.\" $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.139 2010/07/19 15:43:10 kristaps Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010 Kristaps Dzonsons .\" Copyright (c) 2010 Ingo Schwarze .\" .\" 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: July 19 2010 $ .Dt MDOC 7 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm mdoc .Nd mdoc language reference .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm mdoc language is used to format .Bx .Ux manuals. In this reference document, we describe its syntax, structure, and usage. Our reference implementation is mandoc; the .Sx COMPATIBILITY section describes compatibility with other troff \-mdoc implementations. .Pp An .Nm document follows simple rules: lines beginning with the control character .Sq \. are parsed for macros. Other lines are interpreted within the scope of prior macros: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Sh Macro lines change control state. Other lines are interpreted within the current state. .Ed .Sh LANGUAGE SYNTAX .Nm documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the space character, and, in certain circumstances, the tab character. All manuals must have .Ux line terminators. .Ss Comments Text following a .Sq \e\*q , whether in a macro or free-form text line, is ignored to the end of line. A macro line with only a control character and comment escape, .Sq \&.\e\*q , is also ignored. Macro lines with only a control character and optionally whitespace are stripped from input. .Ss Reserved Characters Within a macro line, the following characters are reserved: .Pp .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact .It \&. .Pq period .It \&, .Pq comma .It \&: .Pq colon .It \&; .Pq semicolon .It \&( .Pq left-parenthesis .It \&) .Pq right-parenthesis .It \&[ .Pq left-bracket .It \&] .Pq right-bracket .It \&? .Pq question .It \&! .Pq exclamation .It \&| .Pq vertical bar .El .Pp Use of reserved characters is described in .Sx MACRO SYNTAX . For general use in macro lines, these characters must either be escaped with a non-breaking space .Pq Sq \e& or, if applicable, an appropriate escape sequence used. .Ss Special Characters Special characters may occur in both macro and free-form lines. Sequences begin with the escape character .Sq \e followed by either an open-parenthesis .Sq \&( for two-character sequences; an open-bracket .Sq \&[ for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket .Sq \&] ) ; or a single one-character sequence. 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 (revert to previous mode): .Pp .D1 \efBbold\efR \efIitalic\efP .Pp A numerical representation 3, 2, or 1 (bold, italic, and Roman, respectively) may be used instead. A text decoration is valid within the current font scope only: if a macro opens a font scope alongside its own scope, such as .Sx \&Bf .Cm \&Sy , in-scope invocations of .Sq \ef are only valid within the font scope of the macro. If .Sq \ef is specified outside of any font scope, such as in unenclosed, free-form text, it will affect the remainder of the document. .Pp Note this form is .Em not recommended for .Nm , which encourages semantic annotation. .Ss Predefined Strings Historically, .Xr groff 1 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. Predefined strings are escaped with the slash-asterisk, .Sq \e* : single-character .Sq \e*X , two-character .Sq \e*(XX , and N-character .Sq \e*[N] . See .Xr mandoc_char 7 for a complete list. Examples include .Sq \e*(Am .Pq ampersand and .Sq \e*(Ba .Pq vertical bar . .Ss Whitespace Whitespace consists of the space character. In free-form lines, whitespace is preserved within a line; un-escaped trailing spaces are stripped from input (unless in a literal context). Blank free-form lines, which may include whitespace, are only permitted within literal contexts. .Pp In macro lines, whitespace delimits arguments and is discarded. If arguments are quoted, whitespace within the quotes is retained. .Ss Quotation Macro arguments may be quoted with a double-quote to group space-delimited terms or to retain blocks of whitespace. A quoted argument begins with a double-quote preceded by whitespace. The next double-quote not pair-wise adjacent to another double-quote terminates the literal, regardless of surrounding whitespace. .Pp This produces tokens .Sq a" , .Sq b c , .Sq de , and .Sq fg" . Note that any quoted term, be it argument or macro, is indiscriminately considered literal text. Thus, the following produces .Sq \&Em a : .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Em "Em a" .Ed .Pp In free-form mode, quotes are regarded as opaque text. .Ss Dates There are several macros in .Nm that require a date argument. The canonical form for dates is the American format: .Pp .D1 Cm Month Day , Year .Pp The .Cm Day value is an optionally zero-padded numeral. The .Cm Month value is the full month name. The .Cm Year value is the full four-digit year. .Pp Reduced form dates are broken-down canonical form dates: .Pp .D1 Cm Month , Year .D1 Cm Year .Pp Some examples of valid dates follow: .Pp .D1 "May, 2009" Pq reduced form .D1 "2009" Pq reduced form .D1 "May 20, 2009" Pq canonical form .Ss Scaling Widths Many macros support scaled widths for their arguments, such as stipulating a two-inch list indentation with the following: .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. The following scaling units are accepted: .Pp .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact .It c centimetre .It i inch .It P pica (~1/6 inch) .It p point (~1/72 inch) .It f synonym for .Sq u .It v default vertical span .It m width of rendered .Sq m .Pq em character .It n width of rendered .Sq n .Pq en character .It u default horizontal span .It M mini-em (~1/100 em) .El .Pp Using anything other than .Sq m , .Sq n , .Sq u , or .Sq v is necessarily non-portable across output media. See .Sx COMPATIBILITY . .Ss Sentence Spacing When composing a manual, make sure that your sentences end at the end of a line. 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 ( .Ns Sq \&) , .Sq \&] , .Sq \&' , .Sq \&" ) . .Pp The proper spacing is also intelligently preserved if a sentence ends at the boundary of a macro line, e.g., .Pp .D1 \&Xr mandoc 1 \. .D1 \&Fl T \&Ns \&Cm ascii \. .Sh MANUAL STRUCTURE A well-formed .Nm document consists of a document prologue followed by one or more sections. .Pp The prologue, which consists of (in order) the .Sx \&Dd , .Sx \&Dt , and .Sx \&Os macros, is required for every document. .Pp The first section (sections are denoted by .Sx \&Sh ) must be the NAME section, consisting of at least one .Sx \&Nm followed by .Sx \&Nd . .Pp Following that, convention dictates specifying at least the .Em SYNOPSIS and .Em DESCRIPTION sections, although this varies between manual sections. .Pp The following is a well-formed skeleton .Nm file: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$ \&.Dt mdoc 7 \&.Os \&.Sh NAME \&.Nm foo \&.Nd a description goes here \&.\e\*q The next is for sections 2, 3, & 9 only. \&.\e\*q .Sh LIBRARY \&.Sh SYNOPSIS \&.Nm foo \&.Op Fl options \&.Ar \&.Sh DESCRIPTION The \&.Nm utility processes files ... \&.\e\*q .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES \&.\e\*q The next is for sections 2, 3, & 9 only. \&.\e\*q .Sh RETURN VALUES \&.\e\*q The next is for sections 1, 6, 7, & 8 only. \&.\e\*q .Sh ENVIRONMENT \&.\e\*q .Sh FILES \&.\e\*q The next is for sections 1 & 8 only. \&.\e\*q .Sh EXIT STATUS \&.\e\*q .Sh EXAMPLES \&.\e\*q The next is for sections 1, 4, 6, 7, & 8 only. \&.\e\*q .Sh DIAGNOSTICS \&.\e\*q The next is for sections 2, 3, & 9 only. \&.\e\*q .Sh ERRORS \&.\e\*q .Sh SEE ALSO \&.\e\*q .Xr foobar 1 \&.\e\*q .Sh STANDARDS \&.\e\*q .Sh HISTORY \&.\e\*q .Sh AUTHORS \&.\e\*q .Sh CAVEATS \&.\e\*q .Sh BUGS \&.\e\*q .Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS .Ed .Pp The sections in a .Nm document are conventionally ordered as they appear above. Sections should be composed as follows: .Bl -ohang -offset Ds .It Em NAME The name(s) and a short description of the documented material. The syntax for this as follows: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Nm name0 \&.Nm name1 \&.Nm name2 \&.Nd a short description .Ed .Pp The .Sx \&Nm macro(s) must precede the .Sx \&Nd macro. .Pp See .Sx \&Nm and .Sx \&Nd . .It Em LIBRARY The name of the library containing the documented material, which is assumed to be a function in a section 2, 3, or 9 manual. The syntax for this is as follows: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Lb libarm .Ed .Pp See .Sx \&Lb . .It Em SYNOPSIS Documents the utility invocation syntax, function call syntax, or device configuration. .Pp For the first, utilities (sections 1, 6, and 8), this is generally structured as follows: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Nm foo \&.Op Fl v \&.Op Fl o Ar file \&.Op Ar \&.Nm bar \&.Op Fl v \&.Op Fl o Ar file \&.Op Ar .Ed .Pp For the second, function calls (sections 2, 3, 9): .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Vt extern const char *global; \&.In header.h \&.Ft "char *" \&.Fn foo "const char *src" \&.Ft "char *" \&.Fn bar "const char *src" .Ed .Pp And for the third, configurations (section 4): .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Cd \*qit* at isa? port 0x2e\*q \&.Cd \*qit* at isa? port 0x4e\*q .Ed .Pp Manuals not in these sections generally don't need a .Em SYNOPSIS . .Pp Some macros are displayed differently in the .Em SYNOPSIS section, particularly .Sx \&Nm , .Sx \&Cd , .Sx \&Fd , .Sx \&Fn , .Sx \&Fo , .Sx \&In , .Sx \&Vt , and .Sx \&Ft . All of these macros are output on their own line. If two such dissimilar macros are pair-wise invoked (except for .Sx \&Ft before .Sx \&Fo or .Sx \&Fn ) , they are separated by a vertical space, unless in the case of .Sx \&Fo , .Sx \&Fn , and .Sx \&Ft , which are always separated by vertical space. .Pp When text and macros following an .Sx \&Nm macro starting an input line span multiple output lines, all output lines but the first will be indented to align with the text immediately following the .Sx \&Nm macro, up to the next .Sx \&Nm , .Sx \&Sx , or .Sx \&Ss macro or the end of an enclosing block, whichever comes first. .It Em DESCRIPTION This expands upon the brief, one-line description in .Em NAME . It usually contains a break-down of the options (if documenting a command), such as: .Bd -literal -offset indent The arguments are as follows: \&.Bl \-tag \-width Ds \&.It Fl v Print verbose information. \&.El .Ed .Pp Manuals not documenting a command won't include the above fragment. .It Em IMPLEMENTATION NOTES Implementation-specific notes should be kept here. This is useful when implementing standard functions that may have side effects or notable algorithmic implications. .It Em RETURN VALUES This section is the dual of .Em EXIT STATUS , which is used for commands. It documents the return values of functions in sections 2, 3, and 9. .Pp See .Sx \&Rv . .It Em ENVIRONMENT Documents any usages of environment variables, e.g., .Xr environ 7 . .Pp See .Sx \&Ev . .It Em FILES Documents files used. It's helpful to document both the file and a short description of how the file is used (created, modified, etc.). .Pp See .Sx \&Pa . .It Em EXIT STATUS Command exit status for section 1, 6, and 8 manuals. This section is the dual of .Em RETURN VALUES , which is used for functions. Historically, this information was described in .Em DIAGNOSTICS , a practise that is now discouraged. .Pp See .Sx \&Ex . .It Em EXAMPLES Example usages. This often contains snippets of well-formed, well-tested invocations. Make doubly sure that your examples work properly! .It Em DIAGNOSTICS Documents error conditions. This is most useful in section 4 manuals. Historically, this section was used in place of .Em EXIT STATUS for manuals in sections 1, 6, and 8; however, this practise is discouraged. .Pp See .Sx \&Bl .Fl diag . .It Em ERRORS Documents error handling in sections 2, 3, and 9. .Pp See .Sx \&Er . .It Em SEE ALSO References other manuals with related topics. This section should exist for most manuals. Cross-references should conventionally be ordered first by section, then alphabetically. .Pp See .Sx \&Xr . .It Em STANDARDS References any standards implemented or used. If not adhering to any standards, the .Em HISTORY section should be used instead. .Pp See .Sx \&St . .It Em HISTORY The history of any manual without a .Em STANDARDS section should be described in this section. .It Em AUTHORS Credits to authors, if applicable, should appear in this section. Authors should generally be noted by both name and an e-mail address. .Pp See .Sx \&An . .It Em CAVEATS Explanations of common misuses and misunderstandings should be explained in this section. .It Em BUGS Extant bugs should be described in this section. .It Em SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS Documents any security precautions that operators should consider. .El .Sh MACRO SYNTAX Macros are one to three three characters in length and begin with a control character , .Sq \&. , at the beginning of the line. An arbitrary amount of whitespace may sit between the control character and the macro name. Thus, the following are equivalent: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Pp \&.\ \ \ \&Pp .Ed .Pp The syntax of a macro depends on its classification. In this section, .Sq \-arg refers to macro arguments, which may be followed by zero or more .Sq parm parameters; .Sq \&Yo opens the scope of a macro; and if specified, .Sq \&Yc closes it out. .Pp The .Em Callable column indicates that the macro may be called subsequent to the initial line-macro. If a macro is not callable, then its invocation after the initial line macro is interpreted as opaque text, such that .Sq \&.Fl \&Sh produces .Sq Fl \&Sh . .Pp The .Em Parsable column indicates whether the macro may be followed by further (ostensibly callable) macros. If a macro is not parsable, subsequent macro invocations on the line will be interpreted as opaque text. .Pp The .Em Scope column, if applicable, describes closure rules. .Ss Block full-explicit Multi-line scope closed by an explicit closing macro. All macros contains bodies; only .Sx \&Bf contains a head. .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \&.Yc .Ed .Pp .Bl -column -compact -offset indent "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "closed by XXX" .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Scope .It Sx \&Bd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Ed .It Sx \&Bf Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Ef .It Sx \&Bk Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Ek .It Sx \&Bl Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&El .It Sx \&Ed Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Sx \&Bd .It Sx \&Ef Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Sx \&Bf .It Sx \&Ek Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Sx \&Bk .It Sx \&El Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Sx \&Bl .El .Ss Block full-implicit Multi-line scope closed by end-of-file or implicitly by another macro. All macros have bodies; some .Po .Sx \&It Fl bullet , .Fl hyphen , .Fl dash , .Fl enum , .Fl item .Pc don't have heads; only one .Po .Sx \&It Fl column .Pc has multiple heads. .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead... \(lBTa head...\(rB\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB .Ed .Pp .Bl -column -compact -offset indent "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "closed by XXXXXXXXXXX" .