mandoc/mdoc.7 - diff

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Diff for /mandoc/mdoc.7 between version 1.49 and 1.55

version 1.49, 2009/07/19 09:17:42

version 1.55, 2009/07/29 08:58:11

Line 13

.\" 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 $Mdocdate$

.Dt MDOC 7

.Os

Line 25

.Sh DESCRIPTION

The

.Nm mdoc

language is used to format

.Bx

.Ux

manuals. In this reference document, we describe its syntax, structure,

and usage. Our reference implementation is

.Xr mandoc 1 .

The

.Sx COMPATIBILITY

section describes compatibility with

.Xr groff 1 .

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

.Pp

.Nm

document follows simple rules: lines beginning with the control

character

.Sq \.

are parsed for macros. Other lines are interpreted within the scope of

prior macros:

Line 55 documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII chara

character, and, in certain circumstances, the tab character. All

manuals must have

.Ux

line terminators.

.\" SUB-SECTION----------------------

.Ss Comments

Text following a

Line 87 Within a macro line, the following characters are rese

.It \&?

.Pq question

.It \&!

.Pq exclamation

.It \&|

.Pq vertical bar

.El

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

.Pp

Line 98 Use of reserved characters is described in

For general use in macro lines, these characters must either be escaped

with a non-breaking space

.Pq Sq \e&

or, if applicable, an appropriate escape sequence used.

.\" SUB-SECTION----------------------

.Ss Special Characters

Special characters may occur in both macro and free-form lines.

Sequences begin with the escape character

.Sq \e

followed by either an open-parenthesis

.Sq \&(

for two-character sequences; an open-bracket

.Sq \&[

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

.Sq \&] ) ;

or a single one-character sequence. See

.Xr mandoc_char 1

.Xr mandoc_char 7

for a complete list. Examples include

.Sq \e(em

.Pq em-dash

and

.Sq \ee

.Pq back-slash .

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

.\" SUB-SECTION----------------------

.Pp

.Ss Text Decoration

An alternative escape sequence is

Terms may be text-decorated using the

the slash-asterisk,

.Sq \e* ,

but this method is discouraged for compatibility reasons.

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

.Pp

Terms may

also be text-decorated using the

.Sq \ef

escape followed by an indicator: B (bold), I, (italic), or P and R

(Roman, or reset). This form is not recommended.

(Roman, or reset). This form is not recommended for

.Nm ,

which encourages semantic, not presentation, annotation.

.\" SUB-SECTION----------------------

.Ss Predefined Strings

Historically,

.Xr groff 1

also defined a set of package-specific

.Dq predefined strings ,

which, like

.Sx Special Characters ,

demark special output characters and strings by way of input codes.

Predefined strings are escaped with the slash-asterisk,

.Sq \e* :

single-character

.Sq \e*X ,

two-character

.Sq \e*(XX ,

and N-character

.Sq \e*[N] .

See

.Xr mandoc_char 7

for a complete list. Examples include

.Sq \e*(Am

.Pq ampersand

and

.Sq \e*(Ba

.Pq vertical bar .

.\" SUB-SECTION----------------------

.Ss Whitespace

In non-literal free-form lines, consecutive blocks of whitespace are

pruned from input and added later in the output filter, if applicable:

.Bd -literal -offset indent

These spaces are pruned from input.

\&.Bd \-literal

These are not.

\&.Ed

.Ed

Line 149 arguments are quoted, whitespace within the quotes is

Line 169 arguments are quoted, whitespace within the quotes is

.Pp

Blank lines are only permitted within literal contexts, as are lines

containing only whitespace. Tab characters are only acceptable when

delimiting

.Sq \&Bl \-column

or when in a literal context.

.\" SUB-SECTION----------------------

Line 158 Macro arguments may be quoted with a double-quote to g

Line 178 Macro arguments may be quoted with a double-quote to g

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.

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

.Pp

This produces tokens

.Sq a" ,

.Sq b c ,

.Sq de ,

and

.Sq fg" .

Note that any quoted term, be it argument or macro, is indiscriminately

considered literal text. Thus, the following produces

.Sq \&Em a :

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Em "Em a"

Line 180 In free-form mode, quotes are regarded as opaque text.

Line 200 In free-form mode, quotes are regarded as opaque text.

.Sh MANUAL STRUCTURE

Each

.Nm

document must begin with a document prologue, containing, in order,

.Sq \&Dd ,

.Sq \&Dt ,

and

.Sq \&Os ,

then the NAME section containing at least one

.Sq \&Nm

followed by

.Sq \&Nd :

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$

Line 200 followed by

Line 220 followed by

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

.Pp

Subsequent SYNOPSIS and DESCRIPTION sections are strongly encouraged,

but non-compulsory.

.\" SECTION---------------------------------------------

.Sh MACRO SYNTAX

Every line beginning with the control character

.Sq \.

is processed for macros, two- or three-character sequences.

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

.Pp

The syntax of a macro depends on its classification. In this section,

.Sq \-arg

refers to macro arguments, which may be followed by zero or more

.Sq parm

parameters;

Line 222 closes it out.

Line 242 closes it out.

The

.Em Callable

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

line-macro. The

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

initial line macro is interpreted as opaque text, such that

.Sq \&.Fl Sh

produces

.Sq Fl Sh .

