mdw@git.distorted.org.uk Git - sgt/halibut/blob - doc/running.but

   1 \C{running} Running Halibut
   2
   3 \I{running Halibut}In the simplest case, running Halibut is very
   4 simple. You provide a set of input files on its \i{command line},
   5 and it produces a set of output files.
   6
   7 \c $ halibut intro.but getting-started.but reference.but index.but
   8 \e   bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
   9
  10 This will generate a large set of \i{output files}:
  11
  12 \b \i\c{output.txt} will be a \i{plain text} version of the input
  13 document.
  14
  15 \b \i\c{output.hlp} and \i\c{output.cnt} will be a \i{Windows Help}
  16 version of the same thing. (Most of the text is in \c{output.hlp};
  17 \c{output.cnt} contains additional contents data used by the Windows
  18 help topic selector. If you lose the latter, the former should still
  19 be usable, but it will look less modern.)
  20
  21 \lcont{
  22 Note that Halibut does not require any external software such as a
  23 \i{Help compiler}. It \e{directly} generates Windows Help files, and
  24 therefore it doesn't need to be run on Windows to do so: it can
  25 generate them even when run from an automated script on a Unix
  26 machine.
  27 }
  28
  29 \b \c{output.1} will be a Unix \i{\cw{man} page}.
  30
  31 \b The set of files \c{*.html} will contain an \i{HTML} version of
  32 the document. If you have configured Halibut to generate more than
  33 one HTML file (the default), then the file \c{Contents.html} will be
  34 the topmost one that users should be directed to initially. If you
  35 have configured Halibut to generate a single file, it will be called
  36 \c{Manual.html}.
  37
  38 \b \c{output.info}, and some additional files \c{output.info-1},
  39 \c{output.info-2} etc., will be files suitable for use with GNU
  40 \c{info}.
  41
  42 \b \c{output.ps} will be a printable PostScript manual.
  43
  44 \b \c{output.pdf} will be a printable PDF manual.
  45
  46 \H{running-options} \ii{Command-line options}
  47
  48 Halibut supports command-line options in case you don't want to use
  49 all of Halibut's \i{output formats}, or you want to configure the
  50 names of your \i{output files}, or you want to supply additional
  51 configuration on the command line. The supported options are listed
  52 here.
  53
  54 Firstly, there are options which indicate which of the output
  55 formats you want Halibut to generate:
  56
  57 \dt \i\cw{--text}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  58
  59 \dd Specifies that you want to generate plain text output. You can
  60 optionally specify a file name (e.g. \c{--text=myfile.txt}), in
  61 which case Halibut will change the name of the output file as well.
  62
  63 \dt \i\cw{--html}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  64
  65 \dd Specifies that you want to generate HTML output. You can
  66 optionally specify a file name (e.g. \c{--html=myfile.html}), in
  67 which case Halibut will change the name of the output file as well.
  68 Specifying a file name here will also cause the HTML to be output in
  69 \e{only} one file, instead of the usual behaviour of producing
  70 multiple files with links between them. If you want to produce
  71 multiple files and configure their names, you will need to use the
  72 more complete file name configuration directives given in
  73 \k{output-html-file} (although you may want to do so on the command
  74 line, using the \c{-C} option).
  75
  76 \dt \i\cw{--xhtml}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  77
  78 \dd Synonym for \c{--html}.
  79
  80 \dt \i\cw{--winhelp}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  81
  82 \dd Specifies that you want to generate Windows Help output. You can
  83 optionally specify a file name (e.g. \c{--winhelp=myfile.hlp}), in
  84 which case Halibut will change the name of the output file as well.
  85
  86 \lcont{
  87
  88 Your output file name should end with \c{.hlp}; if it doesn't,
  89 Halibut will append it. Halibut will also generate a contents file
  90 (ending in \c{.cnt}) alongside the file name you specify.
  91
  92 }
  93
  94 \dt \i\cw{--whlp}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  95
  96 \dd Synonym for \c{--winhelp}.
