Chapter 5. The FreeBSD Documentation Build Process

This chapter covers organization of the documentation build process and how make(1) is used to control it.

5.1. Rendering AsciiDoc into Output

Different types of output can be produced from a single AsciiDoc source file.

FormatsFile TypeDescription

html

HTML

An article or book chapter.

pdf

PDF

Portable Document Format.

epub

EPUB

Electronic Publication. ePub file format.

5.1.1. Rendering to html

To render the documentation and the website to html use one of the following examples.

Example 1. Build the documentation
% cd ~/doc/documentation
% make
Example 2. Build the website
% cd ~/doc/website
% make
Example 3. Build the entire documentation project
% cd ~/doc
% make -j2

Advanced build examples are given below:

Example 4. Build English and Spanish documentation with verbose and debug messages
% cd ~/doc/documentation
% make DOC_LANG="en es" HUGO_ARGS="--verbose --debug"
Example 5. Build and serve the content with Hugo’s internal webserver
% cd ~/doc/documentation
% make run

This webserver runs on localhost, port 1313 by default.

To serve the content with Hugo’s internal webserver binding a specific IP address and port:

% make run BIND=192.168.15.10 HUGO_ARGS="-p 8080"

A hostname can also be set as base url to Hugo’s internal webserver:

% make run BIND=192.168.15.10 HOSTNAME=example.com
Example 6. Build documentation in html for offline usage
% cd ~/doc/documentation
% make html

To compress the html output, add DOC_HTML_ARCHIVE=1:

% cd ~/doc/documentation
% DOC_HTML_ARCHIVE=1 make html

5.1.2. Rendering to pdf

To render the documentation to pdf, use one of the following examples.

Example 7. Build all documents in pdf
% cd ~/doc/documentation
% make pdf
Example 8. Build all articles in pdf
% cd ~/doc/documentation
% make pdf-articles
Example 9. Build all books in pdf
% cd ~/doc/documentation
% make pdf-books
Example 10. Build documents in pdf for specific languages
% cd ~/doc/documentation
% make DOC_LANG="en" pdf

This will build all English documents in pdf.

% cd ~/doc/documentation
% make DOC_LANG="en fr" pdf-books

This will build all English and French books in pdf.

5.2. The FreeBSD Documentation Build Toolset

These are the tools used to build and install the FDP documentation.

  • The primary build tool is make(1), specifically Berkeley Make.

  • Hugo

  • AsciiDoctor

  • Git

5.3. Understanding the Makefile in the Documentation Tree

There are three Makefile files for building some or all of the documentation project.

  • The Makefile in the documentation directory will build only the documentation.

  • The Makefile in the website directory will build only the website.

  • The Makefile at the top of the tree will build both the documentation and the website.

The Makefile appearing in subdirectories also support make run to serve built content with Hugo’s internal webserver. This webserver runs on port 1313 by default.

5.3.1. Documentation Makefile

This Makefile takes the following form:

# Generate the FreeBSD documentation
#
# Copyright (c) 2020-2021, The FreeBSD Documentation Project
# Copyright (c) 2020-2021, Sergio Carlavilla <carlavilla@FreeBSD.org>
#
# Targets intended for use on the command line
#
# all (default)	-	generate the books TOC and compile all the documentation
# clean		- 	removes generated files
# run		-	serves the built documentation site for local browsing
# pdf		-	build PDF versions of the articles and books.
# html		-	build HTML versions of the articles and books for
#			offline use.
#			If variable DOC_HTML_ARCHIVE is set, all documents will be
#			archived/compressed, and only these files will be kept in the public
#			directory.
# epub		-	build EPUB versions of the articles and books (Experimental).
#
# The run target uses hugo's built-in webserver to make the documentation site
# available for local browsing.  The documentation should have been built prior
# to attempting to use the `run` target.  By default, hugo will start its
# webserver on port 1313.

