--- name: "wml" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "wml" version: "2.32.0~ds1-1" release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/wml" --- # wml(1) Website META Language ## NAME WML - Website META Language ## VERSION 2\.32.0 ## SYNOPSIS **wml** \[**-I** *PATH*\] \[**-i** *PATH*\] \[**-D** *NAME***=***STR*\] \[**-D** *NAME***~***PATH*\] \[**-n**\] \[**-r**\] \[**-O** *level*\] \[**-o** \[*SLICETERM*`":"`\]*PATH*\[**@***CHMODOPT*\]\] \[**-P** *PATH*\] \[**-E** *PATH*\] \[**-t**\] \[**-p** *STR*\] \[**-W** *STR*\] \[**-s**\] \[**-v** \[*NUM*\]\] \[**-q**\] \[*inputfile*\] **wml** \[**-V** \[*NUM*\]\] \[**-h**\] ## DESCRIPTION This is the control program of the *Website META Language* (WML), a free HTML generation toolkit for Unix, internally consisting of 9 independent languages. The main idea of WML is a sequential filtering scheme where each language provides one of 9 processing passes. So *wml* reads *inputfile* (or from *stdin* if *inputfile* is a dash or completely missing), applies passes 1-9 (or only the passes specified by **-p**) and finally produces one or more *outputfile*s. For more details on this processing scheme read the *WML Introduction* under [**wml\_intro**(7)](/wml_intro/7.md) and the *WML Tutorial* under [**wml\_tutorial**(7)](/wml_tutorial/7.md). ## OPTIONS - **-I**, **--include=***PATH* Adds a *directory* to the list of user include paths. Use this option to set the runtime environment for pass 1. See [**wml\_p1\_ipp**(1)](/wml_p1_ipp/1.md) for more details. - **-i**, **--includefile=***PATH* Pre-loads a particular include *file*, i.e. virtually adds a ``` #include "PATH" ``` at the top of *inputfile*. Use this to automatically include default user include files. If you want to include a systems include file you have to surround the *PATH* with angle brackets, for instance use \`\``"-i"` `""`'' to include the file *foo/bar.wml* from the system include area. Alternatively you can use the special syntax \`\``"wml::foo::bar"`'' as with the `"#use"` directive. - **-D**, **--define=***NAME***=***STR* Defines a variable which can be interpolated in pass 1 (IPP) via `"$(NAME)"`, in pass 2 (mp4h) via \<`"get-var NAME"`\>, in pass 3 (ePerl) via `"<:=$NAME:>"` and in pass 4 (GNU m4) via `"m4_NAME"`. A special variant **--define=***NAME***=UNDEF** does the opposite, it deletes previous definitions (which may be different than undefining these variables, e.g. with system defined variables). - **-D**, **--define=***NAME***~***PATH* Similar to the above but defines a variable holding a pathname which is autoadjusted (see below). It can be interpolated in the same ways as the `"NAME=STR"` variant from above. - **-n**, **--noshebang** This forces WML to ignore a possibly contained shebang line in *inputfile*. This is usually used by WMk, because WMk already parsed this line and supplied the options to WML. - **-r**, **--norcfile** This forces WML to ignore all *.wmlrc* files. - **-c**, **--nocd** When WML processes an input file from another directory, it jumps into that directory before parsing *.wmlrc* files, and jump back to current directory after. If this option is set, no directory change is made and *.wmlrc* files are read reative to current working directory. - **-O**, **--optimize=***NUM* This is the optimization option which is passed directly to pass 8 (*htmlfix*). It controls the amount of optimization/stripping which is applied to the generated HTML markup code. - **-o**, **--outputfile=***SLICETERM***:***outputfile*\[**@***CHMODOPT*\] This redirects the output to a file. Usually the whole file will be send to *stdout* (same as `"ALL:-"`). You can use this option more than once to output to more than one file while using the *SLICETERM* as a set theory term of slices to determine which contents will be included into each particular output file. The optional *CHMODOPT* is intended for specifying options for a finally applied *chmod* command. For instance use \`\``"u+x"`'' to create a file with the execution bit set (Apache's XBitHack feature). See [**slice**(1)](/slice/1.md) for more details. - **-P**, **--prolog=***PATH* Runs an prolog filter over the input file. This program receives the data to act on as STDIN and has to produce the filtered data on STDOUT. - **-E**, **--epilog=***PATH* Runs an epilogue program over the finally resulting output files. Currently