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Annotation of mandoc/man.7, Revision 1.13

1.13    ! kristaps    1: .\"    $Id: man.7,v 1.12 2009/06/11 07:26:35 kristaps Exp $
1.1       kristaps    2: .\"
1.11      kristaps    3: .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@kth.se>
1.1       kristaps    4: .\"
                      5: .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
1.10      kristaps    6: .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
                      7: .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
                      8: .\"
                      9: .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
                     10: .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
                     11: .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
                     12: .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
                     13: .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
                     14: .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
                     15: .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
1.1       kristaps   16: .\"
                     17: .Dd $Mdocdate$
1.9       kristaps   18: .Dt MAN 7
1.1       kristaps   19: .Os
                     20: .\" SECTION
                     21: .Sh NAME
                     22: .Nm man
                     23: .Nd man language reference
                     24: .\" SECTION
                     25: .Sh DESCRIPTION
                     26: The
                     27: .Nm man
                     28: language was historically used to format
                     29: .Ux
1.8       kristaps   30: manuals.  This reference document describes the syntax and structure of
                     31: this language.
1.1       kristaps   32: .Pp
1.8       kristaps   33: .Em \&Do not
1.1       kristaps   34: use
                     35: .Nm
                     36: to write your manuals.  Use the
                     37: .Xr mdoc 7
                     38: language, instead.
                     39: .\" PARAGRAPH
                     40: .Pp
                     41: An
                     42: .Nm
                     43: document follows simple rules:  lines beginning with the control
                     44: character
1.2       kristaps   45: .Sq \&.
1.1       kristaps   46: are parsed for macros.  Other lines are interpreted within the scope of
                     47: prior macros:
1.4       kristaps   48: .Bd -literal -offset indent
1.1       kristaps   49: \&.SH Macro lines change control state.
                     50: Other lines are interpreted within the current state.
                     51: .Ed
                     52: .\" SECTION
                     53: .Sh INPUT ENCODING
                     54: .Nm
                     55: documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters and the
                     56: space character
                     57: .Sq \  .
                     58: All manuals must have
1.5       kristaps   59: .Ux
1.1       kristaps   60: .Sq \en
                     61: line termination.
                     62: .Pp
1.5       kristaps   63: Blank lines are acceptable; where found, the output will assert a
1.1       kristaps   64: vertical space.
1.4       kristaps   65: .Pp
                     66: The
                     67: .Sq \ec
                     68: escape is common in historical
                     69: .Nm
                     70: documents; if encountered at the end of a word, it ensures that the
                     71: subsequent word isn't off-set by whitespace.
1.1       kristaps   72: .\" SUB-SECTION
1.13    ! kristaps   73: .Ss Comments
        !            74: Anything following a
        !            75: .Sq \e"
        !            76: delimiter is considered a comment (unless the
        !            77: .Sq \e
        !            78: itself has been escaped) and is ignored to the end of line.
        !            79: Furthermore, a macro line with only a control character
        !            80: .Sq \. ,
        !            81: optionally followed by whitespace, is ignored.
        !            82: .\" SUB-SECTION
1.1       kristaps   83: .Ss Special Characters
                     84: Special character sequences begin with the escape character
1.2       kristaps   85: .Sq \e
1.1       kristaps   86: followed by either an open-parenthesis
                     87: .Sq \&(
                     88: for two-character sequences; an open-bracket
                     89: .Sq \&[
                     90: for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket
                     91: .Sq \&] ) ;
                     92: or a single one-character sequence.
                     93: .Pp
                     94: Characters may alternatively be escaped by a slash-asterisk,
1.2       kristaps   95: .Sq \e* ,
1.1       kristaps   96: with the same combinations as described above.  This form is deprecated.
                     97: .\" SECTION
                     98: .Sh STRUCTURE
1.2       kristaps   99: Macros are one to three three characters in length and begin with a
1.4       kristaps  100: control character ,
                    101: .Sq \&. ,
1.2       kristaps  102: at the beginning of the line.  An arbitrary amount of whitespace may
                    103: sit between the control character and the macro name.  Thus,
1.4       kristaps  104: .Sq \&.PP
1.2       kristaps  105: and
                    106: .Sq \&.\ \ \ \&PP
                    107: are equivalent.
