=================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/mandoc/mdoc.7,v retrieving revision 1.19 retrieving revision 1.34 diff -u -p -r1.19 -r1.34 --- mandoc/mdoc.7 2009/03/27 14:56:15 1.19 +++ mandoc/mdoc.7 2009/06/25 11:35:28 1.34 @@ -1,23 +1,21 @@ -.\" $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.19 2009/03/27 14:56:15 kristaps Exp $ +.\" $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.34 2009/06/25 11:35:28 kristaps Exp $ .\" -.\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons +.\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons .\" .\" 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. +.\" 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. +.\" 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: March 27 2009 $ -.Dt mdoc 7 +.Dd $Mdocdate: June 25 2009 $ +.Dt MDOC 7 .Os .\" SECTION .Sh NAME @@ -30,10 +28,15 @@ The language is used to format .Bx .Ux -manuals. In this reference document, we describe the syntax, ontology -and structure of the +manuals. In this reference document, we describe the syntax and +structure of the .Nm -language. +language. Our reference implementation is +.Xr mandoc 1 . +The +.Sx COMPATIBILITY +section describes compatibility with +.Xr groff 1 . .\" PARAGRAPH .Pp An @@ -75,9 +78,19 @@ or .Sq \&.Bd \-unfilled contexts. .\" SUB-SECTION +.Ss Comments +Anything following a +.Sq \e" +delimiter is considered a comment (unless the +.Sq \e +itself has been escaped) and is ignored to the end of line. +Furthermore, a macro line with only a control character +.Sq \. , +optionally followed by whitespace, is ignored. +.\" SUB-SECTION .Ss Reserved Characters Within a macro line, the following characters are reserved: -.Bl -tag -width 12n -offset XXXX -compact +.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset XXXX -compact .It \&. .Pq period .It \&, @@ -98,6 +111,8 @@ Within a macro line, the following characters are rese .Pq question .It \&! .Pq exclamation +.It \&| +.Pq vertical bar .El .\" PARAGRAPH .Pp @@ -122,13 +137,35 @@ or a single one-character sequence. Characters may alternatively be escaped by a slash-asterisk, .Sq \e* , with the same combinations as described above. This form is deprecated. +.\" SUB-SECTION +.Ss Whitespace +Unless in literal mode or specifically escaped, consecutive blocks of +whitespace are pruned from input. These are later re-added, if +applicable, by a front-end utility such as +.Xr mandoc 1 . .\" SECTION .Sh STRUCTURE -Macros are classified in an ontology described by their scope rules. -Some macros are allowed to deviate from their classifications to -preserve backward-compatibility with old macro combinations still found -in the manual corpus. These are specifically noted on a per-macro -basis. +Each +.Nm +document must begin with the document prologue, containing, in order, +.Sq \&.Dd , +.Sq \&.Dt , +and +.Sq \&.Os . +Following these, the document body must begin with the NAME section +containing at least one +.Sq \&.Nm +followed by a +.Sq \&.Nd +macro. +.Pp +At least one free-form or macro line must follow this prologue. +.\" +.Ss Classification +Macros are classified by their scope rules. Some macros are allowed to +deviate from their classifications to preserve backward-compatibility +with old macro combinations still found in the manual corpus. These are +specifically noted on a per-macro basis. .\" SUB-SECTION .Ss Scope .Bl -inset @@ -263,11 +300,11 @@ In-lines have \(>=0 scoped arguments. \&.Yy \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB arg0 arg1 argN .Ed -.\" +.\" SECTION .Sh MACROS This section contains a complete list of all .Nm -macros, arranged ontologically. A +macros, arranged by classification. A .Qq callable macro is invoked subsequent to the initial macro-line macro. A .Qq parsable @@ -286,7 +323,7 @@ some .Pc don't have heads. .Pp -.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "Closing" -compact -offset XXXX +.Bl -column -compact -offset XXXX "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "Closing" .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Closing .It \&.Sh Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta \&.Sh .It \&.Ss Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta \&.Sh, \&.Ss @@ -298,7 +335,7 @@ None of these macros are callable or parsed. The last the explicit scope rules. All contains bodies, some may contain heads .Pq So \&Bf Sc . .Pp -.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "closed by XXX" -compact -offset XXXX +.Bl -column -compact -offset XXXX "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "closed by XXX" .