$Id$

Installing mdocml, the portable mandoc distribution
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The mandoc manpage compiler toolset is a suite of tools compiling
mdoc(7), the roff(7) macro language of choice for BSD manual pages,
and man(7), the predominant historical language for UNIX manuals.
For general information, see:  http://mdocml.bsd.lv/

Before manually installing mandoc on your system, please check
whether the newest version of mandoc is already installed by default
or available via a binary package or a ports system.  A list of the
latest bundled and ported versions of mandoc for various operating
systems is maintained at:  http://mdocml.bsd.lv/ports.html

If mandoc is installed, you can check the version by typing:  mandoc -V
The version contained in this distribution tarball is listed near
the beginning of the file "Makefile".  Regarding how packages and
ports are maintained for your operating system, please consult your
operating system documentation.


To install mandoc manually, the following steps are needed:

1. Decide whether you want to build just the basic tools mandoc(1),
preconv(1) and demandoc(1) or whether you also want to build the
database tools apropos(1) and makewhatis(8).  For the latter, a
working installation of SQLite is required, see: http://sqlite.org/
The recommended version of SQLite is 3.8.4.3 or newer.  The mandoc
toolset is known to work with version 3.7.5 or newer.  Versions
older than 3.8.3 may not achieve full performance due to the
missing SQLITE_DETERMINISTIC optimization flag.  Versions older
than 3.8.0 may not show full error information if opening a database
fails due to the missing sqlite3_errstr() API.  Both are very minor
problems, apropos(1) is fully usable with SQLite 3.7.5.
The database tools also require Marc Espie's ohash(3) library;
if your system does not have it, the bundled compatibility version
will be used, so you probably need not worry about it.

2. If you choose to build the database tools, too, decide whether
you also want to build the CGI program, man.cgi(8).

3. Read the beginning of the file "Makefile" from "USER SETTINGS"
to "END OF USER SETTINGS" and edit it as required.  In particular,
disable "BUILD_TARGETS += db-build" if you do not want database
support or enable "BUILD_TARGETS += cgi-build" if you do want
the CGI program.

4. Run the command "make".  No separate "./configure" or "make
depend" steps are needed.  The former is run automatically by "make".
The latter is a maintainer target.  If you merely want to build the
released version as opposed to doing active development, there is
no need to regenerate the dependency specifications.  Any
POSIX-compatible make, in particular both BSD make and GNU make,
is supposed to work.

5. Run the command "make -n install" and check whether everything
will be installed to the intended places.  Otherwise, edit the *DIR
variables in the Makefile until it is.

6. Run "sudo make install".  Instead, if you intend to build a binary
package using some kind of fake root mechanism, you may need a
command like "make DESTDIR=... install".  Read the *-install targets
in the "Makefile" to understand how DESTDIR is used.


If you want to check whether automatic configuration works well
on your platform, consider the following:

The mandoc package intentionally does not use GNU autoconf because
we consider that toolset a blatant example of overengineering that
is obsolete nowadays, since all modern operating systems are now
reasonably close to POSIX and do not need arcane shell magic any
longer.  If your system does need such magic, consider upgrading
to reasonably modern POSIX-compliant tools rather than asking for
autoconf-style workarounds.

As far as mandoc is using any features not mandated by ANSI X3.159-1989
("ANSI C") or IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 ("POSIX") that some modern systems
do not have, we intend to provide autoconfiguration tests and
compat_*.c implementations.  Please report any that turn out to be
missing.  Note that while we do strive to produce portable code,
we do not slavishly restrict ourselves to POSIX-only interfaces.
For improved security and readability, we do use well-designed,
modern interfaces like reallocarray(3) even if they are still rather
uncommon, of course bundling compat_*.c implementations as needed.

Where mandoc is using ANSI C or POSIX features that some systems
still lack and that compat_*.c implementations can be provided for
without too much hassle, we will consider adding them, too, so
please report whatever is missing on your platform.

The following steps can be used to manually check the automatic
configuration on your platform:

1. Run "make clean".

2. Run "make config.h"

3. Read the file "config.log".  It shows the compiler commands used
to test the libraries installed on your system and the standard
output and standard error output these commands produce.  Watch out
for unexpected failures.  Those are most likely to happen if headers
or libraries are installed in unusual places or interfaces defined
in unusual headers.  You can also look at the file "config.h" and
check that no expected "#define HAVE_*" lines are missing.  The
list of tests run can be found in the file "configure".


In case you have questions or want to provide feedback, look at:
http://mdocml.bsd.lv/contact.html

Consider subscribing to the discuss@ mailing list mentioned on that
page.  If you intend to help with the development of mandoc, consider
subscribing to the tech@ mailing list, too.

Enjoy using the mandoc toolset!
Ingo Schwarze, Karlsruhe, August 2014