1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
4 <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8">
5 <META NAME="resource-type" CONTENT="document">
6 <LINK REL="stylesheet" HREF="index.css" TYPE="text/css" MEDIA="all">
7 <TITLE>mdocml | mdoc macro compiler</TITLE>
10 <TABLE CLASS="frame" SUMMARY="[frame]">
16 <B>mdocml</B> – mdoc macro compiler
27 <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is a suite of tools compiling <Q>-mdoc</Q>, the roff macro package
28 of choice for BSD manual pages, and <Q>-man</Q>, the predominant historical package for UNIX
29 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 roff implementation, for
31 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, ISC-licensed, fast and regular).
41 The core of <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is composed of the <i>libmdoc</i> and <i>libman</i>
42 validating compiler libraries. Both are simple, fast libraries operating on memory buffers, so they may
43 be used for a variety of front-ends (terminal-based, CGI and so on). The primary front-end is <i>
44 mandoc</i>, which formats manuals for display on the terminal.
48 The <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> utility is a <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://bsd.lv/">BSD.lv
60 Sources correctly build and install on DragonFly BSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and GNU/Linux operating
61 systems, tested variously on i386, AMD64, alpha, and others. The most current version is <SPAN
62 CLASS="attn">@VERSION@</SPAN>, dated <SPAN class="attn">@VDATE@</SPAN>. A full <A
63 HREF="ChangeLog.html">ChangeLog</A> (<A HREF="ChangeLog.txt">txt</A>) is written with each release.
70 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Current Sources">
75 <TD>Source archive</TD>
77 <A HREF="/snapshots/mdocml.tar.gz">/snapshots/mdocml.tar.gz</A>
78 (<A HREF="/snapshots/mdocml.md5">md5</A>)
82 <TD>Online source</TD>
84 <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://mdocml.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/?cvsroot=mdocml">cvsweb</A>
94 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Downstream Sources">
99 <TD>DragonFly BSD</TD>
101 <A HREF="http://gitweb.dragonflybsd.org/dragonfly.git/tree/HEAD:/usr.bin/mandoc"
102 CLASS="external">usr.bin/mandoc</A>
108 <A HREF="http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/textproc/mdocml/"
109 CLASS="external">ports/textproc/mdocml</A>
115 <A HREF="http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/external/bsd/mdocml/"
116 CLASS="external">src/external/bsd/mdocml</A>
122 <A HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/mandoc/"
123 CLASS="external">src/usr.bin/mandoc</A>
133 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Archived Sources">
138 <TD>Source archive</TD>
140 <A HREF="/snapshots/">/snapshots/</A>
154 These manuals are generated automatically and refer to the current snapshot.
157 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Documentation">
162 <TD><A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc(1)</A> (<A HREF="mandoc.1.txt">text</A>)</TD>
163 <TD>format and display UNIX manuals</TD>
166 <TD><A HREF="mandoc_char.7.html">mandoc_char(7)</A> (<A HREF="mandoc_char.7.txt">text</A>)</TD>
167 <TD>mandoc special characters</TD>
170 <TD><A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A> (<A HREF="mdoc.7.txt">text</A>)</TD>
171 <TD>mdoc language reference</TD>
174 <TD><A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A> (<A HREF="man.7.txt">text</A>)</TD>
175 <TD>man language reference</TD>
178 <TD><A HREF="manuals.7.html">manuals(7)</A> (<A HREF="manuals.7.txt">text</A>)</TD>
179 <TD>a guide to writing UNIX manuals</TD>
182 <TD><A HREF="mdoc.3.html">mdoc(3)</A> (<A HREF="mdoc.3.txt">text</A>)</TD>
183 <TD>mdoc macro compiler library</TD>
186 <TD><A HREF="man.3.html">man(3)</A> (<A HREF="man.3.txt">text</A>)</TD>
187 <TD>man macro compiler library</TD>
200 For all issues related to <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN>, contact Kristaps Dzonsons, kris<A
202 HREF="http://mailhide.recaptcha.net/d?k=01M6h_w7twDp58ZgH57eWC_w==&c=Q2DBUt401ePlSeupJFrq_Q=="
203 TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address">...</A>@bsd.lv.
207 You may also subscribe to several mailing lists (these require subscription, which is moderated):
210 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Mailing Lists">
216 disc<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
217 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01KQ80PFH5n3BBNpF5Gs4sRg==&c=EV1QytpQqTHSItc2IXvZyocgYLPnG5K0JKw_gwMC9yc=">...</a>@mdocml.bsd.lv
219 <TD>discussions and announcements</TD>
223 sou<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
224 HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01prQrAZhhl2EbIwVcRfABsQ==&c=KtTW4Yic9xk-8g40KzJoca4fR3MYXv28g8NC6OQV-T8=">...</a>@mdocml.bsd.lv
226 <TD>source commit messages</TD>
238 <TABLE WIDTH="100%" CELLPADDING="2">
242 <TD VALIGN="top"><SPAN CLASS="date">09-05-2010</SPAN></TD>
244 Fixed handling of <Q>\*(Ba</Q> escape. Backed out <SPAN
245 CLASS="flag">-fno-ign-chars</SPAN> (pointless complexity). Fixed breaking of
246 literal lines (for <SPAN CLASS="fl">-mdoc</SPAN> only).
