view release on metacpan or  search on metacpan

t/data/spin/input/software/docknot/index.th  view on Meta::CPAN

         [Debian packages] \break
    \link[https://archives.eyrie.org/software/ARCHIVE/App-DocKnot/]
         [Archive]

    \h2[Documentation]

    \link[readme.html][General overview] \break
    \link[news.html][Change summary] \break
    \link[docknot.html][docknot manual page]

    \h2[Development]

    \link[todo.html][To-do list] \break
    \link[https://github.com/rra/docknot]
         [GitHub] \break
    \link[https://github.com/rra/docknot/issues]
         [Bug tracker] \break
    \link[https://git.eyrie.org/?p=devel/docknot.git]
         [Git repository] \break
    \link[https://metacpan.org/release/App-DocKnot]
         [MetaCPAN] \break
    \link[https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/docknot]
         [Debian package tracker]
]

\h2[Blurb]

DocKnot is a system for generating consistent human-readable software
package documentation from a YAML metadata file and templates.  The goal
is to generate both web pages and distributed documentation files (such as
\code[README]) from the same source, using templates for consistency
across multiple packages.  DocKnot also automates generating distribution
tarballs for software packages.

\h2[Description]

After years of maintaining a variety of small free software packages, I
found the most tedious part of making a new release was updating the
documentation in multiple locations.  Copyright dates would change,
prerequisites and package descriptions would change, and I had to update
at least the package \code[README] file and its web pages separately.  The
last straw was when GitHub became popular and I wanted to provide a
Markdown version of \code[README] as well, avoiding the ugly text
rendering on the GitHub page for a package.

This package uses one metadata file as its source information and
generates all the various bits of documentation for a package.  This
allows me to make any changes in one place and then just regenerate the
web page, included documentation, and other files to incorporate those
changes.  It also lets me make changes to the templates to improve shared
wording and push that out to every package I maintain during its next
release, without having to remember which changes I wanted to make.

DocKnot is also slowly absorbing other tools that I use for software
distribution and web site maintenance, such as generating distribution
tarballs for software packages.

DocKnot was designed and written for my personal needs, and I'm not sure
it will be useful for anyone else.  At the least, the template files are
rather specific to my preferences about how to write package
documentation, and the web page output is in my personal thread language
as opposed to HTML.  I'm not sure if I'll have the time to make it a more
general tool.  But you're certainly welcome to use it if you find it
useful, send pull requests to make it more general, or take ideas from it
for your own purposes.

Currently included in this package are just the App::DocKnot module and
its submodules, a small docknot driver program, and the templates I use
for my own software.  Over time, it may include more of my web publishing
framework, time permitting.

\h2[Requirements]

Perl 5.24 or later and Module::Build are required to build this module.
The following additional Perl modules are required to use it:

\bullet(packed)[File::BaseDir]
\bullet(packed)[File::ShareDir]
\bullet(packed)[IO::Compress::Xz (part of IO-Compress-Lzma)]
\bullet(packed)[IO::Uncompress::Gunzip (part of IO-Compress)]
\bullet(packed)[IPC::Run]
\bullet(packed)[IPC::System::Simple]
\bullet(packed)[JSON::MaybeXS]
\bullet(packed)[Kwalify]
\bullet(packed)[List::SomeUtils]
\bullet(packed)[Perl6::Slurp]
\bullet(packed)[Template (part of Template Toolkit)]
\bullet(packed)[YAML::XS]

\h2[Download]

The distribution:

\table[][
    \program[DocKnot][docknot]
        [devel/App-DocKnot-\version[docknot]]
]

An \link[https://archives.eyrie.org/software/ARCHIVE/App-DocKnot/]
[archive of older releases] is also available.

DocKnot is packaged for Debian as docknot.  See the
\link[https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/docknot][Debian package tracker] for
more information.

DocKnot is available from CPAN as the
\link[https://metacpan.org/release/App-DocKnot] [App-DocKnot
distribution].

DocKnot is maintained using the Git version control system.  To check out
the current development tree, see
\link[https://github.com/rra/docknot][GitHub] or clone:

\pre[    https://git.eyrie.org/git/devel/docknot.git]

Pull requests on GitHub are welcome.  You can also
\link[https://git.eyrie.org/?p=devel/docknot.git][browse the current
development source].

\h2[Documentation]