=================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/mandoc/mdoc.7,v retrieving revision 1.5 retrieving revision 1.31 diff -u -p -r1.5 -r1.31 --- mandoc/mdoc.7 2009/03/16 22:19:19 1.5 +++ mandoc/mdoc.7 2009/06/22 12:22:35 1.31 @@ -1,28 +1,26 @@ -.\" $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.5 2009/03/16 22:19:19 kristaps Exp $ +.\" $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.31 2009/06/22 12:22:35 kristaps Exp $ .\" .\" 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 16 2009 $ -.Dt mdoc 7 +.Dd $Mdocdate: June 22 2009 $ +.Dt MDOC 7 .Os .\" SECTION .Sh NAME .Nm mdoc -.Nd mdoc macro reference +.Nd mdoc language reference .\" SECTION .Sh DESCRIPTION The @@ -30,29 +28,69 @@ The language is used to format .Bx .Ux -manuals. An +manuals. In this reference document, we describe the syntax, ontology +and structure of the .Nm +language. Our reference implementation is +.Xr mandoc 1 . +The +.Sx COMPATIBILITY +section describes compatibility with +.Xr groff 1 . +.\" PARAGRAPH +.Pp +An +.Nm document follows simple rules: lines beginning with the control -character +character .Sq \. are parsed for macros. Other lines are interpreted within the scope of -prior macros. This document describes the encoding, ontology and syntax -of these macros. +prior macros: +.Bd -literal -offset XXX +\&.Sh Macro lines change control state. +Other lines are interpreted within the current state. +.Ed .\" SECTION -.Sh CHARACTER ENCODING +.Sh INPUT ENCODING .Nm -documents may contain only printable alphanumeric characters, the space +documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the space character .Sq \ , and, in certain circumstances, the tab character .Sq \et . All manuals must have .Sq \en -line termination. +line termination. +.Pp +The only time a blank line is acceptable is within +the context of +.Sq \&.Bd \-literal +or +.Sq \&.Bd \-unfilled . +.Pp +Tab characters +.Pq \et +are only acceptable when delimiting +.Sq \&.Bl \-column +and in +.Sq \&.Bd \-literal +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 \&, @@ -73,6 +111,8 @@ Within a macro line, the following characters are rese .Pq question .It \&! .Pq exclamation +.It \&| +.Pq vertical bar .El .\" PARAGRAPH .Pp @@ -85,7 +125,7 @@ or, if applicable, an appropriate escape-sequence used .\" SUB-SECTION .Ss Special Characters Special character sequences begin with the escape character -.Sq \\ +.Sq \e followed by either an open-parenthesis .Sq \&( for two-character sequences; an open-bracket @@ -95,252 +135,15 @@ for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-brack or a single one-character sequence. .Pp Characters may alternatively be escaped by a slash-asterisk, -.Sq \\* , +.Sq \e* , with the same combinations as described above. This form is deprecated. -.Pp -The following is a table of all available escapes. -.Pp -Grammatic: -.Bl -tag -width 12n -offset "XXXX" -compact -.It \\(em -.Pq em-dash -.It \\(en -.Pq en-dash -.It \e- -.Pq hyphen -.It \\\\ -.Pq back-slash -.It \e' -.Pq apostrophe -.It \e` -.Pq back-tick -.It \\ -.Pq space -.It \\. -.Pq period -.El -.\" PARAGRAPH -.Pp -Enclosures: -.Bl -tag -width 12n -offset "XXXX" -compact -.It \\(lh -.Pq left hand -.It \\(rh -.Pq right hand -.It \\(<< -.Pq left guillemot -.It \\(>> -.Pq right guillemot -.It \\(rC -.Pq right brace -.It \\(lC -.Pq left brace -.It \\(ra -.Pq right angle -.It \\(la -.Pq left angle -.It \\(rB -.Pq right bracket -.It \\(lB -.Pq left bracket -.It \\q -.Pq double-quote -.It \\(lq -.Pq left double-quote -.It \\(Lq -.Pq left double-quote, deprecated -.It \\(rq -.Pq right double-quote -.It \\(Rq -.Pq right double-quote, deprecated -.It \\(oq -.Pq left single-quote -.It \\(aq -.Pq right single-quote -.El -.\" PARAGRAPH -.Pp -Indicatives: -.Bl -tag -width 12n -offset "XXXX" -compact -.It \\(<- -.Pq left arrow -.It \\(-> -.Pq right arrow -.It \\(ua -.Pq up arrow -.It \\(da -.Pq down arrow -.It \\(<> -.Pq left-right arrow -.It \\(lA -.Pq left double-arrow -.It \\(rA -.Pq right double-arrow -.It \\(uA -.Pq up double-arrow -.It \\(dA -.Pq down double-arrow -.It \\(hA -.Pq left-right double-arrow -.El -.