In many respects, typical product documentation is similar to computer software: it has source code, follows a certain life cycle, and has high quality requirements. And just like modern software, it is often quite complex and difficult to maintain. Fortunately, the fact that this documentation is typically written in a semantic markup language makes it possible to parse the documents and automate some tasks authors would otherwise have to perform manually.

emend verb [T] — to revise and correct a piece of writing before it is printed

emender noun [C] — one who emends

Emender is a test automation framework tailored specifically for product documentation. It not only makes it easy for individual authors to develop custom tests for their documentation, but is also distributed with a standard set of universally applicable tests.

• Designed specifically for product documentation.
• Capable of producing HTML, XML, and plain text reports.
• Written in Lua 5.1, but fully compatible with Lua 5.2 for maximum portability.

To run all tests located in the ./test/ directory and print the results to standard output, type the following at a shell prompt:

$ emend

To run only a selected test, specify it on the command line as follows:

$ emend test/check_packages.lua

To generate an HTML report for all tests located in the ./test/ directory, type:

$ emend -o report.html

Emender 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; version 3 of the License.

Emender 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.