NAME¶
dtplite - Lightweight DocTools Markup Processor
SYNOPSIS¶
dtplite -o output ?options?
format inputfile
dtplite validate inputfile
dtplite -o output ?options?
format
inputdirectory
dtplite -merge -o output ?options?
format
inputdirectory
DESCRIPTION¶
The application described by this document,
dtplite, is the successor to
the extremely simple
mpexpand. Influenced in its functionality by the
dtp doctools processor it is much more powerful than
mpexpand,
yet still as easy to use; definitely easier than
dtp with its myriad of
subcommands and options.
dtplite is based upon the package
doctools, like the other two
processors.
USE CASES¶
dtplite was written with the following three use cases in mind.
- [1]
- Validation of a single document, i.e. checking that it was written in
valid doctools format. This mode can also be used to get a preliminary
version of the formatted output for a single document, for display in a
browser, nroff, etc., allowing proofreading of the formatting.
- [2]
- Generation of the formatted documentation for a single package, i.e. all
the manpages, plus a table of contents and an index of keywords.
- [3]
- An extension of the previous mode of operation, a method for the easy
generation of one documentation tree for several packages, and especially
of a unified table of contents and keyword index.
Beyond the above we also want to make use of the customization features provided
by the HTML formatter. It is not the only format the application should be
able to generate, but we anticipiate it to be the most commonly used, and it
is one of the few which do provide customization hooks.
We allow the caller to specify a header string, footer string, a stylesheet, and
data for a bar of navigation links at the top of the generated document. While
all can be set as long as the formatting engine provides an appropriate engine
parameter (See section
OPTIONS) the last two have internal processing
which make them specific to HTML.
COMMAND LINE¶
- dtplite -o output ?options? format
inputfile
- This is the form for use case [1]. The options will be explained
later, in section OPTIONS.
- path output (in)
- This argument specifies where to write the generated document. It can be
the path to a file or directory, or -. The last value causes the
application to write the generated documented to stdout.
If the output does not exist then [file dirname $output] has to exist
and must be a writable directory. The generated document will be written
to a file in that directory, and the name of that file will be derived
from the inputfile, the format, and the value given to
option -ext (if present).
- (path|handle) format (in)
- This argument specifies the formatting engine to use when processing the
input, and thus the format of the generated document. See section
FORMATS for the possibilities recognized by the application.
- path inputfile (in)
- This argument specifies the path to the file to process. It has to exist,
must be readable, and written in doctools format.
- dtplite validate inputfile
- This is a simpler form for use case [1]. The "validate" format
generates no output at all, only syntax checks are performed. As such the
specification of an output file or other options is not necessary and left
out.
- dtplite -o output ?options? format
inputdirectory
- This is the form for use case [2]. It differs from the form for use case
[1] by having the input documents specified through a directory instead of
a file. The other arguments are identical, except for output, which
now has to be the path to an existing and writable directory.
The input documents are all files in inputdirectory or any of its
subdirectories which were recognized by fileutil::fileType as
containing text in doctools format.
- dtplite -merge -o output ?options?
format inputdirectory
- This is the form for use case [3]. The only difference to the form for use
case [2] is the additional option -merge.
Each such call will merge the generated documents coming from processing the
input documents under inputdirectory or any of its subdirectories
to the files under output. In this manner it is possible to
incrementally build the unified documentation for any number of packages.
Note that it is necessary to run through all the packages twice to get
fully correct cross-references (for formats supporting them).
OPTIONS¶
This section describes all the options available to the user of the application,
with the exception of the options
-o and
-merge. These two were
described already, in section
COMMAND LINE.
- -exclude string
- This option specifies an exclude (glob) pattern. Any files identified as
manpages to process which match the exclude pattern are ignored. The
option can be provided multiple times, each usage adding an additional
pattern to the list of exclusions.
- -ext string
- If the name of an output file has to be derived from the name of an input
file it will use the name of the format as the extension by
default. This option here will override this however, forcing it to use
string as the file extension. This option is ignored if the name of
the output file is fully specified through option -o.
When used multiple times only the last definition is relevant.
- -header file
- This option can be used if and only if the selected format provides
an engine parameter named "header". It takes the contents of the
specified file and assign them to that parameter, for whatever use by the
engine. The HTML engine will insert the text just after the tag
<body>. If navigation buttons are present (see option
-nav below), then the HTML generated for them is appended to the
header data originating here before the final assignment to the parameter.
When used multiple times only the last definition is relevant.
- -footer file
- Like -header, except that: Any navigation buttons are ignored, the
corresponding required engine parameter is named "footer", and
the data is inserted just before the tag </body>.
When used multiple times only the last definition is relevant.
