Documentation - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

Documentation of the GNU Project

Please Help Write Documentation

Please contact the GNU Volunteer Coordinators for assistance in getting started. Please also look at writing free software for lists that include projects that need documentation done.

The GNU Coding Standards have an excellent section on documenting programs and the Texinfo Manual has many tips and hints. The page on licenses contains a discussion of, as well as the text of, the GNU Free Documentation License.

How To Get GNU Documentation

GNU documentation is available by several different methods. Our manuals come with a permission to copy and modify them. The oldest book that can be distributed freely is the Diamond Sutra, published in China in the year 868. For an introduction to free documentation, see Richard Stallman's essay on Free Software and Free Manuals.

Order printed manuals and reference cards from the FSF.
Consult Manuals Online.
Get it by FTP from a site near you.
Texinfo or TeX source for most GNU manuals and reference cards is included with the program source code in one file archive, and is not distributed separately.
Get Postscript or HTML versions from these Free Software Documentation sites.
Photocopy a friend's printed doc.

If you do not order manuals or reference cards from the FSF, please consider making a donation to help us write more documentation.

Descriptions of GNU Manuals that we print as books

Here are descriptions of all the GNU manuals published and printed as books by the FSF. See ISBNs of current editions below. Use the FSF Order Form to buy books, in current and some older editions, for your own use. Please contact the FSF if you are interested in buying FSF publications for resale.

Several GNU manuals have been translated into Japanese and are currently in print in Japan. If you have information on other translations in print, please contact the FSF.

We need volunteers to maintain this information.
These descriptions need work. Each should be expanded from the back cover text on the manual, and/or from the inside front cover text, and/or from the introduction in each manual, and/or other useful ways.
Each printed manual should also have its own page, including thumbnail and full size graphics of the manual's spine, front cover, and back cover; links to the FSF Order Form, to the page on this site under http://www.gnu.org/software/*/ that describes the software, and perhaps elsewhere. Ideally, each manual would have a history page covering older editions.

The GNU Emacs Manual (14th Edition for Version 20.7) describes editing with GNU Emacs. It explains advanced features, including outline mode and regular expression search; how to use special programming modes to write languages like C++ and TeX; how to use the tags utility; how to compile and correct code; how to make your own keybindings; and other elementary customizations.
The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual (for GNU Emacs Version 21) and GNU Emacs Lisp Reference, Japanese Edition (Japanese DRAFT Revision 1.0, from English Edition 2.4 for Version 19.29) cover this programming language in depth, including data types, control structures, functions, macros, syntax tables, searching/matching, modes, windows, keymaps, byte compilation, and the operating system interface. The source code is available in FTP directory ftp://etlport.etl.go.jp/pub/doc/gnu-jp/elisp-manual/.
Programming in Emacs Lisp: An Introduction (Edition 1.05) is for people who are not necessarily interested in programming, but who do want to customize or extend their computing environment. If you read it in Emacs under Info mode, you can run the sample programs directly.
Using and Porting GNU CC (for Version 2.95) tells how to install and use the GNU C Compiler and how to port it to new systems. It lists new features and incompatibilities of GCC, but people not familiar with C will still need a good reference on the C programming language. It also covers G++, the GNU C++ Compiler.
The GNU C Library Reference Manual (for Version 2.x) describes the library's facilities, including both what Unix calls "library functions" & "system calls." This has now been published as a two-volume set totalling over 1100 pages! Please send fixes to bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org. The manual does not cover the C++ libraries.
Debugging with GDB (for Version 5.0) explains how to run your program under GNU Debugger control, examine and alter data, modify a program's flow of control, and use GDB through GNU Emacs.
GNU Make (for Version 3.79) describes GNU make, a program used to rebuild parts of other programs. The manual tells how to write "makefiles", which specify how a program is to be compiled and how its files depend on each other. Included are an introductory chapter for novice users and a section about automatically generated dependencies.
The Bison Manual (November 1999 Edition for Version 1.29) teaches you how to write context-free grammars for the Bison program that convert into C-coded parsers. You need no prior knowledge of parser generators.
The Flex manual (Edition 1.03 for Version 2.3.7) teaches you to write a lexical scanner definition for the flex program to create a C++ or C-coded scanner that recognizes the patterns defined. You need no prior knowledge of scanners.
GAWK: The GNU Awk User's Guide (Edition 2 for GAWK Version 3) tells how to use GAWK. It is written for those who have never used awk and describes features of this powerful string and record manipulation language.
Texinfo: the GNU Documentation Format (for Version 4) explains the markup language that produces our online Info documentation & typeset hardcopies. It tells you how to make tables, lists, chapters, nodes, indexes, cross references, & how to catch mistakes.
The Termcap Manual (3rd Edition, revised, for Version 1.3), often described as "twice as much as you ever wanted to know about termcap," details the format of the termcap database, the definitions of terminal capabilities, and the process of interrogating a terminal description. This manual is primarily for programmers.

ISBNs of GNU Books in Print

Here is a list of International Standard Book Numbers for the GNU manuals that are currently in print, published by the FSF.

Note that many out-of-print editions are available from the FSF, some in perfect condition and shrinkwrap, some ex-bookstore.

GNU Software for MS-Windows and MS-DOS (book/cdrom): ISBN: 1-882114 57 4
GNU Emacs Manual, for Version 20.7: ISBN: 1-882114 07 8
GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for Emacs Version 21: ISBN: 1-882114 73 6
Programming in Emacs Lisp: An Introduction: ISBN: 1-882114-42-6
Using and Porting GNU CC, for Version 2.95: ISBN: 1-882114-38-8
GNU C Library Reference Manual, for Version 2.x (2 volumes): ISBN: 1-882114-54-X
Debugging with GDB: The GNU Source-Level Debugger, for Version 5: ISBN: 1-882114 77 9
GNU Make: A Program for Directing Recompilation, for Version 3.79: ISBN: 1-882114 81 7
Bison Manual: Using the YACC-compatible Parser Generator, for Version 1.29: ISBN: 1-882114 44 2
Flex: The Lexical Scanner Generator, for Version 2.3.7: ISBN: 1-882114 21 3
GAWK: The GNU Awk User's Guide, 2nd Edition: ISBN: 1-882114 27 2
Texinfo: The GNU Documentation Format, for Version 4: ISBN: 1-882114 67 1
The Termcap Manual: The Termcap Library and Data Base, 3d Edition: ISBN: 1-882114 87 6

Non-GNU Books

We maintain a page that lists free documentation books not published by the FSF.

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