- 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 + Why? groff amounts to over 5 MB of source code, most of which is C++ and GPL version 3. It runs slowly, produces uncertain output, and varies in operation from system to system. mdocml strives to fix this (respectively small, C, ISC-licensed, fast and regular).
@@ -39,10 +33,11 @@ mdocml consists of the libmandoc validating compiler and mandoc, which interfaces with the compiler library to format output for UNIX terminals (with support for wide-character locales), XHTML, HTML, PostScript, and PDF. - It also includes preconv, for recoding multibyte manuals; - demandoc, for emitting only text parts of manuals; - mandocdb, for indexing manuals; and - apropos and whatis, for semantic search of manual content. + It also includes preconv for recoding multibyte manuals, + demandoc for emitting only text parts of manuals, + mandocdb for indexing manuals, + apropos (includes whatis mode) for indexed manual search, and + man.cgi for indexed manual search online. It is a BSD.lv project.@@ -52,21 +47,11 @@ Sources
- mdocml is in plain-old ANSI C and should build and run on any modern system; however, you'll
- need libdb to build apropos, whatis, and mandocdb (this
- is installed by default on BSD UNIX systems — see the Makefile if you're running Linux). To build and
- install into /usr/local/, just run make install. Be careful: the preconv, apropos,
- and whatis binary names are usually taken by existing utilities.
-
- Binary archives consist of pre-compiled binaries, manuals, and other necessary files.
- Universal (Mac OS X) binaries are compiled for the PCC, i386, and x86_64 architectures.
- Windows binaries are compiled with MingW for the 32-bit (i686) and
- 64-bit (x86_64) architectures.
+ mdocml is in ISO C99 and should build and run on any modern system; however, you'll need sqlite3 to build apropos (links to whatis),
+ man.cgi, and mandocdb.
+ To build and install into /usr/local/, just run make install.
+ Be careful: the preconv, apropos, and whatis binary names are usually taken by existing utilities.
- xx-xx-2011: version 1.12.1 + xx-xx-2013: version 1.13.0
- Significant work on apropos and mandocdb. These tools are - now much more robust and in line with other manpage systems. A whatis implementation is now - handled as an apropos mode. + The mandocdb tools (mandocdb, apropos (absorbing whatis), and man.cgi) have been re-written to + use sqlite3 as a database.
- 08-10-2011: version 1.12.0 + 05-10-2013: version 1.12.2
- This version features a new, work-in-progress mandoc output mode: -Tman. This mode
- allows a system maintainer to distribute man media for older systems that may not natively
- support mdoc, such as old Solaris systems.
- The -Ofragment option was added to mandoc's -Thtml and -Txhtml modes.
+ The mdoc(7) to man(7) converter,
+ to be called as mandoc -Tman, is now fully functional.
+
+ The mandoc(1) utility now supports the -Ios (default operating system)
+ input option, and the -Tutf8 output mode now actually works.
+
+ The mandocdb(8) utility no longer truncates existing databases when starting to build new ones, + but only replaces them when the build actually succeeds. +
++ The man(7) parser now supports the PD macro (paragraph distance), + and (for GNU man-ext compatibility only) EX (example block) and EE (example end). + Plus several bugfixes regarding indentation, line breaks, and vertical spacing, + and regarding RS following TP. +
++ The roff(7) parser now supports the \f(BI (bold+italic) font escape, + the \z (zero cursor advance) escape and the cc (change control character) + and it (input line trap) requests. + Plus bugfixes regarding the \t (tab) escape, nested escape sequences, and conditional requests. +
++ In mdoc(7), several bugs were fixed related to UTF-8 output of quoting enclosures, + delimiter handling, list indentation and horizontal and vertical spacing, + formatting of the Lk, %U, and %C macros, + plus some bugfixes related to the handling of syntax errors like badly nested font blocks, + stray Ta macros outside column lists, unterminated It Xo blocks, + and non-text children of Nm blocks. +
++ In tbl(7), the width of horizontal spans and the vertical spacing around tables was corrected, + and in man(7) files, a crash was fixed that was triggered by some particular unclosed T{ macros. +
+
+ For mandoc developers, we now provide a tbl(3) library manual and gmdiff,
+ a very small, very simplistic groff-versus-mandoc output comparison tool.
+
+ See NEWS for historical notes. +
++ 23-03-2012: version 1.12.1 +
++ Significant work on apropos and mandocdb. These tools are + now much more robust. + A whatis implementation is now handled as an apropos mode. + These tools are also able to minimally handle pre-formatted pages, that is, those already formatted by another utility + such as GNU troff.
- While adding features, an apropos utility has been merged from the mandoc-tools sandbox. - This interfaces with mandocdb for semantic search of manual content. apropos is different from the traditional apropos primarily in allowing keyword search - (such as for functions, utilities, etc.) and regular expressions. - Note that the calling syntax for apropos is likely to change as it settles down. + The man.cgi script is also now available for wider testing. It interfaces with mandocdb manuals cached by catman. HTML output is generated + on-the-fly by libmandoc or internal methods to convert pre-formatted pages.
- In documentation news, the mdoc and man manuals have been made - considerably more readable by adding MACRO OVERVIEW sections, by moving the gory details of the LANGUAGE - SYNTAX to the roff manual, and by moving the very technical MACRO SYNTAX sections - down to the bottom of the page. + The mailing list archive for the discuss and tech lists are being hosted by Gmane at gmane.comp.tools.mdocml.user and gmane.comp.tools.mdocml.devel, respectively.
- Furthermore, for tbl, the -Tascii mode horizontal spacing of tables was rewritten - completely. It is now compatible with groff, both - with and without frames and rulers. Nesting of indented blocks is now supported in man, and - several bugs were fixed regarding indentation and alignment. The page headers in mdoc are now - nicer for very long titles. + Lastly, I'm no longer providing binaries, as nobody has asked for them.
See cvsweb for @@ -352,7 +349,8 @@ Copyright © 2008–2011 Kristaps Dzonsons, - $Date: 2011/11/29 11:21:47 $ + © 2013 Ingo Schwarze, + $Date: 2013/10/05 20:09:24 $