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Diff for /mandoc/mdoc.7 between version 1.195 and 1.204

version 1.195, 2011/08/02 01:07:26

version 1.204, 2011/08/19 12:55:33

Line 30 language is used to format

manuals.

This reference document describes its syntax, structure, and

usage.

The reference implementation is

The reference implementation for

.Nm

formatting is

.Xr mandoc 1 ;

the

.Sx COMPATIBILITY

section describes compatibility with other troff \-mdoc implementations.

section describes compatibility with other implementations.

.Pp

.Nm

Line 42 document follows simple rules: lines beginning with th

Line 44 document follows simple rules: lines beginning with th

character

.Sq \&.

are parsed for macros.

Text lines, those not beginning with the control character, are

Lines not beginning with the control character are

interpreted within the scope of prior macros:

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Sh Macro lines change control state.

Line 52 Text lines are interpreted within the current state.

Line 54 Text lines are interpreted within the current state.

.Nm

documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the space

character, and, in certain circumstances, the tab character.

.Pp

The back-space character

If the first character of a text line is a space, that line is printed

.Sq \e

with a leading newline.

indicates the start of an escape sequence for

.Sx Comments ,

.Sx Predefined Strings ,

and

.Sx Special Characters .

.Ss Comments

Text following a

Text following an escaped double-quote

.Sq \e\*q ,

.Sq \e\(dq ,

whether in a macro or text line, is ignored to the end of

line.

A macro line with only a control character and comment escape,

A macro line beginning with a control character and comment escape

.Sq \&.\e\*q ,

.Sq \&.\e\(dq

is also ignored.

Macro lines with only a control character and optional whitespace are

Furthermore,

macro lines with only a control character and optional trailing

whitespace are

stripped from input.

.Pp

Examples:

.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact

\&.\e\(dq This is a comment line.

\&.\e\(dq The next line is ignored:

\&.

\&.Em Emphasis \e\(dq This is also a comment.

.Ed

.Ss Special Characters

Special characters may occur in both macro and text lines.

Special characters are used to encode special glyphs and are rendered

differently across output media.

They may occur in both macro and text lines.

Sequences begin with the escape character

.Sq \e

followed by either an open-parenthesis

Line 76 for two-character sequences; an open-bracket

Line 94 for two-character sequences; an open-bracket

for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket

.Sq \&] ) ;

or a single one character sequence.

.Pp

Examples:

.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact

.It Li \e(em

Two-letter em dash escape.

.It Li \ee

One-letter backslash escape.

.El

.Pp

See

.Xr mandoc_char 7

for a complete list.

Examples include

.Sq \e(em

.Pq em-dash

and

.Sq \ee

.Pq back-slash .

.Ss Text Decoration

Terms may be text-decorated using the

.Sq \ef

escape followed by an indicator: B (bold), I (italic), R (Roman), or P

escape followed by an indicator: B (bold), I (italic), R (regular), or P

(revert to previous mode):

(revert to previous mode).

.Pp

A numerical representation 3, 2, or 1 (bold, italic, and regular,

.Dl \efBbold\efR \efIitalic\efP

.Pp

A numerical representation 3, 2, or 1 (bold, italic, and Roman,

respectively) may be used instead.

If a macro opens a font scope after calling

.Sq \ef ,

Line 105 mode will be restored upon exiting the

Line 123 mode will be restored upon exiting the

.Sx \&Bf

scope.

.Pp

Note this form is

Examples:

.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact

.It Li \efBbold\efR

Write in bold, then switch to regular font mode.

.It Li \efIitalic\efP

Write in italic, then return to previous font mode.

.El

.Pp

Text decoration is

.Em not

recommended for

.Nm ,

which encourages semantic annotation.

.Ss Predefined Strings

Historically,

Predefined strings, like

troff

also defined a set of package-specific

.Dq predefined strings ,

which, like

.Sx Special Characters ,

mark special output characters and strings by way of input codes.

mark special output glyphs.

Predefined strings are escaped with the slash-asterisk,

.Sq \e* :

single-character

Line 126 two-character

Line 148 two-character

.Sq \e*(XX ,

and N-character

.Sq \e*[N] .