\" PARAGRAPH -.Pp -Mathematical: -.Bl -tag -width 12n -offset "XXXX" -compact -.It \\(Gt -.Pq greater-than, deprecated -.It \\(Lt -.Pq less-than, deprecated -.It \\(<= -.Pq less-than-equal -.It \\(Le -.Pq less-than-equal, deprecated -.It \\(>= -.Pq greater-than-equal -.It \\(Ge -.Pq greater-than-equal -.It \\(== -.Pq equal -.It \\(!= -.Pq not equal -.It \\(Ne -.Pq not equal, deprecated -.It \\(if -.Pq infinity -.It \\(If -.Pq infinity, deprecated -.It \\(na -.Pq NaN , an extension -.It \\(Na -.Pq NaN, deprecated -.It \\(+- -.Pq plus-minus -.It \\(Pm -.Pq plus-minus, deprecated -.It \\(** -.Pq asterisk -.El -.\" PARAGRAPH -.Pp -Diacritics and letter combinations: -.Bl -tag -width 12n -offset "XXXX" -compact -.It \\(ga -.Pq accent grave -.It \\(aa -.Pq accent accute -.It \\(ad -.Pq accent dieresis -.It \\(a~ -.Pq accent tilde -.It \\(AE -.Pq upper-case AE -.It \\(ae -.Pq lower-case AE -.It \\(OE -.Pq upper-case OE -.It \\(oe -.Pq lower-case OE -.It \\('A -.Pq upper-case acute A -.It \\('E -.Pq upper-case acute E -.It \\('I -.Pq upper-case acute I -.It \\('O -.Pq upper-case acute O -.It \\('U -.Pq upper-case acute U -.It \\('a -.Pq lower-case acute a -.It \\('e -.Pq lower-case acute e -.It \\('i -.Pq lower-case acute i -.It \\('o -.Pq lower-case acute o -.It \\('u -.Pq lower-case acute u -.It \\(`A -.Pq upper-case grave A -.It \\(`E -.Pq upper-case grave E -.It \\(`I -.Pq upper-case grave I -.It \\(`O -.Pq upper-case grave O -.It \\(`U -.Pq upper-case grave U -.It \\(`a -.Pq lower-case grave a -.It \\(`e -.Pq lower-case grave e -.It \\(`i -.Pq lower-case grave i -.It \\(`o -.Pq lower-case grave o -.It \\(`u -.Pq lower-case grave u -.It \\(~A -.Pq upper-case tilde A -.It \\(~N -.Pq upper-case tilde N -.It \\(~O -.Pq upper-case tilde O -.It \\(~a -.Pq lower-case tilde a -.It \\(~n -.Pq lower-case tilde n -.It \\(~o -.Pq lower-case tilde o -.It \\(:A -.Pq upper-case dieresis A -.It \\(:E -.Pq upper-case dieresis E -.It \\(:I -.Pq upper-case dieresis I -.It \\(:O -.Pq upper-case dieresis O -.It \\(:U -.Pq upper-case dieresis U -.It \\(:a -.Pq lower-case dieresis a -.It \\(:e -.Pq lower-case dieresis e -.It \\(:i -.Pq lower-case dieresis i -.It \\(:o -.Pq lower-case dieresis o -.It \\(:u -.Pq lower-case dieresis u -.It \\(:y -.Pq lower-case dieresis y -.El -.\" PARAGRAPH -.Pp -Special symbols: -.Bl -tag -width 12n -offset "XXXX" -compact -.It \\(bu -.Pq bullet -.It \\(ba -.Pq bar -.It \\(Ba -.Pq bar, deprecated -.It \\(co -.Pq copyright -.It \\(rg -.Pq registered -.It \\(tm -.Pq trademarked -.It \\& -.Pq non-breaking space -.It \\e -.Pq escape -.It \\(Am -.Pq ampersand, deprecated -.El .\" SECTION -.Sh ONTOLOGY -Macros are classified in an ontology described by scope rules. +.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. .\" SUB-SECTION .Ss Scope .Bl -inset @@ -422,8 +225,8 @@ subsequent tokens are interpreted as if the scope had In other circumstances, scope is simply closed out. .\" SECTION .Sh SYNTAX -Macros are generally two and at times three characters in length. The -syntax of macro invocation depends on its classification. +Macros are two or three characters in length. The syntax of macro +invocation depends on its classification. .Qq \-arg refers to the macro arguments (which may contain zero or more values). In these illustrations, @@ -481,7 +284,7 @@ This section contains a complete list of all .Nm macros, arranged ontologically. A .Qq callable -macro is may be invoked subsequent to the initial macro-line macro. A +macro is invoked subsequent to the initial macro-line macro. A .Qq parsable macro may be followed by further (ostensibly callable) macros. .\" SUB-SECTION @@ -490,7 +293,7 @@ The head of these macros follows invocation; the body subsequent lines prior to closure. None of these macros have tails; some .Po -.Sq \&It \-bullet , +.Sq \&.It \-bullet , .Sq \-hyphen , .Sq \-dash , .Sq \-enum , @@ -498,7 +301,7 @@ 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 @@ -510,7 +313,7 @@ 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 @@ -540,13 +343,31 @@ close at the invocation's end-of-line. .It \&.Dl Ta \&No Ta Yes .It \&.Ql Ta Yes Ta Yes .El +.\" PARAGRAPH +.Pp +The +.Sq \&.Op +may be broken by +.Sq \&.Oc +as in the following example: +.Bd -literal -offset XXXX +\&.Oo +\&.Op Fl a Oc +.Ed +.Pp +In the above example, the scope of +.Sq \&.Op +is technically broken by +.Sq \&.Oc , +however, due to the overwhelming existence of this sequence, it's +allowed. .