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable 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 \&Ss Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Sh , Sx \&Ss .El .Pp Note that the .Sx \&Nm macro is a .Sx Block full-implicit macro only when invoked as the first macro in a .Em SYNOPSIS section line, else it is .Sx In-line . .Ss Block partial-explicit Like block full-explicit, but also with single-line scope. Each has at least a body and, in limited circumstances, a head .Po .Sx \&Fo , .Sx \&Eo .Pc and/or tail .Pq Sx \&Ec . .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \&.Yc \(lBtail...\(rB \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \ \(lBbody...\(rB \&Yc \(lBtail...\(rB .Ed .Pp .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "closed by XXXX" -compact -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Scope .It Sx \&Ac Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Ao .It Sx \&Ao Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Ac .It Sx \&Bc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Bo .It Sx \&Bo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Bc .It Sx \&Brc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Bro .It Sx \&Bro Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Brc .It Sx \&Dc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Do .It Sx \&Do Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Dc .It Sx \&Ec Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Eo .It Sx \&Eo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Ec .It Sx \&Fc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Fo .It Sx \&Fo Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Fc .It Sx \&Oc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Oo .It Sx \&Oo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Oc .It Sx \&Pc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Po .It Sx \&Po Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Pc .It Sx \&Qc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Oo .It Sx \&Qo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Oc .It Sx \&Re Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Sx \&Rs .It Sx \&Rs Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Re .It Sx \&Sc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&So .It Sx \&So Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Sc .It Sx \&Xc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Xo .It Sx \&Xo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Xc .El .Ss Block partial-implicit Like block full-implicit, but with single-line scope closed by .Sx Reserved Characters or end of line. .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \(lBres...\(rB .Ed .Pp .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" -compact -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable .It Sx \&Aq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Sx \&Bq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Sx \&Brq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Sx \&D1 Ta \&No Ta \&Yes .It Sx \&Dl Ta \&No Ta Yes .It Sx \&Dq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Sx \&Op Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Sx \&Pq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Sx \&Ql Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Sx \&Qq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Sx \&Sq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Sx \&Vt Ta Yes Ta Yes .El .Pp Note that the .Sx \&Vt macro is a .Sx Block partial-implicit only when invoked as the first macro in a .Em SYNOPSIS section line, else it is .Sx In-line . .Ss In-line Closed by .Sx Reserved Characters , end of line, fixed argument lengths, and/or subsequent macros. In-line macros have only text children. If a number (or inequality) of arguments is .Pq n , then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of arguments. .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB \(lbres...\(rb \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB Yc... \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB arg0 arg1 argN .Ed .Pp .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Arguments .It Sx \&%A Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%B Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%C Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%D Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%I Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%J Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%N Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%O Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%P Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%Q Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%R Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%T Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%U Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&%V Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&Ad Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&An Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Ap Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0 .It Sx \&Ar Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&At Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 1 .It Sx \&Bsx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Bt Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It Sx \&Bx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Cd Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Sx \&Cm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Db Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1 .It Sx \&Dd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&Dt Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Sx \&Dv Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Dx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Em Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Sx \&En Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It Sx \&Er Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Sx \&Es Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It Sx \&Ev Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Ex Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Sx \&Fa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Fd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Sx \&Fl Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Fn Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Sx \&Fr Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Sx \&Ft Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Fx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Hf Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Sx \&Ic Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Sx \&In Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Sx \&Lb Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1 .It Sx \&Li Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Lk Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Lp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It Sx \&Ms Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Sx \&Mt Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Sx \&Nm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&No Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0 .It Sx \&Ns Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0 .It Sx \&Nx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Os Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Sx \&Ot Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Sx \&Ox Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Pa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Pf Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 1 .It Sx \&Pp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It Sx \&Rv Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Sx \&Sm Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1 .It Sx \&St Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta 1 .It Sx \&Sx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Sx \&Sy Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Sx \&Tn Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Sx \&Ud Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It Sx \&Ux Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Va Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Sx \&Vt Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Sx \&Xr Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Sx \&br Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It Sx \&sp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1 .El .Sh REFERENCE This section is a canonical reference of all macros, arranged alphabetically. For the scoping of individual macros, see .Sx MACRO SYNTAX . .Ss \&%A Author name of an .Sx \&Rs block. Multiple authors should each be accorded their own .Sx \%%A line. Author names should be ordered with full or abbreviated forename(s) first, then full surname. .Ss \&%B Book title of an .Sx \&Rs block. This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographic context when referring to book titles. .Ss \&%C Publication city or location of an .Sx \&Rs block. .Pp .Em Remarks : this macro is not implemented in .Xr groff 1 . .Ss \&%D Publication date of an .Sx \&Rs block. This should follow the reduced or canonical form syntax described in .Sx Dates . .Ss \&%I Publisher or issuer name of an .Sx \&Rs block. .Ss \&%J Journal name of an .Sx \&Rs block. .Ss \&%N Issue number (usually for journals) of an .Sx \&Rs block. .Ss \&%O Optional information of an .Sx \&Rs block. .Ss \&%P Book or journal page number of an .Sx \&Rs block. .Ss \&%Q Institutional author (school, government, etc.) of an .Sx \&Rs block. Multiple institutional authors should each be accorded their own .Sx \&%Q line. .Ss \&%R Technical report name of an .Sx \&Rs block. .Ss \&%T Article title of an .Sx \&Rs block. This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographical context when referring to article titles. .Ss \&%U URI of reference document. .Ss \&%V Volume number of an .Sx \&Rs block. .Ss \&Ac Closes an .Sx \&Ao block. Does not have any tail arguments. .Ss \&Ad Address construct: usually in the context of an computational address in memory, not a physical (post) address. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Ad [0,$] .D1 \&.Ad 0x00000000 .Ss \&An Author name. This macro may alternatively accepts the following arguments, although these may not be specified along with a parameter: .Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent .It Fl split Renders a line break before each author listing. .It Fl nosplit The opposite of .Fl split . .El .Pp In the AUTHORS section, the default is not to split the first author listing, but all subsequent author listings, whether or not they're interspersed by other macros or text, are split. Thus, specifying .Fl split will cause the first listing also to be split. If not in the AUTHORS section, the default is not to split. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.An -nosplit .D1 \&.An J. D. Ullman . .Pp .Em Remarks : the effects of .Fl split or .Fl nosplit are re-set when entering the AUTHORS section, so if one specifies .Sx \&An Fl nosplit in the general document body, it must be re-specified in the AUTHORS section. .Ss \&Ao Begins a block enclosed by angled brackets. Does not have any head arguments. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Fl -key= \&Ns \&Ao \&Ar val \&Ac .Pp See also .Sx \&Aq . .Ss \&Ap Inserts an apostrophe without any surrounding whitespace. This is generally used as a grammatical device when referring to the verb form of a function: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Fn execve Ap d .Ed .Ss \&Aq Encloses its arguments in angled brackets. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Fl -key= \&Ns \&Aq \&Ar val .Pp .Em Remarks : this macro is often abused for rendering URIs, which should instead use .Sx \&Lk or .Sx \&Mt , or to note pre-processor .Dq Li #include statements, which should use .Sx \&In . .Pp See also .Sx \&Ao . .Ss \&Ar Command arguments. If an argument is not provided, the string .Dq file ... is used as a default. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Fl o \&Ns \&Ar file1 .D1 \&.Ar .D1 \&.Ar arg1 , arg2 . .Ss \&At Formats an AT&T version. Accepts at most one parameter: .Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent .It Cm v[1-7] | 32v A version of .At . .It Cm V[.[1-4]]? A system version of .At . .El .Pp Note that these parameters do not begin with a hyphen. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.At .D1 \&.At V.1 .Pp See also .Sx \&Bsx , .Sx \&Bx , .Sx \&Dx , .Sx \&Fx , .Sx \&Nx , .Sx \&Ox , and .Sx \&Ux . .Ss \&Bc Closes a .Sx \&Bo block. Does not have any tail arguments. .Ss \&Bd Begins a display block. Its syntax is as follows: .Bd -ragged -offset indent .Pf \. Sx \&Bd .Fl type .Op Fl offset Ar width .Op Fl compact .Ed .Pp A display is collection of macros or text which may be collectively offset or justified in a manner different from that of the enclosing context. By default, the block is preceded by a vertical space. .Pp Each display is associated with a type, which must be one of the following arguments: .Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent .It Fl ragged Only left-justify the block. .It Fl unfilled Do not justify the block at all. .It Fl filled Left- and right-justify the block. .It Fl literal Alias for .Fl unfilled . .It Fl centered Centre-justify each line. .El .Pp The type must be provided first. Secondary arguments are as follows: .Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent .It Fl offset Ar val Offset by the value of .Ar val , which is interpreted as one of the following, specified in order: .Bl -item .It As one of the pre-defined strings .Ar indent , the width of standard indentation; .Ar indent-two , twice .Ar indent ; .Ar left , which has no effect; .Ar right , which justifies to the right margin; and .Ar center , which aligns around an imagined centre axis. .It As a precalculated width for a named macro. The most popular is the imaginary macro .Ar \&Ds , which resolves to .Ar 6n . .It As a scaling unit following the syntax described in .Sx Scaling Widths . .It As the calculated string length of the opaque string. .El .Pp If not provided an argument, it will be ignored. .It Fl compact Do not assert a vertical space before the block. .El .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Bd \-unfilled \-offset two-indent \-compact Hello world. \&.Ed .Ed .Pp See also .Sx \&D1 and .Sx \&Dl . .Ss \&Bf Change the font mode for a scoped block of text. Its syntax is as follows: .Bd -ragged -offset indent .Pf \. Sx \&Bf .Oo .Fl emphasis | literal | symbolic | .Cm \&Em | \&Li | \&Sy .Oc .Ed .Pp The .Fl emphasis and .Cm \&Em argument are equivalent, as are .Fl symbolic and .Cm \&Sy, and .Fl literal and .Cm \&Li . Without an argument, this macro does nothing. The font mode continues until broken by a new font mode in a nested scope or .Sx \&Ef is encountered. .Pp See also .Sx \&Li , .Sx \&Ef , and .Sx \&Sy . .Ss \&Bk Begins a collection of macros or text not breaking the line. Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Bk Fl words .Pp Subsequent arguments are ignored. The .Fl words argument is required. .Pp Each line within a keep block is kept intact, so the following example will not break within each .Sx \&Op macro line: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Bk \-words \&.Op Fl f Ar flags \&.Op Fl o Ar output \&.Ek .Ed .Pp Be careful in using over-long lines within a keep block! Doing so will clobber the right margin. .Ss \&Bl Begins a list composed of one or more list entries. Its syntax is as follows: .Bd -ragged -offset indent .Pf \. Sx \&Bl .Fl type .Op Fl width Ar val .Op Fl offset Ar val .Op Fl compact .Op HEAD ... .Ed .Pp A list is associated with a type, which is a required argument. Other arguments are .Fl width , defined per-type as accepting a literal or .Sx Scaling Widths value; .Fl offset , also accepting a literal or .Sx Scaling Widths value setting the list's global offset; and .Fl compact , suppressing the default vertical space printed before each list entry. A list entry is specified by the .Sx \&It macro, which consists of a head and optional body (depending on the list type). A list must specify one of the following list types: .Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent .It Fl bullet A list offset by a bullet. The head of list entries must be empty. List entry bodies are positioned after the bullet. The .Fl width argument varies the width of list bodies' left-margins. .It Fl column A columnated list. The .Fl width argument has no effect. The number of columns is specified as parameters to the .Sx \&Bl macro. These dictate the width of columns either as .Sx Scaling Widths or literal text. If the initial macro of a .Fl column list is not an .Sx \&It , an .Sx \&It context spanning each line is implied until an .Sx \&It line macro is encountered, at which point list bodies are interpreted as described in the .Sx \&It documentation. .It Fl dash A list offset by a dash (hyphen). The head of list entries must be empty. List entry bodies are positioned past the dash. The .Fl width argument varies the width of list bodies' left-margins. .It Fl diag Like .Fl inset , but with additional formatting to the head. The .Fl width argument varies the width of list bodies' left-margins. .It Fl enum An enumerated list offset by the enumeration from 1. The head of list entries must be empty. List entry bodies are positioned after the enumeration. The .Fl width argument varies the width of list bodies' left-margins. .It Fl hang Like .Fl tag , but instead of list bodies positioned after the head, they trail the head text. The .Fl width argument varies the width of list bodies' left-margins. .It Fl hyphen Synonym for .Fl dash . .It Fl inset List bodies follow the list head. The .Fl width argument is ignored. .It Fl item This produces blocks of text. The head of list entries must be empty. The .Fl width argument is ignored. .It Fl ohang List bodies are positioned on the line following the head. The .Fl width argument is ignored. .It Fl tag A list offset by list entry heads. List entry bodies are positioned after the head as specified by the .Fl width argument. .El .Pp See also .Sx \&It . .Ss \&Bo Begins a block enclosed by square brackets. Does not have any head arguments. .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Bo 1 , \&.Dv BUFSIZ \&Bc .Ed .Pp See also .Sx \&Bq . .Ss \&Bq Encloses its arguments in square brackets. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Bq 1 , \&Dv BUFSIZ .Pp .Em Remarks : this macro is sometimes abused to emulate optional arguments for commands; the correct macros to use for this purpose are .Sx \&Op , .Sx \&Oo , and .Sx \&Oc . .Pp See also .Sx \&Bo . .Ss \&Brc Closes a .Sx \&Bro block. Does not have any tail arguments. .Ss \&Bro Begins a block enclosed by curly braces. Does not have any head arguments. .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Bro 1 , ... , \&.Va n \&Brc .Ed .Pp See also .Sx \&Brq . .Ss \&Brq Encloses its arguments in curly braces. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Brq 1 , ... , \&Va n .Pp See also .Sx \&Bro . .Ss \&Bsx Format the BSD/OS version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Bsx 1.0 .D1 \&.Bsx .Pp See also .Sx \&At , .Sx \&Bx , .Sx \&Dx , .Sx \&Fx , .Sx \&Nx , .Sx \&Ox , and .Sx \&Ux . .Ss \&Bt Prints .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: .D1 \&.Bx 4.4 .D1 \&.Bx .Pp See also .Sx \&At , .Sx \&Bsx , .Sx \&Dx , .Sx \&Fx , .Sx \&Nx , .Sx \&Ox , and .Sx \&Ux . .Ss \&Cd Configuration declaration. This denotes strings accepted by .Xr config 8 . .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Cd device le0 at scode? .Pp .Em Remarks : this macro is commonly abused by using quoted literals to retain whitespace and align consecutive .Sx \&Cd declarations. This practise is discouraged. .Ss \&Cm Command modifiers. Useful when specifying configuration options or keys. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Cm ControlPath .D1 \&.Cm ControlMaster .Pp See also .Sx \&Fl . .Ss \&D1 One-line indented display. This is formatted by the default rules and is useful for simple indented statements. It is followed by a newline. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.D1 \&Fl abcdefgh .Pp See also .Sx \&Bd and .Sx \&Dl . .Ss \&Db Start a debugging context. This macro is parsed, but generally ignored. Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Db Cm on | off .Ss \&Dc Closes a .Sx \&Do block. Does not have any tail arguments. .Ss \&Dd Document date. This is the mandatory first macro of any .Nm manual. Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Dd Cm date .Pp The .Cm date field may be either .Ar $\&Mdocdate$ , which signifies the current manual revision date dictated by .Xr cvs 1 , or instead a valid canonical date as specified by .Sx Dates . If a date does not conform, the current date is used instead. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$ .D1 \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate: July 21 2007$ .D1 \&.Dd July 21, 2007 .Pp See also .Sx \&Dt and .Sx \&Os . .Ss \&Dl One-line intended display. This is formatted as literal text and is useful for commands and invocations. It is followed by a newline. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Dl % mandoc mdoc.7 | less .Pp See also .Sx \&Bd and .Sx \&D1 . .Ss \&Do Begins a block enclosed by double quotes. Does not have any head arguments. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.D1 \&Do April is the cruellest month \&Dc \e(em T.S. Eliot .Pp See also .Sx \&Dq . .Ss \&Dq Encloses its arguments in .Dq typographic double-quotes. .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact \&.Dq April is the cruellest month \e(em T.S. Eliot .Ed .Pp See also .Sx \&Qq , .Sx \&Sq , and .Sx \&Do . .Ss \&Dt Document title. This is the mandatory second macro of any .Nm file. Its syntax is as follows: .Bd -ragged -offset indent .Pf \. Sx \&Dt .Oo .Cm title .Oo .Cm section .Op Cm volume | arch .Oc .Oc .Ed .Pp Its arguments are as follows: .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset Ds .It Cm title The document's title (name), defaulting to .Dq UNKNOWN if unspecified. It should be capitalised. .It Cm section The manual section. This may be one of .Ar 1 .Pq utilities , .Ar 2 .Pq system calls , .Ar 3 .Pq libraries , .Ar 3p .Pq Perl libraries , .Ar 4 .Pq devices , .Ar 5 .Pq file formats , .Ar 6 .Pq games , .Ar 7 .Pq miscellaneous , .Ar 8 .Pq system utilities , .Ar 9 .Pq kernel functions , .Ar X11 .Pq X Window System , .Ar X11R6 .Pq X Window System , .Ar unass .Pq unassociated , .Ar local .Pq local system , .Ar draft .Pq draft manual , or .Ar paper .Pq paper . It should correspond to the manual's filename suffix and defaults to .Dq 1 if unspecified. .It Cm volume This overrides the volume inferred from .Ar section . This field is optional, and if specified, must be one of .Ar USD .Pq users' supplementary documents , .Ar PS1 .Pq programmers' supplementary documents , .Ar AMD .Pq administrators' supplementary documents , .Ar SMM .Pq system managers' manuals , .Ar URM .Pq users' reference manuals , .Ar PRM .Pq programmers' reference manuals , .Ar KM .Pq kernel manuals , .Ar IND .Pq master index , .Ar MMI .Pq master index , .Ar LOCAL .Pq local manuals , .Ar LOC .Pq local manuals , or .Ar CON .Pq contributed manuals . .It Cm arch This specifies a specific relevant architecture. If .Cm volume is not provided, it may be used in its place, else it may be used subsequent that. It, too, is optional. It must be one of .Ar alpha , .Ar amd64 , .Ar amiga , .Ar arc , .Ar arm , .Ar armish , .Ar aviion , .Ar hp300 , .Ar hppa , .Ar hppa64 , .Ar i386 , .Ar landisk , .Ar loongson , .Ar luna88k , .Ar mac68k , .Ar macppc , .Ar mvme68k , .Ar mvme88k , .Ar mvmeppc , .Ar pmax , .Ar sgi , .Ar socppc , .Ar sparc , .Ar sparc64 , .Ar sun3 , .Ar vax , or .Ar zaurus . .El .