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version 1.141, 2010/07/26 12:51:56

version 1.210, 2011/09/18 07:57:16

Line 1

.\" $Id$

.\"

.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any

Line 28 language is used to format

.Bx

.Ux

manuals.

In this reference document, we describe its syntax, structure, and

This reference document describes its syntax, structure, and

usage.

Our reference implementation is mandoc; the

The reference implementation for

.Nm

formatting is

.Xr mandoc 1 ;

the

.Sx COMPATIBILITY

section describes compatibility with other troff \-mdoc implementations.

section describes compatibility with other implementations.

.Pp

.Nm

document follows simple rules: lines beginning with the control

character

.Sq \.

.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 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

The back-space character

.Ux

.Sq \e

line terminators.

indicates the start of an escape sequence for

.Sx Comments ,

.Sx Predefined Strings ,

and

.Sx Special Characters .

.Ss Comments

Text following a

Text following an escaped double-quote

.Sq \e\*q ,

.Sq \e\(dq ,

whether in a macro or 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.

.Ss Reserved Characters

Within a macro line, the following characters are reserved:

.Pp

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

Examples:

.It \&.

.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact

.Pq period

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

.It \&,

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

.Pq comma

\&.

.It \&:

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

.Pq colon

.Ed

.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 can either be escaped

with a non-breaking space

.Pq Sq \e&

or, if applicable, an appropriate escape sequence can be used.

.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 107 for two-character sequences; an open-bracket

Line 93 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 valid within

If a macro opens a font scope after calling

the current font scope only: if a macro opens a font scope alongside

.Sq \ef ,

its own scope, such as

such as with

.Sx \&Bf

.Sx \&Bf ,

.Cm \&Sy ,

the

in-scope invocations of

.Sq \ef

are only valid within the font scope of the macro.

mode will be restored upon exiting the

.Sx \&Bf

.Sq \ef

scope.

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

Examples:

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

.It Li \efBbold\efR

Write in bold, then switch to regular font mode.

.It Li \efIitalic\efP

Write in italic, then return to previous font mode.

.El

.Pp

Text decoration is

.Em not

recommended for

.Nm ,

which encourages semantic annotation.

.Ss Predefined Strings

Historically,

Predefined strings, like

.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.

mark special output glyphs.

Predefined strings are escaped with the slash-asterisk,

.Sq \e* :

single-character

Line 161 two-character

Line 148 two-character

.Sq \e*(XX ,

and N-character

.Sq \e*[N] .

See

.Pp

.Xr mandoc_char 7

Examples:

for a complete list.

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

Examples include

.It Li \e*(Am

.Sq \e*(Am

Two-letter ampersand predefined string.

.Pq ampersand

.It Li \e*q

and

One-letter double-quote predefined string.

.Sq \e*(Ba

.El

.Pq vertical bar .

.Pp

These strings are set using

.Xr roff 7 ,

although

.Nm

consists of several pre-set escapes listed in

.Xr mandoc_char 7 .

.Ss Whitespace

Whitespace consists of the space character.

In free-form lines, whitespace is preserved within a line; un-escaped

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 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 double-quotes 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

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

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

when unquoted, is considered literal text.

literal context.

Thus, the following produces

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

.Sq Op "Fl a" :

reasons of portability.

.Bd -literal -offset indent

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

\&.Op "Fl a"

input line, it may be forced by

.Ed

.Sq \e\ \e& .

.Pp

In free-form mode, quotes are regarded as opaque text.

In general, space characters can be rendered as literal

.Ss Dates

characters by using non-breaking space escapes or

There are several macros in

.Sx Quotation .

.Nm

that require a date argument.

The canonical form for dates is the American format:

.Pp

.D1 Cm Month Day , Year

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

within literal contexts.

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

with a leading newline.

.Ss Quotation

Macro arguments may be quoted with double-quotes 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

The

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

.Cm Day

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

value is an optionally zero-padded numeral.

terminates the literal, regardless of surrounding whitespace.

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:

Examples:

.Pp

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

.D1 Cm Month , Year

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

.D1 Cm Year

Group arguments

.Pp

.Qq const char *s

Some examples of valid dates follow:

into one function argument.

.Pp

If unspecified,

.D1 "May, 2009" Pq reduced form

.Qq const ,

.D1 "2009" Pq reduced form

.Qq char ,

.D1 "May 20, 2009" Pq canonical form

and

.Qq *s

would be considered separate arguments.

.Pq See Sx \&Fn .

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

Consider

.Qq \&Fl a

as literal text instead of a flag macro.

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

.El

.Ss Scaling Widths

Many macros support scaled widths for their arguments, such as

Many macros support scaled widths for their arguments.

stipulating a two-inch list indentation with the following:

The syntax for a scaled width is

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Bl -tag -width 2i

.Ed

.Pp

The syntax for scaled widths is

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

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

Negative numbers, while accepted, are truncated to zero.

.Pp

The following scaling units are accepted:

.Pp

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

Line 275 or

Line 261 or

is necessarily non-portable across output media.

See

.Sx COMPATIBILITY .

.Pp

Examples:

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

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

two-inch tagged list indentation

.Pq see Sx \&Bl

.It Li \&.sp 2v

two vertical spaces

.Pq see Sx \&sp

.El

.Ss Sentence Spacing

When composing a manual, make sure that your 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 (

delimiters

.Ns Sq \&) ,

.Po

.Sq \&) ,

.Sq \&] ,

.Sq \&' ,

.Sq \&" ) .

.Sq \&"

.Pc .

.Pp

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

the boundary of a macro line, e.g.,

the boundary of a macro line.

.Pp

.D1 \&Xr mandoc 1 \.

Examples:

.D1 \&Fl T \&Ns \&Cm ascii \.

.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact

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

end a sentence like this.

A macro would end like this:

\&.Xr mandoc 1 \&.

.Ed

.Sh MANUAL STRUCTURE

A well-formed

.Nm

Line 320 sections, although this varies between manual sections

Line 322 sections, although this varies between manual sections

.Pp

The following is a well-formed skeleton

.Nm

file:

file for a utility

.Qq progname :

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$

\&.Dt mdoc 7

\&.Dt PROGNAME section

\&.Os

\&.Sh NAME

\&.Nm foo

\&.Nm progname

\&.Nd a description goes here

\&.Nd one line about what it does

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

\&.\e\(dq .Sh LIBRARY

\&.\e\*q .Sh LIBRARY

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

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

\&.Sh SYNOPSIS

\&.Nm foo

\&.Nm progname

\&.Op Fl options

\&.Ar

\&.Sh DESCRIPTION

The

\&.Nm

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 .Xr foobar 1

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

\&.\e\*q .Sh STANDARDS

\&.\e\(dq .Xr foobar 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

The sections in an

.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 one-line description of the documented material.

The name(s) and a one line description of the documented material.

The syntax for this as follows:

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Nm name0

\&.Nm name0 ,

\&.Nm name1

\&.Nm name1 ,

\&.Nm name2

\&.Nd a one-line description

\&.Nd a one line description

.Ed

.Pp

Multiple

.Sq \&Nm

names should be separated by commas.

.Pp

The

.Sx \&Nm

macro(s) must precede the

Line 403 configuration.

Line 413 configuration.

For the first, utilities (sections 1, 6, and 8), this is

generally structured as follows:

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Nm foo

\&.Nm bar

\&.Op Fl v

\&.Op Fl o Ar file

\&.Op Ar

\&.Nm bar

\&.Nm foo

\&.Op Fl v

\&.Op Fl o Ar file

\&.Op Ar

.Ed

.Pp

Commands should be ordered alphabetically.

