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<TITLE>mdocml | UNIX manpage compiler</TITLE>
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<P CLASS="head">
<B>mdocml</B> – UNIX manpage compiler, current version @VERSION@ (@VDATE@)
</P>
<P CLASS="subhead">
Sources: <A HREF="/snapshots/mdocml.tar.gz">current</A>,
<A HREF="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/?cvsroot=mdocml">cvsweb</A>
(<A HREF="/snapshots/">archives</A>)
</P>
<H1>
<A NAME="description">Description</A>
</H1>
<P>
<SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is a suite of tools compiling <I><A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc</A></I>, the roff macro
package of choice for BSD manual pages, and <I><A HREF="man.7.html">man</A></I>, the predominant historical package for
UNIX manuals. The mission of <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is to deprecate <A
HREF="http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/" CLASS="external">groff</A>, the GNU troff implementation, for displaying <I>mdoc</I>
pages whilst providing token support for <I>man</I>.
</P>
<P>
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, <A
CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.isc.org/software/license">ISC</A>-licensed, fast and regular).
</P>
<P>
<SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> consists of the <A HREF="mandoc.3.html">libmandoc</A> validating compiler and <A
HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc</A>, 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 <A HREF="preconv.1.html">preconv</A> for recoding multibyte manuals,
<A HREF="demandoc.1.html">demandoc</A> for emitting only text parts of manuals,
<A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A> for indexing manuals,
<A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> (includes whatis mode) for indexed manual search, and
<A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi</A> for indexed manual search online.
It is a <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://bsd.lv/">BSD.lv</A> project.
</P>
<P>
<I>Disambiguation</I>: <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is often referred to by its installed binary, <Q>mandoc</Q>.
</P>
<H2>
<A NAME="sources">Sources</A>
</H2>
<P>
<SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> is in ISO C99 and should build and run on any modern system; however, you'll need <A
HREF="http://www.sqlite.org">sqlite3</A> to build <A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> (links to whatis),
<A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi</A>, and <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A>.
To build and install into <I>/usr/local/</I>, just run <CODE>make install</CODE>.
Be careful: the <B>preconv</B>, <B>apropos</B>, and <B>whatis</B> binary names are usually taken by existing utilities.
</P>
<H2>
Downstream
</H2>
<P>
Several systems come bundled with <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> utilities.
If your system does not appear below, the maintainers have not contacted me and it should not be considered
<Q>official</Q>.
Please <A HREF="#contact">contact us</A> if you plan on maintaining a downstream version!
</P>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Downstream Sources">
<COL WIDTH="175">
<COL>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD>DragonFly BSD</TD>
<TD>
<A HREF="http://gitweb.dragonflybsd.org/dragonfly.git/tree/HEAD:/contrib/mdocml" CLASS="external">contrib/mdocml</A> (1.12.2 sources)
<A HREF="http://gitweb.dragonflybsd.org/dragonfly.git/tree/HEAD:/lib/libmandoc" CLASS="external">lib/libmandoc</A>
<A HREF="http://gitweb.dragonflybsd.org/dragonfly.git/tree/HEAD:/usr.bin/mandoc" CLASS="external">usr.bin/mandoc</A> (build system)
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>FreeBSD 10.0, -CURRENT</TD>
<TD>
<A HREF="http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/contrib/mdocml/" CLASS="external">contrib/mdocml</A> (1.12.1 sources)
<A HREF="http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/usr.bin/mandoc/" CLASS="external">usr.bin/mandoc</A> (build system)
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>FreeBSD 9.x, 8.x</TD>
<TD>
<A HREF="http://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/textproc/mdocml/" CLASS="external">ports/textproc/mdocml</A> (1.12.1 port)
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>NetBSD</TD>
<TD>
<A HREF="http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/external/bsd/mdocml/" CLASS="external">src/external/bsd/mdocml</A> (1.12.1 sources plus patches and build system)
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>OpenBSD</TD>
<TD>
<A HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/mandoc/" CLASS="external">src/usr.bin/mandoc</A> (1.12.2 sources and build system)
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>pkgsrc</TD>
<TD>
<A HREF="http://pkgsrc.se/textproc/mdocml" CLASS="external">textproc/mdocml</A> (1.12.2 port)
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Minix3</TD>
<TD>
<A HREF="http://git.minix3.org/?p=minix.git;a=tree;f=external/bsd/mdocml" CLASS="external">external/bsd/mdocml</A> (1.10.9 sources and build system)
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Alpine Linux</TD>
<TD>
<A HREF="http://git.alpinelinux.org/cgit/aports/tree/main/mdocml" CLASS="external">aports/main/mdocml</A> (1.12.2 port)
</TD>
</TR>
</TBODY>
</TABLE>
<H1>
<A NAME="documentation">Documentation</A>
</H1>
<P>
These manuals are generated automatically and refer to the current release.
