ossp-pkg/shtool/shtool.pod
##
## shtool.pod -- Manual Page for shtool in POD format
## Copyright (c) 1999-2008 Ralf S. Engelschall <rse@engelschall.com>
##
## This file is part of shtool and free software; you can redistribute
## it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
## License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version
## 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
##
## This file is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
## but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
## General Public License for more details.
##
## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
## along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
## Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307,
## USA, or contact Ralf S. Engelschall <rse@engelschall.com>.
##
=pod
=head1 NAME
B<GNU shtool> - The GNU Portable Shell Tool
=head1 VERSION
GNU shtool SHTOOL_VERSION_STR
=head1 SYNOPSIS
B<shtool>
[ I<global_options> ]
I<command>
[ I<command_options> ]
[ I<command_args> ]
=head1 DESCRIPTION
B<GNU shtool> is a compilation of small but very stable and portable shell
scripts into a single shell tool. All ingredients were in successful use over
many years in various free software projects. The compiled B<shtool> script is
intended to be used inside the source tree of those free software packages.
There it can take over various (usually non-portable) tasks related to the
building and installation of such packages.
=head1 GLOBAL OPTIONS
The following I<global options> are available for B<shtool>. Any I<command>s
are ignored if one of them is present on the B<shtool> command line.
=over 4
=item B<-h>, B<--help>
Displays a short help page describing the usage of B<shtool> and it's
ingredient I<command>s in a compact way.
=item B<-v>, B<--version>
Displays the version number of B<shtool>.
=item B<-d>, B<--debug>
Displays shell trace messages for debugging purposes.
=item B<-r>, B<--recreate>
Recreate the B<shtool> script with its own individual shtoolize(1) call.
=back
=head1 COMMANDS
The following I<command>s are provided by B<shtool>. They are all called
via "C<shtool> I<command>". Any command options I<command_opts> and
arguments I<command_args> are specific to the particular I<command> and
are described in the corresponding manual page B<shtool_>I<command>(1).
The commands are listed here sorted by topic, i.e., related commands are
listed side-by-side.
=over 16
=item B<echo>
echo(1) style print command providing special expansion constructs (terminal
bold mode, environment details, date) and newline control.
=item B<mdate>
Pretty-printing of the last modification time of a file or directory.
=item B<table>
Pretty-printing a field-separated list as a two-dimensional table.
=item B<prop>
Displaying of a processing indication though a running terminal
character propeller.
=item B<move>
mv(1) style command for renaming/moving multiple files at once and
allowing source files just to be deleted if contents did not change.
=item B<install>
install(1) style command for installing a program, script or data file
in a portable way.
=item B<mkdir>
mkdir(1) style command providing support for automatical parent
directory creation, directory permission control and smart skipping if
directory already exists.
=item B<mkln>
ln(1) style command providing automatic calculation and usage of relative
links if possible.
=item B<mkshadow>
Creation of a shadow filesystem tree by the help of symbolic links.
=item B<fixperm>
Fixing of file permissions in a source tree by cleaning up the
permission bits.
=item B<rotate>
Rotate a logfile.
=item B<tarball>
Roll standardized distribution tarballs.
=item B<subst>
Apply sed(1) substitution operations.
=item B<platform>
Determines platform identification information.
=item B<arx>
Extended archive command which can even put existing archives into an archive.
=item B<slo>
Separate linker options by library class.
=item B<scpp>
An additional C source file pre-processor for sharing cpp(1) code, internal
variables and internal functions.
=item B<version>
Maintain a version information file in either Text, C/C++, Perl or Python.
format.
=item B<path>
Deal with shell path variables.
=back
=head1 SEE ALSO
shtoolize(1), shtool-arx(1), shtool-echo(1), shtool-fixperm(1),
shtool-install(1), shtool-mdate(1), shtool-mkdir(1), shtool-mkln(1),
shtool-mkshadow(1), shtool-move(1), shtool-path(1), shtool-platform(1),
shtool-prop(1), shtool-rotate(1), shtool-scpp(1), shtool-slo(1),
shtool-subst(1), shtool-table(1), shtool-tarball(1), shtool-version(1).
=head1 HISTORY
Some scripts contained in GNU B<shtool> were already written in 1994 by
I<Ralf S. Engelschall> for use inside some private source trees. Then
they evolved into more elaborated versions over the years and were used
in various free software projects like ePerl, WML, iSelect, gFONT, etc.
They were complemented with other scripts from the author which he wrote
in March 1998 for the ``Apache Autoconf-style Interface'' (APACI) for
Apache 1.3. In April 1999 the B<shtool> package was created out of the
accumulated master versions of the scripts and in June 1999 it entered
the status of an official GNU program and this way finally joined the
group of GNU B<autoconf>, GNU B<automake> and GNU B<libtool>.
=head1 AUTHOR
Ralf S. Engelschall
rse@engelschall.com
www.engelschall.com
=cut