.Pp

For the second, function calls (sections 2, 3, 9):

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Vt extern const char *global;

\&.In header.h

\&.Vt extern const char *global;

\&.Ft "char *"

\&.Fn foo "const char *src"

\&.Ft "char *"

\&.Fn bar "const char *src"

.Ed

.Pp

Ordering of

.Sx \&In ,

.Sx \&Vt ,

.Sx \&Fn ,

and

.Sx \&Fo

macros should follow C header-file conventions.

.Pp

And for the third, configurations (section 4):

.Bd -literal -offset indent

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

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

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

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

.Ed

.Pp

Manuals not in these sections generally don't need a

Line 445 section, particularly

Line 465 section, particularly

and

.Sx \&Ft .

All of these macros are output on their own line.

If two such dissimilar macros are pair-wise invoked (except for

If two such dissimilar macros are pairwise invoked (except for

.Sx \&Ft

before

.Sx \&Fo

Line 471 or

Line 491 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

This begins with an expansion of the brief, one line description in

.Em NAME .

.Em NAME :

It usually contains a break-down of the options (if documenting a

.Bd -literal -offset indent

The

\&.Nm

utility does this, that, and the other.

.Ed

.Pp

It usually follows with a breakdown of the options (if documenting a

command), such as:

.Bd -literal -offset indent

The arguments are as follows:

Line 484 Print verbose information.

Line 510 Print verbose information.

.Ed

.Pp

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

.Pp

Since the

.Em DESCRIPTION

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

often use the

.Sx \&Ss

macro to form subsections.

In very long manuals, the

.Em DESCRIPTION

may be split into multiple sections, each started by an

.Sx \&Sh

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

several subsections, like in the present

.Nm

manual.

.It Em IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

Implementation-specific notes should be kept here.

This is useful when implementing standard functions that may have side

effects or notable algorithmic implications.

.It Em RETURN VALUES

This section is the dual of

This section documents the

.Em EXIT STATUS ,

return values of functions in sections 2, 3, and 9.

which is used for commands.

It documents the return values of functions in sections 2, 3, and 9.

.Pp

See

.Sx \&Rv .

Line 513 the file is used (created, modified, etc.).

Line 552 the file is used (created, modified, etc.).

See

.Sx \&Pa .

.It Em EXIT STATUS

Command exit status for section 1, 6, and 8 manuals.

This section documents the

This section is the dual of

command exit status for section 1, 6, and 8 utilities.

.Em RETURN VALUES ,

which is used for functions.

Historically, this information was described in

.Em DIAGNOSTICS ,

a practise that is now discouraged.

Line 526 See

Line 563 See

.It Em EXAMPLES

Example usages.

This often contains snippets of well-formed, well-tested invocations.

Make doubly sure that your examples work properly!

Make sure that examples work properly!

.It Em DIAGNOSTICS

Documents error conditions.

This is most useful in section 4 manuals.

Line 549 This section should exist for most manuals.

Line 586 This section should exist for most manuals.

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

alphabetically.

.Pp

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

for example authoritative books or journal articles, may also be

provided in this section.

.Pp

See

.Sx \&Rs

and

.Sx \&Xr .

.It Em STANDARDS

References any standards implemented or used.

Line 560 section should be used instead.

Line 603 section should be used instead.

See

.Sx \&St .

.It Em HISTORY

The history of any manual without a

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

.Em STANDARDS

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

section should be described in this section.

.It Em AUTHORS

Credits to authors, if applicable, should appear in this section.

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

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

.Pp

See

Line 573 See

Line 615 See

Common misuses and misunderstandings should be explained

in this section.

.It Em BUGS

Known bugs, limitations and work-arounds should be described

Known bugs, limitations, and work-arounds should be described

in this section.

.It Em SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

Documents any security precautions that operators should consider.

Line 604 closes it out.

Line 646 closes it out.

.Pp

The

.Em Callable

column indicates that the macro may be called subsequent to the initial

column indicates that the macro may also be called by passing its name

line-macro.

as an argument to another macro.

If a macro is not callable, then its invocation after the initial line

For example,

macro is interpreted as opaque text, such that

.Sq \&.Op \&Fl O \&Ar file

produces

.Sq Op Fl O Ar file .

To prevent a macro call and render the macro name literally,

escape it by prepending a zero-width space,

.Sq \e& .

For example,

.Sq \&Op \e&Fl O

produces

.Sq Op \&Fl O .

If a macro is not callable but its name appears as an argument

to another macro, it is interpreted as opaque text.

For example,

.Sq \&.Fl \&Sh

produces

.Sq Fl \&Sh .

.Pp

The

.Em Parsed

column indicates whether the macro may be followed by further

column indicates whether the macro may call other macros by receiving

(ostensibly callable) macros.

their names as arguments.

If a macro is not parsed, subsequent macro invocations on the line

If a macro is not parsed but the name of another macro appears

will be interpreted as opaque text.

as an argument, it is interpreted as opaque text.

.Pp

The

.Em Scope

Line 626 column, if applicable, describes closure rules.

Line 680 column, if applicable, describes closure rules.

Multi-line scope closed by an explicit closing macro.

All macros contains bodies; only

.Sx \&Bf

contains a head.

and

.Pq optionally

.Sx \&Bl

contain a head.

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB

\(lBbody...\(rB

\&.Yc

.Ed

.Pp

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

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

.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed 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

Line 665 has multiple heads.

Line 721 has multiple heads.

\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead... \(lBTa head...\(rB\(rB

\(lBbody...\(rB

.Ed

.Pp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

.El

.Pp

Note that the

Line 701 and/or tail

Line 756 and/or tail

\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \

\(lBbody...\(rB \&Yc \(lBtail...\(rB

.Ed

.Pp

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

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

.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed 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

Line 730 and/or tail

Line 784 and/or tail

.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

Like block full-implicit, but with single-line scope closed by the

.Sx Reserved Characters

end of the line.

or end of line.

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \(lBres...\(rB

.Ed

.Pp

.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" -offset indent

.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" -compact -offset indent

.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed

.It Sx \&Aq Ta Yes Ta Yes

.It Sx \&Bq Ta Yes Ta Yes

Line 762 in a

Line 814 in a

.Em SYNOPSIS

section line, else it is

.Sx In-line .

.Ss Special block macro

The

.Sx \&Ta

macro can only be used below

.Sx \&It

.Sx \&Bl Fl column

lists.

It delimits blocks representing table cells;

these blocks have bodies, but no heads.

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

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

.It Sx \&Ta Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Ta , Sx \&It

.El

.Ss In-line

Closed by

Closed by the end of the line, fixed argument lengths,

.Sx Reserved Characters ,

and/or subsequent macros.

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 \(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" "ParsedX" "Arguments" -offset indent

.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent

.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Arguments

.It Sx \&%A Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0

.It Sx \&%B Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0

Line 794 then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument

Line 858 then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument

.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 \&Ad Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0

.It Sx \&An Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n

.It Sx \&An Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0

.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

Line 803 then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument

Line 867 then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument

.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 \&Cm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0

.It Sx \&Db Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1

.It Sx \&Dd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0

.It Sx \&Dd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n

.It Sx \&Dt Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n

.It Sx \&Dv Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n

.It Sx \&Dv Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0

.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 \&Ev Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0

.It Sx \&Ex Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n

.It Sx \&Fa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n

.It Sx \&Fa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0

.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 \&Ft Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0

.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 \&In Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1

.It Sx \&Lb Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1

.It Sx \&Li Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n

.It Sx \&Li Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0

.It Sx \&Lk Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n

.It Sx \&Lk Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0

.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

Line 855 then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument

Line 919 then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument

.It Sx \&br Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0

.It Sx \&sp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1

.El

.Ss Delimiters

When a macro argument consists of one single input character

considered as a delimiter, the argument gets special handling.

