- 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, libman, and libroff validating compiler libraries. All - 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 front-end is mandoc, which formats - manuals for display. + 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, PostScript, and PDF. mdocml is a BSD.lv project.
- The mdocml suite is a BSD.lv
- Project member.
+ Disambiguation: mdocml is often referred to by its installed binary,
+ mandoc
.
- Sources correctly build and install on DragonFly BSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, GNU/Linux, and many - other operating systems, tested variously on i386, AMD64, alpha, and others. The most current version - is @VERSION@, dated @VDATE@. A full ChangeLog (txt) is written with each release. + 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.
| man(3) (text) | -man macro compiler library | +man(3) | ++ man macro compiler library + + (text | + xhtml | + pdf | + postscript) + + |
| man(7) (text) | -man language reference | +man(7) | ++ man language reference + + (text | + xhtml | + pdf | + postscript) + + |
| mandoc(1) (text) | -format and display UNIX manuals | +mandoc(1) | ++ format and display UNIX manuals + + (text | + xhtml | + pdf | + postscript) + + |
| mandoc_char(7) (text) | -mandoc special characters | +mandoc_char(7) | ++ mandoc special characters + + (text | + xhtml | + pdf | + postscript) + + |
| manuals(7) (text) | -a guide to writing UNIX manuals | +mdoc(3) | ++ mdoc macro compiler library + + (text | + xhtml | + pdf | + postscript) + + |
| mdoc(3) (text) | -mdoc macro compiler library | +mdoc(7) | ++ mdoc language reference + + (text | + xhtml | + pdf | + postscript) + + |
| mdoc(7) (text) | -mdoc language reference | +roff(3) | ++ roff macro compiler library + + (text | + xhtml | + pdf | + postscript) + + |
| roff(3) (text) | -roff macro compiler library | +roff(7) | ++ roff-mandoc language reference + + (text | + xhtml | + pdf | + postscript) + + |
| roff(7) (text) | -roff-mandoc language reference | -
+ See Writing UNIX Manual Pages
for a general
+ introduction to manpages and mdoc.
+
- For all issues related to mdocml, contact Kristaps Dzonsons, kris...@bsd.lv. + Please use the mailing lists for bug-reports, patches, questions, etc. Beyond that, contact + Kristaps at kris...@bsd.lv.
- You may also subscribe to several mailing lists (these require subscription, which is moderated). An - archive is not yet available on-line, although you may request one once subscribed. + You may also subscribe to several mailing lists (these require subscription, which is + moderated).
| high-level discussions and version announcements | ++ bug-reports, general questions, and announcements + (archive) + | |
| tec...@mdocml.bsd.lv | -low-level discussions | ++ patches and system discussions + (archive) + |
| sou...@mdocml.bsd.lv | -source commit messages | ++ source commit messages + (archive) + |
- xx-06-2010: + 24-12-2010: + version 1.10.8 +
++ Significant improvements merged from OpenBSD downstream, including +
++ Also overhauled the -Thtml and -Txhtml output modes. They now display readable output in arbitrary + browsers, including text-based ones like lynx. See HTML and XHTML manuals in the DOCUMENTATION section for examples. Attention: 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: +
+Smand
Bdhandling
+ 12-07-2010: + version 1.10.4 +
++ Lots of features developed during both Summer of Code and the + OpenBSD c2k10 hackathon: +
+ ++ 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.
+ 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.
- 13-05-2010: - version 1.9.25 -
-
- Fixed handling of \*(Ba
escape. Backed out -fno-ign-chars (pointless complexity). Fixed erroneous
- breaking of literal lines. Fixed SYNOPSIS breaking lines before non-initial
- macros. Changed default section ordering. Most importantly, the framework for
- end-of-sentence double-spacing is in place, now implemented for the
- end-of-sentence, end-of-line
rule. This is a stable roll-back point
- before the mandoc hackathon in Rostock!
-
- 09-05-2010: - version 1.9.24 -
-
- Rolled back break-at-hyphen. -DUGLY is now the
- default (no feature splits!). Free-form text is not de-chunked any more: lines
- are passed whole-sale into the front-end, including whitespace. Added mailing
- lists. Lastly, mdocml is the focus of two Google Summer of Code
- projects this year: mandoc -Tps
- (NetBSD) and BSD-licensed
- Text-Processing Tools
(FreeBSD).
-
- 07-04-2010: - version 1.9.23 -
-- mdocml has been linked to the OpenBSD build. This - version incorporates many small changes, mostly from patches by OpenBSD, - allowing crufty manuals to slip by with warnings instead of erroring-out. Some - subtle semantic issues, such as punctuation scope, have also been fixed. - Lastly, some issues with -Thtml have been fixed, which - prompted an update to the online manual pages style - layout. -
-See cvsweb for historical notes. @@ -368,7 +490,7 @@