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Dt FOO 1 .D1 \&.Dt FOO 4 KM .D1 \&.Dt FOO 9 i386 .Pp See also .Sx \&Dd and .Sx \&Os . .Ss \&Dv Defined variables such as preprocessor constants. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Dv BUFSIZ .D1 \&.Dv STDOUT_FILENO .Pp See also .Sx \&Er . .Ss \&Dx Format the DragonFly BSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Dx 2.4.1 .D1 \&.Dx .Pp See also .Sx \&At , .Sx \&Bsx , .Sx \&Bx , .Sx \&Fx , .Sx \&Nx , .Sx \&Ox , and .Sx \&Ux . .Ss \&Ec Close a scope started by .Sx \&Eo . Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ec Op Cm TERM .Pp The .Cm TERM argument is used as the enclosure tail, for example, specifying \e(rq will emulate .Sx \&Dc . .Ss \&Ed End a display context started by .Sx \&Bd . .Ss \&Ef Ends a font mode context started by .Sx \&Bf . .Ss \&Ek Ends a keep context started by .Sx \&Bk . .Ss \&El Ends a list context started by .Sx \&Bl . .Pp See also .Sx \&Bl and .Sx \&It . .Ss \&Em Denotes text that should be emphasised. Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for stylistically decorating technical terms. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Em Warnings! .D1 \&.Em Remarks : .Pp See also .Sx \&Bf , .Sx \&Sy , and .Sx \&Li . .Ss \&En This macro is obsolete and not implemented. .Ss \&Eo An arbitrary enclosure. Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Eo Op Cm TERM .Pp The .Cm TERM argument is used as the enclosure head, for example, specifying \e(lq will emulate .Sx \&Do . .Ss \&Er Display error constants. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Er EPERM .D1 \&.Er ENOENT .Pp See also .Sx \&Dv . .Ss \&Es This macro is obsolete and not implemented. .Ss \&Ev Environmental variables such as those specified in .Xr environ 7 . .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Ev DISPLAY .D1 \&.Ev PATH .Ss \&Ex Inserts text regarding a utility's exit value. This macro must consist of the .Fl std argument followed by an optional .Ar utility . If .Ar utility is not provided, the document's name as stipulated in .Sx \&Nm is provided. .Pp See also .Sx \&Rv . .Ss \&Fa Function argument. Its syntax is as follows: .Bd -ragged -offset indent .Pf \. Sx \&Fa .Op Cm argtype .Cm argname .Ed .Pp This may be invoked for names with or without the corresponding type. It is also used to specify the field name of a structure. Most often, the .Sx \&Fa macro is used in the .Em SYNOPSIS within .Sx \&Fo section when documenting multi-line function prototypes. If invoked with multiple arguments, the arguments are separated by a comma. Furthermore, if the following macro is another .Sx \&Fa , the last argument will also have a trailing comma. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Fa \(dqconst char *p\(dq .D1 \&.Fa \(dqint a\(dq \(dqint b\(dq \(dqint c\(dq .D1 \&.Fa foo .Pp See also .Sx \&Fo . .Ss \&Fc Ends a function context started by .Sx \&Fo . .Ss \&Fd Historically used to document include files. This usage has been deprecated in favour of .Sx \&In . Do not use this macro. .Pp See also .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE and .Sx \&In . .Ss \&Fl Command-line flag. Used when listing arguments to command-line utilities. Prints a fixed-width hyphen .Sq \- directly followed by each argument. If no arguments are provided, a hyphen is printed followed by a space. If the argument is a macro, a hyphen is prefixed to the subsequent macro output. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Fl a b c .D1 \&.Fl \&Pf a b .D1 \&.Fl .D1 \&.Op \&Fl o \&Ns \&Ar file .Pp See also .Sx \&Cm . .Ss \&Fn A function name. Its syntax is as follows: .Bd -ragged -offset indent .Pf \. Ns Sx \&Fn .Op Cm functype .Cm funcname .Op Oo Cm argtype Oc Cm argname .Ed .Pp Function arguments are surrounded in parenthesis and are delimited by commas. If no arguments are specified, blank parenthesis are output. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Fn "int funcname" "int arg0" "int arg1" .D1 \&.Fn funcname "int arg0" .D1 \&.Fn funcname arg0 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact \&.Ft functype \&.Fn funcname .Ed .Pp See also .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE and .Sx \&Ft . .Ss \&Fo Begin a function block. This is a multi-line version of .Sx \&Fn . Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Fo Cm funcname .Pp Invocations usually occur in the following context: .Bd -ragged -offset indent .Pf \. Sx \&Ft Cm functype .br .Pf \. Sx \&Fo Cm funcname .br .Pf \. Sx \&Fa Oo Cm argtype Oc Cm argname .br \.\.\. .br .Pf \. Sx \&Fc .Ed .Pp A .Sx \&Fo scope is closed by .Pp See also .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE , .Sx \&Fa , .Sx \&Fc , and .Sx \&Ft . .Ss \&Ft A function type. Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ft Cm functype .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Ft int .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact \&.Ft functype \&.Fn funcname .Ed .Pp See also .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE , .Sx \&Fn , and .Sx \&Fo . .Ss \&Fx Format the FreeBSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Fx 7.1 .D1 \&.Fx .Pp See also .Sx \&At , .Sx \&Bsx , .Sx \&Bx , .Sx \&Dx , .Sx \&Nx , .Sx \&Ox , and .Sx \&Ux . .Ss \&Hf This macro is obsolete and not implemented. .Ss \&Ic Designate an internal or interactive command. This is similar to .Sx \&Cm but used for instructions rather than values. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Ic hash .D1 \&.Ic alias .Pp Note that using .Sx \&Bd No Fl literal or .Sx \&D1 is preferred for displaying code; the .Sx \&Ic macro is used when referring to specific instructions. .Ss \&In An .Dq include file. In the .Em SYNOPSIS section (only if invoked as the line macro), the first argument is preceded by .Dq #include , the arguments is enclosed in angled braces. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.In sys/types .Pp See also .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE . .Ss \&It A list item. The syntax of this macro depends on the list type. .Pp Lists of type .Fl hang , .Fl ohang , .Fl inset , and .Fl diag have the following syntax: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Cm args .Pp Lists of type .Fl bullet , .Fl dash , .Fl enum , .Fl hyphen and .Fl item have the following syntax: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&It .Pp with subsequent lines interpreted within the scope of the .Sx \&It until either a closing .Sx \&El or another .Sx \&It . .Pp The .Fl tag list has the following syntax: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Op Cm args .Pp Subsequent lines are interpreted as with .Fl bullet and family. The line arguments correspond to the list's left-hand side; body arguments correspond to the list's contents. .Pp The .Fl column list is the most complicated. Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Op Cm args .Pp The .Cm args are phrases, a mix of macros and text corresponding to a line column, delimited by tabs or the special .Sq \&Ta pseudo-macro. Lines subsequent the .Sx \&It are interpreted within the scope of the last phrase. Calling the pseudo-macro .Sq \&Ta will open a new phrase scope (this must occur on a macro line to be interpreted as a macro). Note that the tab phrase delimiter may only be used within the .Sx \&It line itself. Subsequent this, only the .Sq \&Ta pseudo-macro may be used to delimit phrases. Furthermore, note that quoted sections propagate over tab-delimited phrases on an .Sx \&It , for example, .Pp .D1 .It \(dqcol1 ; col2 ;\(dq \&; .Pp will preserve the semicolon whitespace except for the last. .Pp See also .Sx \&Bl . .Ss \&Lb Specify a library. The syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Lb Cm library .Pp The .Cm library parameter may be a system library, such as .Cm libz or .Cm libpam , in which case a small library description is printed next to the linker invocation; or a custom library, in which case the library name is printed in quotes. This is most commonly used in the .Em SYNOPSIS section as described in .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE . .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Lb libz .D1 \&.Lb mdoc .Ss \&Li Denotes text that should be in a literal font mode. Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for stylistically decorating technical terms. .Pp See also .Sx \&Bf , .Sx \&Sy , and .Sx \&Em . .Ss \&Lk Format a hyperlink. Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Lk Cm uri Op Cm name .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Lk http://bsd.lv "The BSD.lv Project" .D1 \&.Lk http://bsd.lv .Pp See also .Sx \&Mt . .Ss \&Lp Synonym for .Sx \&Pp . .Ss \&Ms Display a mathematical symbol. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Ms sigma .D1 \&.Ms aleph .Ss \&Mt Format a .Dq mailto: hyperlink. Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Mt Cm address .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Mt discuss@manpages.bsd.lv .Ss \&Nd A one-line description of the manual's content. This may only be invoked in the .Em SYNOPSIS section subsequent the .Sx \&Nm macro. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Sx \&Nd mdoc language reference .D1 \&.Sx \&Nd format and display UNIX manuals .Pp The .Sx \&Nd macro technically accepts child macros and terminates with a subsequent .Sx \&Sh invocation. Do not assume this behaviour: some .Xr whatis 1 database generators are not smart enough to parse more than the line arguments and will display macros verbatim. .Pp See also .Sx \&Nm . .Ss \&Nm The name of the manual page, or \(em in particular in section 1, 6, and 8 pages \(em of an additional command or feature documented in the manual page. When first invoked, the .Sx \&Nm macro expects a single argument, the name of the manual page. Usually, the first invocation happens in the .Em NAME section of the page. The specified name will be remembered and used whenever the macro is called again without arguments later in the page. The .Sx \&Nm macro uses .Sx Block full-implicit semantics when invoked as the first macro on an input line in the .Em SYNOPSIS section; otherwise, it uses ordinary .Sx In-line semantics. .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Sh SYNOPSIS \&.Nm cat \&.Op Fl benstuv \&.Op Ar .Ed .Pp In the .Em SYNOPSIS of section 2, 3 and 9 manual pages, use the .Sx \&Fn macro rather than .Sx \&Nm to mark up the name of the manual page. .Ss \&No A .Dq noop macro used to terminate prior macro contexts. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Sx \&Fl ab \&No cd \&Fl ef .Ss \&Ns Suppress a space. Following invocation, text is interpreted as free-form text until a macro is encountered. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Fl o \&Ns \&Ar output .Pp See also .Sx \&No and .Sx \&Sm . .Ss \&Nx Format the NetBSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Nx 5.01 .D1 \&.Nx .Pp See also .Sx \&At , .Sx \&Bsx , .Sx \&Bx , .Sx \&Dx , .Sx \&Fx , .Sx \&Ox , and .Sx \&Ux . .Ss \&Oc Closes multi-line .Sx \&Oo context. .Ss \&Oo Multi-line version of .Sx \&Op . .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact \&.Oo \&.Op Fl flag Ns Ar value \&.Oc .Ed .Ss \&Op Command-line option. Used when listing options to command-line utilities. Prints the argument(s) in brackets. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Op \&Fl a \&Ar b .D1 \&.Op \&Ar a | b .Pp See also .Sx \&Oo . .Ss \&Os Document operating system version. This is the mandatory third macro of any .Nm file. Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Os Op Cm system .Pp The optional .Cm system parameter specifies the relevant operating system or environment. Left unspecified, it defaults to the local operating system version. This is the suggested form. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Os .D1 \&.Os KTH/CSC/TCS .D1 \&.Os BSD 4.3 .Pp See also .Sx \&Dd and .Sx \&Dt . .Ss \&Ot Unknown usage. .Pp .Em Remarks : this macro has been deprecated. .Ss \&Ox Format the OpenBSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Ox 4.5 .D1 \&.Ox .Pp See also .Sx \&At , .Sx \&Bsx , .Sx \&Bx , .Sx \&Dx , .Sx \&Fx , .Sx \&Nx , and .Sx \&Ux . .Ss \&Pa A file-system path. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Pa /usr/bin/mandoc .D1 \&.Pa /usr/share/man/man7/mdoc.7 .Pp See also .Sx \&Lk . .Ss \&Pc Close parenthesised context opened by .Sx \&Po . .Ss \&Pf Removes the space .Pq Dq prefix between its arguments. Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. \&Pf Cm prefix suffix .Pp The .Cm suffix argument may be a macro. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Pf \e. \&Sx \&Pf \&Cm prefix suffix .Ss \&Po Multi-line version of .Sx \&Pq . .Ss \&Pp Break a paragraph. This will assert vertical space between prior and subsequent macros and/or text. .Ss \&Pq Parenthesised enclosure. .Pp See also .Sx \&Po . .Ss \&Qc Close quoted context opened by .Sx \&Qo . .Ss \&Ql Format a single-quoted literal. See also .Sx \&Qq and .Sx \&Sq . .Ss \&Qo Multi-line version of .Sx \&Qq . .Ss \&Qq Encloses its arguments in .Dq typewriter double-quotes. Consider using .Sx \&Dq . .Pp See also .Sx \&Dq , .Sx \&Sq , and .Sx \&Qo . .Ss \&Re Closes a .Sx \&Rs block. Does not have any tail arguments. .Ss \&Rs Begins a bibliographic .Pq Dq reference block. Does not have any head arguments. The block macro may only contain .Sx \&%A , .Sx \&%B , .Sx \&%C , .Sx \&%D , .Sx \&%I , .Sx \&%J , .Sx \&%N , .Sx \&%O , .Sx \&%P , .Sx \&%Q , .Sx \&%R , .Sx \&%T , .Sx \&%U , and .Sx \&%V child macros (at least one must be specified). .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact \&.Rs \&.%A J. E. Hopcroft \&.%A J. D. Ullman \&.%B Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation \&.%I Addison-Wesley \&.%C Reading, Massachusettes \&.%D 1979 \&.Re .Ed .Pp If an .Sx \&Rs block is used within a SEE ALSO section, a vertical space is asserted before the rendered output, else the block continues on the current line. .Ss \&Rv Inserts text regarding a function call's return value. This macro must consist of the .Fl std argument followed by an optional .Ar function . If .Ar function is not provided, the document's name as stipulated by the first .Sx \&Nm is provided. .Pp See also .Sx \&Ex . .Ss \&Sc Close single-quoted context opened by .Sx \&So . .Ss \&Sh Begin a new section. For a list of conventional manual sections, see .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE . These sections should be used unless it's absolutely necessary that custom sections be used. .Pp Section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by .Sx \&Sx . .Pp See also .Sx \&Pp , .Sx \&Ss , and .Sx \&Sx . .Ss \&Sm Switches the spacing mode for output generated from macros. Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Sm Cm on | off .Pp By default, spacing is .Cm on . When switched .Cm off , no white space is inserted between macro arguments and between the output generated from adjacent macros, but free-form text lines still get normal spacing between words and sentences. .Ss \&So Multi-line version of .Sx \&Sq . .Ss \&Sq Encloses its arguments in .Dq typewriter single-quotes. .Pp See also .Sx \&Dq , .Sx \&Qq , and .Sx \&So . .Ss \&Ss Begin a new sub-section. Unlike with .Sx \&Sh , there's no convention for sub-sections. Conventional sections, as described in .