  97
  98 \dt \i\cw{--hlp}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  99
 100 \dd Synonym for \c{--winhelp}.
 101
 102 \dt \i\cw{--man}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
 103
 104 \dd Specifies that you want to generate \cw{man} page output. You
 105 can optionally specify a file name (e.g. \c{--man=myfile.5}), in
 106 which case Halibut will change the name of the output file as well.
 107
 108 \dt \i\cw{--info}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
 109
 110 \dd Specifies that you want to generate GNU \c{info} output. You can
 111 optionally specify a file name (e.g. \c{--info=myfile.info}), in
 112 which case Halibut will change the name of the output file as well.
 113
 114 \lcont{
 115
 116 Unless the \c{info} output format is configured not to (see
 117 \k{output-info}), Halibut will divide the \c{info} output into many
 118 small files. The extra files will have numeric suffixes on their
 119 names; so, for example, \c{output.info} might be accompanied by
 120 additional files \c{output.info-1}, \c{output.info-2} and so on.
 121
 122 }
 123
 124 \dt \i\cw{--ps}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
 125
 126 \dd Specifies that you want to generate PostScript output. You
 127 can optionally specify a file name (e.g. \c{--man=myfile.ps}), in
 128 which case Halibut will change the name of the output file as well.
 129
 130 \dt \i\cw{--pdf}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
 131
 132 \dd Specifies that you want to generate PDF output. You
 133 can optionally specify a file name (e.g. \c{--man=myfile.pdf}), in
 134 which case Halibut will change the name of the output file as well.
 135
 136 If you do not specify any of the above options, Halibut will simply
 137 produce \e{all} of its output formats.
 138
 139 Also, there is an option which allows you to specify an arbitrary
 140 \i\c{\\cfg} configuration directive (see \k{input-config}):
 141
 142 \dt \i\cw{-C}\e{config-directive}\cw{:}\e{value}[\cw{:}\e{value}...]
 143
 144 \dd The text following \c{-C} is expected to be a colon-separated
 145 list of strings. (If you need a literal colon, you can escape it
 146 with a backslash: \c{\\:}. If you need a literal \e{backslash}, you
 147 can do the same: \c{\\\\}.) These strings are used as the parts of a
 148 \c{\\cfg} directive. So, for example, the option
 149
 150 \lcont{
 151
 152 \c -Ctext-section-align:2:leftplus
 153
 154 will translate into the configuration directive
 155
 156 \c \cfg{text-section-align}{2}{leftplus}
 157
 158 }
 159
 160 The options which set the output file names actually work by
 161 implicitly generating these configuration directives. When you
 162 specify \c{--text=myfile.txt}, for example, Halibut treats it
 163 identically to \c{--text -Ctext-filename:myfile.txt}. The Windows
 164 Help and man page formats work similarly. HTML is slightly
 165 different, since it also arranges for single-file output if you pass
 166 a filename to \c{--html}; so \c{--html=myfile.html} is equivalent to
 167 \c{--html -Cxhtml-single-filename:myfile.html -Cxhtml-leaf-level:0}.
 168 (See \k{output} for explanations of all these configuration
 169 directives.)
 170
 171 In addition to these, there are also a few other options:
 172
 173 \dt \i\cw{--help}
 174
 175 \dd Print a brief help message and exit immediately. (Don't confuse
 176 this with \c{--winhelp}!)
 177
 178 \dt \i\cw{--version}
 179
 180 \dd Print information about Halibut's version number and exit
 181 immediately.
 182
 183 \dt \i\cw{--licence}
 184
 185 \dd Display Halibut's licence (see also \k{licence}) and exit
 186 immediately.
 187
 188 \dt \cw{--license}
 189
 190 \dd US English alternative spelling of \c{--licence}.
 191
 192 \dt \i\cw{--precise}
 193
 194 \dd Report column numbers as well as line numbers when reporting
 195 errors in the Halibut input files.