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3. Getting Started with DocBook

This section covers the new method of writing LDP documentation, using the DocBook 3.1 DTD. We'll cover getting, installing, and using tools, along with an introduction to DocBook tags. Since there are over 300 DocBook tags, we won't cover them all here. Really interested readers can go to http://www.docbook.org for more information.

3.1 For New Authors

If you are a new to the LDP and want to pick up an unmaintained HOWTO or write a new HOWTO or mini-HOWTO document, contact the HOWTO coordinator at ldp-discuss@lists.linuxdoc.org. This is to make sure the HOWTO coordinator can know who is working on what documentation. Also note that all HOWTO submissions must be in SGML format (using DocBook or LinuxDoc DTD). The mini-HOWTO submissions may be made in either SGML or HTML formats, but only SGML-formatted submissions will be included in printed versions of the HOWTOs.

3.2 Mailing Lists

There are a few mailing lists to subscribe to so you can take part in how the LDP works. First is ldp-discuss@lists.linuxdoc.org, which is the main discussion group of the LDP. To subscribe, send a message with the subject reading "subscribe" to ldp-discuss-request@lists.linuxdoc.org. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail with the subject of "unsubscribe" to ldp-discuss-request@lists.linuxdoc.org.

3.3 Downloading and installing the tools

sgmltools

Unlike previous versions of sgmltools, you will require sgmltools version 2.x for use with DocBook. Since the backend programs have all changed, you'll also need to forget the sgml2xxx style of programs (sorry). Since most major distributions ship with sgml 1.x, you'll need to remove the sgml 1.x package and install either a 2.0 version, or a CVS version.

To get the latest CVS source code version, you can use the following set of commands:

CVSROOT=:pserver:cvs@cvs.sgmltools.org:/home/cvs
export CVSROOT
cvs login
cvs -z6 get sgmltools

The CVS password is 'cvs'.

Once downloaded, You can just use ./compile, make, and make install to install sgmltools.

For RedHat-based systems (using RPM) you can use the rpmfind command to get the latest sgmltools. The rpmfind program is available at http://www.rpmfind.net/. Make sure you get sgmltools and not sgml-tools, as the latter is sgml-tools 1.0.9.

For Debian-based systems, apt-get will retrieve the right package for you:

# apt-get install sgmltools

As with the RedHat, be sure to get sgmltools and not sgml-tools.


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