247 Version: <SPAN CLASS="rev">1.9.24</SPAN>.
250 <TD VALIGN="top"><SPAN CLASS="date">09-05-2010</SPAN></TD>
252 Rolled back break-at-hyphen. <SPAN CLASS="flag">-DUGLY</SPAN> is now the
253 default (no feature splits!). Free-form text is not de-chunked any more: lines
254 are passed whole-sale into the front-end, including whitespace. Added mailing
255 lists. Lastly, <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is the focus of two <A
256 CLASS="external" HREF="http://socghop.appspot.com/">Google Summer of Code</A>
257 projects this year: <Q><A CLASS="external"
258 HREF="http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/mandoc_ps/">mandoc -Tps</A></Q>
259 (NetBSD) and <Q><A CLASS="external"
260 HREF="http://wiki.freebsd.org/SummerOfCode2010Projects">BSD-licensed
261 Text-Processing Tools</A></Q> (FreeBSD).
262 Version: <SPAN CLASS="rev">1.9.24</SPAN>.
267 <TD VALIGN="top"><SPAN CLASS="date">07-04-2010</SPAN></TD>
269 <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> has been linked to the <A CLASS="external"
270 HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/faq/current.html#20100403">OpenBSD build</a>. This
271 version incorporates many small changes, mostly from patches by OpenBSD,
272 allowing crufty manuals to slip by with warnings instead of erroring-out. Some
273 subtle semantic issues, such as punctuation scope, have also been fixed.
274 Lastly, some issues with <SPAN CLASS="flag">-Thtml</SPAN> have been fixed, which
275 prompted an update to the <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">online</A> <A
276 HREF="mandoc_char.7.html">manual</A> <A HREF="man.7.html">pages</A> style
277 layout. Version: <SPAN CLASS="rev">1.9.23</SPAN>.
281 <TD VALIGN="top"><SPAN CLASS="date">31-03-2010</SPAN></TD>
283 Version <SPAN CLASS="rev">1.9.22</SPAN>: adjusted merge of the significant work
284 by Ingo Schwarze in getting <Q>Xo</Q> blocks (block full implicit, e.g.,
285 <Q>It</Q> for non-columnar lists) to work properly. This isn't enabled by
286 default: you must specify <SPAN CLASS="flag">-DUGLY</SPAN> as a compiler flag
287 (see the Makefile for details).
291 <TD VALIGN="top"><SPAN CLASS="date">30-03-2010</SPAN></TD>
293 Version <SPAN CLASS="rev">1.9.20</SPAN>: more efforts to get roff instructions
294 in -man documents under control. Note that roff instructions embedded in
295 line-scoped, next-line macros (e.g. <Q>B</Q>) are not supported. Leading
296 punctuation for -mdoc macros, such as <Q>Fl ( ( a</Q>, are now correctly
301 <TD VALIGN="top"><SPAN CLASS="date">27-03-2010</SPAN></TD>
303 Version <SPAN CLASS="rev">1.9.18</SPAN>: many fixes (largely pertaining to
304 scope) and improvements (e.g., handling of apostrophe-control macros, which
305 fixes the strange <Q>BR</Q> seen in some macro output) to handling roff
306 instructions in -man documents.
310 <TD VALIGN="top"><SPAN CLASS="date">25-03-2010</SPAN></TD>
312 Version <SPAN CLASS="rev">1.9.17</SPAN> highlights: accept <A
313 HREF="http://perldoc.perl.org/" CLASS="external">perlpod</A> standard preamble.
314 Also accept (and discard) <Q>de</Q>, <Q>dei</Q>, <Q>am</Q>, <Q>ami</Q>, and
315 <Q>ig</Q> roff macro blocks.
319 <TD VALIGN="top"><SPAN CLASS="date">22-03-2010</SPAN></TD>
321 Version <SPAN CLASS="rev">1.9.16</SPAN> highlights: inspired by patches and bug
322 reports by Ingo Schwarze, allowed <SPAN CLASS="flag">-man</SPAN> to accept
323 non-printing elements to be nested within next-line scopes, such as <Q>br</Q>
324 within <Q>B</Q> or <Q>TH</Q>, which is valid roff. Longsoon architecture also
325 noted and Makefile cleaned up.
329 <TD VALIGN="top"><SPAN CLASS="date">18-02-2010</SPAN></TD>
331 Moved to our new <A HREF="http://bsd.lv" CLASS="external">BSD.lv</A> home.
332 Version <SPAN CLASS="rev">1.9.15</SPAN> highlights: XHTML is now an acceptable
333 output mode for <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc(1)</A>; <Q>Xr</Q> made more
334 compatible with groff; <Q>Vt</Q> fixed when invoked in SYNOPSIS; <Q>\\</Q>
335 escape removed; end-of-line white-space detected for all lines; subtle bug
336 fixed in list display for some modes; compatibility layer checked in for
337 compilation in diverse UNIX systems; and column lengths handled correctly.
347 Copyright © 2008–2010 Kristaps Dzonsons, $Date: 2010/05/09 21:27:10 $