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Annotation of mandoc/man.7, Revision 1.5

1.5     ! kristaps    1: .\" $Id: man.7,v 1.4 2009/03/26 16:23:22 kristaps Exp $
1.1       kristaps    2: .\"
                      3: .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@openbsd.org>
                      4: .\"
                      5: .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
                      6: .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the
                      7: .\" above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all
                      8: .\" copies.
                      9: .\"
                     10: .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL
                     11: .\" WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED
                     12: .\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
                     13: .\" AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
                     14: .\" DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR
                     15: .\" PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER
                     16: .\" TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
                     17: .\" PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
                     18: .\"
                     19: .Dd $Mdocdate$
                     20: .Dt man 7
                     21: .Os
                     22: .\" SECTION
                     23: .Sh NAME
                     24: .Nm man
                     25: .Nd man language reference
                     26: .\" SECTION
                     27: .Sh DESCRIPTION
                     28: The
                     29: .Nm man
                     30: language was historically used to format
                     31: .Ux
                     32: manuals.  In this reference document, we describe the syntax and
                     33: structure of the
                     34: .Nm
                     35: language.
                     36: .Pp
1.4       kristaps   37: .Em \&Do not ever
1.1       kristaps   38: use
                     39: .Nm
                     40: to write your manuals.  Use the
                     41: .Xr mdoc 7
                     42: language, instead.
                     43: .\" PARAGRAPH
                     44: .Pp
                     45: An
                     46: .Nm
                     47: document follows simple rules:  lines beginning with the control
                     48: character
1.2       kristaps   49: .Sq \&.
1.1       kristaps   50: are parsed for macros.  Other lines are interpreted within the scope of
                     51: prior macros:
1.4       kristaps   52: .Bd -literal -offset indent
1.1       kristaps   53: \&.SH Macro lines change control state.
                     54: Other lines are interpreted within the current state.
                     55: .Ed
                     56: .\" SECTION
                     57: .Sh INPUT ENCODING
                     58: .Nm
                     59: documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters and the
                     60: space character
                     61: .Sq \  .
                     62: All manuals must have
1.5     ! kristaps   63: .Ux
1.1       kristaps   64: .Sq \en
                     65: line termination.
                     66: .Pp
1.5     ! kristaps   67: Blank lines are acceptable; where found, the output will assert a
1.1       kristaps   68: vertical space.
1.4       kristaps   69: .Pp
                     70: The
                     71: .Sq \ec
                     72: escape is common in historical
                     73: .Nm
                     74: documents; if encountered at the end of a word, it ensures that the
                     75: subsequent word isn't off-set by whitespace.
1.1       kristaps   76: .\" SUB-SECTION
                     77: .Ss Special Characters
                     78: Special character sequences begin with the escape character
1.2       kristaps   79: .Sq \e
1.1       kristaps   80: followed by either an open-parenthesis
                     81: .Sq \&(
                     82: for two-character sequences; an open-bracket
                     83: .Sq \&[
                     84: for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket
                     85: .Sq \&] ) ;
                     86: or a single one-character sequence.
                     87: .Pp
                     88: Characters may alternatively be escaped by a slash-asterisk,
1.2       kristaps   89: .Sq \e* ,
1.1       kristaps   90: with the same combinations as described above.  This form is deprecated.
                     91: .Pp
1.2       kristaps   92: The
                     93: .Xr mdoc 7
                     94: contains a table of all available escapes.
1.1       kristaps   95: .\" SECTION
                     96: .Sh STRUCTURE
1.2       kristaps   97: Macros are one to three three characters in length and begin with a
1.4       kristaps   98: control character ,
                     99: .Sq \&. ,
1.2       kristaps  100: at the beginning of the line.  An arbitrary amount of whitespace may
                    101: sit between the control character and the macro name.  Thus,
1.4       kristaps  102: .Sq \&.PP
1.2       kristaps  103: and
                    104: .Sq \&.\ \ \ \&PP
                    105: are equivalent.
                    106: .Pp
1.4       kristaps  107: All
                    108: .Nm
                    109: macros follow the same structural rules:
                    110: .Bd -literal -offset indent
                    111: \&.YO \(lBbody...\(rB
1.1       kristaps  112: .Ed
                    113: .Pp
                    114: The
                    115: .Dq body
                    116: consists of zero or more arguments to the macro.
1.4       kristaps  117: .Pp
                    118: .Nm
                    119: has a primitive notion of multi-line scope for the following macros:
                    120: .Sq \&.TM ,
                    121: .Sq \&.SM ,
                    122: .Sq \&.SB ,
                    123: .Sq \&.BI ,
                    124: .Sq \&.IB ,
                    125: .Sq \&.BR ,
                    126: .Sq \&.RB ,
                    127: .Sq \&.R ,
                    128: .Sq \&.B ,
                    129: .Sq \&.I ,
                    130: .Sq \&.IR
                    131: and
                    132: .Sq \&.RI .
                    133: When these macros are invoked without arguments, the subsequent line is
                    134: considered a continuation of the macro.  Thus:
                    135: .Bd -literal -offset indent
                    136: \&.RI
                    137: foo
                    138: .Ed
                    139: .Pp
1.5     ! kristaps  140: is equivalent to
        !           141: .Sq \&.RI foo .
        !           142: If two consecutive lines exhibit the latter behaviour,
        !           143: an error is raised.  Thus, the following is not acceptable:
1.4       kristaps  144: .Bd -literal -offset indent
                    145: \&.RI
                    146: \&.I
                    147: Hello, world.
                    148: .Ed
                    149: .Pp
                    150: The
                    151: .Sq \&.TP
1.5     ! kristaps  152: macro is similar, but does not need an empty argument line to trigger
        !           153: the behaviour.
1.1       kristaps  154: .\" PARAGRAPH
                    155: .Sh MACROS
                    156: This section contains a complete list of all
                    157: .Nm
1.5     ! kristaps  158: macros and corresponding number of arguments.
1.1       kristaps  159: .Pp
1.4       kristaps  160: .Bl -column "MacroX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent
1.1       kristaps  161: .It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments
1.4       kristaps  162: .It \&.TH    Ta    >1, <6
                    163: .It \&.SH    Ta    >0
                    164: .It \&.SS    Ta    >0
1.1       kristaps  165: .It \&.TP    Ta    n
1.4       kristaps  166: .It \&.LP    Ta    0
                    167: .It \&.PP    Ta    0
                    168: .It \&.P     Ta    0
                    169: .It \&.IP    Ta    <3
                    170: .It \&.HP    Ta    <2
1.1       kristaps  171: .It \&.SM    Ta    n
                    172: .It \&.SB    Ta    n
                    173: .It \&.BI    Ta    n
                    174: .It \&.IB    Ta    n
                    175: .It \&.BR    Ta    n
                    176: .It \&.RB    Ta    n
                    177: .It \&.R     Ta    n
                    178: .It \&.B     Ta    n
                    179: .It \&.I     Ta    n
                    180: .It \&.IR    Ta    n
1.3       kristaps  181: .It \&.RI    Ta    n
1.1       kristaps  182: .El
                    183: .\" SECTION
                    184: .Sh SEE ALSO
                    185: .Xr mandoc 1
                    186: .\" SECTION
                    187: .Sh AUTHORS
                    188: The
                    189: .Nm
                    190: utility was written by
                    191: .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@openbsd.org .
                    192: .\" SECTION
                    193: .Sh CAVEATS
                    194: Do not use this language.  Use
                    195: .Xr mdoc 7 ,
                    196: instead.

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