SGMLPRE(1)

💖 SGMLPRE(1) 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because today we're talking about sgmlpre — the little utility that handles SGML conditionalization for SGML-tools. it lives in section 1 of the manual, so yes, it's a user command, even if it's lowkey a behind-the-scenes gremlin. 🦋

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

sgmlpre [options] ...

that's it. that's the whole vibe. 🌸

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so this manual page gives you the brief lil rundown of the sgmlpre commands. and here's the tea: it was written specifically for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution because the original program literally does not ship with a manual page for sgmlpre. so someone had to step up. and they did. main character energy fr. 💅

sgmlpre is a program that handles SGML conditionalization for SGML-tools.

it gets used by other programs in sgml-tools (v1), which means usually a normal user does not need to use this program directly by themselves. it's a background bestie, not a front-and-center one. no cap. 🫶

what follows is quoted straight from the header in the source code. yes, we're citing our sources, we're academically honest in this house. 📚

(Begin Quotes) sgmlpre -- handle SGML conditionalization for SGML-tools by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>, 3 Nov 1997 Filter SGML according to conditionalizing markup. Argument/value pairs from the command line are matched against the attributes of <#if> and <#unless> tags. Spans between <#if>/</#if> are passed through unaltered if there is no attribute mismatch; spans between <#unless></#unless> are passed if there is at least one attribute mismatch. An attribute mismatch happens if an attribute occurs in both the command-line arguments and the tag, but the values do not match. Value matching is by string equality, except that "|" is interpreted as an alternation character. Even if a span is not passed through, its newlines are (this to avoid messing up the line numbers in error messages). This lexer requires flex. Limitations; attribute names may only be 256 chars long, values may be only 16384 (YY_BUF_SIZE) characters long. Doesn't do checking that only </if> matches <if> and </unless> matches <unless> (that would need a stack and introduce another limit). (End Quotes)

so yeah. the way that <#if> and <#unless> tags work is honestly kind of iconic once it clicks. 💡 and yes, the 256-char attribute names and 16384-char values are hard limits, not suggestions. and it does not check that </if> only matches <if> and </unless> only matches <unless> — the header is very clear that doing that would need a stack and would introduce yet another limit. so it just... doesn't. periodt. 💀

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

okay so about flags. the program does not support normal command line options. that's the whole section. it's giving minimalism, it's giving "i simply do not do that." 🙈

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• for a complete description, see the header in the source archive. that's where the real lore lives. go read it bestie. 📖

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

sgmlpre was written by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>, 3 Nov 1997. a legend, honestly. ⭐

this manual page was written by Taketoshi Sano <sano@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others — sharing is caring, we love a generous license vibe 💖).

currently maintained by Agustin Martin <agustin6martin AT gmail com>. keeping the dream alive fr fr. 🌸

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and that's a wrap, bestie!! 🎀 this page is from the General Commands Manual, source and version SGMLPRE(1), dated 1997-11-03. go forth and conditionalize responsibly. slay. 💅✨🦋