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 \H{running-options} \ii{Command-line options}
  43
  44 Halibut supports command-line options in case you don't want to use
  45 all of Halibut's \i{output formats}, or you want to configure the
  46 names of your \i{output files}, or you want to supply additional
  47 configuration on the command line. The supported options are listed
  48 here.
  49
  50 Firstly, there are options which indicate which of the output
  51 formats you want Halibut to generate:
  52
  53 \dt \i\cw{--text}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  54
  55 \dd Specifies that you want to generate plain text output. You can
  56 optionally specify a file name (e.g. \c{--text=myfile.txt}), in
  57 which case Halibut will change the name of the output file as well.
  58
  59 \dt \i\cw{--html}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  60
  61 \dd Specifies that you want to generate HTML output. You can
  62 optionally specify a file name (e.g. \c{--html=myfile.html}), in
  63 which case Halibut will change the name of the output file as well.
  64 Specifying a file name here will also cause the HTML to be output in
  65 \e{only} one file, instead of the usual behaviour of producing
  66 multiple files with links between them. If you want to produce
  67 multiple files and configure their names, you will need to use the
  68 more complete file name configuration directives given in
  69 \k{output-html-file} (although you may want to do so on the command
  70 line, using the \c{-C} option).
  71
  72 \dt \i\cw{--xhtml}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  73
  74 \dd Synonym for \c{--html}.
  75
  76 \dt \i\cw{--winhelp}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  77
  78 \dd Specifies that you want to generate Windows Help output. You can
  79 optionally specify a file name (e.g. \c{--winhelp=myfile.hlp}), in
  80 which case Halibut will change the name of the output file as well.
  81
  82 \lcont{
  83
  84 Your output file name should end with \c{.hlp}; if it doesn't,
  85 Halibut will append it. Halibut will also generate a contents file
  86 (ending in \c{.cnt}) alongside the file name you specify.
  87
  88 }
  89
  90 \dt \i\cw{--whlp}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  91
  92 \dd Synonym for \c{--winhelp}.
  93
  94 \dt \i\cw{--hlp}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  95
  96 \dd Synonym for \c{--winhelp}.
  97
  98 \dt \i\cw{--man}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
  99
 100 \dd Specifies that you want to generate \cw{man} page output. You
 101 can optionally specify a file name (e.g. \c{--man=myfile.5}), in
 102 which case Halibut will change the name of the output file as well.
 103
 104 \dt \i\cw{--info}[\cw{=}\e{filename}]
 105
 106 \dd Specifies that you want to generate GNU \c{info} output. You can
 107 optionally specify a file name (e.g. \c{--info=myfile.info}), in
 108 which case Halibut will change the name of the output file as well.
 109
 110 \lcont{
 111
 112 Unless the \c{info} output format is configured not to (see
 113 \k{output-info}), Halibut will divide the \c{info} output into many
 114 small files. The extra files will have numeric suffixes on their
 115 names; so, for example, \c{output.info} might be accompanied by
 116 additional files \c{output.info-1}, \c{output.info-2} and so on.
 117
 118 }
 119
 120 If you do not specify any of the above options, Halibut will simply
 121 produce \e{all} of its output formats.
 122
 123 Also, there is an option which allows you to specify an arbitrary
 124 \i\c{\\cfg} configuration directive (see \k{input-config}):
 125
 126 \dt \i\cw{-C}\e{config-directive}\cw{:}\e{value}[\cw{:}\e{value}...]
 127
 128 \dd The text following \c{-C} is expected to be a colon-separated
 129 list of strings. (If you need a literal colon, you can escape it
 130 with a backslash: \c{\\:}. If you need a literal \e{backslash}, you
 131 can do the same: \c{\\\\}.) These strings are used as the parts of a
 132 \c{\\cfg} directive. So, for example, the option
 133
 134 \lcont{
 135
 136 \c -Ctext-section-align:2:leftplus
 137
 138 will translate into the configuration directive
 139
 140 \c \cfg{text-section-align}{2}{leftplus}
 141
 142 }
 143
 144 The options which set the output file names actually work by
 145 implicitly generating these configuration directives. When you
 146 specify \c{--text=myfile.txt}, for example, Halibut treats it
 147 identically to \c{--text -Ctext-filename:myfile.txt}. The Windows
 148 Help and man page formats work similarly. HTML is slightly
 149 different, since it also arranges for single-file output if you pass
 150 a filename to \c{--html}; so \c{--html=myfile.html} is equivalent to
 151 \c{--html -Cxhtml-single-filename:myfile.html -Cxhtml-leaf-level:0}.
 152 (See \k{output} for explanations of all these configuration
 153 directives.)
 154
 155 In addition to these, there are also a few other options:
 156
 157 \dt \i\cw{--help}
 158
 159 \dd Print a brief help message and exit immediately. (Don't confuse
 160 this with \c{--winhelp}!)
 161
 162 \dt \i\cw{--version}
 163
 164 \dd Print information about Halibut's version number and exit
 165 immediately.
 166
 167 \dt \i\cw{--licence}
 168
 169 \dd Display Halibut's licence (see also \k{licence}) and exit
 170 immediately.
 171
 172 \dt \cw{--license}
 173
 174 \dd US English alternative spelling of \c{--licence}.
 175
 176 \dt \i\cw{--precise}
 177
 178 \dd Report column numbers as well as line numbers when reporting
 179 errors in the Halibut input files.