This does not apply when delimiters appear in arguments containing

more than one character.

Consequently, to prevent special handling and just handle it

like any other argument, a delimiter can be escaped by prepending

a zero-width space

.Pq Sq \e& .

In text lines, delimiters never need escaping, but may be used

as normal punctuation.

.Pp

For many macros, when the leading arguments are opening delimiters,

these delimiters are put before the macro scope,

and when the trailing arguments are closing delimiters,

these delimiters are put after the macro scope.

For example,

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. \&Aq "( [ word ] ) ."

.Pp

renders as:

.Pp

.D1 Aq ( [ word ] ) .

.Pp

Opening delimiters are:

.Pp

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

.It \&(

left parenthesis

.It \&[

left bracket

.El

.Pp

Closing delimiters are:

.Pp

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

.It \&.

period

.It \&,

comma

.It \&:

colon

.It \&;

semicolon

.It \&)

right parenthesis

.It \&]

right bracket

.It \&?

question mark

.It \&!

exclamation mark

.El

.Pp

Note that even a period preceded by a backslash

.Pq Sq \e.\&

gets this special handling; use

.Sq \e&.

to prevent that.

.Pp

Many in-line macros interrupt their scope when they encounter

delimiters, and resume their scope when more arguments follow that

are not delimiters.

For example,

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. \&Fl "a ( b | c \e*(Ba d ) e"

.Pp

renders as:

.Pp

.D1 Fl a ( b | c \*(Ba d ) e

.Pp

This applies to both opening and closing delimiters,

and also to the middle delimiter:

.Pp

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

.It \&|

vertical bar

.El

.Pp

As a special case, the predefined string \e*(Ba is handled and rendered

in the same way as a plain

.Sq \&|

character.

Using this predefined string is not recommended in new manuals.

.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 Document preamble and NAME section macros

.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description

.It Sx \&Dd Ta document date: Cm $Mdocdate$ | Ar month day , year

.It Sx \&Dt Ta document title: Ar TITLE section Op Ar volume | arch

.It Sx \&Os Ta operating system version: Op Ar system Op Ar version

.It Sx \&Nm Ta document name (one argument)

.It Sx \&Nd Ta document description (one line)

.El

.Ss Sections and cross references

.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description

.It Sx \&Sh Ta section header (one line)

.It Sx \&Ss Ta subsection header (one line)

.It Sx \&Sx Ta internal cross reference to a section or subsection

.It Sx \&Xr Ta cross reference to another manual page: Ar name section

.It Sx \&Pp , \&Lp Ta start a text paragraph (no arguments)

.El

.Ss Displays and lists

.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description

.It Sx \&Bd , \&Ed Ta display block:

.Fl Ar type

.Op Fl offset Ar width

.Op Fl compact

.It Sx \&D1 Ta indented display (one line)

.It Sx \&Dl Ta indented literal display (one line)

.It Sx \&Bl , \&El Ta list block:

.Fl Ar type

.Op Fl width Ar val

.Op Fl offset Ar val

.Op Fl compact

.It Sx \&It Ta list item (syntax depends on Fl Ar type )

.It Sx \&Ta Ta table cell separator in Sx Bl Fl column No lists

.It Sx \&Rs , \&%* , \&Re Ta bibliographic block (references)

.El

.Ss Spacing control

.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description

.It Sx \&Pf Ta prefix, no following horizontal space (one argument)

.It Sx \&Ns Ta roman font, no preceding horizontal space (no arguments)

.It Sx \&Ap Ta apostrophe without surrounding whitespace (no arguments)

.It Sx \&Sm Ta switch horizontal spacing mode: Cm on | off

.It Sx \&Bk , \&Ek Ta keep block: Fl words

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

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

.El

.Ss Semantic markup for command line utilities:

.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description

.It Sx \&Nm Ta start a SYNOPSIS block with the name of a utility

.It Sx \&Fl Ta command line options (flags) (>=0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Cm Ta command modifier (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Ar Ta command arguments (>=0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Op , \&Oo , \&Oc Ta optional syntax elements (enclosure)

.It Sx \&Ic Ta internal or interactive command (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Ev Ta environmental variable (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Pa Ta file system path (>=0 arguments)

.El

.Ss Semantic markup for function libraries:

.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description

.It Sx \&Lb Ta function library (one argument)

.It Sx \&In Ta include file (one argument)

.It Sx \&Ft Ta function type (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Fo , \&Fc Ta function block: Ar funcname

.It Sx \&Fn Ta function name:

.Op Ar functype

.Ar funcname

.Oo

.Op Ar argtype

.Ar argname

.Oc

.It Sx \&Fa Ta function argument (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Vt Ta variable type (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Va Ta variable name (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Dv Ta defined variable or preprocessor constant (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Er Ta error constant (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Ev Ta environmental variable (>0 arguments)

.El

.Ss Various semantic markup:

.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description

.It Sx \&An Ta author name (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Lk Ta hyperlink: Ar uri Op Ar name

.It Sx \&Mt Ta Do mailto Dc hyperlink: Ar address

.It Sx \&Cd Ta kernel configuration declaration (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Ad Ta memory address (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Ms Ta mathematical symbol (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Tn Ta tradename (>0 arguments)

.El

.Ss Physical markup

.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description

.It Sx \&Em Ta italic font or underline (emphasis) (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Sy Ta boldface font (symbolic) (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&Li Ta typewriter font (literal) (>0 arguments)

.It Sx \&No Ta return to roman font (normal) (no arguments)

.It Sx \&Bf , \&Ef Ta font block:

.Op Fl Ar type | Cm \&Em | \&Li | \&Sy

.El

.Ss Physical enclosures

.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description

.It Sx \&Dq , \&Do , \&Dc Ta enclose in typographic double quotes: Dq text

.It Sx \&Qq , \&Qo , \&Qc Ta enclose in typewriter double quotes: Qq text

.It Sx \&Sq , \&So , \&Sc Ta enclose in single quotes: Sq text

.It Sx \&Ql Ta single-quoted literal text: Ql text

.It Sx \&Pq , \&Po , \&Pc Ta enclose in parentheses: Pq text

.It Sx \&Bq , \&Bo , \&Bc Ta enclose in square brackets: Bq text

.It Sx \&Brq , \&Bro , \&Brc Ta enclose in curly braces: Brq text

.It Sx \&Aq , \&Ao , \&Ac Ta enclose in angle brackets: Aq text

.It Sx \&Eo , \&Ec Ta generic enclosure

.El

.Ss Text production

.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description

.It Sx \&Ex Fl std Ta standard command exit values: Op Ar utility ...

.It Sx \&Rv Fl std Ta standard function return values: Op Ar function ...

.It Sx \&St Ta reference to a standards document (one argument)

.It Sx \&Ux Ta Ux

.It Sx \&At Ta At

.It Sx \&Bx Ta Bx

.It Sx \&Bsx Ta Bsx

.It Sx \&Nx Ta Nx

.It Sx \&Fx Ta Fx

.It Sx \&Ox Ta Ox

.It Sx \&Dx Ta Dx

.El

.Sh REFERENCE

This section is a canonical reference of all macros, arranged

alphabetically.

Line 879 referring to book titles.

Line 1151 referring to book titles.

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

Recommended formats of arguments are

.Sx Dates .

.Ar month day , year

or just

.Ar year .

.Ss \&%I

Publisher or issuer name of an

.Sx \&Rs

Line 942 Memory address.

