path: root/nixos/doc/manual/from_md/development/writing-documentation.chapter.xml

<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" xml:id="sec-writing-documentation">
  <title>Writing NixOS Documentation</title>
  <para>
    As NixOS grows, so too does the need for a catalogue and explanation
    of its extensive functionality. Collecting pertinent information
    from disparate sources and presenting it in an accessible style
    would be a worthy contribution to the project.
  </para>
  <section xml:id="sec-writing-docs-building-the-manual">
    <title>Building the Manual</title>
    <para>
      The DocBook sources of the <xref linkend="book-nixos-manual" />
      are in the
      <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/tree/master/nixos/doc/manual"><literal>nixos/doc/manual</literal></link>
      subdirectory of the Nixpkgs repository.
    </para>
    <para>
      You can quickly validate your edits with <literal>make</literal>:
    </para>
    <programlisting>
$ cd /path/to/nixpkgs/nixos/doc/manual
$ nix-shell
nix-shell$ make
</programlisting>
    <para>
      Once you are done making modifications to the manual, it's
      important to build it before committing. You can do that as
      follows:
    </para>
    <programlisting>
nix-build nixos/release.nix -A manual.x86_64-linux
</programlisting>
    <para>
      When this command successfully finishes, it will tell you where
      the manual got generated. The HTML will be accessible through the
      <literal>result</literal> symlink at
      <literal>./result/share/doc/nixos/index.html</literal>.
    </para>
  </section>
  <section xml:id="sec-writing-docs-editing-docbook-xml">
    <title>Editing DocBook XML</title>
    <para>
      For general information on how to write in DocBook, see
      <link xlink:href="http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/docbook.html">DocBook
      5: The Definitive Guide</link>.
    </para>
    <para>
      Emacs nXML Mode is very helpful for editing DocBook XML because it
      validates the document as you write, and precisely locates errors.
      To use it, see <xref linkend="sec-emacs-docbook-xml" />.
    </para>
    <para>
      <link xlink:href="http://pandoc.org">Pandoc</link> can generate
      DocBook XML from a multitude of formats, which makes a good
      starting point. Here is an example of Pandoc invocation to convert
      GitHub-Flavoured MarkDown to DocBook 5 XML:
    </para>
    <programlisting>
pandoc -f markdown_github -t docbook5 docs.md -o my-section.md
</programlisting>
    <para>
      Pandoc can also quickly convert a single
      <literal>section.xml</literal> to HTML, which is helpful when
      drafting.
    </para>
    <para>
      Sometimes writing valid DocBook is simply too difficult. In this
      case, submit your documentation updates in a
      <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/new">GitHub
      Issue</link> and someone will handle the conversion to XML for
      you.
    </para>
  </section>
  <section xml:id="sec-writing-docs-creating-a-topic">
    <title>Creating a Topic</title>
    <para>
      You can use an existing topic as a basis for the new topic or
      create a topic from scratch.
    </para>
    <para>
      Keep the following guidelines in mind when you create and add a
      topic:
    </para>
    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          The NixOS
          <link xlink:href="http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/book.html"><literal>book</literal></link>
          element is in <literal>nixos/doc/manual/manual.xml</literal>.
          It includes several
          <link xlink:href="http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/book.html"><literal>parts</literal></link>
          which are in subdirectories.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Store the topic file in the same directory as the
          <literal>part</literal> to which it belongs. If your topic is
          about configuring a NixOS module, then the XML file can be
          stored alongside the module definition <literal>nix</literal>
          file.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          If you include multiple words in the file name, separate the
          words with a dash. For example:
          <literal>ipv6-config.xml</literal>.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Make sure that the <literal>xml:id</literal> value is unique.
          You can use abbreviations if the ID is too long. For example:
          <literal>nixos-config</literal>.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Determine whether your topic is a chapter or a section. If you
          are unsure, open an existing topic file and check whether the
          main element is chapter or section.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </section>
  <section xml:id="sec-writing-docs-adding-a-topic">
    <title>Adding a Topic to the Book</title>
    <para>
      Open the parent XML file and add an <literal>xi:include</literal>
      element to the list of chapters with the file name of the topic
      that you created. If you created a <literal>section</literal>, you
      add the file to the <literal>chapter</literal> file. If you
      created a <literal>chapter</literal>, you add the file to the
      <literal>part</literal> file.
    </para>
    <para>
      If the topic is about configuring a NixOS module, it can be
      automatically included in the manual by using the
      <literal>meta.doc</literal> attribute. See
      <xref linkend="sec-meta-attributes" /> for an explanation.
    </para>
  </section>
</chapter>