You can find the latest release of M4_SOFTWARE_URL_SGML, by M4_EMAIL_URL_SGML, located at: M4_SOFTWARE_URL This document, written in SGML, can be available in several formats: M4_AVAILABLE_FORMATS(`M4_THIS_FILE_PREFIX') Introduction

The software M4_SOFTWARE is a bunch of directories, a Makefile, and SGML examples, bundled to create several output formats with just one make command. As a bullet proof, this site part has been generated with M4_SOFTWARE. Installation

Installation is easy since you just have to unpack the tarball where you want to build your documentation. But to create the documentation you need some tools. They are in section "Prerequisites". Prerequisites

You need some freely available softwares: All can be found from M4_FRESHMEAT_URL_SGML sgmltools 1.0.x (I personally use 1.0.9). Needed perl. Needed (by sgmltools 1.0.x at least). make (gnu make is nice). Needed m4 (gnu m4) because it is a powerful tool. Needed. LaTeX (to generate .dvi files). Optional ghostview (to view .ps files). Optional lynx (lynx is good to render pure ASCII) needed for ASCII format. Optional pdflatex. Optional tidy (tidy is good at correcting bad HTML) needed for HTML and ASCII format. Optional rcs (if you want to use version controls on your documents). Optional tar (gnu tar is nice). Optional You need to know how to write SGML files with the linuxdoc DTD. Download

you can download linuxdoc-make via the ftp protocol at The archive is named M4_SOFTWARE-M4_VERSION.tgz where M4_VERSION is the version number. Unpacking

You do not have to be root to install M4_SOFTWARE. You install M4_SOFTWARE where you want to use it. gzip -tv M4_SOFTWARE-M4_VERSION.tgz # optional cd where/you/want/ tar tzvf M4_SOFTWARE-M4_VERSION.tgz # see the content tar xzvf xzvf M4_SOFTWARE-M4_VERSION.tgz # extract cd M4_SOFTWARE-M4_VERSION make # and read because "make" alone is just a reminder ... You can rename the M4_SOFTWARE-M4_VERSION/ directory like you want at any time. Using make without argument is safe since it gives you the usage (alias make help). Using

For the impatient

If you write an non-english document (english is the default language), you must end its name with -ll.sgml where ll is the two characters symbolizing your language. en: english,english, de: deutsch,german, nl: nederlands,dutch, fr: français,french, es: español,spanish, da: dansk,danish, no: norsk,norwegian, se: svenska,swedish, pt: portuges,portuguese, ca: català,catalan, it: italiano,italian, ro: românã,romanian Create a new file with the model. cd M4_SOFTWARE-M4_VERSION/ # if you're not already there cp sgml/lidoma-model.en.sgml sgml/myfile.en.sgml Edit your file sgml/myfile.en.sgml (emacs is good at it). Save your file. Generate a HTML single page: make htm Look at the directory htm/ ls -l htm/ myfile.en.htm View myfile-en.htm with your favorite web browser (lynx, isn't it?). Try other output formats: make make txt html ps pdf If you want a clone directory of all the needed files, just type: make clone then move the clone/ directory where you want. Indexes

Two cases. First, if there is a file named .index.m4 in any directory, then this file will be processed with m4 to create an index file named index.html. Second, if there is no file named .index.m4 then an nice ls command will create an index file named index.html in each directory. make indexes make i # same thing (I am lazy) make if # force mode Some treatments use m4. All definitions are from the file include/definitions.m4 and the files it includes. The best way to change any definition is to edit the file named include/override.m4 and modify the values. Happy doc !