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Diff for /mandoc/man.7 between version 1.84 and 1.110

version 1.84, 2010/08/24 13:07:01

version 1.110, 2011/09/20 22:46:47

Line 39 language, instead.

.Pp

.Nm

document follows simple rules: lines beginning with the control

character

.Sq \&.

are parsed for macros.

Other lines are interpreted within the scope of

Lines not beginning with the control character are

prior macros:

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.

Text lines are interpreted within the current state.

.Ed

.Sh INPUT ENCODING

.Sh LANGUAGE SYNTAX

.Nm

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

space character, and the tab character.

All manuals must have

The back-space character

.Ux

.Sq \e

line termination.

indicates the start of an escape sequence for

.Pp

.Sx Comments ,

Blank lines are acceptable; where found, the output will assert a

.Sx Predefined Strings ,

vertical space.

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 free-form text line, is ignored to the end of

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 optionally 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 free-form 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 79 for two-character sequences; an open-bracket

Line 92 for two-character sequences; an open-bracket

.Sq \&[

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

.Sq \&] ) ;

or a single one-character sequence.

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,

.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 only valid, if specified in free-form text, until

the next macro invocation; if specified within a macro, it's only valid

Line 109 open and close a font scope with each argument.

Line 122 open and close a font scope with each argument.

The

.Sq \ef

attribute is forgotten when entering or exiting a macro block.

.Pp

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

.Ss Predefined Strings

Predefined strings, like

.Sx Special Characters ,

mark special output glyphs.

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] .

.Pp

Examples:

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

.It Li \e*(Am

Two-letter ampersand predefined string.

.It Li \e*q

One-letter double-quote predefined string.

.El

.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 free-form 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).

Blank free-form lines, which may include spaces, are permitted and

rendered as an empty line.

.Pp

In macro lines, whitespace delimits arguments and is discarded.

If arguments are quoted, whitespace within the quotes is retained.

.Ss Dates

The

.Sx \&TH

macro is the only

.Nm

macro that requires a date.

The form for this date is the ISO-8601

standard

.Cm YYYY-MM-DD .

.Ss Scaling Widths

Many macros support scaled widths for their arguments, such as

stipulating a two-inch paragraph indentation with the following:

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.HP 2i

.Ed

.Pp

The syntax for scaled widths is

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

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

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 general, space characters can be rendered as literal

characters by using non-breaking space escapes or

.Sx Quotation .

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 to so that the

enclosed text is one literal term.

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

when unquoted, is considered literal text.

.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

Examples:

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

.It Li .BR a \(dqb c\(dq d

Group arguments

.Qq b c

into one un-bolded argument.

If unspecified,

.Qq a

and

.Qq c

will be in bold,

.Qq b

and

.Qq d

in regular font mode.

Furthermore, will be preserved between

.Qq b

and

.Qq c .

.El

.Ss Scaling Widths

Many macros support scaled widths for their arguments.

The syntax for a scaled width 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 177 Using anything other than

Line 251 Using anything other than

.Sq v

is necessarily non-portable across output media.

See

.Sx COMPATIBILITY .

.Pp

If a scaling unit is not provided, the numerical value is interpreted

under the default rules of

Line 184 under the default rules of

Line 260 under the default rules of

for vertical spaces and

.Sq u

for horizontal ones.

.Em Note :

.Pp

this differs from

Examples:

.Xr mdoc 7 ,

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

which, if a unit is not provided, will instead interpret the string as

.It \&.HP 2i

literal text.

two-inch tagged list indentation

.Pq see Sx \&HP

.It \&.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 202 delimiters

Line 282 delimiters

.Sq \&' ,

.Sq \&"

.Pc .

.Pp

Examples:

.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact

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

end a sentence like this.

A new sentence gets a new line.

.Ed

.Sh MANUAL STRUCTURE

Each

.Nm

Line 214 appears as the first macro.

Line 301 appears as the first macro.

Beyond

.Sx \&TH ,

at least one macro or text node must appear in the document.

Documents are generally structured as follows:

.Pp

The following is a well-formed skeleton

.Nm

file for a utility

.Qq progname :

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.TH FOO 1 2009-10-10

\&.TH PROGNAME 1 2009-10-10

\&.SH NAME

\efBfoo\efR \e(en a description goes here

\efBprogname\efR \e(en a description goes here

\&.\e\*q The next is for sections 2 & 3 only.

\&.\e\(dq .SH LIBRARY

\&.\e\*q .SH LIBRARY

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

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

\&.SH SYNOPSIS

\efBfoo\efR [\efB\e-options\efR] arguments...

\efBprogname\efR [\efB\e-options\efR] arguments...

