NAME

       Template::Tools::ttree - Process entire directory trees of templates

SYNOPSIS

           ttree [options] [files]

DESCRIPTION

       The ttree script is used to process entire directory trees containing template files.  The
       resulting output from processing each file is then written to a corresponding file in a
       destination directory.  The script compares the modification times of source and
       destination files (where they already exist) and processes only those files that have been
       modified.  In other words, it is the equivalent of 'make' for the Template Toolkit.

       It supports a number of options which can be used to configure behaviour, define locations
       and set Template Toolkit options.  The script first reads the .ttreerc configuration file
       in the HOME directory, or an alternative file specified in the TTREERC environment
       variable.  Then, it processes any command line arguments, including any additional
       configuration files specified via the "-f" (file) option.

   The .ttreerc Configuration File
       When you run ttree for the first time it will ask you if you want it to create a .ttreerc
       file for you.  This will be created in your home directory.

           $ ttree
           Do you want me to create a sample '.ttreerc' file for you?
           (file: /home/abw/.ttreerc)   [y/n]: y
           /home/abw/.ttreerc created.  Please edit accordingly and re-run ttree

       The purpose of this file is to set any global configuration options that you want applied
       every time ttree is run.  For example, you can use the "ignore" and "copy" option to
       provide regular expressions that specify which files should be ignored and which should be
       copied rather than being processed as templates.  You may also want to set flags like
       "verbose" and "recurse" according to your preference.

       A minimal .ttreerc:

           # ignore these files
           ignore = \b(CVS|RCS)\b
           ignore = ^#
           ignore = ~$

           # copy these files
           copy   = \.(gif|png|jpg|pdf)$

           # recurse into directories
           recurse

           # provide info about what's going on
           verbose

       In most cases, you'll want to create a different ttree configuration file for each project
       you're working on.  The "cfg" option allows you to specify a directory where ttree can
       find further configuration files.

           cfg = /home/abw/.ttree

       The "-f" command line option can be used to specify which configuration file should be
       used.  You can specify a filename using an absolute or relative path:

           $ ttree -f /home/abw/web/example/etc/ttree.cfg
           $ ttree -f ./etc/ttree.cfg
           $ ttree -f ../etc/ttree.cfg

       If the configuration file does not begin with "/" or "." or something that looks like a
       MS-DOS absolute path (e.g. "C:\\etc\\ttree.cfg") then ttree will look for it in the
       directory specified by the "cfg" option.

           $ ttree -f test1          # /home/abw/.ttree/test1

       The "cfg" option can only be used in the .ttreerc file.  All the other options can be used
       in the .ttreerc or any other ttree configuration file.  They can all also be specified as
       command line options.

       Remember that .ttreerc is always processed before any configuration file specified with
       the "-f" option.  Certain options like "lib" can be used any number of times and
       accumulate their values.

       For example, consider the following configuration files:

       /home/abw/.ttreerc:

           cfg = /home/abw/.ttree
           lib = /usr/local/tt2/templates

       /home/abw/.ttree/myconfig:

           lib = /home/abw/web/example/templates/lib

       When ttree is invoked as follows:

           $ ttree -f myconfig

       the "lib" option will be set to the following directories:

           /usr/local/tt2/templates
           /home/abw/web/example/templates/lib

       Any templates located under /usr/local/tt2/templates will be used in preference to those
       located under /home/abw/web/example/templates/lib.  This may be what you want, but then
       again, it might not.  For this reason, it is good practice to keep the .ttreerc as simple
       as possible and use different configuration files for each ttree project.

   Directory Options
       The "src" option is used to define the directory containing the source templates to be
       processed.  It can be provided as a command line option or in a configuration file as
       shown here:

           src = /home/abw/web/example/templates/src

       Each template in this directory typically corresponds to a single web page or other
       document.

       The "dest" option is used to specify the destination directory for the generated output.

           dest = /home/abw/web/example/html

       The "lib" option is used to define one or more directories containing additional library
       templates.  These templates are not documents in their own right and typically comprise of
       smaller, modular components like headers, footers and menus that are incorporated into
       pages templates.

           lib = /home/abw/web/example/templates/lib
           lib = /usr/local/tt2/templates

       The "lib" option can be used repeatedly to add further directories to the search path.

       A list of templates can be passed to ttree as command line arguments.

           $ ttree foo.html bar.html

       It looks for these templates in the "src" directory and processes them through the
       Template Toolkit, using any additional template components from the "lib" directories.
       The generated output is then written to the corresponding file in the "dest" directory.