MAINTAINER=carlavilla@FreeBSD.org (1)

# List of languages without book translations
ARTICLEONLY_LANGS=	bn-bd da ko tr
# List of languages without article translations
BOOKONLY_LANGS=		mn

# List of all languages we have content for
ALL_LANGUAGES=	bn-bd da de el en es fr hu it ja ko mn nl pl pt-br ru tr zh-cn zh-tw (2)

LOCALBASE?=	/usr/local

RUBY_CMD =	${LOCALBASE}/bin/ruby (3)
HUGO_CMD =	${LOCALBASE}/bin/hugo (4)
HUGO_ARGS?=	--verbose --minify
HUGO_OFFLINE_ARGS?= 	--environment offline --verbose --minify
ASCIIDOCTOR_CMD=	${LOCALBASE}/bin/asciidoctor
ASCIIDOCTORPDF_CMD=	${LOCALBASE}/bin/asciidoctor-pdf

.if defined(DOC_LANG) && !empty(DOC_LANG)
LANGUAGES=	${DOC_LANG:S/,/ /g}
.if  ${LANGUAGES:Men} == "" && ${.TARGETS:Mpdf*} == "" && ${.TARGETS:Mhtml*} == ""
.warning "Warning: cannot skip 'en'; adding it back"
LANGUAGES+=	en
.endif
.else
LANGUAGES=	${ALL_LANGUAGES}
.endif

RUBYLIB =	../shared/lib
.export	RUBYLIB

RUN_DEPENDS=	${HUGO_CMD} \
		${LOCALBASE}/bin/asciidoctor \
		${LOCALBASE}/bin/rougify

.ifndef HOSTNAME
.  ifdef BIND
.HOST=$(BIND)
.  else
.HOST=localhost
.  endif
.else
.HOST=$(HOSTNAME)
.endif

# Strip the languages with only articles from the list of languages we
#  will use to build books.
BOOK_LANGS= ${LANGUAGES}
.for a in ${ARTICLEONLY_LANGS}
BOOK_LANGS:=	${BOOK_LANGS:N${a}}
.endfor

# Strip the languages with only books from the list of languages we
#  will use to build articles.
ARTICLE_LANGS= ${LANGUAGES}
.for a in ${BOOKONLY_LANGS}
ARTICLE_LANGS:=	${ARTICLE_LANGS:N${a}}
.endfor

# Take the list of all languages, and take out the ones we have been
#   asked for.  We'll feed this to hugo.
SKIP_LANGS=
.for a in ${ALL_LANGUAGES}
.if  ${LANGUAGES:M${a}} == ""
SKIP_LANGS+=    ${a}
.endif
.endfor

.ORDER: all run (5)

.ORDER: requirements (6)
.ORDER: starting-message
.ORDER: starting-message build
.ORDER: build

all: requirements starting-message generate-pgpkeys-txt build
run: requirements starting-message generate-pgpkeys-txt run-local

# clean does not call pdf-clean as that is a subset of hugo-clean
clean: hugo-clean pgp-clean

requirements:
.for dep in ${RUN_DEPENDS}
.if !exists(${dep})
	@(echo ${dep} not found, please run 'pkg install docproj'; exit 1)
.endif
.endfor

requirements-pdf:
.if !exists(${LOCALBASE}/bin/asciidoctor-pdf)
	@(echo ${LOCALBASE}/bin/asciidoctor-pdf not found, please run 'pkg install rubygem-asciidoctor-pdf'; exit 1)
.endif

requirements-epub:
.if !exists(${LOCALBASE}/bin/asciidoctor-epub3)
	@(echo ${LOCALBASE}/bin/asciidoctor-epub3 not found, please run 'pkg install rubygem-asciidoctor-epub3'; exit 1)
.endif

starting-message: .PHONY (7)
	@echo ---------------------------------------------------------------
	@echo                   Building the documentation
	@echo  included languages: ${LANGUAGES}
	@echo  excluded languages: ${SKIP_LANGS}
	@echo ---------------------------------------------------------------

generate-pgpkeys-txt: static/pgpkeys/pgpkeys.txt

static/pgpkeys/pgpkeys.txt: static/pgpkeys/*key
	${RUBY_CMD} ./tools/global-pgpkeys-creator.rb

run-local: .PHONY (8)
	HUGO_DISABLELANGUAGES="${SKIP_LANGS}" ${HUGO_CMD} server \
		${HUGO_ARGS} -D $(BIND:D--bind=$(BIND)) --baseURL="http://$(.HOST):1313"

build: .PHONY (9)
	HUGO_DISABLELANGUAGES="${SKIP_LANGS}" ${HUGO_CMD} ${HUGO_ARGS}

build-offline: .PHONY
	HUGO_DISABLELANGUAGES="${SKIP_LANGS}" ${HUGO_CMD} ${HUGO_OFFLINE_ARGS}

pgp-clean: .PHONY
	rm -f static/pgpkeys/pgpkeys.txt

hugo-clean: .PHONY
	rm -rf resources public

#
# PDF targets
# Use DOC_LANG to choose the language, e.g., make DOC_LANG="en fr" pdf-books
#
pdf: pdf-articles pdf-books

