Rarian

Rarian is a software designed to replace scrollkeeper. The project is currently undergoing intense development to ensure optimal performance. As at the time of writing, Rarian can be conveniently installed instead of scrollkeeper, and it works adequately based on tests conducted.

The software package comprises several components that contribute to its functionality. Firstly, there's the librarian library, which creates a catalog of all available metadata files and enables easy access to them. Secondly, there's the rarian-sk-update script, which is compatible with the scrollkeeper-update script required for installing new omf files. The rarian-sk-update script converts the omf files into new-style scrolls. Thirdly, the rarian-sk-migrate program helps to read and parse a directory full of omf files and convert them into scroll files. However, this program is not intended for direct use but should be run through a copy of the omf directory to the standard omf directory and run the update script instead.

Additionally, the software package includes the rarian-example software which showcases the diverse capabilities of the librarian. The rarian-example program prints out a list of all available documents found by the librarian in a simple but visually appealing format. Finally, other miscellaneous Rarian software includes rarian-sk-* scripts that emulate the various functions of scrollkeeper to maintain backward compatibility.

The Freedesktop Help System spec proposal inspires the library component of the Rarian software package. The latest version of the Freedesktop Help System spec is available in the "help" subdirectory of the Rarian package.