- -style file
- This option can be used if and only if the selected format provides
an engine parameter named "meta". When specified it will
generate a piece of HTML code declaring the file as the stylesheet
for the generated document and assign that to the parameter. The HTML
engine will insert this inot the document, just after the tag
<head>.
When processing an input directory the stylesheet file is copied into the
output directory and the generated HTML will refer to the copy, to make
the result more self-contained. When processing an input file we have no
location to copy the stylesheet to and so just reference it as specified.
When used multiple times only the last definition is relevant.
- -toc path
- This option specifies a doctoc file to use for the table of contents
instead of generating our own.
When used multiple times only the last definition is relevant.
- -pre+toc label path|text
- -post+toc label path|text
- This option specifies additional doctoc files (or texts) to use in the
navigation bar.
Positioning and handling of multiple uses is like for options -prenav
and -postnav, see below.
- -nav label url
- -prenav label url
- Use this option to specify a navigation button with label to
display and the url to link to. This option can be used if and only
if the selected format provides an engine parameter named
"header". The HTML generated for this is appended to whatever
data we got from option -header before it is inserted into the
generated documents.
When used multiple times all definitions are collected and a navigation bar
is created, with the first definition shown at the left edge and the last
definition to the right.
The url can be relative. In that case it is assumed to be relative to the
main files (TOC and Keyword index), and will be transformed for all others
to still link properly.
- -postnav label url
- Use this option to specify a navigation button with label to
display and the url to link to. This option can be used if and only
if the selected format provides an engine parameter named
"header". The HTML generated for this is appended to whatever
data we got from option -header before it is inserted into the
generated documents.
When used multiple times all definitions are collected and a navigation bar
is created, with the last definition shown at the right edge and the first
definition to the left.
The url can be relative. In that case it is assumed to be relative to the
main files (TOC and Keyword index), and will be transformed for all others
to still link properly.
At first the
format argument will be treated as a path to a tcl file
containing the code for the requested formatting engine. The argument will be
treated as the name of one of the predefined formats listed below if and only
if the path does not exist.
Note a limitation: If treating the format as path to the tcl script
implementing the engine was sucessful, then this script has to implement not
only the engine API for doctools, i.e.
doctools_api, but for
doctoc_api and
docidx_api as well. Otherwise the generation of a
table of contents and of a keyword index will fail.
List of predefined formats, i.e. as provided by the package
doctools:
- nroff
- The processor generates *roff output, the standard format for unix
manpages.
- html
- The processor generates HTML output, for usage in and display by web
browsers. This engine is currently the only one providing the various
engine parameters required for the additional customaization of the
output.
- tmml
- The processor generates TMML output, the Tcl Manpage Markup Language, a
derivative of XML.
- latex
- The processor generates LaTeX output.
- wiki
- The processor generates Wiki markup as understood by wikit.
- list
- The processor extracts the information provided by manpage_begin.
This format is used internally to extract the meta data from which both
table of contents and keyword index are derived from.
- null
- The processor does not generate any output. This is equivalent to
validate.
DIRECTORY STRUCTURES¶
In this section we describe the directory structures generated by the
application under
output when processing all documents in an
inputdirectory. In other words, this is only relevant to the use cases
[2] and [3].
- [2]
- The following directory structure is created when processing a single set
of input documents. The file extension used is for output in HTML, but
that is not relevant to the structure and was just used to have proper
file names.
output/
toc.html
index.html
files/
path/to/FOO.html
- The last line in the example shows the document generated for a file FOO
located at
inputdirectory/path/to/FOO
- [3]
- When merging many packages into a unified set of documents the generated
directory structure is a bit deeper:
output
.toc
.idx
.tocdoc
.idxdoc
.xrf
toc.html
index.html
FOO1/
...
FOO2/
toc.html
files/
path/to/BAR.html
- Each of the directories FOO1, ... contains the documents generated for the
package FOO1, ... and follows the structure shown for use case [2]. The
only exception is that there is no per-package index.
The files " .toc", ".idx", and
".xrf" contain the internal status of the whole output
and will be read and updated by the next invokation. Their contents will
not be documented. Remove these files when all packages wanted for the
output have been processed, i.e. when the output is complete.
The files " .tocdoc", and ".idxdoc", are
intermediate files in doctoc and docidx markup, respectively, containing
the main table of contents and keyword index for the set of documents
before their conversion to the chosen output format. They are left in
place, i.e. not deleted, to serve as demonstrations of doctoc and docidx
markup.
BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK¶
This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain bugs and
other problems. Please report such in the category
doctools of the
Tcllib Trackers [
http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/reportlist]. Please also
report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either package and/or
documentation.
SEE ALSO¶
docidx introduction, doctoc introduction, doctools introduction
KEYWORDS¶
HTML, TMML, conversion, docidx, doctoc, doctools, manpage, markup, nroff
CATEGORY¶
Documentation tools
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright (c) 2004-2013 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>