pdf-books: requirements-pdf
.for _lang in ${BOOK_LANGS}
	./tools/asciidoctor.sh books ${_lang} pdf
.endfor

pdf-articles: requirements-pdf
.for _lang in ${ARTICLE_LANGS}
	./tools/asciidoctor.sh articles ${_lang} pdf
.endfor

pdf-clean: pdf-articles-clean pdf-books-clean

pdf-books-clean:
.for _lang in ${BOOK_LANGS}
	rm -fr ${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}/books
	-rmdir ${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}
.endfor
	-rmdir ${.CURDIR}/public/

pdf-articles-clean:
.for _lang in ${ARTICLE_LANGS}
	rm -fr ${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}/articles
.if !exists(${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}/books)
	rm -fr ${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}
.endif
.endfor
	-rmdir ${.CURDIR}/public

#
# HTML targets
#
html: build-offline html-clean-global html-clean-articles html-clean-books html-archive html-archive-clean-files

html-clean: hugo-clean

html-clean-global:
	rm -fr ${.CURDIR}/public/index.html
	rm -rf pgpkeys js

html-clean-articles:
.for _lang in ${ARTICLE_LANGS}
	rm -fr ${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}/index.html
	rm -fr ${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}/articles/index.html
.endfor

html-clean-books:
.for _lang in ${BOOK_LANGS}
	rm -fr ${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}/books/index.html
.endfor

html-archive:
.if defined(DOC_HTML_ARCHIVE)
.for _lang in ${ARTICLE_LANGS}
	./tools/asciidoctor.sh articles ${_lang} archive
.endfor
.for _lang in ${BOOK_LANGS}
	./tools/asciidoctor.sh books ${_lang} archive
.endfor
.endif

html-archive-clean-files:
.if defined(DOC_HTML_ARCHIVE)
	find ${.CURDIR}/public/ ! -name '*.pdf' ! -name '*.tar.gz' -type f -delete
	find ${.CURDIR}/public/ -type d -empty -delete
.endif

#
# EPUB targets
# Use DOC_LANG to choose the language, e.g., make DOC_LANG="en fr" epub-books
#
epub: epub-articles epub-books

epub-books: requirements-epub
	@echo ---------------------------------------------------------------
	@echo !!! EPUB output is experimental !!!
	@echo
	@echo Asciidoctor EPUB3 is currently alpha software. Use accordingly. Although the
	@echo bulk of AsciiDoc content is converted, there’s still work needed to fill in
	@echo gaps where conversion is incomplete or unstyled.
	@echo https://docs.asciidoctor.org/epub3-converter/latest/#project-status
	@echo ---------------------------------------------------------------
.for _lang in ${BOOK_LANGS}
	./tools/asciidoctor.sh books ${_lang} epub
.endfor

epub-articles: requirements-epub
	@echo ---------------------------------------------------------------
	@echo !!! EPUB output is experimental !!!
	@echo
	@echo Asciidoctor EPUB3 is currently alpha software. Use accordingly. Although the
	@echo bulk of AsciiDoc content is converted, there’s still work needed to fill in
	@echo gaps where conversion is incomplete or unstyled.
	@echo https://docs.asciidoctor.org/epub3-converter/latest/#project-status
	@echo ---------------------------------------------------------------
.for _lang in ${ARTICLE_LANGS}
	./tools/asciidoctor.sh articles ${_lang} epub
.endfor

epub-clean: epub-articles-clean epub-books-clean

epub-books-clean:
.for _lang in ${BOOK_LANGS}
	rm -fr ${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}/books
	-rmdir ${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}
.endfor
	-rmdir ${.CURDIR}/public/

epub-articles-clean:
.for _lang in ${ARTICLE_LANGS}
	rm -fr ${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}/articles
.if !exists(${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}/books)
	rm -fr ${.CURDIR}/public/${_lang}
.endif
.endfor
	-rmdir ${.CURDIR}/public
1The MAINTAINER flag specifies who is the maintainer of this Makefile.
2ALL_LANGUAGES flag specifies in which languages the table of contents has to be generated.
3RUBY_CMD flag specifies the location of the Ruby binary.
4HUGO_CMD flag specifies the location of the Hugo binary.
5.ORDER directives are used to ensure multiple make jobs may run without problem.
6all target builds the documentation and puts the result in ~/doc/documentation/public.
7starting-message shows a message in the CLI to show the user that the process is running.
8run-local runs hugo webserver on port 1313, or a random free port if that is already in use.
9build builds the documentation and puts the result in the ~/doc/documentation/public.