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Scope .It \&.Bd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by \&.Ed .It \&.Ed Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by \&.Bd @@ -395,7 +432,7 @@ then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument .It \&.Os Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It \&.Pp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It \&.Ad Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n -.It \&.An Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta n +.It \&.An Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&.Ar Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&.Cd Ta Yes Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&.Cm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n @@ -407,7 +444,7 @@ then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument .It \&.Fd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&.Fl Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&.Fn Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 -.It \&.Ft Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta n +.It \&.Ft Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&.Ic Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&.In Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It \&.Li Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n @@ -438,7 +475,7 @@ then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument .It \&.Db Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1 .It \&.Em Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&.Fx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n -.It \&.Ms Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta >0 +.It \&.Ms Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&.No Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0 .It \&.Ns Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0 .It \&.Nx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n @@ -457,8 +494,8 @@ then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument .It \&.Lb Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1 .It \&.Ap Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0 .It \&.Lp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 -.It \&.Lk Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta >0 -.It \&.Mt Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta >0 +.It \&.Lk Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n +.It \&.Mt Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&.Es Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It \&.En Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .El @@ -472,29 +509,40 @@ and macros are obsolete. .\" SECTION .Sh COMPATIBILITY -The mdoc language was traditionally a -.Qq roff -macro package; most existing manuals were written with mdoc syntax -dictated by system-dependent roff installations. This section documents -compatibility with these systems. +This section documents compatibility with other roff implementations, at +this time limited to +.Xr groff 1 . +The term +.Qq historic groff +refers to those versions before the +.Pa doc.tmac +file re-write +.Pq somewhere between 1.15 and 1.19 . .Pp .Bl -dash -compact .\" LIST-ITEM .It -.Sq \&.Fo -and -.Sq \&.St -historically weren't always callable. Both are now correctly callable. +Historic groff has many un-callable macros. Most of these (excluding +some block-level macros) are now callable, conforming to the +non-historic groff version. .\" LIST-ITEM .It +The vertical bar +.Sq \(Ba +made historic groff +.Qq go orbital +but is a proper delimiter in this implementation. +.\" LIST-ITEM +.It .Sq \&.It \-nested -is assumed for all lists: any list may be nested and +is assumed for all lists (it wasn't in historic groff): any list may be +nested and .Sq \-enum lists will restart the sequence only for the sub-list. .\" LIST-ITEM .It .Sq \&.It \-column -syntax where column widths may be preceeded by other arguments (instead +syntax where column widths may be preceded by other arguments (instead of proceeded) is not supported. .\" LIST-ITEM .It @@ -503,26 +551,17 @@ The macro only accepts a single parameter. .\" LIST-ITEM .It -The system-name macros ( -.Ns Sq \&.At , -.Sq \&.Bsx , -.Sq \&.Bx , -.Sq \&.Fx , -.Sq \&.Nx , -.Sq \&.Ox , -and -.Sq \&.Ux ) -are callable. -.\" LIST-ITEM -.It Some manuals use .Sq \&.Li incorrectly by following it with a reserved character and expecting the delimiter to render. This is not supported. .\" LIST-ITEM .It -.Sq \&.Cd -is callable. +If an special-character control character +.Sq \e +is escaped, it will +obviously not render the sequence. Even newer versions of groff seem to +dither on this. .El .\" SECTION .Sh SEE ALSO @@ -533,10 +572,10 @@ is callable. The .Nm utility was written by -.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@openbsd.org . +.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@kth.se . .\" SECTION .Sh CAVEATS -There are several ambiguous parts of mdoc. +There are many ambiguous parts of mdoc. .Pp .Bl -dash -compact .\" LIST-ITEM @@ -560,7 +599,7 @@ which ostensibly follows it, should follow the same co .It .Sq \&.Va should formalise that only one or two arguments are acceptable: a -variable name and optional, preceeding type. +variable name and optional, preceding type. .\" LIST-ITEM .It .Sq \&.Fd @@ -601,4 +640,9 @@ etc.). There's no way to refer to references in .Sq \&.Rs/.Re blocks. +.\" LIST-ITEM +.It +The \-split and \-nosplit arguments to +.Sq \&.An +are inane. .El