the following WML-specific programs are known: *htmlinfo*, *linklint*, *tidy* and *weblint*. But you can specify any program which is available in your `"PATH"`. This program receives the file to act on as its first command line argument. Notice that output is not redirected to this file, so you have to use a wrapper or program specific flags if you want to modify output files. - **-t**, **--settime** This sets the modification time of all output files to the modification time of *intputfile* plus 1 second. This is useful because Webservers will generate `"Last-Modified"` headers and there the editing time is more important than the generation time. The 1 second offset is for the dependencies of Makefiles. - **-M**, **--depend**\[**=***OPTIONS*\] Output a rule suitable for \`make' describing the dependencies of each output file, as \`gcc' does. It has only sense when the **-o** option is used. No processing is done except for the first pass. The **D** flag option writes the rule to a dependency file. The name of this file is obtained by replacing the suffix of the output file by ".d". The **M** flag option deletes the system files from the list of dependencies. - **-p**, **--pass=***STR* Specifies which of the passes described above are actually applied under runtime. The argument *STR* is a comma-separated list of pass numbers with one special case: You can write `"X-Y"` for all passes `"X...Y"`. When pass 9 is not part of *STR* the resulting output is written to *STDOUT*. Default is the string \`\``"1-9"`''. - **-W**, **--passoption=***NUM*,*STR* Set option *STR* for the pass *NUM*. - **-s**, **--safe** This disables some Perl hacks inside WML which speedup processing by reducing the forking overhead when running the various passes. Without this option WML pre-compiles the passes 1,5,6,7,8 (which are written in Perl!) into a different namespace of the currently running Perl interpreter instead of running them externally via `"system()"`. The effect is that these programs are run from within the same Perl interpreter thus saving five CPU- and time-intensive `"fork()"`'s. The actual gain is between 2 and 4 seconds of processing time. Although experience showed that it works great, the theoretical problem still is, that this approach is somewhat risky due to internal Perl variable conflicts. Use this option to disable these speedups by forcing WML to use the safe `"fork()"` approach. - **-v**, **--verbose**\[**=***NUM*\] This sets verbose mode (from 1 to 9) where some processing information will be given on the console. Useful for debugging. This option also gets passed to some of the filtering programs. Default is no verbosity and just **-v** means **-v1**. - **-q**, **--quiet** This sets quiet mode where the processing prop is no longer displayed. Use this option when running *wml* as a batch job. This option is automatically forced when *inputfile* is missing. Then WML automatically reads from *stdin* in quiet mode. - **-V**, **--version**\[**=***NUM*\] Gives the version identification string and disclaimer (no *NUM* or *NUM* \>= 1), the WML build information (*NUM* \>= 2) and the Perl build information (*NUM* \>= 3). Use this option to get a brief description of your installed WML system, especially when reporting bugs to the author. - **-h**, **--help** Prints the usage summary page. ## ENVIRONMENT ### DEFINED VARIABLES The following variables are always defined by *wml* under runtime and are usually interpolated via \<`"get-var NAME"`\> inside Pass 2 and via `$NAME` in Pass 3. - WML\_SRC\_DIRNAME The current working directory from where *wml* was started. An absolute Unix filesystem path. - WML\_SRC\_FILENAME The name of the *inputfile* from the command line. Useful when running *wml* on a bulk of files and includefiles have to determine in which they are included. - WML\_SRC\_BASENAME The basename of the *inputfile*, i.e. the `"WML_SRC_FILENAME"`, but with the extension already stripped. - WML\_SRC\_TIME The last modification time of *inputfile* in `"time()"` format. Useful inside footers when customized date format is needed. - WML\_SRC\_CTIME The last modification time of *inputfile* in `"ctime()"` format. Useful inside footers include files. - WML\_SRC\_ISOTIME The last modification time of *inputfile* in ISO `"yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss"` format. Useful inside footers include