## This is the README file for html2text Thu Oct 4 23:39:35 CEST 2001 ## =========================================================================== html2text is a command line utility, written in C++, that converts HTML documents (HTML 3.2) into plain text (ISO 8859-1). It was written up to version 1.2.2 for and is copyrighted by GMRS Software GmbH, Unterschleißheim. This program was written because GMRS was looking for a good, free HTML-to-text converter for UNIX, and they couldn't find one on the net. The best they could find was lynx, i.e. "lynx -dump", but lynx can't cope with tables. html2text reads each HTML document from standard input or a (local or remote) URI, and formats it into a stream of plain text characters that is written to standard output or into an output-file. The program preserves the original positions of table fields and accepts also syntactically incorrect input, attempting to interpret it "reasonably". In the simplest case, just type 'html2text '. The rendering is largely customisable through the ".html2textrc" file and the "-style" command line option, that may be used to change quickly some formatting defaults. For a quick overview of the command line options, type 'html2text -help'. # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # For information on compiling and installing the package on your system, # please refer to the file INSTALL. html2text was developed and tested under SINIX and Linux. However, it uses no OS-specific features and should be easily portable to other platforms (at least to other UNIX-ish platforms). It is reported to compile and work on the following platforms: + AIX 4.2/egcs-2.91.60 + AIX 4.3/g++ 2.95.1 + SINIX/CFRONT 3.1B20 (no longer supported) + SINIX/CDS++ 1.0C32 + SINIX/CDS++ 2.0A00 + Linux 2.0.35/G++ 2.7.2.1 + Linux 2.2.5/egcs-2.91.66 + Linux 2.2.18/g++ 2.95.2 You will find some hints for porting it to other platforms at the end of the file "INSTALL". # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Published under the terms of the GNU General Public License. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # GMRS agreed to change the program's license terms to GPL. Message-ID: <01c401c10f72$d11c3660$12c8a8c0@jag> Reply-To: "David Geffen" From: "David Geffen" To: Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 12:17:14 +0200 Organization: GMRS Software GmbH Hallo Herr Bayer, html2text darf unter die GPL veroeffentlicht werden, solange one4net keinerlei Nachteile oder Verpflichtungen dadurch entstehen. Mit freundlichen Gruessen David Geffen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Bayer" To: Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 5:39 PM Subject: Re: Lizenzbedingungen von 'html2text' > Guten Tag! > > On Mon, Jun 25, 2001 at 03:23:31PM +0200, David Geffen wrote: > > > Aus diesem Grunde möchte ich Sie herzlich bitten, zu überlegen, ob es > > > für GMRS nicht möglich wäre, 'html2text' nachträglich unter die GPL zu > > > stellen. > > > > ich bin erst heute zurueck aus dem Urlaub gekommen. > > > > Ich werde mich in den naechsten paar Tage dazu melden. > > Darf ich Sie fragen, ob Sie in dieser Angelegenheit bereits zu einem > Entschluss gekommen sind? Es ist mittlerweile gelungen, das Programm nach > g++3 zu portieren, und da wäre es schön, wenn bereits diese neue Version > unter GPL veröffentlicht werden könne. > > Mit den besten Grüßen > -- > Martin Bayer > c.ne Ostiense, 212/E/15 > E-Mail: mail@mbayer.de I-00154 Roma > WWW: http://www.mbayer.de GSM: +39 3476605285 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # This program is not provided nor supported by GMRS any longer. Since GMRS decided not to develop nor to support this program any longer, they also did not provide its source code any more. With this, I realised, the source code of this program was hardly to obtain, as most archives included at best a precompiled version. Because I liked the features, I offered a webspace where this program now is living at, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~mbayer/tools/html2text.html I'm afraid in this way I've become the maintainer of this package, even if I actually don't have any time free to spend on working on the program by myself. Please keep this in mind if you are going to write me. :-) # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # »We accept patches.« Please include in all your messages information on · the version of html2text you are referring to (`html2text -version`), if you obtained the program in binary form, the version number as supplied by your package manager (e.g. `rpm -q html2text`); · name and version of your operating system (`uname -a`); · name and version of your compiler (`cc -v`). If you think you found a possible security impact, please let _me_ know _first_. If you think you found a bug, please try first to find out its possible reason by yourself, using the "-unparse", "-check", "-debug-scanner", and "-debug-parser" command line options, in order to save other people's time. I will not consider any "bug report" that just claims "your program is buggy!!!!!1", nor will I answer to any mail asking me OS-specific questions. I will include into the TODO list any sensible feature request. And, last but not least, patches are always very welcome. :-) Martin Bayer For all e-mails, use of PGP (GPG) is encouraged. You will find my public key (ID: 0xCB537B60) on my homepage and on keyservers. The key's fingerprint is: "46A1 B556 41CD C77A 0261 D22F 41A6 EB90 CB53 7B60".