Htmlpp Documentation

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why does my .if command not work?
2. Why does my .if command still not work?
3. How do I install htmlpp on UNIX?
5. Do you know of any good link checkers?

1. Why does my .if command not work?

Even without looking, I'm sure you're trying something like .if UNDEF = Xyz. Well, this won't work. Htmlpp is lazy, and sends all its .if commands to Perl to evaluate. Perl thinks that '=' is an assignment, not a comparison. Which always works, or perhaps never does, but certainly will not change depending on the value of UNDEF. To cut a long story short, use '==' for comparing numbers and 'eq' for comparing strings, and buy the Camel Book.

2. Why does my .if command still not work?

Well, maybe you made a mistake. For example, this is wrong:

if $(TITLE) eq "first second"

You have to enclose both arguments in quotes, like this:

if "$(TITLE)" eq "first second"

3. How do I install htmlpp on UNIX?

Put it into a common directory like /usr/local/bin; make htmlpp executable (chmod +x htmlpp); make sure its .l and .pl files are in the same place; put this directory on the PERLLIB path, and put it on your PATH too. That should work. If you don't have access to /usr/local/bin (i.e. you're not root, which if you were you'd probably not need help at this point) then make a bin directory under your login directory and add $HOME/bin to your path.

4. How do I change the .htm extension to .html?

Redefine the html variable.

5. Do you know of any good link checkers?

Try Linbot, written in Python, Xenu or Linklint in Perl. NetMechanic is a good on-line alternative.