Don't generate plain-text HISTORY and src/test/regress/README anymore.

Providing this information as plain text was doubtless worth the trouble
ten years ago, but it seems likely that hardly anyone reads it in this
format anymore.  And the effort required to maintain these files (in the
form of extra-complex markup rules in the relevant parts of the SGML
documentation) is significant.  So, let's stop doing that and rely solely
on the other documentation formats.

Per discussion, the plain-text INSTALL instructions might still be worth
their keep, so we continue to generate that file.

Rather than remove HISTORY and src/test/regress/README from distribution
tarballs entirely, replace them with simple stub files that tell the reader
where to find the relevant documentation.  This is mainly to avoid possibly
breaking packaging recipes that expect these files to exist.

Back-patch to all supported branches, because simplifying the markup
requirements for release notes won't help much unless we do it in all
branches.

6 files changed, 12 insertions, 108 deletions

diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/.gitignore b/doc/src/sgml/.gitignore
index dbe5e7509d8..1ad64f58c26 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/.gitignore
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/.gitignore
@@ -2,9 +2,7 @@
 *.html
 *.[1-9]
 # Other popular build targets
-/HISTORY
 /INSTALL
-/regress_README
 /postgres-US.pdf
 /postgres-A4.pdf
 # GENERATED_SGML
@@ -16,6 +14,7 @@
 /HTML.index.start
 # Assorted byproducts from building the above
 /postgres.xml
+/INSTALL.html
 /postgres-US.aux
 /postgres-US.log
 /postgres-US.out
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/Makefile b/doc/src/sgml/Makefile
index 6b408f98dbb..438a468e8b5 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/Makefile
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/Makefile
@@ -205,25 +205,12 @@ postgres.pdf:
 JADE.text = $(JADE) $(JADEFLAGS) $(SGMLINCLUDE) $(CATALOG) -d stylesheet.dsl -i output-text -t sgml
 LYNX = lynx
 
-INSTALL HISTORY regress_README: % : %.html
+INSTALL: % : %.html
 	$(PERL) -p -e 's/<H(1|2)$$/<H\1 align=center/g' $< | $(LYNX) -force_html -dump -nolist -stdin >$@
 
 INSTALL.html: standalone-install.sgml installation.sgml version.sgml
 	$(JADE.text) -V nochunks standalone-install.sgml installation.sgml >$@
 
-HISTORY.html: generate_history.pl $(wildcard $(srcdir)/release*.sgml)
-	$(PERL) $< "$(srcdir)" release.sgml >tempfile_HISTORY.sgml
-	$(JADE.text) -V nochunks tempfile_HISTORY.sgml >$@
-	rm tempfile_HISTORY.sgml
-
-regress_README.html: regress.sgml
-	( echo '<!doctype chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.2//EN" ['; \
-	  echo '<!entity % standalone-ignore "IGNORE">'; \
-	  echo '<!entity % standalone-include "INCLUDE"> ]>'; \
-	  cat $< ) >tempfile_regress_README.sgml
-	$(JADE.text) -V nochunks tempfile_regress_README.sgml >$@
-	rm tempfile_regress_README.sgml
-
 
 ##
 ## XSLT processing
@@ -310,7 +297,7 @@ clean distclean maintainer-clean:
 # index
 	rm -f HTML.index HTML.index.start $(GENERATED_SGML)
 # text
-	rm -f INSTALL HISTORY regress_README
+	rm -f INSTALL
 # XSLT
 	rm -f postgres.xml htmlhelp.hhp toc.hhc index.hhk *.fo
 # Texinfo
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/docguide.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/docguide.sgml
index e4c8829c16f..52e8a1b2ed9 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/docguide.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/docguide.sgml
@@ -925,26 +925,19 @@ save_size.pdfjadetex = 15000
    <title>Plain Text Files</title>
 
    <para>
-    Several files are distributed as plain text, for reading during
-    the installation process. The <filename>INSTALL</filename> file
+    The installation instructions are also distributed as plain text,
+    in case they are needed in a situation where better reading tools
+    are not available.  The <filename>INSTALL</filename> file
     corresponds to <xref linkend="installation">, with some minor
     changes to account for the different context.  To recreate the
     file, change to the directory <filename>doc/src/sgml</filename>
-    and enter <userinput>gmake INSTALL</userinput>.  This will create
-    a file <filename>INSTALL.html</filename> that can be saved as text
-    with <productname>Netscape Navigator</productname> and put into
-    the place of the existing file.
-    <productname>Netscape</productname> seems to offer the best
-    quality for <acronym>HTML</acronym> to text conversions (over
-    <application>lynx</application> and
-    <application>w3m</application>).
+    and enter <userinput>gmake INSTALL</userinput>.
    </para>
 
