[BACK]Return to manuals.7 CVS log [TXT][DIR] Up to [cvsweb.bsd.lv] / mandoc

Diff for /mandoc/Attic/manuals.7 between version 1.1 and 1.17

version 1.1, 2009/03/22 08:52:27 version 1.17, 2009/07/20 13:45:11
Line 1 
Line 1 
   .\"     $Id$
   .\"
   .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@kth.se>
   .\"
   .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
   .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
   .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
   .\"
   .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
   .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
   .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
   .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
   .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
   .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
   .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
   .\"
 .Dd $Mdocdate$  .Dd $Mdocdate$
 .Dt "Writing Unix Documentation" paper  .Dt MANUALS 7
 .Os  .Os
   .\" SECTION
 .Sh NAME  .Sh NAME
 .Nm Writing Unix Documentation  .Nm Writing UNIX Documentation
 .Nd a guide to writing Unix manuals  .Nd a guide to writing UNIX manuals
   .\" SECTION
 .Sh DESCRIPTION  .Sh DESCRIPTION
                                         <h1>  .Em A utility without good documentation is of no utility at all .
                                         Writing Unix Documentation  .\" PARAGRAPH
                                         </h1>  .Pp
   A system component's documentation describes the utility of that
   component, whether it's a device driver, an executable or, most
   importantly, a game.
   .Pp
   This document serves as a tutorial to writing
   .Ux
   documentation
   .Pq Dq manuals .
   .\" SECTION
   .Sh ENVIRONMENT
   First, copy over the manual template from
   .Pa /usr/share/misc/mdoc.template
   into your source directory.
   .Pp
   .Dl % cp /usr/share/misc/mdoc.template \.
   .Pp
   .Em \&Do not
   start afresh or by copying another manual unless you know exactly what
   you're doing!  If the template doesn't exist, bug your administrator.
   .\" SUBSECTION
   .Ss Section Numbering
   Find an appropriate section for your manual.  There may exist multiple
   manual names per section, so be specific:
   .Pp
   .\" LIST
   .Bl -tag -width "XXXXXXXXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
   .It Em Section
   .Em Description
   .It 1
   operator utilities
   .It 2
   system calls
   .It 3, 3p, 3f
   programming libraries (C, Perl, Fortran)
   .It 5
   file and wire protocol formats
   .It 6
   games
   .It 7
   tutorials, documents and papers
   .It 8
   administrator utilities
   .It 9
   in-kernel routines
   .El
   .Pp
   If your manual falls into multiple categories, choose the most
   widely-used or, better, re-consider the topic of your manual to be more
   specific.  You can list all manuals per section by invoking
   .Xr apropos 1 ,
   then provide the
   .Fl s
   flag to
   .Xr man 1
   to see the specific section manual (section 1, in this example):
   .\" DISPLAY
   .Bd -literal -offset indent
   % apropos myname
   myname (1) - utility description
   myname (3) - library description
   % man \-s 1 myname
   .Ed
   .\" SUBSECTION
   .Ss Naming
   Name your component.  Be terse, erring on the side of clarity.  Look for
   other manuals by that same name before committing:
   .Pp
   .Dl % apropos myname
   .Pp
   Manual files are named
   .Pa myname.mysection ,
   such as
   .Pa manuals.7
   for this document.  Rename the template file:
   .Pp
   .Dl % mv mdoc.template myname.mysection
   .\" SUBSECTION
   .Ss Development Tools
   While writing, make sure that your manual is correctly structured:
   .Pp
   .Dl % mandoc \-Tlint \-Wall name.1
   .Pp
   You may spell-check your work as follows:
   .Pp
   .Dl % deroff name.1 | spell
   .Pp
   If
   .Xr ispell 1
   is installed, it has a special mode for manuals:
   .Pp
   .Dl % ispell \-n name.1
   .Pp
   Use
   .Xr cvs 1
   or
   .Xr rcs 1
   to version-control your work.  If you wish the last check-in to effect
   your document's date, use the following RCS tag for the date macro:
   .Pp
   .Dl \&.Dd $Mdocdate$
   .\" SUBSECTION
   .Ss Viewing
   mdoc documents may be paged to your terminal with
   .Xr mandoc 1 .
   If you plan on distributing your work to systems without this tool,
   check it against
   .Xr groff 1 :
   .Bd -literal -offset indent
   % mandoc \-Wall name.1 2>&1 | less
   % groff -mandoc name.1 2>&1 | less
   .Ed
   .\" SUBSECTION
   .Ss Automation
   Consider adding your mdoc documents to
   .Xr make 1
   Makefiles in order to automatically check your input:
   .Bd -literal -offset indent
   \&.SUFFIXES: .1 .in
   