Line 1212 Memory address.

Do not use this for postal addresses.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Ad [0,$]

.Dl \&.Ad [0,$]

.D1 \&.Ad 0x00000000

.Dl \&.Ad 0x00000000

.Ss \&An

Author name.

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

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

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

.Pp

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

Line 973 for the first author listing and

Line 1245 for the first author listing and

for all other author listings.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.An -nosplit

.Dl \&.An -nosplit

.D1 \&.An Kristaps Dzonsons \&Aq kristaps@bsd.lv

.Dl \&.An Kristaps Dzonsons \&Aq kristaps@bsd.lv

.Ss \&Ao

Begin a block enclosed by angle brackets.

Does not have any head arguments.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Fl -key= \&Ns \&Ao \&Ar val \&Ac

.Dl \&.Fl -key= \&Ns \&Ao \&Ar val \&Ac

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Aq .

Line 990 This is generally used as a grammatical device when re

Line 1262 This is generally used as a grammatical device when re

form of a function.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Fn execve \&Ap d

.Dl \&.Fn execve \&Ap d

.Ss \&Aq

Encloses its arguments in angle brackets.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Fl -key= \&Ns \&Aq \&Ar val

.Dl \&.Fl -key= \&Ns \&Aq \&Ar val

.Pp

.Em Remarks :

this macro is often abused for rendering URIs, which should instead use

Line 1016 If an argument is not provided, the string

Line 1288 If an argument is not provided, the string

is used as a default.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Fl o \&Ns \&Ar file1

.Dl ".Fl o Ar file"

.D1 \&.Ar

.Dl ".Ar"

.D1 \&.Ar arg1 , arg2 .

.Dl ".Ar arg1 , arg2 ."

.Pp

The arguments to the

.Sx \&Ar

macro are names and placeholders for command arguments;

for fixed strings to be passed verbatim as arguments, use

.Sx \&Fl

.Sx \&Cm .

.Ss \&At

Formats an AT&T version.

Accepts one optional argument:

Line 1027 Accepts one optional argument:

Line 1307 Accepts one optional argument:

.It Cm v[1-7] | 32v

A version of

.At .

.It Cm III

.At III .

.It Cm V[.[1-4]]?

A version of

.At V .

Line 1035 A version of

Line 1317 A version of

Note that these arguments do not begin with a hyphen.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.At

.Dl \&.At

.D1 \&.At V.1

.Dl \&.At III

.Dl \&.At V.1

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Bsx ,

Line 1064 Its syntax is as follows:

Line 1347 Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

Display blocks are used to select a different indentation and

justification than the one used by the surrounding text.

They may contain both macro lines and free-form text lines.

They may contain both macro lines and text lines.

By default, a display block is preceded by a vertical space.

.Pp

The

Line 1072 The

Line 1355 The

must be one of the following:

.Bl -tag -width 13n -offset indent

.It Fl centered

Centre-justify each line.

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

Using this display type is not recommended; many

.Nm

implementations render it poorly.

.It Fl filled

Left- and right-justify the block.

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

right-justify the resulting block.

.It Fl literal

Do not justify the block at all.

Produce one output line from each input line,

and do not justify the block at all.

Preserve white space as it appears in the input.

Always use a constant-width font.

Use this for displaying source code.

.It Fl ragged

Only left-justify the block.

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

the resulting block.

.It Fl unfilled

An alias for

The same as

.Fl literal .

.Fl literal ,

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

if supported by the output device.

.El

.Pp

The

Line 1101 which may be one of the following:

Line 1391 which may be one of the following:

.It

One of the pre-defined strings

.Cm indent ,

the width of standard indentation;

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

.Cm indent-two ,

twice

.Cm indent ;

Line 1161 and

Line 1451 and

argument are equivalent, as are

.Fl symbolic

and

.Cm \&Sy,

.Cm \&Sy ,

and

.Fl literal

and

Line 1179 See also

Line 1469 See also

and

.Sx \&Sy .

.Ss \&Bk

Keep the output generated from each macro input line together

For each macro, keep its output together on the same output line,

on one single output line.

until the end of the macro or the end of the input line is reached,

Line breaks in free-form text lines are unaffected.

whichever comes first.

Line breaks in text lines are unaffected.

The syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Bk Fl words

Line 1204 Be careful in using over-long lines within a keep bloc

Line 1495 Be careful in using over-long lines within a keep bloc

Doing so will clobber the right margin.

.Ss \&Bl

Begin a list.

Lists consist of items started by the

Lists consist of items specified using the

.Sx \&It

macro, containing a head or a body or both.

The list syntax is as follows:

Line 1277 except that dashes are used in place of bullets.

Line 1568 except that dashes are used in place of bullets.

.Fl inset ,

except that item heads are not parsed for macro invocations.

.\" but with additional formatting to the head.

Most often used in the

.Em DIAGNOSTICS

section with error constants in the item heads.

.It Fl enum

A numbered list.

No item heads can be specified.

Formatted like

.Fl bullet ,

except that cardinal numbers are used in place of bullets,

Line 1319 this head on the same output line.

Line 1613 this head on the same output line.

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

.El

.Pp

Lists may be nested within lists and displays.

Nesting of

.Fl column

and

.Fl enum

lists may not be portable.

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&El

and

Line 1339 See also

Line 1640 See also

Encloses its arguments in square brackets.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Bq 1 , \&Dv BUFSIZ

.Dl \&.Bq 1 , \&Dv BUFSIZ

.Pp

.Em Remarks :

this macro is sometimes abused to emulate optional arguments for

Line 1372 See also

Line 1673 See also

Encloses its arguments in curly braces.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Brq 1 , ... , \&Va n

.Dl \&.Brq 1 , ... , \&Va n

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Bro .

Line 1381 Format the BSD/OS version provided as an argument, or

Line 1682 Format the BSD/OS version provided as an argument, or

no argument is provided.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Bsx 1.0

.Dl \&.Bsx 1.0

.D1 \&.Bsx

.Dl \&.Bsx

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&At ,

Line 1401 Format the BSD version provided as an argument, or a d

Line 1702 Format the BSD version provided as an argument, or a d

argument is provided.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Bx 4.4

.Dl \&.Bx 4.3 Tahoe

.D1 \&.Bx

.Dl \&.Bx 4.4

.Dl \&.Bx

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&At ,

Line 1417 and

Line 1719 and

Kernel configuration declaration.

This denotes strings accepted by

.Xr config 8 .

It is most often used in section 4 manual pages.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Cd device le0 at scode?

.Dl \&.Cd device le0 at scode?

.Pp

.Em Remarks :

this macro is commonly abused by using quoted literals to retain

Line 1429 declarations.

Line 1732 declarations.

This practise is discouraged.

.Ss \&Cm

Command modifiers.

Useful when specifying configuration options or keys.

Typically used for fixed strings passed as arguments, unless

.Sx \&Fl

is more appropriate.

Also useful when specifying configuration options or keys.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Cm ControlPath

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

.D1 \&.Cm ControlMaster

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

.Pp

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

See also

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

.Sx \&Fl .

.Dl ".Cm LogLevel Dv DEBUG"

.Ss \&D1

One-line indented display.

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

Line 1444 statements.

Line 1750 statements.

It is followed by a newline.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.D1 \&Fl abcdefgh

.Dl \&.D1 \&Fl abcdefgh

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Bd

Line 1470 This is the mandatory first macro of any

Line 1776 This is the mandatory first macro of any

manual.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Dd Ar date

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Dd Ar month day , year

.Pp

The

.Ar date

.Ar month

may be either

is the full English month name, the

.Ar $\&Mdocdate$ ,

.Ar day

which signifies the current manual revision date dictated by

is an optionally zero-padded numeral, and the

.Ar year

is the full four-digit year.