                    108: .Pp
1.4       kristaps  109: All
                    110: .Nm
                    111: macros follow the same structural rules:
                    112: .Bd -literal -offset indent
                    113: \&.YO \(lBbody...\(rB
1.1       kristaps  114: .Ed
                    115: .Pp
                    116: The
                    117: .Dq body
                    118: consists of zero or more arguments to the macro.
1.4       kristaps  119: .Pp
                    120: .Nm
                    121: has a primitive notion of multi-line scope for the following macros:
                    122: .Sq \&.TM ,
                    123: .Sq \&.SM ,
                    124: .Sq \&.SB ,
                    125: .Sq \&.BI ,
                    126: .Sq \&.IB ,
                    127: .Sq \&.BR ,
                    128: .Sq \&.RB ,
                    129: .Sq \&.R ,
                    130: .Sq \&.B ,
                    131: .Sq \&.I ,
                    132: .Sq \&.IR
                    133: and
                    134: .Sq \&.RI .
                    135: When these macros are invoked without arguments, the subsequent line is
                    136: considered a continuation of the macro.  Thus:
                    137: .Bd -literal -offset indent
                    138: \&.RI
                    139: foo
                    140: .Ed
                    141: .Pp
1.5       kristaps  142: is equivalent to
1.8       kristaps  143: .Sq \&.RI foo .
1.5       kristaps  144: If two consecutive lines exhibit the latter behaviour,
                    145: an error is raised.  Thus, the following is not acceptable:
1.4       kristaps  146: .Bd -literal -offset indent
                    147: \&.RI
                    148: \&.I
                    149: Hello, world.
                    150: .Ed
                    151: .Pp
                    152: The
                    153: .Sq \&.TP
1.5       kristaps  154: macro is similar, but does not need an empty argument line to trigger
                    155: the behaviour.
1.1       kristaps  156: .\" PARAGRAPH
                    157: .Sh MACROS
                    158: This section contains a complete list of all
                    159: .Nm
1.5       kristaps  160: macros and corresponding number of arguments.
1.1       kristaps  161: .Pp
1.4       kristaps  162: .Bl -column "MacroX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent
1.1       kristaps  163: .It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments
1.4       kristaps  164: .It \&.TH    Ta    >1, <6
                    165: .It \&.SH    Ta    >0
                    166: .It \&.SS    Ta    >0
1.1       kristaps  167: .It \&.TP    Ta    n
1.4       kristaps  168: .It \&.LP    Ta    0
                    169: .It \&.PP    Ta    0
                    170: .It \&.P     Ta    0
                    171: .It \&.IP    Ta    <3
                    172: .It \&.HP    Ta    <2
1.1       kristaps  173: .It \&.SM    Ta    n
                    174: .It \&.SB    Ta    n
                    175: .It \&.BI    Ta    n
                    176: .It \&.IB    Ta    n
                    177: .It \&.BR    Ta    n
                    178: .It \&.RB    Ta    n
                    179: .It \&.R     Ta    n
                    180: .It \&.B     Ta    n
                    181: .It \&.I     Ta    n
                    182: .It \&.IR    Ta    n
1.3       kristaps  183: .It \&.RI    Ta    n
1.1       kristaps  184: .El
1.7       kristaps  185: .Pp
                    186: Although not historically part of the
                    187: .Nm
                    188: system, the following macros are also supported:
                    189: .Pp
                    190: .Bl -column "MacroX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent
                    191: .It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments
                    192: .It \&.br    Ta    0
1.8       kristaps  193: .It \&.i     Ta    n
1.7       kristaps  194: .El
1.8       kristaps  195: .Pp
                    196: These follow the same calling conventions as the above
                    197: .Nm
                    198: macros.
1.1       kristaps  199: .\" SECTION
                    200: .Sh SEE ALSO
1.6       kristaps  201: .Xr mandoc 1 ,
                    202: .Xr mandoc_char 7
1.1       kristaps  203: .\" SECTION
                    204: .Sh AUTHORS
                    205: The
                    206: .Nm
                    207: utility was written by
1.12      kristaps  208: .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@kth.se .
1.1       kristaps  209: .\" SECTION
                    210: .Sh CAVEATS
                    211: Do not use this language.  Use
                    212: .Xr mdoc 7 ,
                    213: instead.

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