                                         <p>  \&.in.1:
                                         <span class="attn">A utility without documentation is of no utility at all.</span>          mandoc -Wall,error -Tlint $<
                                         </p>          cp -f $< $@
   .Ed
                                         <p>  .\" SUBSECTION
                                         A system component's documentation describes the utility of that component, whether it's a device  .Ss Licensing
                                         driver, an executable or, most importantly, a game.  Although there are plenty of documents available on  Your manual must have a license.  It should be listed at the start of
                                         how to <i>read</i> Unix documents, or where to find them, few focus on how to <i>write</i> them.  your document, just as in source code.
                                         </p>  .\" SECTION
   .Sh COMPOSITION
                                         <p>  Manuals should
                                         This document serves as a reference guide to writing Unix documentation.  If you add something to your  .Em always
                                         operating system, whether it's a new file format or directory structure or device driver, it needs  be written in the
                                         documentation.  .Xr mdoc 7
                                         </p>  formatting language.
                                 </td>  .\" PARAGRAPH
                         </tr>  .Pp
                         <tr>  Open the template you've copied into
                                 <td>  .Pa myname.mysection
                                         <div class="foot">  and begin editing.
                                                 Copyright &#169; 2009 Kristaps D&#382;onsons, $Date$  .\" SUBSECTION
                                         </div>  .Ss Language
                                 </td>  .Bl -enum
                         </tr>  .It
                 </tbody>  Use clear, concise language.  Favour simplicity.
         </table>  .It
         </body>  Write your manual in non-idiomatic English.  Don't worry about
 </html>  Commonwealth or American spellings \(em just correct ones.
   .It
   Spell-check your manual, keeping in mind short-letter terms (
   .Xr iwi 4
   vs.
   .Xr iwn 4 ) .
   .It
   If you absolutely must use special characters (diacritics, mathematical
   symbols and so on), use the escapes dictated in
   .Xr mdoc 7 .
   .El
   .\" SUBSECTION
   .Ss Style
   The structure of the mdoc language makes it very hard to have any
   particular format style.  Keep your lines under 72 characters in length.
   If you must have long option lines, use
   .Sq \&Oo/Oc .
   The same goes for function prototypes.
   .Em \&Do not
   use
   .Sq \&Xo/Xc .
   Find another way to structure your line.
   .\" SUBSECTION
   .Ss References
   Other components may be referenced with the
   .Sq \&Xr
   and
   .Sq \&Sx
   macros.  Make sure that these exist.  If you intend to distribute your
   manual, make sure
   .Sq \&Xr
   references are valid across systems (within reason).  If you cross-link with
   .Sq \&Sx ,
   make sure that the section reference exists.
   .\" SUBSECTION
   .Ss Citations
   Cite your work.  If your system references standards documents or other
   publications, please use the
   .Sq \&Rs/Re
   block macros.
   .\" SUBSECTION
   .Ss Formatting
   .Em Don't style your manual .
   Give it meaningful content.  The front-end will worry about formatting
   and style.
   .\" SECTION
   .Sh MAINTENANCE
   As your component changes and bugs are fixed, your manual may become out
   of date.  You may be tempted to use tools like Doxygen to automate the
   development of your manuals.  Don't.
   .Pp
   .Em Manuals are part of a system component :
   if you modify your code or specifications, modify the documentation.
Legend:
Removed from v.1.1  
changed lines
  Added in v.1.17
CVSweb