See

.Pp

.Xr mandoc_char 7

Examples:

for a complete list.

.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact

Examples include

.It Li \e*(Am

.Sq \e*(Am

Two-letter ampersand predefined string.

.Pq ampersand

.It Li \e*q

and

One-letter double-quote predefined string.

.Sq \e*(Ba

.El

.Pq vertical bar .

.Pp

These strings are set using

.Xr roff 7 ,

although

.Nm

consists of several pre-set escapes listed in

.Xr mandoc_char 7 .

.Ss Whitespace

Whitespace consists of the space character.

In text lines, whitespace is preserved within a line; unescaped

In text lines, whitespace is preserved within a line.

trailing spaces are stripped from input (unless in a literal context).

In macro lines, whitespace delimits arguments and is discarded.

Blank text lines, which may include whitespace, are only permitted

within literal contexts.

.Pp

In general, trailing whitespace on input lines is discouraged

Unescaped trailing spaces are stripped from text line input unless in a

for reasons of clarity and portability.

literal context.

In general, trailing whitespace on any input line is discouraged for

reasons of portability.

In the rare case that a blank character is needed at the end of an

input line, it may be forced by

.Sq \e\ \e& .

.Pp

In macro lines, whitespace delimits arguments and is discarded.

In general, space characters can be considered as non-whitespace

characters by using non-breaking space escapes or

.Sx Quotation .

.Pp

Blank text lines, which may include whitespace, are only permitted

within literal contexts.

If the first character of a text line is a space, that line is printed

with a leading newline.

.Ss Quotation

Macro arguments may be quoted with double-quotes; in this case,

Macro arguments may be quoted with double-quotes to so that the

whitespace within the quotes is retained as part of the argument.

enclosed text is one literal term.

For example,

Quoted text, even if whitespace or if it would cause a macro invocation

when unquoted, is considered literal text.

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. \&Fn strlen "\(dqconst char *s\(dq"

.Pp

renders as

.Sq Fn strlen "const char *s" ,

while

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. \&Fn strlen "const char *s"

.Pp

would produce

.Sq Fn strlen const char *s .

.Pp

A quoted argument begins with a double-quote preceded by whitespace.

The next double-quote not pairwise adjacent to another double-quote

terminates the literal, regardless of surrounding whitespace.

.Pp

In unquoted arguments, space characters can alternatively be included

Examples:

by preceding them with a backslash

.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact

.Pq Sq \e\~ ,

.It Li .Fn strlen \(dqconst char *s\(dq

but quoting is usually better for clarity.

Group arguments

.Pp

.Qq const char *s

Note that any quoted text, even if it would cause a macro invocation

into one functinon argument.

when unquoted, is considered literal text.

If unspecified,

Thus, the following produces

.Qq const ,

.Sq Op "Fl a" :

.Qq char ,

.Bd -literal -offset indent

and

\&.Op "Fl a"

.Qq *s

.Ed

would be considered separate arguments.

.Pp

.Pq See Sx \&Fn .

In text lines, quotes are regarded as opaque text.

.It Li .Op \(dqFl a\(dq

Consider

.Qq \&Fl a

as literal text instead of a flag macro.

.Pq Aee Sx \&Op , \&Fl .

.El

.Ss Scaling Widths

Many macros support scaled widths for their arguments, such as

Many macros support scaled widths for their arguments.

stipulating a two-inch list indentation with the following:

The syntax for a scaled width is

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Bl -tag -width 2i

.Ed

.Pp

The syntax for scaled widths is

.Sq Li [+-]?[0-9]*.[0-9]*[:unit:] ,

where a decimal must be preceded or proceeded by at least one digit.

Negative numbers, while accepted, are truncated to zero.

.Pp

The following scaling units are accepted:

.Pp

.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact

Line 235 or

Line 261 or

is necessarily non-portable across output media.

See

.Sx COMPATIBILITY .