\&.SH DESCRIPTION

The \efBfoo\efR utility processes files...

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

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

\&.\e\*q The next is for sections 2, 3, & 9 only.

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

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

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

\&.\e\*q The next is for sections 1, 6, 7, & 8 only.

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

\&.\e\*q .SH ENVIRONMENT

\&.\e\(dq .SH ENVIRONMENT

\&.\e\*q .SH FILES

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

\&.\e\*q The next is for sections 1 & 8 only.

\&.\e\(dq .SH FILES

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

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

\&.\e\*q .SH EXAMPLES

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

\&.\e\*q The next is for sections 1, 4, 6, 7, & 8 only.

\&.\e\(dq .SH EXAMPLES

\&.\e\*q .SH DIAGNOSTICS

\&.\e\(dq .SH DIAGNOSTICS

\&.\e\*q The next is for sections 2, 3, & 9 only.

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

\&.\e\*q .SH ERRORS

\&.\e\(dq .SH ERRORS

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

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

\&.\e\*q .BR foo ( 1 )

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

\&.\e\*q .SH STANDARDS

\&.\e\(dq .BR foo ( 1 )

\&.\e\*q .SH HISTORY

\&.\e\(dq .SH STANDARDS

\&.\e\*q .SH AUTHORS

\&.\e\(dq .SH HISTORY

\&.\e\*q .SH CAVEATS

\&.\e\(dq .SH AUTHORS

\&.\e\*q .SH BUGS

\&.\e\(dq .SH CAVEATS

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

\&.\e\(dq .SH BUGS

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

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

.Ed

.Pp

The sections in a

Line 367 Thus, the following are equivalent:

Line 461 Thus, the following are equivalent:

\&.\ \ \ PP

.Ed

.Pp

To include space characters in macro arguments, arguments may be quoted;

see the

.Sq MACRO SYNTAX

section in the

.Xr roff 7

manual for details.

.Pp

The

.Nm

macros are classified by scope: line scope or block scope.

Line 400 The syntax is as follows:

Line 501 The syntax is as follows:

\&.YO \(lBbody...\(rB

\(lBbody...\(rB

.Ed

.Pp

.Bl -column "MacroX" "ArgumentsX" "ScopeXXXXX" "CompatX" -offset indent

.Bl -column -compact -offset indent "MacroX" "ArgumentsX" "ScopeXXXXX" "CompatX"

.It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments Ta Em Scope Ta Em Notes

.It Sx \&AT Ta <=1 Ta current Ta \&

.It Sx \&B Ta n Ta next-line Ta \&

Line 411 The syntax is as follows:

Line 511 The syntax is as follows:

.It Sx \&I Ta n Ta next-line Ta \&

.It Sx \&IB Ta n Ta current Ta \&

.It Sx \&IR Ta n Ta current Ta \&

.\" .It Sx \&PD Ta n Ta current Ta compat

.It Sx \&R Ta n Ta next-line Ta \&

.It Sx \&RB Ta n Ta current Ta \&

.It Sx \&RI Ta n Ta current Ta \&

Line 421 The syntax is as follows:

Line 520 The syntax is as follows:

.It Sx \&UC Ta <=1 Ta current Ta \&

.It Sx \&br Ta 0 Ta current Ta compat

.It Sx \&fi Ta 0 Ta current Ta compat

.It Sx \&i Ta n Ta current Ta compat

.It Sx \&ft Ta 1 Ta current Ta compat

.It Sx \&in Ta 1 Ta current Ta compat

.It Sx \&na Ta 0 Ta current Ta compat

.It Sx \&nf Ta 0 Ta current Ta compat

.It Sx \&r Ta 0 Ta current Ta compat

.It Sx \&sp Ta 1 Ta current Ta compat

.\" .It Sx \&Sp Ta <1 Ta current Ta compat

.\" .It Sx \&Vb Ta <1 Ta current Ta compat

.\" .It Sx \&Ve Ta 0 Ta current Ta compat

.El

.Pp

Macros marked as

Line 473 No closure refers to an explicit block closing macro.

Line 568 No closure refers to an explicit block closing macro.

As a rule, block macros may not be nested; thus, calling a block macro

while another block macro scope is open, and the open scope is not

implicitly closed, is syntactically incorrect.

.Pp

.Bl -column "MacroX" "ArgumentsX" "Head ScopeX" "sub-sectionX" "compatX" -offset indent

.Bl -column -compact -offset indent "MacroX" "ArgumentsX" "Head ScopeX" "sub-sectionX" "compatX"

.It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments Ta Em Head Scope Ta Em Body Scope Ta Em Notes

.It Sx \&HP Ta <2 Ta current Ta paragraph Ta \&

.It Sx \&IP Ta <3 Ta current Ta paragraph Ta \&

Line 495 are as mentioned in

Line 589 are as mentioned in

.Pp

If a block macro is next-line scoped, it may only be followed by in-line

macros for decorating text.