.Pp

Other arguments are not portable; the

.Xr mandoc 1

utility handles them as follows:

.Bl -dash -offset 3n -compact

.It

To have the date automatically filled in by the

.Ox

version of

.Xr cvs 1 ,

or instead a valid canonical date as specified by

the special string

.Sx Dates .

.Dq $\&Mdocdate$

If a date does not conform, the current date is used instead.

can be given as an argument.

.It

A few alternative date formats are accepted as well

and converted to the standard form.

.It

If a date string cannot be parsed, it is used verbatim.

.It

If no date string is given, the current date is used.

.El

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$

.Dl \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$

.D1 \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate: July 21 2007$

.Dl \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate: July 21 2007$

.D1 \&.Dd July 21, 2007

.Dl \&.Dd July 21, 2007

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Dt

Line 1498 invocations.

Line 1823 invocations.

It is followed by a newline.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Dl % mandoc mdoc.7 \e(ba less

.Dl \&.Dl % mandoc mdoc.7 \e(ba less

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Bd

Line 1650 It must be one of

Line 1975 It must be one of

.Ar luna88k ,

.Ar mac68k ,

.Ar macppc ,

.Ar mips64 ,

.Ar mvme68k ,

.Ar mvme88k ,

.Ar mvmeppc ,

Line 1665 or

Line 1991 or

.El

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Dt FOO 1

.Dl \&.Dt FOO 1

.D1 \&.Dt FOO 4 KM

.Dl \&.Dt FOO 4 KM

.D1 \&.Dt FOO 9 i386

.Dl \&.Dt FOO 9 i386

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Dd

and

.Sx \&Os .

.Ss \&Dv

Defined variables such as preprocessor constants.

Defined variables such as preprocessor constants, constant symbols,

enumeration values, and so on.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Dv BUFSIZ

.Dl \&.Dv NULL

.D1 \&.Dv STDOUT_FILENO

.Dl \&.Dv BUFSIZ

.Dl \&.Dv STDOUT_FILENO

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Er .

.Sx \&Er

and

.Sx \&Ev

for special-purpose constants and

.Sx \&Va

for variable symbols.

.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

.Dl \&.Dx 2.4.1

.D1 \&.Dx

.Dl \&.Dx

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&At ,

Line 1729 See also

Line 2062 See also

and

.Sx \&It .

.Ss \&Em

Denotes text that should be emphasised.

Denotes text that should be

.Em emphasised .

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

stylistically decorating technical terms.

Depending on the output device, this is usually represented

using an italic font or underlined characters.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Em Warnings!

.Dl \&.Em Warnings!

.D1 \&.Em Remarks :

.Dl \&.Em Remarks :

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Bf ,

.Sx \&Sy ,

.Sx \&Li ,

.Sx \&No ,

and

.Sx \&Li .

.Sx \&Sy .

.Ss \&En

This macro is obsolete and not implemented in

.Xr mandoc 1 .

Line 1757 argument is used as the enclosure head, for example, s

Line 2094 argument is used as the enclosure head, for example, s

will emulate

.Sx \&Do .

.Ss \&Er

Display error constants.

Error constants for definitions of the

.Va errno

libc global variable.

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

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Er EPERM

.Dl \&.Er EPERM

.D1 \&.Er ENOENT

.Dl \&.Er ENOENT

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Dv .

.Sx \&Dv

for general constants.

.Ss \&Es

This macro is obsolete and not implemented.

.Ss \&Ev

Line 1772 Environmental variables such as those specified in

Line 2113 Environmental variables such as those specified in

.Xr environ 7 .

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Ev DISPLAY

.Dl \&.Ev DISPLAY

.D1 \&.Ev PATH

.Dl \&.Ev PATH

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Dv

for general constants.

.Ss \&Ex

Insert a standard sentence regarding exit values.

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

and >0 on failure.

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

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

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

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

.Pp

When

.Ar utility

is not specified, the document's name set by

.Sx \&Nm

is used.

Multiple

.Ar utility

arguments are treated as separate utilities.

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Rv .

Line 1813 Furthermore, if the following macro is another

Line 2163 Furthermore, if the following macro is another

the last argument will also have a trailing comma.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Fa \(dqconst char *p\(dq

.Dl \&.Fa \(dqconst char *p\(dq

.D1 \&.Fa \(dqint a\(dq \(dqint b\(dq \(dqint c\(dq

.Dl \&.Fa \(dqint a\(dq \(dqint b\(dq \(dqint c\(dq

.D1 \&.Fa foo

.Dl \&.Fa foo

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Fo .

Line 1833 See also

Line 2183 See also

and

.Sx \&In .

.Ss \&Fl

Command-line flag.

Command-line flag or option.

Used when listing arguments to command-line utilities.

Prints a fixed-width hyphen

.Sq \-

Line 1843 If the argument is a macro, a hyphen is prefixed to th

Line 2193 If the argument is a macro, a hyphen is prefixed to th

output.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Fl a b c

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

.D1 \&.Fl \&Pf a b

.Dl ".Op Fl 1AaCcdFfgHhikLlmnopqRrSsTtux"

.D1 \&.Fl

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

.D1 \&.Op \&Fl o \&Ns \&Ar file

.Dl ".Fl Ar signal_number"

.Dl ".Fl o Fl"

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Cm .

Line 1855 A function name.

Line 2206 A function name.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Bd -ragged -offset indent

.Pf \. Ns Sx \&Fn

.Op Cm functype

.Op Ar functype

.Cm funcname

.Ar funcname

.Op Oo Cm argtype Oc Cm argname

.Op Oo Ar argtype Oc Ar argname

.Ed

.Pp

Function arguments are surrounded in parenthesis and

are delimited by commas.

If no arguments are specified, blank parenthesis are output.

In the

.Em SYNOPSIS

section, this macro starts a new output line,

and a blank line is automatically inserted between function definitions.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Fn "int funcname" "int arg0" "int arg1"

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

.D1 \&.Fn funcname "int arg0"

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

.D1 \&.Fn funcname arg0

.Dl \&.Fn funcname arg0

.Pp

.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact

\&.Ft functype

\&.Fn funcname

.Ed

.Pp

When referring to a function documented in another manual page, use

.Sx \&Xr

instead.

See also

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,

.Sx \&Fo ,

and

.Sx \&Ft .

.Ss \&Fo

Line 1883 This is a multi-line version of

Line 2243 This is a multi-line version of

.Sx \&Fn .

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Fo Cm funcname

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Fo Ar funcname

.Pp

Invocations usually occur in the following context:

.Bd -ragged -offset indent

.Pf \. Sx \&Ft Cm functype

.Pf \. Sx \&Ft Ar functype

.br

.Pf \. Sx \&Fo Cm funcname

.Pf \. Sx \&Fo Ar funcname

.br

.Pf \. Sx \&Fa Oo Cm argtype Oc Cm argname

.Pf \. Sx \&Fa Oo Ar argtype Oc Ar argname

.br

\.\.\.

\&.\.\.

.br

.Pf \. Sx \&Fc

.Ed

Line 1901 Invocations usually occur in the following context:

Line 2261 Invocations usually occur in the following context:

.Sx \&Fo

scope is closed by

.Sx \&Fc .

.Pp

See also

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,

Line 1908 See also

Line 2269 See also

.Sx \&Fc ,

and

.Sx \&Ft .

.Ss \&Fr

This macro is obsolete and not implemented in

.Xr mandoc 1 .