.Pp

Examples:

.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact

.It Li \&.Bl -tag -width 2i

two-inch tagged list indentation

.Pq see Sx \&Bl

.It Li \&.sp 2v

two vertical spaces

.Pq see Sx \&sp

.El

.Ss Sentence Spacing

When composing a manual, make sure that sentences end at the end of

Sentences should terminate at the end of an input line.

a line.

By doing this, a formatter will be able to apply the proper amount of

By doing so, front-ends will be able to apply the proper amount of

spacing after the end of sentence (unescaped) period, exclamation mark,

or question mark followed by zero or more non-sentence closing

delimiters

Line 251 delimiters

Line 286 delimiters

.Pp

The proper spacing is also intelligently preserved if a sentence ends at

the boundary of a macro line.

For example:

.Pp

.Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&.

Examples:

.Dl \&.Fl T \&Ns \&Cm ascii \&.

.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact

Do not end sentences mid-line like this. Instead,

end a sentence like this.

A macro would end like this:

\&.Xr mandoc 1 \&.

.Ed

.Sh MANUAL STRUCTURE

A well-formed

.Nm

Line 292 file for a utility

Line 331 file for a utility

\&.Sh NAME

\&.Nm progname

\&.Nd one line about what it does

\&.\e\*q .Sh LIBRARY

\&.\e\(dq .Sh LIBRARY

\&.\e\*q For sections 2, 3, & 9 only.

\&.\e\(dq For sections 2, 3, & 9 only.

\&.\e\*q Not used in OpenBSD.

\&.\e\(dq Not used in OpenBSD.

\&.Sh SYNOPSIS

\&.Nm progname

\&.Op Fl options

Line 303 file for a utility

Line 342 file for a utility

The

\&.Nm

utility processes files ...

\&.\e\*q .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

\&.\e\(dq .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

\&.\e\*q Not used in OpenBSD.

\&.\e\(dq Not used in OpenBSD.

\&.\e\*q .Sh RETURN VALUES

\&.\e\(dq .Sh RETURN VALUES

\&.\e\*q For sections 2, 3, & 9 only.

\&.\e\(dq For sections 2, 3, & 9 only.

\&.\e\*q .Sh ENVIRONMENT

\&.\e\(dq .Sh ENVIRONMENT

\&.\e\*q For sections 1, 6, 7, & 8 only.

\&.\e\(dq For sections 1, 6, 7, & 8 only.

\&.\e\*q .Sh FILES

\&.\e\(dq .Sh FILES

\&.\e\*q .Sh EXIT STATUS

\&.\e\(dq .Sh EXIT STATUS

\&.\e\*q For sections 1, 6, & 8 only.

\&.\e\(dq For sections 1, 6, & 8 only.

\&.\e\*q .Sh EXAMPLES

\&.\e\(dq .Sh EXAMPLES

\&.\e\*q .Sh DIAGNOSTICS

\&.\e\(dq .Sh DIAGNOSTICS

\&.\e\*q For sections 1, 4, 6, 7, & 8 only.

\&.\e\(dq For sections 1, 4, 6, 7, & 8 only.

\&.\e\*q .Sh ERRORS

\&.\e\(dq .Sh ERRORS

\&.\e\*q For sections 2, 3, & 9 only.

\&.\e\(dq For sections 2, 3, & 9 only.

\&.\e\*q .Sh SEE ALSO

\&.\e\(dq .Sh SEE ALSO

\&.\e\*q .Xr foobar 1

\&.\e\(dq .Xr foobar 1

\&.\e\*q .Sh STANDARDS

\&.\e\(dq .Sh STANDARDS

\&.\e\*q .Sh HISTORY

\&.\e\(dq .Sh HISTORY

\&.\e\*q .Sh AUTHORS

\&.\e\(dq .Sh AUTHORS

\&.\e\*q .Sh CAVEATS

\&.\e\(dq .Sh CAVEATS

\&.\e\*q .Sh BUGS

\&.\e\(dq .Sh BUGS

\&.\e\*q .Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

\&.\e\(dq .Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

\&.\e\*q Not used in OpenBSD.

\&.\e\(dq Not used in OpenBSD.

