The LinuxFocus Article File Format

LinuxFocus uses a meta file html article format as internal article format. Look a the links below to see how it works. To convert and syntax check the artikles in meta file format you need the lfparser program. Please note that this program checks the LinuxFocus specific html tags. It does not check whether or not your article body contains correct html according to W3 specs.

Please note that there are 2 templates for this meta file format. One has the heading TranslationInfo and the other and older version has AuthorName.
New compilers can handle both formats, but the new one with TranslationInfo is the prefered version and should be used for all development from now on.

Download lfparser software and examples:
lfparser-2.52.tar.gz
Look at an article example in meta file format (This is the template according to which we write all articles. If you submit an article then send us a file like this):
LinuxFocus meta file format example with explanations (new001.meta.shtml)
Look at the final article:
The example compiled with lfparser into the final article (new001.shtml)
How do I now use lfparser?
You take the file articleXXX.meta.shtml (or articleXXX.meta.html for older articles) and then you run the command: 
lfparser articleXXX.meta.shtml > articleXXX.shtml
This will generate the file articleXXX.shtml The XXX in the above case must be replaced by the appropriate article number. Using option -l, lfparser can also generate html code adapted to specific languages. You can specify the E.g for German (de) you can use the command: 
lfparser -l de articleXXX.meta.shtml > articleXXX.shtml
For new articles (named meta.shtml and .shtml) you can as well save some typing and just run: 
lfparser XXX
This causes lfparser to search for a file called articleXXX.meta.shtml in the current directory, read this file and write to articleXXX.shtml.
lfparser config file
Optionally you can have a file called ~/.lfparsercfg in your home directory and enter some default settings in this file. The file looks like this: 
 
# comment line
lang = de # this entry makes de=german the default language
style = 2 # 2=new style, 1 would be old style
#

Where do I find this meta.shtml article?
In the English directory tree they are always in the same directory as the final articles. You just need the change the URL in your browser from articleXX.shtml to articleXX.meta.shtml and download the file.

Page Maintained by: Guido Socher <guido(at)linuxfocus.org>