.Pp

It was used to show function return values.

The syntax was:

.Pp

.Dl Pf . Sx \&Fr Ar value

.Ss \&Ft

A function type.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ft Cm functype

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ft Ar functype

.Pp

In the

.Em SYNOPSIS

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

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Ft int

.Dl \&.Ft int

.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact

\&.Ft functype

\&.Fn funcname

Line 1927 See also

Line 2300 See also

and

.Sx \&Fo .

.Ss \&Fx

Format the FreeBSD version provided as an argument, or a default value

Format the

.Fx

version provided as an argument, or a default value

if no argument is provided.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Fx 7.1

.Dl \&.Fx 7.1

.D1 \&.Fx

.Dl \&.Fx

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&At ,

Line 1944 See also

Line 2319 See also

and

.Sx \&Ux .

.Ss \&Hf

This macro is obsolete and not implemented.

This macro is not implemented in

.Xr mandoc 1 .

.Pp

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

The syntax was:

.Pp

.Dl Pf . Sx \&Hf Ar filename

.Ss \&Ic

Designate an internal or interactive command.

This is similar to

Line 1952 This is similar to

Line 2333 This is similar to

but used for instructions rather than values.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Ic hash

.Dl \&.Ic :wq

.D1 \&.Ic alias

.Dl \&.Ic hash

.Dl \&.Ic alias

.Pp

Note that using

.Sx \&Bd No Fl literal

.Sx \&Bd Fl literal

.Sx \&D1

is preferred for displaying code; the

Line 1966 macro is used when referring to specific instructions.

Line 2348 macro is used when referring to specific instructions.

.Dq include

file.

In the

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

.Em SYNOPSIS

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

section, the argument is displayed in angle brackets

preceded by

and preceded by

.Dq #include ,

the arguments is enclosed in angle brackets.

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

function declaration.

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

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.In sys/types

.Dl \&.In sys/types.h

.Pp

See also

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .

Line 1991 and

Line 2375 and

.Fl diag

have the following syntax:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Cm args

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Ar args

.Pp

Lists of type

.Fl bullet ,

Line 2028 The

Line 2412 The

list is the most complicated.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Op Cm args

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Ar cell Op <TAB> Ar cell ...

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Ar cell Op Sx \&Ta Ar cell ...

.Pp

The

The arguments consist of one or more lines of text and macros

.Cm args

representing a complete table line.

are phrases, a mix of macros and text corresponding to a line column,

Cells within the line are delimited by tabs or by the special

delimited by tabs or the special

.Sx \&Ta

.Sq \&Ta

block macro.

pseudo-macro.

The tab cell delimiter may only be used within the

Lines subsequent the

.Sx \&It

are interpreted within the scope of the last phrase.

line itself; on following lines, only the

Calling the pseudo-macro

.Sx \&Ta

.Sq \&Ta

macro can be used to delimit cells, and

will open a new phrase scope (this must occur on a macro line to be

.Sx \&Ta

interpreted as a macro).

is only recognised as a macro when called by other macros,

Note that the tab phrase delimiter may only be used within the

not as the first macro on a line.

.Pp

Note that quoted strings may span tab-delimited cells on an

.Sx \&It

line itself.

line.

Subsequent this, only the

For example,

.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 ; <TAB> col2 ;\(dq \&;

.Dl .It \(dqcol1 ; <TAB> col2 ;\(dq \&;

.Pp

will preserve the semicolon whitespace except for the last.

.Pp

Line 2064 See also

Line 2444 See also

Specify a library.

The syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Lb Cm library

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Lb Ar library

.Pp

The

.Cm library

.Ar library

parameter may be a system library, such as

.Cm libz

Line 2081 section as described in

Line 2461 section as described in

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Lb libz

.Dl \&.Lb libz

.D1 \&.Lb mdoc

.Dl \&.Lb mdoc

.Ss \&Li

Denotes text that should be in a literal font mode.

Denotes text that should be in a

.Li literal

font mode.

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

stylistically decorating technical terms.

.Pp

On terminal output devices, this is often indistinguishable from

normal text.

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Bf ,

.Sx \&Sy ,

.Sx \&Em ,

.Sx \&No ,

and

.Sx \&Em .

.Sx \&Sy .

.Ss \&Lk

Format a hyperlink.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

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

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

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Lk http://bsd.lv "The BSD.lv Project"

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

.D1 \&.Lk http://bsd.lv

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

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Mt .

Line 2112 Synonym for

Line 2498 Synonym for

Display a mathematical symbol.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ms Cm symbol

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ms Ar symbol

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Ms sigma

.Dl \&.Ms sigma

.D1 \&.Ms aleph

.Dl \&.Ms aleph

.Ss \&Mt

Format a

.Dq mailto:

hyperlink.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Mt Cm address

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Mt Ar address

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Mt discuss@manpages.bsd.lv

.Dl \&.Mt discuss@manpages.bsd.lv

.Ss \&Nd

A one-line description of the manual's content.

A one line description of the manual's content.

This may only be invoked in the

.Em SYNOPSIS

section subsequent the

Line 2136 section subsequent the

Line 2522 section subsequent the

macro.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Sx \&Nd mdoc language reference

.Dl Pf . Sx \&Nd mdoc language reference

.D1 \&.Sx \&Nd format and display UNIX manuals

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

.Pp

The

.Sx \&Nd

Line 2189 macro rather than

Line 2575 macro rather than

.Sx \&Nm

to mark up the name of the manual page.

.Ss \&No

Normal text.

.Dq noop

Closes the scope of any preceding in-line macro.

macro used to terminate prior macro contexts.

When used after physical formatting macros like

.Sx \&Em

.Sx \&Sy ,

switches back to the standard font face and weight.

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

using semantic annotation macros.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Sx \&Fl ab \&No cd \&Fl ef

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

.Pp

.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact

\&.Sm off

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

\&.Sm on

.Ed

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Em ,

.Sx \&Li ,

and

.Sx \&Sy .

.Ss \&Ns

Suppress a space.

Suppress a space between the output of the preceding macro

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

and the following text or macro.

macro is encountered.

Following invocation, input is interpreted as normal text

just like after an

.Sx \&No

macro.

.Pp

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

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Fl o \&Ns \&Ar output

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

.Dl ".Cm :M Ns Ar pattern"

.Dl ".Fl o Ns Ar output"

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&No

and

.Sx \&Sm .

.Ss \&Nx

Format the NetBSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if

Format the

.Nx

version provided as an argument, or a default value if

no argument is provided.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Nx 5.01

.Dl \&.Nx 5.01

.D1 \&.Nx

.Dl \&.Nx

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&At ,

Line 2239 Examples:

Line 2652 Examples:

\&.Oc

.Ed

.Ss \&Op

Command-line option.

Optional part of a command line.

Used when listing options to command-line utilities.

Prints the argument(s) in brackets.

This is most often used in the

.Em SYNOPSIS

section of section 1 and 8 manual pages.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Op \&Fl a \&Ar b

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

.D1 \&.Op \&Ar a | b

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

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Oo .

Line 2257 any

Line 2672 any

file.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Os Op Cm system

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Os Op Ar system Op Ar version

.Pp

The optional

.Cm system

.Ar 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

.Dl \&.Os

.D1 \&.Os KTH/CSC/TCS

.Dl \&.Os KTH/CSC/TCS

.D1 \&.Os BSD 4.3

.Dl \&.Os BSD 4.3

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Dd

and

.Sx \&Dt .

.Ss \&Ot

Unknown usage.

This macro is obsolete and not implemented in

.Xr mandoc 1 .