.Ed

.Pp

The sections in an

Line 406 macros should follow C header-file conventions.

Line 445 macros should follow C header-file conventions.

.Pp

And for the third, configurations (section 4):

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Cd \*qit* at isa? port 0x2e\*q

\&.Cd \(dqit* at isa? port 0x2e\(dq

\&.Cd \*qit* at isa? port 0x4e\*q

\&.Cd \(dqit* at isa? port 0x4e\(dq

.Ed

.Pp

Manuals not in these sections generally don't need a

Line 471 Print verbose information.

Line 510 Print verbose information.

.Ed

.Pp

Manuals not documenting a command won't include the above fragment.

.Pp

Since the

.Em DESCRIPTION

section usually contains most of the text of a manual, longer manuals

often use the

.Sx \&Ss

macro to form subsections.

In very long manuals, the

.Em DESCRIPTION

may be split into multiple sections, each started by an

.Sx \&Sh

macro followed by a non-standard section name, and each having

several subsections, like in the present

.Nm

manual.

.It Em IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

Implementation-specific notes should be kept here.

This is useful when implementing standard functions that may have side

Line 532 This section should exist for most manuals.

Line 586 This section should exist for most manuals.

Cross-references should conventionally be ordered first by section, then

alphabetically.

.Pp

References to other documentation concerning the topic of the manual page,

for example authoritative books or journal articles, may also be

provided in this section.

.Pp

See

.Sx \&Rs

and

.Sx \&Xr .

.It Em STANDARDS

References any standards implemented or used.

Line 543 section should be used instead.

Line 603 section should be used instead.

See

.Sx \&St .

.It Em HISTORY

A brief history of the subject, including where support first appeared.

A brief history of the subject, including where it was first implemented,

and when it was ported to or reimplemented for the operating system at hand.

.It Em AUTHORS

Credits to the person or persons who wrote the code and/or documentation.

Authors should generally be noted by both name and email address.

Line 664 has multiple heads.

Line 725 has multiple heads.

.Pp

.Bl -column -compact -offset indent "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXXXXXXXXXX"

.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope

.It Sx \&It Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&It , Sx \&El

.It Sx \&Nd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Sh

.It Sx \&Nm Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Nm , Sx \&Sh , Sx \&Ss

.It Sx \&Sh Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Sh

.It Sx \&Sh Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Sh

.It Sx \&Ss Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Sh , Sx \&Ss

.It Sx \&Ss Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Sh , Sx \&Ss

.El

.Pp

Note that the

Line 1037 Examples:

Line 1098 Examples:

.Dl \&.Ad 0x00000000

.Ss \&An

Author name.

Can be used both for the authors of the program, function, or driver

documented in the manual, or for the authors of the manual itself.

Requires either the name of an author or one of the following arguments:

.Pp

.Bl -tag -width "-nosplitX" -offset indent -compact

Line 1107 If an argument is not provided, the string

Line 1170 If an argument is not provided, the string

is used as a default.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Fl o \&Ns \&Ar file1

.Dl ".Fl o Ar file"

.Dl \&.Ar

.Dl ".Ar"

.Dl \&.Ar arg1 , arg2 .

.Dl ".Ar arg1 , arg2 ."

.Pp

The arguments to the

.Sx \&Ar

macro are names and placeholders for command arguments;

for fixed strings to be passed verbatim as arguments, use

.Sx \&Fl

.Sx \&Cm .

.Ss \&At

Formats an AT&T version.

Accepts one optional argument:

Line 1166 The

Line 1237 The

must be one of the following:

.Bl -tag -width 13n -offset indent

.It Fl centered

Centre-justify each line.

Produce one output line from each input line, and centre-justify each line.

Using this display type is not recommended; many

.Nm

implementations render it poorly.

.It Fl filled

Left- and right-justify the block.

Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left- and

right-justify the resulting block.

.It Fl literal

Do not justify the block at all.

Produce one output line from each input line,

and do not justify the block at all.

Preserve white space as it appears in the input.

Always use a constant-width font.

Use this for displaying source code.

.It Fl ragged

Only left-justify the block.

Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left-justify

the resulting block.

.It Fl unfilled

An alias for

The same as

.Fl literal .

.Fl literal ,

but using the same font as for normal text, which is a variable width font

if supported by the output device.

.El

.Pp

The

Line 1195 which may be one of the following:

Line 1273 which may be one of the following:

.It

One of the pre-defined strings

.Cm indent ,

the width of standard indentation;

the width of a standard indentation (six constant width characters);

.Cm indent-two ,

twice

.Cm indent ;

Line 1372 except that dashes are used in place of bullets.

Line 1450 except that dashes are used in place of bullets.

.Fl inset ,

except that item heads are not parsed for macro invocations.

.\" but with additional formatting to the head.

Most often used in the

.Em DIAGNOSTICS

section with error constants in the item heads.

.It Fl enum

A numbered list.

No item heads can be specified.

Formatted like

.Fl bullet ,

except that cardinal numbers are used in place of bullets,

Line 1414 this head on the same output line.

Line 1495 this head on the same output line.

Otherwise, the body starts on the output line following the head.

.El

.Pp

Lists may be nested within lists and displays.

Nesting of

.Fl column

and

.Fl enum

lists may not be portable.

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&El

and

Line 1490 and

Line 1578 and

.Sx \&Ux .

.Ss \&Bt

Prints

.Dq is currently in beta test .

.Dq is currently in beta test.

.Ss \&Bx

Format the BSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if no

argument is provided.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Bx 4.3 Tahoe

.Dl \&.Bx 4.4

.Dl \&.Bx

.Pp

Line 1512 and

Line 1601 and

Kernel configuration declaration.

This denotes strings accepted by

.Xr config 8 .

It is most often used in section 4 manual pages.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Cd device le0 at scode?

Line 1524 declarations.

Line 1614 declarations.

This practise is discouraged.

.Ss \&Cm

Command modifiers.

Useful when specifying configuration options or keys.

Typically used for fixed strings passed as arguments, unless

.Sx \&Fl

is more appropriate.

Also useful when specifying configuration options or keys.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Cm ControlPath

.Dl ".Nm mt Fl f Ar device Cm rewind"

.Dl \&.Cm ControlMaster

.Dl ".Nm ps Fl o Cm pid , Ns Cm command"

.Pp

.Dl ".Nm dd Cm if= Ns Ar file1 Cm of= Ns Ar file2"

See also

.Dl ".Cm IdentityFile Pa ~/.ssh/id_rsa"

.Sx \&Fl .

.Dl ".Cm LogLevel Dv DEBUG"

.Ss \&D1

One-line indented display.

This is formatted by the default rules and is useful for simple indented

Line 1851 See also

Line 1944 See also

and

.Sx \&It .

.Ss \&Em

Denotes text that should be emphasised.

Denotes text that should be

.Em emphasised .

Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for

stylistically decorating technical terms.

Depending on the output device, this is usually represented

using an italic font or underlined characters.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Em Warnings!

Line 1861 Examples:

Line 1957 Examples:

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Bf ,

.Sx \&Sy ,

.Sx \&Li ,

.Sx \&No ,

and

.Sx \&Li .

.Sx \&Sy .

.Ss \&En

This macro is obsolete and not implemented in

.Xr mandoc 1 .

Line 1882 will emulate

Line 1979 will emulate

Error constants for definitions of the

.Va errno

libc global variable.

This is most often used in section 2 and 3 manual pages.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Er EPERM

Line 1906 for general constants.

Line 2004 for general constants.

.Ss \&Ex

Insert a standard sentence regarding command exit values of 0 on success

and >0 on failure.

This is most often used in section 1, 6, and 8 manual pages.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ex Fl std Op Ar utility ...

Line 1966 See also

Line 2065 See also

and

.Sx \&In .

.Ss \&Fl

Command-line flag.

Command-line flag or option.

Used when listing arguments to command-line utilities.