5.3.2. Website Makefile

This Makefile takes the form of:

# Generate the FreeBSD website
#
# Copyright (c) 2020-2021, The FreeBSD Documentation Project
# Copyright (c) 2020-2021, Sergio Carlavilla <carlavilla@FreeBSD.org>
#
# Targets intended for use on the command line
#
# all (default)	-	generate the releases.toml and compile all the website
# run	-			serves the built website for local browsing
#
# The run target uses hugo's built-in webserver to make the built website
# available for local browsing.  The website should have been built prior
# to attempting to use the `run` target.  By default, hugo will start its
# webserver on port 1313.

MAINTAINER=carlavilla@FreeBSD.org (1)

# List of all languages we have content for
ALL_LANGUAGES=	de el en es fr hu it ja nl ru tr zh-cn zh-tw

LOCALBASE?=	/usr/local

RUBY_CMD =	${LOCALBASE}/bin/ruby (2)
HUGO_CMD =	${LOCALBASE}/bin/hugo (3)
HUGO_ARGS?=	--verbose
RUBYLIB =	../shared/lib
.export	RUBYLIB

.ifndef HOSTNAME
.  ifdef BIND
.HOST=$(BIND)
.  else
.HOST=localhost
.  endif
.else
.HOST=$(HOSTNAME)
.endif

.if defined(DOC_LANG) && !empty(DOC_LANG)
LANGUAGES=      ${DOC_LANG:S/,/ /g}
.if  ${LANGUAGES:Men} == ""
.warning "Warning: cannot skip 'en'; adding it back"
LANGUAGES+=	en
.endif
.else
LANGUAGES=	${ALL_LANGUAGES}
.endif

# Take the list of all languages, and take out the ones we have been
#   asked for via DOC_LANG.  We'll feed this to hugo.
SKIP_LANGS=
.for a in ${ALL_LANGUAGES}
.if ${LANGUAGES:M${a}} == ""
SKIP_LANGS+=	${a}
.endif
.endfor

.ORDER: all run (4)

.ORDER: starting-message generate-releases
.ORDER: starting-message build
.ORDER: generate-releases build
.ORDER: build post-build
.ORDER: post-build end-message

all: starting-message generate-releases build post-build end-message (5)
run: starting-message generate-releases run-local
clean: hugo-clean releases-clean

starting-message: .PHONY (6)
	@echo "---------------------------------------------------------------"
	@echo "Building the website started on $$(date)"
	@echo " included languages: ${LANGUAGES}"
	@echo " excluded languages: ${SKIP_LANGS}"
	@echo "---------------------------------------------------------------"

end-message: .PHONY
	@echo "---------------------------------------------------------------"
	@echo "Building the website completed on $$(date)"
	@echo "---------------------------------------------------------------"

generate-releases: data/releases.toml (7)

data/releases.toml:
	${RUBY_CMD} ./tools/releases-toml.rb

run-local: .PHONY (8)
	HUGO_DISABLELANGUAGES="${SKIP_LANGS}" ${HUGO_CMD} server \
	    ${HUGO_ARGS} -D $(BIND:D--bind=$(BIND)) --baseURL="http://$(.HOST):1313"

build: .PHONY (9)
	HUGO_DISABLELANGUAGES="${SKIP_LANGS}" ${HUGO_CMD} ${HUGO_ARGS}

post-build: cgi-permissions

cgi-permissions:
	@chmod 555 ./public/cgi/*.cgi

hugo-clean:
	rm -fr public resources

releases-clean:
	rm -f data/releases.toml
1The MAINTAINER flag specifies who is the maintainer of this Makefile.
2RUBY_CMD flag specifies the location of the Ruby binary.
3HUGO_CMD flag specifies the location of the Hugo binary.
4.ORDER directives are used to ensure multiple make jobs may run without problem.
5all target builds the website and puts the result in ~/doc/website/public.
6starting-message shows a message in the CLI to show the user that the process is running.
7generate-releases calls the script used to convert from AsciiDoc variables to TOML variables. With this conversion, the releases variables can be used in AsciiDoc and in the Hugo custom templates.
8run-local runs hugo webserver on port 1313, or a random free port if that is already in use.
9build builds the website and puts the result in the ~/doc/website/public.

Last modified on: July 22, 2023 by Minsoo Choo