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

.Pp

The

.Em Parsable

column indicates whether the macro may be followed by further

(ostensibly callable) macros. The

(ostensibly callable) macros. If a macro is not parsable, subsequent

macro invocations on the line will be interpreted as opaque text.

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

.Pp

The

.Em Scope

column, if applicable, describes closure rules.

.\" SUB-SECTION----------------------

Line 235 contains bodies; only

Line 266 contains bodies; only

.Pq Sq \&Bf

contains a head.

.Bd -literal -offset indent

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

\(lBbody...\(rB

\&.Yc

.Ed

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

Line 255 contains a head.

Line 286 contains a head.

.\" SUB-SECTION----------------------

.Ss Block full-implicit

Multi-line scope closed by end-of-file or implicitly by another macro.

All macros have bodies; some

.Po

.Sq \&It \-bullet ,

.Sq \-hyphen ,

.Sq \-dash ,

.Sq \-enum ,

.Sq \-item

.Pc

don't have heads, while

.Sq \&It \-column

may have multiple heads.

.Bd -literal -offset indent

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

\(lBbody...\(rB

.Ed

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

.Pp

Line 282 may have multiple heads.

Line 313 may have multiple heads.

.\" SUB-SECTION----------------------

.Ss Block partial-explicit

Like block full-explicit, but also with single-line scope. Each

has at least a body and, in limited circumstances, a head

.Pq So \&Fo Sc , So \&Eo Sc

and/or tail

.Pq So \&Ec Sc .

.Bd -literal -offset indent

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

\(lBbody...\(rB

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

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

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

.Ed

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

.Pp

Line 325 and/or tail

Line 356 and/or tail

.El

.\" SUB-SECTION----------------------

.Ss Block partial-implicit

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

.Sx Reserved Characters

or end of line.

.Bd -literal -offset indent

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

Line 349 or end of line.

Line 380 or end of line.

.El

.\" SUB-SECTION----------------------

.Ss In-line

Closed by

.Sx Reserved Characters ,

end of line, fixed argument lengths, and/or subsequent macros. In-line

macros have only text children. If a number (or inequality) of

arguments is

.Pq n ,

then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of arguments.

.Bd -literal -offset indent

\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB \(lbres...\(rb

Line 443 then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument

Line 474 then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument

.\" SECTION---------------------------------------------

.Sh COMPATIBILITY

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 .

.\" PARAGRAPH------------

.Pp

.Bl -dash -compact

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

The

.Sq \-split

.Sq \-nosplit

argument to

.Sq \&An

applies to the whole document, not just to the current section as it

does in groff.

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

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

standalone double-quote in formatted output. This idiosyncratic

behaviour is no longer applicable.

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

The

.Sq \&sp

macro does not accept negative numbers.

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

Some character sequences in groff are not handled depending on escape

style, e.g.,

.Sq \e(ba

and

.Sq \e*(Ba

may not be interchanged. This is no longer the case: all character

sequences resolve to the same symbol, regardless the escape style.

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

Blocks of whitespace are stripped from both macro and free-form text

lines (except when in literal mode), while groff would retain whitespace

in free-form text lines.

Line 485 some block-level macros) are now callable, conforming

Line 517 some block-level macros) are now callable, conforming

non-historic groff version.

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

The vertical bar

.Sq \(ba

made historic groff

.Qq go orbital

Line 504 syntax where column widths may be preceded by other ar

Line 536 syntax where column widths may be preceded by other ar

of proceeded) is not supported.

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

The

.Sq \&At

macro only accepts a single parameter.

.\" LIST-ITEM

Line 515 incorrectly by following it with a reserved character

Line 547 incorrectly by following it with a reserved character

delimiter to render. This is not supported.

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

If an special-character control character is escaped

In groff, the

.Sq \e\e ,

it will obviously not render the subsequent sequence. Even newer

versions of groff seem to dither on this.

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

In groff, the

.Sq \&Fo

macro only produces the first parameter. This is no longer the case.

.El

Line 533 macro only produces the first parameter. This is no l

Line 559 macro only produces the first parameter. This is no l

.Sh AUTHORS

The

.Nm

reference was written by

.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@kth.se .

.\" SECTION---------------------------------------------

.Sh CAVEATS

Line 544 There are many ambiguous parts of mdoc.

Line 570 There are many ambiguous parts of mdoc.

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

.Sq \&Fa

should be

.Sq \&Va

as function arguments are variables.

.\" LIST-ITEM

Line 567 variable name and optional, preceding type.

Line 593 variable name and optional, preceding type.

.It

.Sq \&Fd

is ambiguous. It's commonly used to indicate an include file in the

synopsis section.

.Sq \&In

should be used, instead.

.\" LIST-ITEM

Line 579 argument to

Line 605 argument to

makes sense. The remaining ones should be removed.

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

The

.Sq \&Xo

and

.Sq \&Xc

Line 594 render when formatting the manual page.

Line 620 render when formatting the manual page.

.It

.Sq \&Lx

should be provided for Linux (\(`a la

.Sq \&Ox ,

.Sq \&Nx

etc.).

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

Line 605 There's no way to refer to references in

Line 631 There's no way to refer to references in

blocks.

.\" LIST-ITEM

.It

The \-split and \-nosplit arguments to

The \-split and \-nosplit dictates via

.Sq \&An

are inane.

are re-set when entering and leaving the AUTHORS section.

.El

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