Prints a fixed-width hyphen

.Sq \-

Line 1976 If the argument is a macro, a hyphen is prefixed to th

Line 2075 If the argument is a macro, a hyphen is prefixed to th

output.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Fl a b c

.Dl ".Fl R Op Fl H | L | P"

.Dl \&.Fl \&Pf a b

.Dl ".Op Fl 1AaCcdFfgHhikLlmnopqRrSsTtux"

.Dl \&.Fl

.Dl ".Fl type Cm d Fl name Pa CVS"

.Dl \&.Op \&Fl o \&Ns \&Ar file

.Dl ".Fl Ar signal_number"

.Dl ".Fl o Fl"

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Cm .

Line 1996 Its syntax is as follows:

Line 2096 Its syntax is as follows:

Function arguments are surrounded in parenthesis and

are delimited by commas.

If no arguments are specified, blank parenthesis are output.

In the

.Em SYNOPSIS

section, this macro starts a new output line,

and a blank line is automatically inserted between function definitions.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Fn \*qint funcname\*q \*qint arg0\*q \*qint arg1\*q

.Dl \&.Fn \(dqint funcname\(dq \(dqint arg0\(dq \(dqint arg1\(dq

.Dl \&.Fn funcname \*qint arg0\*q

.Dl \&.Fn funcname \(dqint arg0\(dq

.Dl \&.Fn funcname arg0

.Pp

.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact

\&.Ft functype

\&.Fn funcname

Line 2010 When referring to a function documented in another man

Line 2115 When referring to a function documented in another man

.Sx \&Xr

instead.

See also

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,

.Sx \&Fo ,

and

.Sx \&Ft .

.Ss \&Fo

Line 2037 Invocations usually occur in the following context:

Line 2143 Invocations usually occur in the following context:

.Sx \&Fo

scope is closed by

.Sx \&Fc .

.Pp

See also

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,

Line 2045 See also

Line 2152 See also

and

.Sx \&Ft .

.Ss \&Fr

This macro is obsolete and not implemented.

This macro is obsolete and not implemented in

.Xr mandoc 1 .

.Pp

It was used to show function return values.

The syntax was:

.Pp

.Dl Pf . Sx \&Fr Ar value

.Ss \&Ft

A function type.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ft Ar functype

.Pp

In the

.Em SYNOPSIS

section, a new output line is started after this macro.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Ft int

.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact

Line 2084 See also

Line 2201 See also

and

.Sx \&Ux .

.Ss \&Hf

This macro is obsolete and not implemented.

This macro is not implemented in

.Xr mandoc 1 .

.Pp

It was used to include the contents of a (header) file literally.

The syntax was:

.Pp

.Dl Pf . Sx \&Hf Ar filename

.Ss \&Ic

Designate an internal or interactive command.

This is similar to

Line 2092 This is similar to

Line 2215 This is similar to

but used for instructions rather than values.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Ic :wq

.Dl \&.Ic hash

.Dl \&.Ic alias

.Pp

Line 2106 macro is used when referring to specific instructions.

Line 2230 macro is used when referring to specific instructions.

.Dq include

file.

In the

When invoked as the first macro on an input line in the

.Em SYNOPSIS

section (only if invoked as the line macro), the first argument is

section, the argument is displayed in angle brackets

preceded by

and preceded by

.Dq #include ,

the arguments is enclosed in angle brackets.

and a blank line is inserted in front if there is a preceding

function declaration.

This is most often used in section 2, 3, and 9 manual pages.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.In sys/types

.Dl \&.In sys/types.h

.Pp

See also

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .

Line 2220 Examples:

Line 2346 Examples:

.Dl \&.Lb libz

.Dl \&.Lb mdoc

.Ss \&Li

Denotes text that should be in a literal font mode.

Denotes text that should be in a

.Li literal

font mode.

Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for

stylistically decorating technical terms.

.Pp

On terminal output devices, this is often indistinguishable from

normal text.

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Bf ,

.Sx \&Sy ,

.Sx \&Em ,

.Sx \&No ,

and

.Sx \&Em .

.Sx \&Sy .

.Ss \&Lk

Format a hyperlink.

