DocKnot

Blurb

DocKnot is a static web site generator built around a macro language called thread, with special support for managing software releases. In addition to building a web site, it can generate distribution tarballs and 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 README) from the same source, using templates for consistency across multiple packages.

Description

In 1999, I wrote a program named spin that implemented an idiosyncratic macro language called thread. It slowly expanded into a static web site generator and gained additional features to manage the journal entries, book reviews, RSS feeds, and software releases. DocKnot is the latest incarnation.

In addition to its static web site generator, DocKnot can use one metadata file as its source information and generate all the various bits of documentation for a software package. This allows me to make any changes in one place and then 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 without having to remember track those changes in each package.

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 thread macro language is highly specialized for my personal web site. 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.

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:

Date::Language (part of TimeDate)
Date::Parse (part of TimeDate)
File::BaseDir
File::ShareDir
Git::Repository
Image::Size
IO::Compress::Xz (part of IO-Compress-Lzma)
IO::Uncompress::Gunzip (part of IO-Compress)
IPC::Run
IPC::System::Simple
JSON::MaybeXS 1.004000 or later
Kwalify
List::SomeUtils 0.07 or later
Path::Iterator::Rule
Path::Tiny 0.101 or later
Perl6::Slurp
Pod::Thread 3.01 or later
Sort::Versions
Template (part of Template Toolkit)
YAML::XS 0.81 or later

Building and Installation

DocKnot uses Module::Build and can be installed using the same process as any other Module::Build module:

    perl Build.PL
    ./Build
    ./Build install

You will have to run the last command as root unless you're installing into a local Perl module tree in your home directory.

Testing

DocKnot comes with a test suite, which you can run after building with:

    ./Build test

If a test fails, you can run a single test with verbose output via:

    ./Build test --test_files <path-to-test>

Capture::Tiny and File::Copy::Recursive are required to run the test suite. The following additional Perl modules will be used by the test suite if present:

Devel::Cover
Perl::Critic::Freenode
Test::CPAN::Changes (part of CPAN-Changes)
Test::MinimumVersion
Test::Perl::Critic
Test::Pod
Test::Pod::Coverage
Test::Spelling
Test::Strict
Test::Synopsis

All are available on CPAN. Those tests will be skipped if the modules are not available.

To enable tests that don't detect functionality problems but are used to sanity-check the release, set the environment variable RELEASE_TESTING to a true value. To enable tests that may be sensitive to the local environment or that produce a lot of false positives without uncovering many problems, set the environment variable AUTHOR_TESTING to a true value.

Support

The DocKnot web page will always have the current version of this package, the current documentation, and pointers to any additional resources.

For bug tracking, use the issue tracker on GitHub. Please be aware that I tend to be extremely busy and work projects often take priority. I'll save your report and get to it as soon as I can, but it may take me a couple of months.

Source Repository

DocKnot is maintained using Git. You can access the current source on GitHub or by cloning the repository at:

https://git.eyrie.org/git/web/docknot.git

or view the repository on the web.

The eyrie.org repository is the canonical one, maintained by the author, but using GitHub is probably more convenient for most purposes. Pull requests are gratefully reviewed and normally accepted.

License

The DocKnot package as a whole is covered by the following copyright statement and license:

Copyright 1999-2024 Russ Allbery rra@cpan.org

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Some files in this distribution are individually released under different licenses, all of which are compatible with the above general package license but which may require preservation of additional notices. All required notices, and detailed information about the licensing of each file, are recorded in the LICENSE file.

Files covered by a license with an assigned SPDX License Identifier include SPDX-License-Identifier tags to enable automated processing of license information. See https://spdx.org/licenses/ for more information.

For any copyright range specified by files in this package as YYYY-ZZZZ, the range specifies every single year in that closed interval.

rra/docknot