manuals.7 in favour of <A
357 CLASS="external" HREF="http://manpages.bsd.lv">http://manpages.bsd.lv</A>. The way we
358 handle the SYNOPSIS section (see the SYNOPSIS documentation in <A
359 HREF="mdoc.7.html#x4d414e55414cx20x535452554354555245">MANUAL STRUCTURE</A>) has also
360 been considerably simplified compared to groff's method. Furthermore, the <SPAN
361 CLASS="flag">-Owidth=width</SPAN> output option has been added to <SPAN
362 CLASS="flag">-Tascii</SPAN> (see <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A>). Lastly, initial
363 PostScript output has been added with the <SPAN CLASS="flag">-Tps</SPAN> option to <A
364 HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A>. It's brutally simple at the moment: fixed-font, with
370 <SPAN CLASS="date">29-05-2010</SPAN>:
374 Release consisting of the results from the m2k10 hackathon and up-merge from OpenBSD.
375 This requires a significant note of thanks to Ingo Schwarze (OpenBSD) and Joerg
376 Sonnenberger (NetBSD) for their hard work, and again to Joerg for hosting m2k10.
377 Highlights (mostly cribbed from Ingo's m2k10 report) follow in no particular order:
380 <LI>a <A HREF="roff.3.html">libroff</A> preprocessor in front of <A
381 HREF="mdoc.3.html">libmdoc</A> and <A HREF="man.3.html">libman</A> stripping out
382 <A HREF="roff.7.html">roff</A> instructions;</LI>
383 <LI>end-of-sentence (EOS) detection in free-form and macro lines;</LI>
384 <LI>correct handling of tab-separated columnar lists in <SPAN
385 CLASS="flag">-mdoc</SPAN>;</LI>
386 <LI>improved main calling routines to optionally use mmap() for better
388 <LI>cleaned up exiting when invoked as <SPAN CLASS="flag">-Tlint</SPAN> or over
389 multiple files with <SPAN CLASS="flag">-fign-errors</SPAN>;</LI>
390 <LI>error and warning message handling re-written to be unified for <A
391 HREF="roff.3.html">libroff</A>, <A HREF="mdoc.3.html">libmdoc</A>, and <A
392 HREF="man.3.html">libman</A>;</LI>
393 <LI>handling of badly-nested explicit-scoped macros;</LI>
394 <LI>improved free-form text parsing in <A HREF="man.3.html">libman</A> and <A
395 HREF="mdoc.3.html">libmdoc</A>;</LI>
396 <LI>significant GNU troff compatibility improvements in <SPAN
397 CLASS="flag">-Tascii</SPAN>, largely in terms of spacing;</LI>
398 <LI>a regression framework for making sure the many fragilities of GNU troff
399 aren't trampled in subsequent work;</LI>
400 <LI>support for <SPAN CLASS="flag">-Tascii</SPAN> breaking at hyphens
401 encountered in free-form text;</LI>
402 <LI>and many more minor fixes and improvements (no really, consult <A
403 HREF="http://mdocml.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/?cvsroot=mdocml">cvsweb</A> and see
408 See <A HREF="http://mdocml.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/index.sgml?cvsroot=mdocml">cvsweb</A> for
416 Copyright © 2008–2010 Kristaps Dzonsons, $Date: 2010/07/26 10:00:15 $