       If ttree is invoked without explicitly specifying any templates to be processed then it
       will process every file in the "src" directory.  If the "-r" (recurse) option is set then
       it will additionally iterate down through sub-directories and process and other template
       files it finds therein.

           $ ttree -r

       If a template has been processed previously, ttree will compare the modification times of
       the source and destination files.  If the source template (or one it is dependant on) has
       not been modified more recently than the generated output file then ttree will not process
       it.  The -a (all) option can be used to force ttree to process all files regardless of
       modification time.

           $ ttree -a

       Any templates explicitly named as command line argument are always processed and the
       modification time checking is bypassed.

   File Options
       The "ignore", "copy" and "accept" options are used to specify Perl regexen to filter file
       names.  Files that match any of the "ignore" options will not be processed.  Remaining
       files that match any of the "copy" regexen will be copied to the destination directory.
       Remaining files that then match any of the "accept" criteria are then processed via the
       Template Toolkit.  If no "accept" parameter is specified then all files will be accepted
       for processing if not already copied or ignored.

           # ignore these files
           ignore = \b(CVS|RCS)\b
           ignore = ^#
           ignore = ~$

           # copy these files
           copy   = \.(gif|png|jpg|pdf)$

           # accept only .tt2 templates
           accept = \.tt2$

       The "suffix" option is used to define mappings between the file extensions for source
       templates and the generated output files.  The following example specifies that source
       templates with a ".tt2" suffix should be output as ".html" files:

           suffix tt2=html

       Or on the command line,

           --suffix tt2=html

       You can provide any number of different suffix mappings by repeating this option.

   Template Dependencies
       The "depend" and "depend_file" options allow you to specify how any given template file
       depends on another file or group of files.  The "depend" option is used to express a
       single dependency.

         $ ttree --depend foo=bar,baz

       This command line example shows the "--depend" option being used to specify that the foo
       file is dependant on the bar and baz templates.  This option can be used many time on the
       command line:

         $ ttree --depend foo=bar,baz --depend crash=bang,wallop

       or in a configuration file:

         depend foo=bar,baz
         depend crash=bang,wallop

       The file appearing on the left of the "=" is specified relative to the "src" or "lib"
       directories.  The file(s) appearing on the right can be specified relative to any of these
       directories or as absolute file paths.

       For example:

         $ ttree --depend foo=bar,/tmp/baz

       To define a dependency that applies to all files, use "*" on the left of the "=".

         $ ttree --depend *=header,footer

       or in a configuration file:

         depend *=header,footer

       Any templates that are defined in the "pre_process", "post_process", "process" or
       "wrapper" options will automatically be added to the list of global dependencies that
       apply to all templates.

       The "depend_file" option can be used to specify a file that contains dependency
       information.

           $ ttree --depend_file=/home/abw/web/example/etc/ttree.dep

       Here is an example of a dependency file:

          # This is a comment. It is ignored.

          index.html: header footer menubar

          header: titlebar hotlinks

          menubar: menuitem

          # spanning multiple lines with the backslash
          another.html: header footer menubar \
          sidebar searchform

       Lines beginning with the "#" character are comments and are ignored.  Blank lines are also
       ignored.  All other lines should provide a filename followed by a colon and then a list of
       dependant files separated by whitespace, commas or both.  Whitespace around the colon is
       also optional.  Lines ending in the "\" character are continued onto the following line.

       Files that contain spaces can be quoted. That is only necessary for files after the colon
       (':'). The file before the colon may be quoted if it contains a colon.

       As with the command line options, the "*" character can be used as a wildcard to specify a
       dependency for all templates.

           * : config,header

   Template Toolkit Options
       ttree also provides access to the usual range of Template Toolkit options.  For example,
       the "--pre_chomp" and "--post_chomp" ttree options correspond to the "PRE_CHOMP" and
       "POST_CHOMP" options.

       Run "ttree -h" for a summary of the options available.

AUTHORS

       Andy Wardley <abw@wardley.org>

       <http://www.wardley.org>

       With contributions from Dylan William Hardison (support for dependencies), Bryce
       Harrington ("absolute" and "relative" options), Mark Anderson ("suffix" and "debug"
       options), Harald Joerg and Leon Brocard who gets everywhere, it seems.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 1996-2007 Andy Wardley.  All Rights Reserved.

       This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

       Template::Tools::tpage