FreeBSD Documentation Project Primer for New Contributors

The FreeBSD Documentation Project

Revision: 42065
Copyright
Last modified on 2013-06-26 by wblock.
Abstract

Thank you for becoming a part of the FreeBSD Documentation Project. Your contribution is extremely valuable, and we appreciate it.

This primer covers details needed to start contributing to the FreeBSD Documentation Project, or FDP, including tools, software, and the philosophy behind the Documentation Project.

This is a work in progress. Corrections and additions are always welcome.


Table of Contents
Preface
1. Shell Prompts
2. Typographic Conventions
3. Notes, Tips, Important Information, Warnings, and Examples
4. Acknowledgments
1. Overview
1.1. The FreeBSD Documentation Set
1.2. Quick Start
2. Tools
2.1. Mandatory Tools
2.2. Optional Tools
3. XML Primer
3.1. Overview
3.2. Elements, Tags, and Attributes
3.3. The DOCTYPE Declaration
3.4. Escaping Back to SGML
3.5. Comments
3.6. Entities
3.7. Using Entities to Include Files
3.8. Marked Sections
3.9. Conclusion
4. XHTML Markup
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Formal Public Identifier (FPI)
4.3. Sectional Elements
4.4. Block Elements
4.5. In-line Elements
5. DocBook Markup
5.1. Introduction
5.2. FreeBSD Extensions
5.3. Formal Public Identifier (FPI)
5.4. Document Structure
5.5. Block Elements
5.6. In-line Elements
5.7. Images
5.8. Links
6. Stylesheets
6.1. CSS
7. Structuring Documents Under doc/
7.1. The Top Level, doc/
7.2. The lang.encoding/ Directories
7.3. Document Specific Information
8. The Documentation Build Process
8.1. The FreeBSD Documentation Build Toolset
8.2. Understanding Makefiles in the Documentation Tree
8.3. FreeBSD Documentation Project Make Includes
9. The Website
9.1. Preparation
9.2. Build the Web Pages
9.3. Install the Web Pages
9.4. Environment Variables
10. Translations
11. Writing Style
11.1. Tips
11.2. Guidelines
11.3. Style Guide
11.4. Word List
12. Using sgml-mode with Emacs
13. See Also
13.1. The FreeBSD Documentation Project
13.2. XML
13.3. HTML
13.4. DocBook
13.5. The Linux Documentation Project
A. Examples
A.1. DocBook book
A.2. DocBook article
A.3. Producing Formatted Output
List of Examples
1. A Sample Example
3.1. Using an Element (Start and End Tags)
3.2. Using an Element (Without Content)
3.3. Elements within Elements; em
3.4. Using An Element with An Attribute
3.5. Single Quotes Around Attributes
3.6. .profile, for sh(1) and bash(1) Users
3.7. .cshrc, for csh(1) and tcsh(1) Users
3.8. XML Generic Comment
3.9. Erroneous XML Comments
3.10. Defining General Entities
3.11. Defining Parameter Entities
3.12. Using General Entities to Include Files
3.13. Using Parameter Entities to Include Files
3.14. Structure of A Marked Section
3.15. Using a CDATA Marked Section
3.16. Using INCLUDE and IGNORE in Marked Sections
3.17. Using A Parameter Entity to Control a Marked Section
4.1. Normal XHTML Document Structure
4.2. h1, h2, and Other Header Tags
4.3. Bad Ordering of hn Elements
4.4. p
4.5. blockquote
4.6. ul and ol
4.7. Definition Lists with dl
4.8. pre
4.9. Simple Use of table
4.10. Using rowspan
4.11. Using colspan
4.12. Using rowspan and colspan Together
4.13. em and strong
4.14. tt
4.15. Using <a href="...">
4.16. Using <a id="...">
4.17. Linking to a Named Part of Another Document
4.18. Linking to a Named Part of the Same Document
5.1. Boilerplate book with bookinfo
5.2. Boilerplate article with articleinfo
5.3. A Simple Chapter
5.4. Empty Chapters
5.5. Sections in Chapters
5.6. para
5.7. blockquote
5.8. warning
5.9. itemizedlist, orderedlist, and procedure
5.10. programlisting
5.11. co and calloutlist
5.12. informaltable
5.13. Tables Where frame="none"
5.14. screen, prompt, and userinput
5.15. emphasis
5.16. Quotations
5.17. Keys, Mouse Buttons, and Combinations
5.18. Applications, Commands, and Options
5.19. filename
5.20. filename Tag with package Role
5.21. devicename
5.22. hostid and Roles
5.23. username
5.24. maketarget and makevar
5.25. literal
5.26. replaceable
5.27. errorname
5.28. id on Chapters and Sections
5.29. anchor
5.30. Using xref
5.31. Using link
5.32. ulink to a FreeBSD Documentation Web Page
5.33. ulink to a FreeBSD Web Page
5.34. ulink to an External Web Page
A.1. DocBook book
A.2. DocBook article
A.3. Converting DocBook to HTML (One Large File)
A.4. Converting DocBook to HTML (Several Small Files)
A.5. Converting DocBook to Postscript
A.6. Converting DocBook to PDF

This, and other documents, can be downloaded from http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/

For questions about FreeBSD, read the documentation before contacting <questions@FreeBSD.org>.

For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.