DTHELPTAG(1)

📦
version 2.5.3 · 2 versions
, in nixos 26.05

💖 NAME 💖

okay so this is DTHELPTAG(1), aka dthelptag(user cmd) in the header — and the command is dthelptag, the CDE Help System compiler bestie who translates HelpTag source markup into the online distribution format suitable for runtime display. slay 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

dthelptag [options]  [file]  [parser-options]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Note: This utility has been superseded by the dtdocbook utility, which converts source documents that conform to the DocBook 2.2.1 DTD (Document Type Definition) subelement PART to documents that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.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

The following options are available:

  • -verbose — will cause dthelptag to generate and display parser messages during processing.
  • -formal — 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 — eliminates certain optimizations that normally take place during translation of HelpTag markup to the runtime format. Using this option speeds the translation process.
  • -clean — causes dthelptag to simply remove any intermediate files from the current directory. No translation takes place.
  • -debug — 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 — causes a list of files referenced in the translation process to be emitted to the standard output. No translation takes place.
  • -help — causes dthelptag to emit a synopsis of the dthelptag command line and a list of options to the standard output.
  • -decompress — causes dthelptag to decompress a previously created .sdl file. When this option is specified, the default input extension is .sdl.
  • -compress — 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.

🌈 Parser Options 🌈

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:

  1. The file helptag.opt in the dthelptag installation directory. This directory defaults to /nix/store/6waxpwr8lzfzc9ka48gl7yh60rqvlkdb-cde-2.5.3/bin.
  2. The environment variable DTTAGOPT.
  3. The file helptag.opt in the current directory.
  4. The file file.opt in the current directory.
  5. 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 than once and the list of directories to search is accumulated.
  • clearsearch — clears the list of directories searched for file and image entities.
  • memo — 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.
and yes, longfiles really shows up twice in the original list — I'm not gaslighting you, bestie 💀

🦋 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🦋

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.

🧚 International Code Set Support 🧚

Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.

👑 INPUT FILES 👑

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.

💅 OUTPUT FILES 💅

Following are the input files used by the dthelptag parser:

yes, the original really says "input files" here under OUTPUT FILES — I'm just the messenger, bestie 💀
  • file.sdl — runtime help volume.
  • file.err — run log and error listing.

🔥 EXTENDED DESCRIPTION 🔥

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.

⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

The following exit values are returned:

  • 0 — successful completion.
  • 1 — an error was detected in the source file.
  • 2 — an invocation error was detected.

🌈 CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS 🌈

Default.

🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

  • dthelptag -clean myFile.htg — remove all files previously generated by processing a source file of myFile.htg.
  • dthelptag myFile.htg onerror=go — process the file myFile.htg, not stopping even if there are syntax errors.
  • dthelptag myFile.htg — process the file myFile.htg.

🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

okay that's the whole page, bestie! footer vibes: it's literally dthelptag(user cmd) — no extra source/version/date line hiding down here, so consider this your cute sign-off 💖✨🫶

📦 where this page comes from