.Pp

.Em Remarks :

Historical

this macro has been deprecated.

.Xr mdoc 7

packages described it as

.Dq "old function type (FORTRAN)" .

.Ss \&Ox

Format the OpenBSD version provided as an argument, or a default value

Format the

.Ox

version provided as an argument, or a default value

if no argument is provided.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Ox 4.5

.Dl \&.Ox 4.5

.D1 \&.Ox

.Dl \&.Ox

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&At ,

Line 2297 See also

Line 2717 See also

and

.Sx \&Ux .

.Ss \&Pa

A file-system path.

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

If an argument is not provided, the character

.Sq \(ti

is used as a default.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Pa /usr/bin/mandoc

.Dl \&.Pa /usr/bin/mandoc

.D1 \&.Pa /usr/share/man/man7/mdoc.7

.Dl \&.Pa /usr/share/man/man7/mdoc.7

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Lk .

Line 2309 See also

Line 2732 See also

Close parenthesised context opened by

.Sx \&Po .

.Ss \&Pf

Removes the space

Removes the space between its argument

.Pq Dq prefix

between its arguments.

and the following macro.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. \&Pf Cm prefix suffix

.D1 .Pf Ar prefix macro arguments ...

.Pp

The

This is equivalent to:

.Cm suffix

argument may be a macro.

.Pp

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

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Pf \e. \&Sx \&Pf \&Cm prefix suffix

.Dl ".Pf $ Ar variable_name"

.Dl ".Pf 0x Ar hex_digits"

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Ns

and

.Sx \&Sm .

.Ss \&Po

Multi-line version of

.Sx \&Pq .

Line 2329 Multi-line version of

Line 2758 Multi-line version of

Break a paragraph.

This will assert vertical space between prior and subsequent macros

and/or text.

.Pp

Paragraph breaks are not needed before or after

.Sx \&Sh

.Sx \&Ss

macros or before displays

.Pq Sx \&Bd

or lists

.Pq Sx \&Bl

unless the

.Fl compact

flag is given.

.Ss \&Pq

Parenthesised enclosure.

.Pp

Line 2348 Multi-line version of

Line 2789 Multi-line version of

.Sx \&Qq .

.Ss \&Qq

Encloses its arguments in

.Dq typewriter

.Qq typewriter

double-quotes.

Consider using

.Sx \&Dq .

Line 2404 block is used within a SEE ALSO section, a vertical sp

Line 2845 block is used within a SEE ALSO section, a vertical sp

before the rendered output, else the block continues on the current

line.

.Ss \&Rv

Inserts text regarding a function call's return value.

Insert a standard sentence regarding a function call's return value of 0

This macro must consist of the

on success and \-1 on error, with the

.Fl std

.Va errno

argument followed by an optional

libc global variable set on error.

.Ar function .

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Rv Fl std Op Ar function ...

.Pp

.Ar function

is not provided, the document's name as stipulated by the first

is not specified, the document's name set by

.Sx \&Nm

is provided.

is used.

Multiple

.Ar function

arguments are treated as separate functions.

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Ex .

Line 2429 custom sections be used.

Line 2876 custom sections be used.

.Pp

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

.Sx \&Sx .

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

may not be linked with

.Sx \&Sx .

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Pp ,

Line 2446 By default, spacing is

Line 2896 By default, spacing is

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

output generated from adjacent macros, but 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

.Sq typewriter

single-quotes.

.Pp

See also

Line 2462 See also

Line 2912 See also

and

.Sx \&So .

.Ss \&Ss

Begin a new sub-section.

Begin a new subsection.

Unlike with

.Sx \&Sh ,

there's no convention for sub-sections.

there is no convention for the naming of subsections.

Conventional sections, as described in

Except

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,

.Em DESCRIPTION ,

rarely have sub-sections.

the conventional sections described in

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE

rarely have subsections.

.Pp

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

.Sx \&Sx .

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

may not be linked with

.Sx \&Sx .

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Pp ,

Line 2545 The following standards are recognised:

Line 3000 The following standards are recognised:

.St -ieee754

.It \-iso8802-3

.St -iso8802-3

.It \-iso8601

.St -iso8601

.It \-ieee1275-94

.St -ieee1275-94

.It \-xpg3

Line 2553 The following standards are recognised:

Line 3010 The following standards are recognised:

.St -xpg4

.It \-xpg4.2

.St -xpg4.2

.It \-xpg4.3

.St -xpg4.3

.It \-xbd5

.St -xbd5

Line 2576 The following standards are recognised:

Line 3034 The following standards are recognised:

.St -svid4

.El

.Ss \&Sx

Reference a section or sub-section.

Reference a section or subsection in the same manual page.

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

The referenced section or subsection name must be identical to the

enclosed argument, including whitespace.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE

.Dl \&.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Sh

and

.Sx \&Ss .

.Ss \&Sy

Format enclosed arguments in symbolic

.Pq Dq boldface .

Line 2590 stylistically decorating technical terms.

Line 3053 stylistically decorating technical terms.

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&Bf ,

.Sx \&Em ,

.Sx \&Li ,

and

.Sx \&Em .

.Sx \&No .

.Ss \&Ta

Table cell separator in

.Sx \&Bl Fl column

lists; can only be used below

.Sx \&It .

.Ss \&Tn

Format a tradename.

.Pp

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

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

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

sometimes for semantical annotation, sometimes for physical formatting.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Tn IBM

.Dl \&.Tn IBM

.Ss \&Ud

Prints out

.Dq currently under development.

Line 2606 Format the UNIX name.

Line 3080 Format the UNIX name.

Accepts no argument.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Ux

.Dl \&.Ux

.Pp

See also

.Sx \&At ,

Line 2621 and

Line 3095 and

A variable name.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Va foo

.Dl \&.Va foo

.D1 \&.Va const char *bar ;

.Dl \&.Va const char *bar ;

.Ss \&Vt

A variable type.

This is also used for indicating global variables in the

Line 2630 This is also used for indicating global variables in t

Line 3104 This is also used for indicating global variables in t

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

Note that it accepts

.Sx Block partial-implicit

syntax when invoked as the first macro in the

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

.Em SYNOPSIS

section, else it accepts ordinary

.Sx In-line

syntax.

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

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

function definition or include directive.

.Pp

Note that this should not be confused with

.Sx \&Ft ,

which is used for function return types.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Vt unsigned char

.Dl \&.Vt unsigned char

.D1 \&.Vt extern const char * const sys_signame[] \&;

.Dl \&.Vt extern const char * const sys_signame[] \&;

.Pp

See also

.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE

Line 2652 and

Line 3129 and

Close a scope opened by

.Sx \&Xo .

.Ss \&Xo

Open an extension scope.

Extend the header of an

This macro originally existed to extend the 9-argument limit of troff;

.Sx \&It

since this limit has been lifted, the macro has been deprecated.

macro or the body of a partial-implicit block macro

beyond the end of the input line.

This macro originally existed to work around the 9-argument limit

of historic

.Xr roff 7 .

.Ss \&Xr

Link to another manual

.Pq Qq cross-reference .

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Xr Cm name section

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Xr Ar name section

.Pp

The

.Cm name

.Ar name

and

.Cm section

.Ar section

are the name and section of the linked manual.

.Cm section

.Ar section

is followed by non-punctuation, an

.Sx \&Ns

is inserted into the token stream.

This behaviour is for compatibility with

.Xr groff 1 .

GNU troff.

.Pp

Examples:

.D1 \&.Xr mandoc 1

.Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1

.D1 \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&;

.Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&;

.D1 \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&Ns s behaviour

.Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&Ns s behaviour

.Ss \&br

Emits a line-break.

