dthelptag — compile CDE Help source documents into
runtime Help volumes
dthelptag [options] [file]
[parser-options]
Note:
This utility has been superseded by the dtdocbook utility,
which converts source documents that conform to the DocBook 2.2.1 DTD
(Document Type Definition) subelement PART to documents that conform to the
SDL 1.2 DTD. The converted DocBook documents are readable by the DtHelp
viewer.
The dthelptag utility is the CDE Help System compiler for
translating HelpTag source markup into the online distribution format
suitable for runtime display. See the CDE Help System Author's and
Programmer's Guide for a description of the HelpTag markup
language. See dthelpview(1) for more information on
previewing compiled Help volumes.
The dthelptag utility accepts a single file name as an
argument. If the file name contains a period (``.''), any characters after
the last period are considered to be the extension. The dthelptag
utility removes all characters after the last period and uses the resulting
name as the base name for all intermediate files and for the final output
files.
If the file argument has no periods, dthelptag uses
the argument as the base name for intermediate and output files and assumes
an extension of .htg, .ctg or .sdl for the input file.
The .ctg extension is assumed when the -formal option
described below is used. The .sdl extension is assumed when the
-compress or -decompress option (described later in this
document) is used.
Several options to dthelptag may precede the file name.
Several arguments directing the parsing phase of the dthelptag
process may follow the file name.
The output file is: file.sdl - the compiled help volume
file.
The following options are available:
- -verbose
- The -verbose option will cause dthelptag to generate and
display parser messages during processing.
- -formal
- The -formal option causes dthelptag to accept a subset of
the HelpTag language that is strictly compliant to canonical SGML. (See
the CDE Help System Author's and Programmer's Guide.) When
this option is given, the default extension of the input file becomes
.ctg.
- -nooptimize
- The -nooptimize option eliminates certain optimizations that
normally take place during translation of HelpTag markup to the runtime
format. Using this option speeds the translation process.
- -clean
- The -clean option causes dthelptag to simply remove any
intermediate files from the current directory. No translation takes
place.
- -debug
- The -debug option causes dthelptag to leave all intermediate
files in the current directory. The -debug option also blocks the
compression step of dthelptag, leaving the resulting .sdl
output file in a human-readable form.
- -files
- The -files option causes a list of files referenced in the
translation process to be emitted to the standard output. No translation
takes place.
- -help
- The -help option causes dthelptag to emit a synopsis of the
dthelptag command line and a list of options to the standard
output.
- -decompress
- The -decompress option causes dthelptag to decompress a
previously created .sdl file. When this option is specified, the
default input extension is .sdl.
- -compress
- The -compress option causes dthelptag to compress a
.sdl file that either was created by translating a .htg or
.ctg file using the -debug option or was previously
decompressed using the -decompress option. When this option is
specified, the default input extension is .sdl.
Any parser options follow the file argument on the
command line and take the form option=value for those options taking
an argument and simply option for those options not taking an
argument. Parser options may also be set in the environment variable
DTTAGOPT, in a helptag.opt file or in a file named
file.opt in the current directory. The helptag.opt file
may reside in the current directory or in the directory in which
dthelptag is placed.
The order of precedence of the option settings is:
- •
- The file helptag.opt in the dthelptag installation
directory. This directory defaults to /usr/local/dt/bin.
- •
- The environment variable DTTAGOPT.
- •
- The file helptag.opt in the current directory.
- •
- The file file.opt in the current directory.
- •
- The command line.
Parser options set later in the list override options set
earlier.
The parser options supported by dthelptag are:
- onerror=go
- Cause errors to be non-fatal. That is, parsing continues and later phases
of the dthelptag process are run even if syntax errors were
encountered.
- onerror=stop
- This is the default setting of the onerror= option. It causes the
dthelptag process to stop upon completion of the parser phase if
syntax errors were encountered during the parse.
- charset=name
- The default character set used by the help system is ISO8859-1. A
different character set may be specified, for example, name, using
the charset= option. The character set may also be set in the
helplang.ent file described in the CDE Help System Author's and
Programmer's Guide.
- search=path
- Specifies one or more directory path(s) to be searched when
executing dthelptag. Both dthelptag input files and/or
additional graphics or entity declaration files referenced within the
HelpTag markup can be made accessible by setting this option. The
search= option may be specified more that once and the list of
directories to search is accumulated.
- clearsearch
- Clears the list of directories searched for file and image entities.
- memo
- The memo option causes authors' comments to be included in the
output.
- nomemo
- Specifies the inverse of the memo option. Both memo and
nomemo may be specified, but the last entry will override any
previous setting.
- shortfiles
- Neither the shortfiles parser-option nor any of its synonyms
should be used. Rather, the -shortfiles option should be given as
an option to dthelptag. The dthelptag driver needs to
know whether the user has requested short file names since
dthelptag must know the names of the intermediate files.
- shortfile
- This is a synonym for shortfiles.
- short
- This is a synonym for shortfiles.
- longfiles
- This option and any of its synonyms should not be used for the same reason
that the shortfiles option should not be used.
- longfiles
- Long, untruncated file names are the default.
- longfile
- This is a synonym for longfiles.
- long
- This is a synonym for longfiles.
LANG determines the language in which the input file
is interpreted. The LANG environment variable can be overridden in
the helplang.ent file described in the CDE Help System Author's
and Programmer's Guide.
DTTAGOPT may be used to set parser options.
Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.
Following are the input files used by the dthelptag
parser:
- file.htg
- Default input file.
- file.ctg
- Default input file when the -formal option has been specified.
- file.st
- Status file and log.
- helplang.ent
- Character set information and localizable replacement text.
- helptag.opt
- Option file.
Following are the input files used by the dthelptag
parser:
- file.sdl
- Runtime help volume
- file.err
- Run log and error listing
The dthelptag utility is a driver program that executes two
phases of the compilation process. The first phase translates the source
markup into the distribution format. The second phase enhances the
distribution file by precomputing information such as a list of identifiers
in the file and their locations. These precomputations, along with several
optimizations, enable rapid runtime display of the file. The second phase of
the translation process also compresses the distribution file to reduce file
system space required to store the file.
The following exit values are returned:
- 0
- Successful completion.
- 1
- An error was detected in the source file.
- 2
- An invocation error was detected.
dthelpview(1), CDE Help System Author's
and Programmer's Guide.