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE , rarely have sub-sections. .Pp Sub-section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by .Sx \&Sx . .Pp See also .Sx \&Pp , .Sx \&Sh , and .Sx \&Sx . .Ss \&St Replace an abbreviation for a standard with the full form. The following standards are recognised: .Pp .Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000X" -compact .It \-p1003.1-88 .St -p1003.1-88 .It \-p1003.1-90 .St -p1003.1-90 .It \-p1003.1-96 .St -p1003.1-96 .It \-p1003.1-2001 .St -p1003.1-2001 .It \-p1003.1-2004 .St -p1003.1-2004 .It \-p1003.1-2008 .St -p1003.1-2008 .It \-p1003.1 .St -p1003.1 .It \-p1003.1b .St -p1003.1b .It \-p1003.1b-93 .St -p1003.1b-93 .It \-p1003.1c-95 .St -p1003.1c-95 .It \-p1003.1g-2000 .St -p1003.1g-2000 .It \-p1003.1i-95 .St -p1003.1i-95 .It \-p1003.2-92 .St -p1003.2-92 .It \-p1003.2a-92 .St -p1003.2a-92 .It \-p1387.2-95 .St -p1387.2-95 .It \-p1003.2 .St -p1003.2 .It \-p1387.2 .St -p1387.2 .It \-isoC .St -isoC .It \-isoC-90 .St -isoC-90 .It \-isoC-amd1 .St -isoC-amd1 .It \-isoC-tcor1 .St -isoC-tcor1 .It \-isoC-tcor2 .St -isoC-tcor2 .It \-isoC-99 .St -isoC-99 .It \-iso9945-1-90 .St -iso9945-1-90 .It \-iso9945-1-96 .St -iso9945-1-96 .It \-iso9945-2-93 .St -iso9945-2-93 .It \-ansiC .St -ansiC .It \-ansiC-89 .St -ansiC-89 .It \-ansiC-99 .St -ansiC-99 .It \-ieee754 .St -ieee754 .It \-iso8802-3 .St -iso8802-3 .It \-ieee1275-94 .St -ieee1275-94 .It \-xpg3 .St -xpg3 .It \-xpg4 .St -xpg4 .It \-xpg4.2 .St -xpg4.2 .St -xpg4.3 .It \-xbd5 .St -xbd5 .It \-xcu5 .St -xcu5 .It \-xsh5 .St -xsh5 .It \-xns5 .St -xns5 .It \-xns5.2 .St -xns5.2 .It \-xns5.2d2.0 .St -xns5.2d2.0 .It \-xcurses4.2 .St -xcurses4.2 .It \-susv2 .St -susv2 .It \-susv3 .St -susv3 .It \-svid4 .St -svid4 .El .Ss \&Sx Reference a section or sub-section. The referenced section or sub-section name must be identical to the enclosed argument, including whitespace. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .Ss \&Sy Format enclosed arguments in symbolic .Pq Dq boldface . Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for stylistically decorating technical terms. .Pp See also .Sx \&Bf , .Sx \&Li , and .Sx \&Em . .Ss \&Tn Format a tradename. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Tn IBM .Ss \&Ud Prints out .Dq currently under development. .Ss \&Ux Format the UNIX name. Accepts no argument. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Ux .Pp See also .Sx \&At , .Sx \&Bsx , .Sx \&Bx , .Sx \&Dx , .Sx \&Fx , .Sx \&Nx , and .Sx \&Ox . .Ss \&Va A variable name. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Va foo .D1 \&.Va const char *bar ; .Ss \&Vt A variable type. This is also used for indicating global variables in the .Em SYNOPSIS 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 .Em SYNOPSIS section, else it accepts ordinary .Sx In-line syntax. .Pp Note that this should not be confused with .Sx \&Ft , which is used for function return types. .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Vt unsigned char .D1 \&.Vt extern const char * const sys_signame[] \&; .Pp See also .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE and .Sx \&Va . .Ss \&Xc Close a scope opened by .Sx \&Xo . .Ss \&Xo Open an extension scope. This macro originally existed to extend the 9-argument limit of troff; since this limit has been lifted, the macro has been deprecated. .Ss \&Xr Link to another manual .Pq Qq cross-reference . Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Xr Cm name section .Pp The .Cm name and .Cm section are the name and section of the linked manual. If .Cm section is followed by non-punctuation, an .Sx \&Ns is inserted into the token stream. This behaviour is for compatibility with .Xr groff 1 . .Pp Examples: .D1 \&.Xr mandoc 1 .D1 \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&; .D1 \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&Ns s behaviour .Ss \&br .Ss \&sp .Sh COMPATIBILITY This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other other troff implementations, at this time limited to GNU troff .Pq Qq groff . The term .Qq historic groff refers to groff versions before the .Pa doc.tmac file re-write .Pq somewhere between 1.15 and 1.19 . .Pp Heirloom troff, the other significant troff implementation accepting \-mdoc, is similar to historic groff. .Pp .Bl -dash -compact .It The \es (font size), \em (font colour), and \eM (font filling colour) font decoration escapes are all discarded in mandoc. .It Old groff fails to assert a newline before .Sx \&Bd Fl ragged compact . .It groff behaves inconsistently when encountering .Pf non- Sx \&Fa children of .Sx \&Fo regarding spacing between arguments. In mandoc, this is not the case: each argument is consistently followed by a single space and the trailing .Sq \&) suppresses prior spacing. .It groff behaves inconsistently when encountering .Sx \&Ft and .Sx \&Fn in the .Em SYNOPSIS : at times newline(s) are suppressed depending on whether a prior .Sx \&Fn has been invoked. In mandoc, this is not the case. See .Sx \&Ft and .Sx \&Fn for the normalised behaviour. .It Historic groff does not break before an .Sx \&Fn when not invoked as the line macro in the .Em SYNOPSIS section. .It Historic groff formats the .Sx \&In badly: trailing arguments are trashed and .Em SYNOPSIS is not specially treated. .It groff does not accept the .Sq \&Ta pseudo-macro as a line macro. mandoc does. .It The comment syntax .Sq \e\." is no longer accepted. .It In groff, the .Sx \&Pa macro does not format its arguments when used in the FILES section under certain list types. mandoc does. .It Historic groff does not print a dash for empty .Sx \&Fl arguments. mandoc and newer groff implementations do. .It groff behaves irregularly when specifying .Sq \ef .Sx Text Decoration within line-macro scopes. mandoc follows a consistent system. .It In mandoc, negative scaling units are truncated to zero; groff would move to prior lines. Furthermore, the .Sq f scaling unit, while accepted, is rendered as the default unit. .It In quoted literals, groff allowed pair-wise double-quotes to produce a standalone double-quote in formatted output. This idiosyncratic behaviour is not applicable in mandoc. .It Display offsets .Sx \&Bd .Fl offset Ar center and .Fl offset Ar right are disregarded in mandoc. Furthermore, troff specifies a .Fl file Ar file argument that is not supported in mandoc. Lastly, since text is not right-justified in mandoc (or even groff), .Fl ragged and .Fl filled are aliases, as are .Fl literal and .Fl unfilled . .It Historic groff has many un-callable macros. Most of these (excluding some block-level macros) are now callable. .It The vertical bar .Sq \(ba made historic groff .Qq go orbital but has been a proper delimiter since then. .It .Sx \&It Fl nested is assumed for all lists (it wasn't in historic groff): any list may be nested and .Fl enum lists will restart the sequence only for the sub-list. .It Some manuals use .Sx \&Li incorrectly by following it with a reserved character and expecting the delimiter to render. This is not supported in mandoc. .It In groff, the .Sx \&Cd , .Sx \&Er , .Sx \&Ex , and .Sx \&Rv macros were stipulated only to occur in certain manual sections. mandoc does not have these restrictions. .It Newer groff and mandoc print .Qq AT&T UNIX prior to unknown arguments of .Sx \&At ; older groff did nothing. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr mandoc 1 , .Xr mandoc_char 7 .Sh AUTHORS The .Nm reference was written by .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@bsd.lv .