Its syntax is as follows:

Line 2236 Its syntax is as follows:

Line 2368 Its syntax is as follows:

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Lk Ar uri Op Ar name

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Lk http://bsd.lv \*qThe BSD.lv Project\*q

.Dl \&.Lk http://bsd.lv \(dqThe BSD.lv Project\(dq

.Dl \&.Lk http://bsd.lv

.Pp

See also

Line 2272 section subsequent the

Line 2404 section subsequent the

macro.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Sx \&Nd mdoc language reference

.Dl Pf . Sx \&Nd mdoc language reference

.Dl \&.Sx \&Nd format and display UNIX manuals

.Dl Pf . Sx \&Nd format and display UNIX manuals

.Pp

The

.Sx \&Nd

Line 2325 macro rather than

Line 2457 macro rather than

.Sx \&Nm

to mark up the name of the manual page.

.Ss \&No

Normal text.

.Dq noop

Closes the scope of any preceding in-line macro.

macro used to terminate prior macro contexts.

When used after physical formatting macros like

.Sx \&Em

.Sx \&Sy ,

switches back to the standard font face and weight.

Can also be used to embed plain text strings in macro lines

using semantic annotation macros.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Sx \&Fl ab \&No cd \&Fl ef

.Dl ".Em italic , Sy bold , No and roman"

.Pp

.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact

\&.Sm off

\&.Cm :C No / Ar pattern No / Ar replacement No /

\&.Sm on

.Ed

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Em ,

.Sx \&Li ,

and

.Sx \&Sy .

.Ss \&Ns

Suppress a space.

Suppress a space between the output of the preceding macro

Following invocation, text is interpreted as free-form text until a

and the following text or macro.

macro is encountered.

Following invocation, input is interpreted as normal text

just like after an

.Sx \&No

macro.

.Pp

This has no effect when invoked at the start of a macro line.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Fl o \&Ns \&Ar output

.Dl ".Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value"

.Dl ".Cm :M Ns Ar pattern"

.Dl ".Fl o Ns Ar output"

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&No

Line 2379 Examples:

Line 2534 Examples:

\&.Oc

.Ed

.Ss \&Op

Command-line option.

Optional part of a command line.

Used when listing options to command-line utilities.

Prints the argument(s) in brackets.

This is most often used in the

.Em SYNOPSIS

section of section 1 and 8 manual pages.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Op \&Fl a \&Ar b

Line 2415 See also

Line 2572 See also

and

.Sx \&Dt .

.Ss \&Ot

Unknown usage.

This macro is obsolete and not implemented in

.Xr mandoc 1 .

.Pp

.Em Remarks :

Historical

this macro has been deprecated.

.Xr mdoc 7

packages described it as

.Dq "old function type (FORTRAN)" .

.Ss \&Ox

Format the

.Ox

Line 2439 See also

Line 2599 See also

and

.Sx \&Ux .

.Ss \&Pa

A file-system path.

An absolute or relative file system path, or a file or directory name.

If an argument is not provided, the string

If an argument is not provided, the character

.Dq \(ti

.Sq \(ti

is used as a default.

.Pp

Examples:

Line 2454 See also

Line 2614 See also

Close parenthesised context opened by

.Sx \&Po .

.Ss \&Pf

Removes the space

Removes the space between its argument

.Pq Dq prefix

between its arguments.

and the following macro.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. \&Pf Ar prefix suffix

.D1 .Pf Ar prefix macro arguments ...

.Pp

The

This is equivalent to:

.Ar suffix

argument may be a macro.

.Pp

.D1 .No Ar prefix No \&Ns Ar macro arguments ...

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Pf \e. \&Sx \&Pf \&Ar prefix suffix

.Dl ".Pf $ Ar variable_name"

.Dl ".Pf 0x Ar hex_digits"

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Ns

and

.Sx \&Sm .

.Ss \&Po

Multi-line version of

.Sx \&Pq .

Line 2474 Multi-line version of

Line 2640 Multi-line version of

Break a paragraph.

This will assert vertical space between prior and subsequent macros

and/or text.