.Sh MACRO OVERVIEW

This overview is sorted such that macros of similar purpose are listed

together, to help find the best macro for any given purpose.

Deprecated macros are not included in the overview, but can be found

in the alphabetical reference below.

.Ss Page header and footer meta-data

.Bl -column "PP, LP, P" description

.It Sx TH Ta set the title: Ar title section date Op Ar source Op Ar volume

.It Sx AT Ta display AT&T UNIX version in the page footer (<= 1 argument)

.It Sx UC Ta display BSD version in the page footer (<= 1 argument)

.El

.Ss Sections and paragraphs

.Bl -column "PP, LP, P" description

.It Sx SH Ta section header (one line)

.It Sx SS Ta subsection header (one line)

.It Sx PP , LP , P Ta start an undecorated paragraph (no arguments)

.It Sx RS , RE Ta reset the left margin: Op Ar width

.It Sx IP Ta indented paragraph: Op Ar head Op Ar width

.It Sx TP Ta tagged paragraph: Op Ar width

.It Sx HP Ta hanged paragraph: Op Ar width

.It Sx \&br Ta force output line break in text mode (no arguments)

.It Sx \&sp Ta force vertical space: Op Ar height

.It Sx fi , nf Ta fill mode and no-fill mode (no arguments)

.It Sx in Ta additional indent: Op Ar width

.El

.Ss Physical markup

.Bl -column "PP, LP, P" description

.It Sx B Ta boldface font

.It Sx I Ta italic font

.It Sx R Ta roman (default) font

.It Sx SB Ta small boldface font

.It Sx SM Ta small roman font

.It Sx BI Ta alternate between boldface and italic fonts

.It Sx BR Ta alternate between boldface and roman fonts

.It Sx IB Ta alternate between italic and boldface fonts

.It Sx IR Ta alternate between italic and roman fonts

.It Sx RB Ta alternate between roman and boldface fonts

.It Sx RI Ta alternate between roman and italic fonts

.El

.Sh REFERENCE

This section is a canonical reference to all macros, arranged

alphabetically.

Line 509 The optional arguments specify which release it is fro

Line 642 The optional arguments specify which release it is fro

Text is rendered in bold face.

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&I ,

.Sx \&I

.Sx \&R ,

.Sx \&b ,

.Sx \&i ,

and

.Sx \&r .

.Sx \&R .

.Ss \&BI

Text is rendered alternately in bold face and italic.

Thus,

Line 532 Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

Line 662 Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

.Pp

Examples:

.Pp

.D1 \&.BI bold italic bold italic

.Dl \&.BI bold italic bold italic

.Pp

The output of this example will be emboldened

.Dq bold

Line 591 and

Line 721 and

Text is rendered in italics.

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&B ,

.Sx \&B

.Sx \&R ,

.Sx \&b ,

.Sx \&i ,

and

.Sx \&r .

.Sx \&R .

.Ss \&IB

Text is rendered alternately in italics and bold face.

Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

Line 692 and

Line 819 and

Text is rendered in roman (the default font).

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&I ,

.Sx \&I

.Sx \&B ,

.Sx \&b ,

.Sx \&i ,

and

.Sx \&r .

.Sx \&B .

.Ss \&RB

Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and bold face.

Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

Line 716 and

Line 840 and

.Ss \&RE

Explicitly close out the scope of a prior

.Sx \&RS .

The default left margin is restored to the state of the original

.Sx \&RS

invocation.

.Ss \&RI

Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and italics.

Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

Line 732 See also

Line 859 See also

and

.Sx \&IR .

.Ss \&RS

Begin a part setting the left margin.

Temporarily reset the default left margin.

The left margin controls the offset, following an initial indentation,

to un-indented text such as that of

.Sx \&PP .

This has the following syntax:

.Bd -filled -offset indent

.Pf \. Sx \&Rs

.Pf \. Sx \&RS

.Op Cm width

.Ed

.Pp

Line 747 The

Line 871 The

argument must conform to

.Sx Scaling Widths .

If not specified, the saved or default width is used.

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&RE .

.Ss \&SB

Text is rendered in small size (one point smaller than the default font)

bold face.

