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J.1 Documentation

  1. I can't seem to format the TeXinfo manual for mpatrol into anything that I can view or print. What am I doing wrong?

    You'll need to have the appropriate document formatting programs installed on your system before you can do this, and even then you'll also need to have suitable software for viewing or printing the formatted documents. The mpatrol distribution should already contain the latest mpatrol manual in a variety of formats and should also contain a file telling you where to get programs that can be used to view or print these files. Alternatively, you can browse the latest mpatrol manual on-line at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpatrol/.

  2. I'd like to convert the mpatrol manual to a different documentation format but there is no support for that format in the Makefile. How would I go about doing this?

    Since TeXinfo is intended to be converted to other documentation formats it should be fairly easy for you to find a tool which will convert it into your desired format. Please note that I probably won't provide preformatted versions of the mpatrol manual in any other format which isn't already supported.

  3. Why is the reference card not centred in the middle of the page when I print it?

    The reference card has three columns in landscape format and as a result requires smaller margins than LaTeX normally uses. When dvips converts the DVI file to a postscript file it refers to a configuration file set up for a specific printer so that it knows what that printer's capabilities are. However, you can instruct dvips to offset the page by a given amount with the -O option so that it appears centred when printed. I find that -O -0.75in,0.25in works for me. Note that the default paper size for the reference card is DIN A4, but you can change it to US letter in the LaTeX source file.

  4. How do I install the mpatrol manual as a GNU info file?

    Assuming you have the GNU info file built and copied to your system's info file directory, you should use the install-info command to place an entry for mpatrol in your system's GNU info directory file, otherwise the GNU info reader may not be able to locate the mpatrol entry. You may also need to modify your INFOPATH environment variable if you installed the GNU info file in a non-standard place.

  5. How do I install the mpatrol manual pages?

    This is very system-dependent, but need only be done on UNIX systems since they cannot be used on other platforms. The unformatted manual pages exist in man/man1 and man/man3 and should be copied to your system's manual page directory. If you don't have the nroff, troff or groff commands installed on your system then you may also need to copy the formatted manual pages, located in man/cat1 and man/cat3. You may also need to modify your MANPATH environment variable if you installed the manual pages in a non-standard place, and some systems require you to update the whatis database after installing new manual pages, by running makewhatis, catman or equivalent.

    Alternatively, the mpatrol manual pages can be built in a variety of different documentation formats that can be viewed or printed without the need for a man command. If you have the correct tools installed on your system then you should be able to do this by examining the Makefile in the man directory. The mpatrol distribution should already contain the latest mpatrol manual pages in a variety of formats and should also contain a file telling you where to get programs that can be used to view or print these files.

  6. Why does the libmpatrol.3 manual page not display correctly when I view it with the man command?

    This is likely to be due to the tbl command not being run to process the tables when the man command displays the manual page. Many UNIX systems look at the first line of the manual page to see what filters to run the page through before it is displayed, but some systems do not recognise this and instead rely on an environment variable such as MANROFFSEQ to specify which filters are to be run. Look at the manual page for the man command on your system to find out more information.