This macro should not be used; it is implemented for compatibility with

Line 2693 This macro should not be used; it is implemented for c

Line 3174 This macro should not be used; it is implemented for c

historical manuals.

Its syntax is as follows:

.Pp

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&sp Op Cm height

.D1 Pf \. Sx \&sp Op Ar height

.Pp

The

.Cm height

.Ar height

argument must be formatted as described in

.Sx Scaling Widths .

If unspecified,

Line 2708 troff implementations, at this time limited to GNU tro

Line 3189 troff implementations, at this time limited to GNU tro

.Pq Qq groff .

The term

.Qq historic groff

refers to groff versions before the

refers to groff versions before 1.17,

which featured a significant update of the

.Pa doc.tmac

file re-write

file.

.Pq somewhere between 1.15 and 1.19 .

.Pp

Heirloom troff, the other significant troff implementation accepting

\-mdoc, is similar to historic groff.

.Pp

The following problematic behaviour is found in groff:

.ds hist (Historic groff only.)

.Pp

.Bl -dash -compact

.It

The \es (font size), \em (font colour), and \eM (font filling colour)

Display macros

font decoration escapes are all discarded in mandoc.

.Po

.Sx \&Bd ,

.Sx \&Dl ,

and

.Sx \&D1

.Pc

may not be nested.

\*[hist]

.It

Old groff fails to assert a newline before

.Sx \&At

.Sx \&Bd Fl ragged compact .

with unknown arguments produces no output at all.

\*[hist]

Newer groff and mandoc print

.Qq AT&T UNIX

and the arguments.

.It

groff behaves inconsistently when encountering

.Sx \&Bl Fl column

.Pf non- Sx \&Fa

does not recognise trailing punctuation characters when they immediately

children of

precede tabulator characters, but treats them as normal text and

outputs a space before them.

.It

.Sx \&Bd Fl ragged compact

does not start a new line.

\*[hist]

.It

.Sx \&Dd

with non-standard arguments behaves very strangely.

When there are three arguments, they are printed verbatim.

Any other number of arguments is replaced by the current date,

but without any arguments the string

.Dq Epoch

is printed.

.It

.Sx \&Fl

does not print a dash for an empty argument.

\*[hist]

.It

.Sx \&Fn

does not start a new line unless invoked as the line macro in the

.Em SYNOPSIS

section.

\*[hist]

.It

.Sx \&Fo

regarding spacing between arguments.

with

In mandoc, this is not the case: each argument is consistently followed

.Pf non- Sx \&Fa

by a single space and the trailing

children causes inconsistent spacing between arguments.

.Sq \&)

In mandoc, a single space is always inserted between arguments.

suppresses prior spacing.

.It

groff behaves inconsistently when encountering

.Sx \&Ft

and

.Sx \&Fn

in the

.Em SYNOPSIS :

.Em SYNOPSIS

at times newline(s) are suppressed depending on whether a prior

causes inconsistent vertical spacing, 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.

for the normalised behaviour in mandoc.

.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

ignores additional arguments and is not treated specially in the

.Em SYNOPSIS

.Em SYNOPSIS .

is not specially treated.

\*[hist]

.It

groff does not accept the

.Sx \&It

.Sq \&Ta

sometimes requires a

pseudo-macro as a line macro.

.Fl nested

mandoc does.

flag.

\*[hist]

In new groff and mandoc, any list may be nested by default and

.Fl enum

lists will restart the sequence only for the sub-list.

.It

The comment syntax

.Sx \&Li

.Sq \e\."

followed by a delimiter is incorrectly used in some manuals

is no longer accepted.

instead of properly quoting that character, which sometimes works with

historic groff.

.It

In groff, the

.Sx \&Lk

only accepts a single link-name argument; the remainder is misformatted.

.It

.Sx \&Pa

macro does not format its arguments when used in the FILES section under

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 \&Ta

.Sx \&Fl

can only be called by other macros, but not at the beginning of a line.

arguments.

mandoc and newer groff implementations do.

.It

groff behaves irregularly when specifying

.Sx \&%C

is not implemented.

.It

Historic groff only allows up to eight or nine arguments per macro input

line, depending on the exact situation.

Providing more arguments causes garbled output.

The number of arguments on one input line is not limited with mandoc.

.It

Historic groff has many un-callable macros.

Most of these (excluding some block-level macros) are callable

in new groff and mandoc.

.It

.Sq \(ba

(vertical bar) is not fully supported as a delimiter.

\*[hist]

.It

.Sq \ef

.Pq font face

and

.Sq \ef

.Pq font family face

.Sx Text Decoration

within line-macro scopes.

escapes behave irregularly when specified within line-macro scopes.

mandoc follows a consistent system.

.It

In mandoc, negative scaling units are truncated to zero; groff would

Negative scaling units return to prior lines.

move to prior lines.

Instead, mandoc truncates them to zero.

Furthermore, the

.El

.Sq f

.Pp

scaling unit, while accepted, is rendered as the default unit.

The following features are unimplemented in mandoc:

.Pp

.Bl -dash -compact

.It

In quoted literals, groff allowed pair-wise double-quotes to produce a

.Sx \&Bd

standalone double-quote in formatted output.

.Fl file Ar file .

This idiosyncratic behaviour is not applicable in mandoc.

.It

Display offsets

.Sx \&Bd

.Fl offset Ar center

and

.Fl offset Ar right

.Fl offset Ar right .

are disregarded in mandoc.

Groff does not implement centred and flush-right rendering either,

Furthermore, troff specifies a

but produces large indentations.

.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.

The

Most of these (excluding some block-level macros) are now callable.

.Sq \eh

.It

.Pq horizontal position ,

The vertical bar

.Sq \ev

.Sq \(ba

.Pq vertical position ,

made historic groff

.Sq \em

.Qq go orbital

.Pq text colour ,

but has been a proper delimiter since then.

.Sq \eM

.It

.Pq text filling colour ,

.Sx \&It Fl nested

.Sq \ez

is assumed for all lists (it wasn't in historic groff): any list may be

.Pq zero-length character ,

nested and

.Sq \ew

.Fl enum

.Pq string length ,

lists will restart the sequence only for the sub-list.

.Sq \ek

.It

.Pq horizontal position marker ,

Some manuals use

.Sq \eo

.Sx \&Li

.Pq text overstrike ,

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

.Sq \es

macros were stipulated only to occur in certain manual sections.

.Pq text size

mandoc does not have these restrictions.

escape sequences are all discarded in mandoc.

.It

Newer groff and mandoc print

The

.Qq AT&T UNIX

.Sq \ef

prior to unknown arguments of

scaling unit is accepted by mandoc, but rendered as the default unit.

.Sx \&At ;

.It

older groff did nothing.

In quoted literals, groff allows pairwise double-quotes to produce a

standalone double-quote in formatted output.

This is not supported by mandoc.

.El

.Sh SEE ALSO

.Xr man 1 ,

.Xr mandoc 1 ,

.Xr mandoc_char 7

.Xr eqn 7 ,

.Xr man 7 ,

.Xr mandoc_char 7 ,

.Xr roff 7 ,

.Xr tbl 7

.Sh HISTORY

The

.Nm

language first appeared as a troff macro package in

.Bx 4.4 .

It was later significantly updated by Werner Lemberg and Ruslan Ermilov

in groff-1.17.

The standalone implementation that is part of the

.Xr mandoc 1

utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in

.Ox 4.6 .

.Sh AUTHORS

The

.Nm

reference was written by

.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@bsd.lv .

.An Kristaps Dzonsons ,

.Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .

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