    <para>
-    The file <filename>HISTORY</filename> can be created similarly,
-    using the command <userinput>gmake HISTORY</userinput>.  For the
-    file <filename>src/test/regress/README</filename> the command is
-    <userinput>gmake regress_README</userinput>.
+    In the past, the release notes and regression testing instructions
+    were also distributed as plain text, but this practice has been
+    discontinued.
    </para>
   </sect2>
 
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/generate_history.pl b/doc/src/sgml/generate_history.pl
deleted file mode 100644
index 20f3d0e87c9..00000000000
--- a/doc/src/sgml/generate_history.pl
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,58 +0,0 @@
-#! /usr/bin/perl -w
-
-# generate_history.pl -- flatten release notes for use as HISTORY file
-#
-# Usage: generate_history.pl srcdir release.sgml >output.sgml
-#
-# The main point of this script is to strip out <link> references, which
-# generally point into the rest of the documentation and so can't be used
-# in a standalone build of the release notes.  To make sure this is done
-# everywhere, we have to fold in the sub-files of the release notes.
-#
-# $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/generate_history.pl,v 1.1 2009/05/02 20:17:19 tgl Exp $
-
-use strict;
-
-my($srcdir) = shift;
-defined($srcdir) || die "$0: missing required argument: srcdir\n";
-my($infile) = shift;
-defined($infile) || die "$0: missing required argument: inputfile\n";
-
-# Emit DOCTYPE header so that the output is a self-contained SGML document
-print "<!DOCTYPE appendix PUBLIC \"-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.2//EN\">\n";
-
-process_file($infile);
-
-exit 0;
-
-sub process_file {
-    my($filename) = @_;
-
-    local *FILE;		# need a local filehandle so we can recurse
-
-    my($f) = $srcdir . '/' . $filename;
-    open(FILE, $f) || die "could not read $f: $!\n";
-
-    while (<FILE>) {
-	# Recursively expand sub-files of the release notes
-	if (m/^&(release-.*);$/) {
-	    process_file($1 . ".sgml");
-	    next;
-	}
-
-	# Remove <link ...> tags, which might span multiple lines
-	while (m/<link/) {
-	    if (s/<link\s+linkend[^>]*>//) {
-		next;
-	    }
-	    # incomplete tag, so slurp another line
-	    $_ .= <FILE>;
-	}
-
-	# Remove </link> too
-	s|</link>||g;
-
-	print;
-    }
-    close(FILE);
-}
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml
index d08cf5565c1..feab734a5d9 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml
@@ -26,9 +26,7 @@ non-ASCII characters            convert to HTML4 entity (&) escapes
 
 wrap long lines
 
-For new features, add links to the documentation sections.  Use </link>
-not just </> so that generate_history.pl can remove it, so HISTORY.html
-can be created without links to the main documentation.
+For new features, add links to the documentation sections.
 
 -->
 
@@ -63,7 +61,6 @@ can be created without links to the main documentation.
 
 <!--
   To add a new major-release series, add an entry here and in filelist.sgml.
-  Follow the naming convention, or you'll confuse generate_history.pl.
 
   The reason for splitting the release notes this way is so that appropriate
   subsets can easily be copied into back branches.
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/standalone-install.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/standalone-install.sgml
index 7328ef15530..b7b8496be19 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/standalone-install.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/standalone-install.sgml
@@ -2,21 +2,7 @@
 
 <!--
 This file helps in generating the INSTALL text file that lives in the
-top level directory of the distribution. The exact process is like
-this:
-
-1. Paste together with installation.sgml
-
-2. Process with jade to HTML (use -V nochunks)
-
-3. Remove "Chapter 1" heading
-
-4. Save as text file in Netscape
-
-5. Put in place of old INSTALL file
-
-Running 'make INSTALL' in the doc/src/sgml directory will do 1 through
-3 for you.
+top level directory of the distribution.
 -->
 
 <!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.2//EN" [