Line 767 The paragraph left-margin width is reset to the defaul

Line 894 The paragraph left-margin width is reset to the defaul

Sets the title of the manual page with the following syntax:

.Bd -filled -offset indent

.Pf \. Sx \&TH

.Cm title section

.Ar title section date

.Op Cm date Op Cm source Op Cm volume

.Op Ar source Op Ar volume

.Ed

.Pp

At least the upper-case document

Conventionally, the document

.Cm title

.Ar title

and the manual

is given in all caps.

.Cm section

The recommended

arguments must be provided.

.Ar date

The

format is

.Cm date

.Sy YYYY-MM-DD

argument should be formatted as described in

as specified in the ISO-8601 standard;

.Sx Dates ,

if the argument does not conform, it is printed verbatim.

but will be printed verbatim if it is not.

If the

If the date is not specified, the current date is used.

.Ar date

The

is empty or not specified, the current date is used.

.Cm source

The optional

.Ar source

string specifies the organisation providing the utility.

The

.Cm volume

.Ar volume

string replaces the default rendered volume, which is dictated by the

manual section.

.Pp

Examples:

.Pp

.D1 \&.TH CVS 5 "1992-02-12" GNU

.Dl \&.TH CVS 5 "1992-02-12" GNU

.Ss \&TP

Begin a paragraph where the head, if exceeding the indentation width, is

followed by a newline; if not, the body follows on the same line after a

Line 818 See also

Line 946 See also

.Sx \&P ,

and

.Sx \&PP .

.\" .

.\" .Ss \&PD

.\" Has no effect. Included for compatibility.

.\" .

.Ss \&UC

Sets the volume for the footer for compatibility with man pages from

BSD releases.

Line 837 See also

Line 959 See also

.Ss \&fi

End literal mode begun by

.Sx \&nf .

.Ss \&i

.Ss \&ft

Italicise arguments.

Change the current font mode.

Synonym for

See

.Sx \&I .

.Sx Text Decoration

.Pp

for a listing of available font modes.

See also

.Sx \&B ,

.Sx \&I ,

.Sx \&R .

.Sx \&b ,

and

.Sx \&r .

.Ss \&in

Indent relative to the current indentation:

.Pp

Line 866 Begin literal mode: all subsequent free-form lines hav

Line 981 Begin literal mode: all subsequent free-form lines hav

line boundaries preserved.

May be ended by

.Sx \&fi .

.Ss \&r

Literal mode is implicitly ended by

Fonts and styles (bold face, italics) reset to roman (default font).

.Sx \&SH

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&SS .

.Sx \&B ,

.Sx \&I ,

.Sx \&R ,

.Sx \&b ,

and

.Sx \&i .

.Ss \&sp

Insert vertical spaces into output with the following syntax:

.Bd -filled -offset indent

Line 894 Defaults to 1, if unspecified.

Line 1003 Defaults to 1, if unspecified.

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&br .

.\" .Ss \&Sp

.\" A synonym for

.\" .Sx \&sp

.\" .Cm 0.5v .

.\" .

.\" .Ss \&Vb

.\" A synonym for

.\" .Sx \&nf .

.\" Accepts an argument (the height of the formatted space) which is

.\" disregarded.

.\" .

.\" .Ss \&Ve

.\" A synonym for

.\" .Sx \&fi .

.\" .

.Sh COMPATIBILITY

This section documents areas of questionable portability between

implementations of the

Line 917 language.

Line 1011 language.

.Pp

.Bl -dash -compact

.It

Do not depend on

.Sx \&SH

.Sx \&SS

to close out a literal context opened with

.Sx \&nf .

This behaviour may not be portable.

.It

In quoted literals, GNU troff allowed pair-wise double-quotes to produce

a standalone double-quote in formatted output.

It is not known whether this behaviour is exhibited by other formatters.

Line 940 The

Line 1042 The

.Pq zero-length character ,

.Sq \ew

.Pq string length ,

.Sq \ek

.Pq horizontal position marker ,

.Sq \eo

.Pq text overstrike ,

and

.Sq \es

.Pq text size

Line 955 macro does not accept negative values in mandoc.

Line 1061 macro does not accept negative values in mandoc.

In GNU troff, this would result in strange behaviour.

.El

.Sh SEE ALSO

.Xr man 1 ,

.Xr mandoc 1 ,

.Xr mandoc_char 7

.Xr eqn 7 ,

.Xr mandoc_char 7 ,

.Xr mdoc 7 ,

.Xr roff 7 ,

.Xr tbl 7

.Sh HISTORY

The

.Nm

Line 972 utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in

Line 1083 utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in

This

.Nm

reference was written by

.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@bsd.lv .

.An Kristaps Dzonsons ,

.Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .

.Sh CAVEATS

Do not use this language.

Use

CVSweb