.Pp

Paragraph breaks are not needed before or after

.Sx \&Sh

.Sx \&Ss

macros or before displays

.Pq Sx \&Bd

or lists

.Pq Sx \&Bl

unless the

.Fl compact

flag is given.

.Ss \&Pq

Parenthesised enclosure.

.Pp

Line 2493 Multi-line version of

Line 2671 Multi-line version of

.Sx \&Qq .

.Ss \&Qq

Encloses its arguments in

.Dq typewriter

.Qq typewriter

double-quotes.

Consider using

.Sx \&Dq .

Line 2580 custom sections be used.

Line 2758 custom sections be used.

.Pp

Section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by

.Sx \&Sx .

Although this macro is parsed, it should not consist of child node or it

may not be linked with

.Sx \&Sx .

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Pp ,

Line 2604 Multi-line version of

Line 2785 Multi-line version of

.Sx \&Sq .

.Ss \&Sq

Encloses its arguments in

.Dq typewriter

.Sq typewriter

single-quotes.

.Pp

See also

Line 2613 See also

Line 2794 See also

and

.Sx \&So .

.Ss \&Ss

Begin a new sub-section.

Begin a new subsection.

Unlike with

.Sx \&Sh ,

there's no convention for sub-sections.

there is no convention for the naming of subsections.

Conventional sections, as described in

Except

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,

.Em DESCRIPTION ,

rarely have sub-sections.

the conventional sections described in

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE

rarely have subsections.

.Pp

Sub-section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by

.Sx \&Sx .

Although this macro is parsed, it should not consist of child node or it

may not be linked with

.Sx \&Sx .

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Pp ,

Line 2704 The following standards are recognised:

Line 2890 The following standards are recognised:

.St -xpg4

.It \-xpg4.2

.St -xpg4.2

.It \-xpg4.3

.St -xpg4.3

.It \-xbd5

.St -xbd5

Line 2727 The following standards are recognised:

Line 2914 The following standards are recognised:

.St -svid4

.El

.Ss \&Sx

Reference a section or sub-section.

Reference a section or subsection in the same manual page.

The referenced section or sub-section name must be identical to the

The referenced section or subsection name must be identical to the

enclosed argument, including whitespace.

.Pp

Examples:

Line 2746 stylistically decorating technical terms.

Line 2933 stylistically decorating technical terms.

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Bf ,

.Sx \&Em ,

.Sx \&Li ,

and

.Sx \&Em .

.Sx \&No .

.Ss \&Ta

Table cell separator in

.Sx \&Bl Fl column

Line 2757 lists; can only be used below

Line 2945 lists; can only be used below

.Ss \&Tn

Format a tradename.

.Pp

Since this macro is often implemented to use a small caps font,

it has historically been used for acronyms (like ASCII) as well.

Such usage is not recommended because it would use the same macro

sometimes for semantical annotation, sometimes for physical formatting.

.Pp

Examples:

.Dl \&.Tn IBM

.Ss \&Ud

Prints out

.Dq currently under development .

.Dq currently under development.

.Ss \&Ux

Format the UNIX name.

Accepts no argument.

Line 2791 This is also used for indicating global variables in t

Line 2984 This is also used for indicating global variables in t

section, in which case a variable name is also specified.

Note that it accepts

.Sx Block partial-implicit

syntax when invoked as the first macro in the

syntax when invoked as the first macro on an input line in the

.Em SYNOPSIS

section, else it accepts ordinary

.Sx In-line

syntax.

In the former case, this macro starts a new output line,

and a blank line is inserted in front if there is a preceding

function definition or include directive.

.Pp

Note that this should not be confused with

.Sx \&Ft ,

Line 3054 This is not supported by mandoc.

Line 3250 This is not supported by mandoc.

.Xr mandoc 1 ,

.Xr eqn 7 ,

.Xr man 7 ,

.Xr mandoc_char 7

.Xr mandoc_char 7 ,

.Xr roff 7 ,

.Xr tbl 7

.Sh HISTORY

Line 3072 utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in

Line 3268 utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in

The

.Nm

reference was written by

.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@bsd.lv .

.An Kristaps Dzonsons ,

.Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .

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