files. - WML\_SRC\_USERNAME The Unix username of the user who own *inputfile*. - WML\_SRC\_REALNAME The realname of the user who own *inputfile*. - WML\_GEN\_TIME The current time of generation in `"time()"` format. Useful inside footers when customized date format is needed. - WML\_GEN\_CTIME The current time of generation in `"ctime()"` format. Useful inside footers include files. - WML\_GEN\_ISOTIME The current time of generation in ISO `"yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss"` format. Useful inside footers include files. - WML\_GEN\_USERNAME The Unix username of the user who runs the *wml* process. - WML\_GEN\_REALNAME The realname of the user who runs the *wml* process. - WML\_GEN\_HOSTNAME The name of the host on which the *wml* command runs. - WML\_LOC\_PREFIX The location prefix where WML was installed to at built time. - WML\_LOC\_BINDIR The directory where WML's binaries were installed to at built time. - WML\_LOC\_LIBDIR The directory where WML's library files were installed to at built time. - WML\_LOC\_MANDIR The directory where WML's manual pages were installed to at built time. - WML\_VERSION The version identification string of WML. Use this for instance in HTML comments inside header includes to identify the generation tools version. ### USED VARIABLES - "WMLOPTS" This variable can contain a string of options. Usually this is used by Bourne-Shell users like ``` $ WMLOPTS="-DNAME1=VALUE2 -DNAME2=VALUE2" $ export WMLOPTS ``` and by C-Shell users like ``` $ setenv WMLOPTS "-DNAME1=VALUE2 -DNAME2=VALUE2" ``` to make sure some variables are defined for all runs of *wml*. - "PAGER" This variable contains the pager WML is to use. WML uses a pager when called with the **--verbose=***NUM* or **-v***NUM* option respectively and *NUM* is 3 or higher and therefore showing the processed data after each pass. Default is 'more'. - "TMPDIR" This variable contains the directory WML stores its temporary files in. Default is '/tmp'. ## USER FILES - *$HOME/.wmlrc* and *(../)\*.wmlrc* These files can also contain option strings, one option per line. Usually the contents is one or more **-D** options, especially auto-adjusted ones: ``` -DROOTREL~. -DROOTABS=http://thishost/thisarea/ : -DNAME1=VALUE1 -DNAME2=VALUE2 : ``` ## STANDARD INCLUDE FILES WML is shipped with a standard set of include files. You can directly include them via ``` #use wml::category::name ``` and read their own documentation via ``` $ man wml::category::name ``` See [**wml::all**(3)](/wml::all/3.md) for a description of all available include files. ## SPECIAL FEATURES The WML control frontend provides a few special features on its own: - Shebang Line Support WML recognizes a *shebang* line (\`\``"#!wml"` *options*'') in the *.wml* files and automatically adds *options* to its command line. This line is also used by WMk. Two special features in contrast to shebang lines for the Unix loader are available: WML's shebang line can be continued via a backslash character and the constructs `%DIR` and %\ are interpolated (where `%DIR` is the path to the directory the source while resides and `%BASE` is the filename of the source file without any extension). Example: ``` #!wml -o (ALL-LANG_*)+LANG_EN:%BASE.en.html \ -o (ALL-LANG_*)+LANG_DE:%BASE.de.html ``` - Data Protection Container Tag WML provides an own internal container tag named `""`...`""` which can be used to protect any type of data from being processed by any WML pass. When no `"pass"` attribute is given *SPEC* defaults to `"1-9"`. When you use `"pass"` then *SPEC* can be either `"#-"`, `"-#"`, `"#-#"` or a comma separated list of passes, while `"#"` can be between `1` and `9`. Example: ``` ``` Warning: Since WML 2.0.3, pass 1 includes extra stuff to help keeping information about line numbers relevant (a la cpp). So when writing ``` #include 'foo' ``` these extra commands will not be interpreted during pass 2 and will remain on output. To suppress them, either compile with `"-W1,-N"` flag, or write ``` #include 'foo' IPP_NOSYNCLINES ``` ## AUTHORS ``` Ralf S. Engelschall rse@engelschall.com www.engelschall.com Denis Barbier barbier@engelschall.com ``` ## SEE ALSO [**wmd**(1)](/wmd/1.md), [**wml\_faq**(7)](/wml_faq/7.md), [**wml\_intro**(7)](/wml_intro/7.md), [**wml\_tutorial**(7)](/wml_tutorial/7.md), [**wml\_tags**(7)](/wml_tags/7.md), [**wml::all**(3)](/wml::all/3.md).