glfs/postlfs/config/compressdoc.xml

<sect1 id="postlfs-config-compressdoc" xreflabel="compressdoc">
<?dbhtml filename="compressdoc.html" dir="postlfs"?>
<title>Compressing man and info pages</title>

<para>Man and info reader programs can transparently process gzipped or
bziptwoed pages, a feature you can use to free some disk space while keeping
your documentation available. However, things are not that simple: man
directories tend to contain links - hard and symbolic - which defeat simple
ideas like recursively calling gzip on them. A better way to go is to use the
script below.
</para>

<screen><userinput><command>cat &gt; /usr/bin/comprdoc &lt;&lt; "EOF"</command>

#!/bin/sh

function changefileext
{
 # prints the given filename with the new extension instead of
 # the old one. ! - always prints an absolute filename even if
 # the caller provides a relative one.
 # parameters : 1 - file name
 # 2 - old extension
 # 3 - new extension (may be empty)

 echo `dirname $1`\/`basename $1 $2`$3
}

# check that the command line is right, if not print a relevant message.

if [ ! -d $1 -o -z $1 ] || [ "$2" != "gz" -a "$2" != "bz2" ]
then
 echo "Usage : $0 /path/to/doc/dir gz/bz2"
 echo "e.g. $0 /usr/info gz to compress info pages in gzip format"
 echo "or   $0 /usr/X11R6/man bz2 to compact X man pages using bzip2."
 exit 1
fi

# set up a few variables.

NEWEXT=.$2 # NEWEXT = extension of newly compressed files

if [ "$NEWEXT" == ".bz2" ]
then
 OLDEXT=".gz" # OLDEXT = extensions of files to recompress
 DECOMPRESS="gunzip -f" # DECOMPRESS = command to decompress a file
 COMPRESS="bzip2 -f9" # COMPRESS = command to compress a file
else
 OLDEXT=".bz2"
 DECOMPRESS="bunzip2 -f"
 COMPRESS="gzip -f9"
fi

# process all files not in the target format under the provided root directory.
# I use cd instead of giving $1 as an argument to find because this causes
# problems with symbolic links, e.g. /usr/man -> /usr/share/man.

cd $1

for f in `find  . \! -name "*$NEWEXT"`
do
 # the following test is needed because we have to update links ahead of
 # ourselves, so $f is sometimes a nonexistent file or a link to one.

 if [ -f $f -o -L $f ]
 then
 FILE=$f # the file being processed
 BASEFILE=`basename $FILE` # its basename (see HLINKS)
 INODE=`find $FILE -printf %i` # its inode number (see HLINKS)
 NEWFILE=`changefileext $FILE $OLDEXT $NEWEXT` # new file name

 # HLINKS is the list of all hard links to the current file.

 HLINKS=`find . \! -name $BASEFILE -inum $INODE`

 if [ -L $FILE ]
 then
 # the current file is a symbolic link, so we change
 # its name and the name of its target.

 TARGET=`readlink $FILE`
 rm -f $FILE
 ln -sf `changefileext $TARGET $OLDEXT $NEWEXT` $NEWFILE
 elif [ -f $FILE ]
 then
 # the current file is a regular file.

 TEMPFILE=`changefileext $FILE $OLDEXT`

# if there are several versions of a page (at worst, there can be
# one uncompressed, one old-compressed and one new-compressed), then
# we have to make sure that only the most recent file is kept, because
# it most likely means the user installed several versions of a package.

 # first, if we are dealing with an old-compressed file,
 # expand it if it is more recent than the uncompressed
 # file *and* the new-compressed file, else delete it.
 # (works even if TEMPFILE and/or NEWFILE do not exist)

 if [ "$FILE" != "$TEMPFILE" ]
 then
 if [ $FILE -nt $TEMPFILE -a \
      $FILE -nt $NEWFILE ]
 then
 $DECOMPRESS $FILE
 else
 rm -f $FILE
 fi
 FILE=$TEMPFILE
 fi

 # now we are dealing with an uncompressed file that may
 # exist or not (because of the above). If it is newer
 # than both the new-compressed and the old-compressed
 # files then it is compressed, else it is deleted.

 if [ -f $FILE ]
 then
 if [ $FILE -nt $NEWFILE -a \
      $FILE -nt $FILE$OLDEXT ]
 then
 $COMPRESS $FILE
 else
 rm -f $FILE
 fi
 fi
 fi

 # update the hard links to the current files,
 # as the new inode number is now known.

 for g in $HLINKS
 do
 rm -f $g
 ln -f $NEWFILE `changefileext $g $OLDEXT $NEWEXT`
 done
 fi
done

<command>EOF
chmod 755 /usr/bin/comprdoc</command></userinput></screen>

<para>Now, as root, you can issue a
<userinput><command>/usr/bin/comprdoc /usr/man bz2</command></userinput>
to compress your system man pages. Similarly, you can run it on the
<filename class="directory">/usr/info</filename> directory. Don't forget
<filename class="directory">/usr/X11R6/man</filename> if you install the
<application>X</application> Window system. A few other programs, like 
<application>XEmacs</application>, also install their documentation in 
nonstandard places.</para>

<para>Generally, package installation systems do not compress the man/info
pages, which means you will need to run the script again if you want to keep
the size of your documentation as small as possible. Also, note that upgrading
a package is safe: when you have several versions of a page (for example, a
compressed and an uncompressed file), the script always keeps the most recent
and deletes the others.</para>

</sect1>