They are the authoritative documentation for the <SPAN CLASS="nm">mdocml</SPAN> system.
</P>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Documentation">
<COL WIDTH="175">
<COL>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos(1)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
search the manual page database
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="demandoc.1.html">demandoc(1)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
emit only text of UNIX manuals
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc(1)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
format and display UNIX manuals
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="preconv.1.html">preconv(1)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
recode multibyte UNIX manuals
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc.3.html">mandoc(3)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
mandoc macro compiler library
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="tbl.3.html">tbl(3)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
roff table parser library for mandoc
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="eqn.7.html">eqn(7)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
eqn-mandoc language reference
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
man language reference
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi(7)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
cgi for manpage query and display
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandoc_char.7.html">mandoc_char(7)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
mandoc special characters
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
mdoc language reference
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="roff.7.html">roff(7)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
roff-mandoc language reference
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="tbl.7.html">tbl(7)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
tbl-mandoc language reference
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb(8)</A></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">
index UNIX manuals
</TD>
</TR>
</TBODY>
</TABLE>
<H2>
<A NAME="links">Supplementary Information</A>
</H2>
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://manpages.bsd.lv/">Practical UNIX Manuals</A>: mdoc tutorial by Kristaps Dzonsons
</LI>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/faq/ports/specialtopics.html#Mandoc" CLASS="external">OpenBSD porting guide</A>
chapter regarding manual pages
</LI>
<LI>
<A HREF="press.html">Publications and media coverage</A>
concerning mdocml and mandoc
</LI>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://manpages.bsd.lv/history.html">History of UNIX Manpages</A>: a comprehensive overview by Kristaps Dzonsons
</LI>
</UL>
<H1>
<A NAME="contact">Contact</A>
</H1>
<P>
Use the mailing lists for bug-reports, patches, questions, etc. Please check the
<A HREF="http://mdocml.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/TODO?cvsroot=mdocml">TODO</A> for known issues
before posting. All lists are subscription-only: send a blank e-mail to the listed address to subscribe. Beyond that,
contact Kristaps at <A HREF="http://mailhide.recaptcha.net/d?k=01M6h_w7twDp58ZgH57eWC_w==&c=Q2DBUt401ePlSeupJFrq_Q==" TITLE="Reveal
this e-mail address">kris...</A>@bsd.lv. Archives are available at <A HREF="http://gmane.org/" CLASS="external">Gmane</A>.
</P>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" SUMMARY="Mailing Lists">
<COL WIDTH="175">
<COL>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD>
disc<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01KQ80PFH5n3BBNpF5Gs4sRg==&c=EV1QytpQqTHSItc2IXvZyocgYLPnG5K0JKw_gwMC9yc=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
</TD>
<TD>
bug-reports, general questions, and announcements
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
tec<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01qDX_iV0RlUOarEvb6mR28g==&c=gRXsTjza0NNCFPaYu-Taj2tF0pmYZSc90EZkFkhkxgo=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
</TD>
<TD>
patches and system discussions
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
sou<A CLASS="external" TITLE="Reveal this e-mail address"
HREF="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01prQrAZhhl2EbIwVcRfABsQ==&c=KtTW4Yic9xk-8g40KzJoca4fR3MYXv28g8NC6OQV-T8=">...</A>@mdocml.bsd.lv
</TD>
<TD>
source commit messages
</TD>
</TR>
</TBODY>
</TABLE>
<H1>
<A NAME="news">News</A>
</H1>
<P CLASS="news">
xx-xx-2013: version 1.13.0
</P>
<P>
The <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A> tools (<A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A>, <A
HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> (absorbing whatis), and <A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi</A>) have been re-written to
use <A CLASS="external" HREF="http://www.sqlite.org">sqlite3</A> as a database.
