- mdocml is a suite of tools compiling “-mdoc”, the roff macro package
- of choice for BSD manual pages, and “-man”, the predominant historical package for UNIX
- manuals. The mission of mdocml is to deprecate groff, the GNU roff implementation, for
- displaying -mdoc pages whilst providing token support for -man.
-
+
+ mdocml is a suite of tools compiling -mdoc, the
+ roff macro package of choice for BSD manual pages, and -man, the
+ predominant historical package for UNIX manuals. The mission of mdocml is to
+ deprecate groff, the GNU troff
+ implementation, for displaying -mdoc pages whilst providing token support for -man.
+
-
+
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 uncertain output, and varies in operation from system to system. mdocml strives to fix
- this (respectively small, C, ISC-licensed, fast and regular).
-
+ this (respectively small, C, ISC-licensed, fast and regular).
+
-
- The core of mdocml is composed of the libmdoc and libman
- validating compiler libraries. Both are simple, fast libraries operating on memory buffers, so they may
- be used for a variety of front-ends (terminal-based, CGI and so on). The primary front-end is
- mandoc, which formats manuals for display on the terminal.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- INSTALLING SOURCES
-
+
+ mdocml consists of the libmdoc, libman, and libroff validating compilers; and mandoc, which interfaces with the compiler libraries to format output for UNIX
+ terminals, XHTML, HTML, and PostScript. mdocml is a BSD.lv project.
+
-
- Sources correctly build and install on FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD and Linux operating systems, tested
- variously on i386, AMD64, alpha and others. The most current version is @VERSION@, dated @VDATE@.
-
+
+ Disambiguation: mdocml is often referred to by its installed binary,
+ mandoc.
+
+ mdocml is architecture- and system-neutral, written in plain-old C. The most
+ current version is @VERSION@, dated @VDATE@. A full
+ ChangeLog (txt) is written with each release.
+
-
- CVS sources are checkedout and snapshotted with version updates. These (and all historical snapshots)
- may be found in the /snapshots/ directory. A full ChangeLog is written with each new snapshot.
-
- For all issues related to mdocml, contact Kristaps, kris...@kth.se.
-
-
-
- If you want to receive a semi-automated mail-out of new versions, then please write with a message
- subject of “subscribe mdocml” (or, symmetrically, “unsubscribe mdocml”).
-
+ Also overhauled the -Thtml and -Txhtml output modes. They now display readable output in arbitrary
+ browsers, including text-based ones like lynx. Available style-sheet classes
+ have been considerably changed! See the example.style.css file for details. Lastly, libmdoc and libman have been cleaned up
+ and reduced in size and complexity.
+
+
+
+
+ 27-09-2010:
+ version 1.10.6
+
+
+ Calling conventions for mandoc have changed: -W improved and -f deprecated. Non-ASCII
+ characters are also now uniformly discarded. Lots of documentation improvements. Many
+ incremental fixes accomodating for groff's more interesting productions. Lastly, pod2man preambles are
+ now fully accepted after some considerable roff and special
+ character support.
+
+
+
+
+ 27-07-2010:
+ version 1.10.5
+
+
+ Primarily a bug-fix and polish release, but including -Tpdf
+ support in mandoc by way of Summer of Code.
+ Highlights:
+
+
+
fix Sm and Bd handling
+
fix end-of-sentence handling for embedded sentences
many minor bug-fixes and formatting issues resolved
+
+
+
+
+ 19-06-2010:
+ version 1.10.2
+
+
+ Small release featuring text-decoration in -Tps output, a few
+ minor relaxations of errors, and some optimisations.
+
+
+
+
+ 07-06-2010:
+ version 1.10.1
+
+
+ This primarily focusses on the Bl and It macros described in mdoc. Multi-line column support is now fully compatible with
+ groff, as are implicit list entries for columns. Removed manuals.7 in favour of http://manpages.bsd.lv. The way we
+ handle the SYNOPSIS section (see the SYNOPSIS documentation in MANUAL STRUCTURE) has also
+ been considerably simplified compared to groff's method. Furthermore, the -Owidth=width output option has been added to -Tascii (see mandoc). Lastly, initial
+ PostScript output has been added with the -Tps option to mandoc. It's brutally simple at the moment: fixed-font, with
+ no font decorations.
+
+
+
+
+ 29-05-2010:
+ version 1.10.0
+
+
+ Release consisting of the results from the m2k10 hackathon and up-merge from OpenBSD.
+ This requires a significant note of thanks to Ingo Schwarze (OpenBSD) and Joerg
+ Sonnenberger (NetBSD) for their hard work, and again to Joerg for hosting m2k10.
+ Highlights (mostly cribbed from Ingo's m2k10 report) follow in no particular order:
+