Some time ago, it took me long to discover the two scripts to create the
LaTeX core documentation, appended to source2e.tex. In the meantime, I
have extended the one script to generate "other" documentation in
general for my own needs and would like to recommend that in the future
both scripts are unpacked to single files to be found more easily by the
beginner and that probably some of my additions find their way into the
distribution.

I have pasted the script text into genSource2e.sh and genOtherDocs.sh
resp. and applied the following patches to the latter in order to
1) improve robustness in other unpacked sources: do not complain of
\*.fdd or source2e.tex not existing, run in batchmode (interactive mode
is depressing when stopping for run time errors written to /dev/null)
2) allow for one central place to turn (off) output in order to track
progress, and
3) add the extra possibility to add \AtBeginDocument\ stuff (e.g.,
\OnlyDescription) on the command line using the
        genOtherDocs.sh + \\OnlyDescription a4paper,twopage
syntax.

patch genOtherDocs.sh << "EOF"
13a14,27
> OUTPUT=
> #OUTPUT=>/dev/null
> MOREABD=0
> if [ $# -gt 1 ]
> then
>     if [ $1 = + ]
>     then
>       MOREABD=$2
>       echo $2
>       shift
>       shift
>     fi
> fi
>
15d28
< echo "\batchmode"                                       >> ltxdoc.cfg
23c36,39
<
---
> if [ $MOREABD -eq 1 ]
> then
>     echo "\\AtBeginDocument{\\$MOREABD}"                >> ltxdoc.cfg
> fi
29d44
< echo "\batchmode"                                       >>
ltxguide.cfg
33,34c48,50
<
< for i in *dtx *fdd *guide.tex ltnews*.tex
---
> FILES=`ls *dtx *fdd *guide.tex ltnews*.tex 2>/dev/null`
> echo $FILES
> for i in $FILES
38c54
< if (grep "Include{$B}" source2e.tex >/dev/null ; )
---
> if (test -f source2e.tex && grep "Include{$B}" source2e.tex >/dev/null ; )
43c59
<   if (latex $i > /dev/null)
---
>   if (latex $i $OUTPUT)
46c62
<     latex $i > /dev/null
---
>     latex $i $OUTPUT
48c64
<     makeindex -s gind.ist $B.idx > /dev/null 2> /dev/null
---
>     makeindex -s gind.ist $B.idx $OUTPUT 2> /dev/null
50c66
<     makeindex -s gglo.ist -o $B.gls $B.glo > /dev/null 2> /dev/null
---
>     makeindex -s gglo.ist -o $B.gls $B.glo $OUTPUT 2> /dev/null
52c68
<     latex $i > /dev/null
---
>     latex $i $OUTPUT
EOF

Comments?
--
Karsten Tinnefeld
                                Silence is the perfectest herald of joy:
                       I were but little happy, if I could say how much.