</P>
<P CLASS="news">
05-10-2013: version 1.12.2
</P>
<P>
The <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A> to <A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A> converter,
to be called as <CODE>mandoc -Tman</CODE>, is now fully functional.
</P>
<P>
The <A HREF="mandoc.1.html">mandoc(1)</A> utility now supports the <CODE>-Ios</CODE> (default operating system)
input option, and the <CODE>-Tutf8</CODE> output mode now actually works.
</P>
<P>
The <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb(8)</A> utility no longer truncates existing databases when starting to build new ones,
but only replaces them when the build actually succeeds.
</P>
<P>
The <A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A> parser now supports the <EM>PD</EM> macro (paragraph distance),
and (for GNU man-ext compatibility only) <EM>EX</EM> (example block) and <EM>EE</EM> (example end).
Plus several bugfixes regarding indentation, line breaks, and vertical spacing,
and regarding <EM>RS</EM> following <EM>TP</EM>.
</P>
<P>
The <A HREF="roff.7.html">roff(7)</A> parser now supports the <EM>\f(BI</EM> (bold+italic) font escape,
the <EM>\z</EM> (zero cursor advance) escape and the <EM>cc</EM> (change control character)
and <EM>it</EM> (input line trap) requests.
Plus bugfixes regarding the <EM>\t</EM> (tab) escape, nested escape sequences, and conditional requests.
</P>
<P>
In <A HREF="mdoc.7.html">mdoc(7)</A>, several bugs were fixed related to UTF-8 output of quoting enclosures,
delimiter handling, list indentation and horizontal and vertical spacing,
formatting of the <EM>Lk</EM>, <EM>%U</EM>, and <EM>%C</EM> macros,
plus some bugfixes related to the handling of syntax errors like badly nested font blocks,
stray <EM>Ta</EM> macros outside column lists, unterminated <EM>It Xo</EM> blocks,
and non-text children of <EM>Nm</EM> blocks.
</P>
<P>
In <A HREF="tbl.7.html">tbl(7)</A>, the width of horizontal spans and the vertical spacing around tables was corrected,
and in <A HREF="man.7.html">man(7)</A> files, a crash was fixed that was triggered by some particular unclosed <EM>T{</EM> macros.
</P>
<P>
For mandoc developers, we now provide a <A HREF="tbl.3.html">tbl(3)</A> library manual and <CODE>gmdiff</CODE>,
a very small, very simplistic groff-versus-mandoc output comparison tool.
</P>
<P>
See <A HREF="NEWS">NEWS</A> for historical notes.
</P>
<P CLASS="news">
23-03-2012: version 1.12.1
</P>
<P>
Significant work on <A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> and <A HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A>. These tools are
now much more robust.
A <A HREF="whatis.1.html">whatis</A> implementation is now handled as an <A HREF="apropos.1.html">apropos</A> mode.
These tools are also able to minimally handle pre-formatted pages, that is, those already formatted by another utility
such as GNU troff.
</P>
<P>
The <A HREF="man.cgi.7.html">man.cgi</A> script is also now available for wider testing. It interfaces with <A
HREF="mandocdb.8.html">mandocdb</A> manuals cached by <A HREF="catman.8.html">catman</A>. HTML output is generated
on-the-fly by <A HREF="mandoc.3.html">libmandoc</A> or internal methods to convert pre-formatted pages.
</P>
<P>
The mailing list archive for the discuss and tech lists are being hosted by <A CLASS="external"
HREF="http://www.gmane.org">Gmane</A> at <A HREF="http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.tools.mdocml.user"
CLASS="external">gmane.comp.tools.mdocml.user</A> and <A HREF="http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.tools.mdocml.devel"
CLASS="external">gmane.comp.tools.mdocml.devel</A>, respectively.
</P>
<P>
Lastly, I'm no longer providing binaries, as nobody has asked for them.
</P>
<P CLASS="foot">
<SMALL>
Copyright © 2008–2011
<A CLASS="external" HREF="http://kristaps.bsd.lv">Kristaps Dzonsons</A>,
© 2013 Ingo Schwarze,
$Date$
</SMALL>
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