.\" $Id: catman.8,v 1.11 2025/06/29 23:51:40 schwarze Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2017, 2025 Ingo Schwarze .\" .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. .\" .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: June 29 2025 $ .Dt CATMAN 8 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm catman .Nd format all manual pages below a directory .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm catman .Op Fl I Cm os Ns = Ns Ar name .Op Fl T Ar output .Ar srcdir dstdir .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm utility assumes that all files below .Ar srcdir are manual pages in .Xr mdoc 7 and .Xr man 7 format and formats all of them, storing the formatted versions in the same relative paths below .Ar dstdir . Subdirectories of .Ar dstdir are created as needed. Existing files are not explicitly deleted, but possibly overwritten. .Pp The options are as follows: .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Fl I Cm os Ns = Ns Ar name Override the default operating system .Ar name for the .Xr mdoc 7 .Ic \&Os and for the .Xr man 7 .Ic TH macro. .It Fl T Ar output Output format. The .Ar output argument can be .Cm ascii , .Cm utf8 , or .Cm html ; see .Xr mandoc 1 . In .Cm html output mode, the .Cm fragment output option is implied. Other output options are not supported. .It Fl v Verbose mode; see .Sx DIAGNOSTICS . .El .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES Since this version avoids .Xr fork 2 and .Xr exec 3 overhead and uses the much faster .Sy mandoc parsers and formatters rather than .Sy groff , it may be about one order of magnitude faster than other .Nm implementations. .Sh EXIT STATUS .Ex -std .Pp Failures while trying to open individual manual pages for reading, to save individual formatted files to the file system, or even to read or create subdirectories do not cause .Nm to return an error exit status. In such cases, .Nm simply continues with the next file or subdirectory. .Sh DIAGNOSTICS Some fatal errors cause .Nm to exit before the iteration over input files is even started: .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent .It unknown option \-\- Ar option An invalid option was passed on the command line. .It missing arguments: srcdir and dstdir No argument was provided. Both .Ar srcdir and .Ar dstdir are mandatory. .It missing argument: dstdir Only one argument was provided. The second argument, .Ar dstdir , is mandatory, too. .It too many arguments: Ar third argument Three or more arguments were provided, but only two are supported. .It Sy socketpair : Ar reason The sockets needed for communication with .Xr mandocd 8 could not be created, for example due to file descriptor or memory exhaustion. .It Sy fork : Ar reason The new process needed to run .Xr mandocd 8 could not be created, for example due to process table exhaustion or system resource limits. .It Sy exec Ns Po Sy mandocd Pc : Ar reason The .Xr mandocd 8 child program could not be started, for example because it is not in the .Ev PATH or has no execute permission. .It Sy open No destination Ar dstdir : reason The .Ar dstdir could not be opened for reading, for example because it does not exist, it is not a directory, or permission is denied. .It Sy chdir No to source Ar srcdir : reason The current working directory could not be changed to .Ar srcdir , for example because it does not exist, it is not a directory, or permission is denied. .It Sy fts_open : Ar reason Starting the iteration was attempted, but failed. .El .Pp Some fatal errors cause the iteration over input files to be aborted prematurely: .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent .It FATAL: Sy fts_read : Ar reason A call to .Xr fts_read 3 returned .Dv NULL , meaning that the iteration failed before being complete. .It FATAL: Sy sendmsg : Ar reason The file descriptors needed to process one of the manual pages could not be sent to .Xr mandocd 8 , for example because .Xr mandocd 8 could not be started or died unexpectedly. .El .Pp Some non-fatal errors cause a single subdirectory to be skipped. The iteration is not aborted but continues with the next subdirectory, and the exit status is unaffected: .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent .It directory Ar subdirectory No unreadable : Ar reason A directory below .Ar srcdir could not be read and is skipped. .It directory Ar subdirectory No causes cycle A directory below .Ar srcdir is skipped because it would cause cyclic processing. .It Sy mkdirat Ar subdirectory : reason A required directory below .Ar dstdir does not exist and could not be created. The corresponding subdirectory below .Ar srcdir is skipped. .El .Pp Some non-fatal errors cause a single source file to be skipped. The iteration is not aborted but continues with the next file, and the exit status is unaffected: .Pp .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent .It file Ar filename : reason The function .Xr fts_read 3 reported a non-fatal error with respect to .Ar filename . .It file Ar filename : No not a regular file For example, it might be a symbolic link or a device file. .It Sy open Ar filename No for reading : Ar reason A file below .Ar srcdir could not be read, for example due to permission problems. .It Sy openat Ar filename No for writing : Ar reason A file below .Ar dstdir could not be created or truncated, for example due to permission problems. .El .Pp If errors occur, the applicable summary messages appear after the end of the iteration: .Pp .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact .It skipped Ar number No directories due to errors .It skipped Ar number No files due to errors .It processing aborted due to fatal error .El .Pp If the .Fl v flag is specified, the following summary message also appears: .Pp .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact .It processed Ar nfiles No files in Ar ndirs No directories A file is counted if it could be opened for reading and the corresponding output file could be opened for writing; this does not necessarily mean that it is a useful manual page. A directory is counted if it could be opened for reading and the corresponding output directory existed or could be created; this does not necessarily mean that any files could be processed inside. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr mandoc 1 , .Xr mandocd 8 .Sh HISTORY A .Nm utility first appeared in .Fx 1.0 . Other, incompatible implementations appeared in .Nx 1.0 and in .Sy man-db No 2.2 . .Pp This version appeared in version 1.14.1 of the .Sy mandoc toolkit. .Sh AUTHORS .An -nosplit The first .Nm implementation was a short shell script by .An Christoph Robitschko in July 1993. .Pp The .Nx implementations were written by .An J. T. Conklin Aq Mt jtc@netbsd.org in 1993, .An Christian E. Hopps Aq Mt chopps@netbsd.org in 1994, and .An Dante Profeta Aq Mt dante@netbsd.org in 1999; the .Sy man-db implementation by .An Graeme W. Wilford in 1994; and the .Fx implementations by .An Wolfram Schneider Aq Mt wosch@freebsd.org in 1995 and .An John Rochester Aq Mt john@jrochester.org in 2002. .Pp The concept of the present version was designed and implemented by .An Michael Stapelberg Aq Mt stapelberg@debian.org in 2017. Option and argument handling and directory iteration was added by .An Ingo Schwarze Aq Mt schwarze@openbsd.org . .Sh CAVEATS All versions of .Nm are incompatible with each other because each caters to the needs of a specific operating system, for example regarding directory structures and file naming conventions. .Pp This version is more flexible than the others in so far as it does not assume any particular directory structure or naming convention. That flexibility comes at the price of not being able to change the names and relative paths of the source files when reusing them to store the formatted files, of not supporting any configuration file formats or environment variables, and of being unable to scan for and remove junk files in .Ar dstdir . .Pp Currently, .Nm always reformats each page, even if the formatted version is newer than the source version.