\" SUB-SECTION .Ss Block partial-explicit Each of these contains at least a body and, in limited circumstances, a head -.Pq So \&Fo Sc , So \&Eo Sc +.Pq So \&.Fo Sc , So \&.Eo Sc and/or tail -.Pq So \&Ec Sc . +.Pq So \&.Ec Sc . .Pp .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "closed by XXXX" -compact -offset XXXX .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Scope @@ -589,29 +410,29 @@ 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 -.It \&.Dv Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 +.It \&.Dv Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&.Er Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 -.It \&.Ev Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 +.It \&.Ev Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&.Ex Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 -.It \&.Fa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 +.It \&.Fa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .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 >0 +.It \&.Li Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&.Nd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It \&.Nm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&.Ot Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It \&.Pa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&.Rv Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It \&.St Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta 1 -.It \&.Va Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 +.It \&.Va Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&.Vt Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&.Xr Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0, <3 .It \&.%A Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 @@ -632,7 +453,7 @@ 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 @@ -643,6 +464,7 @@ then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of argument .It \&.Sy Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&.Tn Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&.Ux Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n +.It \&.Dx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&.Bt Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It \&.Hf Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It \&.Fr Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n @@ -650,69 +472,79 @@ 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 +.Pp +The +.Sq \&.Ot , +.Sq \&.Fr , +.Sq \&.Es +and +.Sq \&.En , +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 -.Sq \&It \-nested -is assumed for all lists: any list may be nested and +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 (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 +.Sq \&.It \-column +syntax where column widths may be preceded by other arguments (instead of proceeded) is not supported. .\" LIST-ITEM .It The -.Sq \&At +.Sq \&.At 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 +.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 -.Xr mdoctree 1 , -.Xr mdoclint 1 , -.Xr mdocterm 1 , -.Xr mdoc 3 +.Xr mandoc 1 , +.Xr mandoc_char 7 .\" SECTION .Sh AUTHORS The @@ -721,56 +553,74 @@ utility was written by .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 .It -.Sq \&Fa +.Sq \&.Fa should be -.Sq \&Va +.Sq \&.Va as function arguments are variables. .\" LIST-ITEM .It -.Sq \&Ft +.Sq \&.Ft should be -.Sq \&Vt +.Sq \&.Vt as function return types are still types. Furthermore, the -.Sq \&Ft +.Sq \&.Ft should be removed and -.Sq \&Fo , +.Sq \&.Fo , which ostensibly follows it, should follow the same convention as -.Sq \&Va . +.Sq \&.Va . .\" LIST-ITEM .It -.Sq \&Va +.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 +.Sq \&.Fd is ambiguous. It's commonly used to indicate an include file in the synopsis section. -.Sq \&In +.Sq \&.In should be used, instead. .\" LIST-ITEM .It Only the .Sq \-literal argument to -.Sq \&Bd +.Sq \&.Bd makes sense. The remaining ones should be removed. .\" LIST-ITEM .It The -.Sq \&Xo +.Sq \&.Xo and -.Sq \&Xc +.Sq \&.Xc macros should be deprecated. .\" LIST-ITEM .It The -.Sq \&Dt +.Sq \&.Dt macro lacks clarity. It should be absolutely clear which title will render when formatting the manual page. +.\" LIST-ITEM +.It +A +.Sq \&.Lx +should be provided for Linux (\(`a la +.Sq \&.Ox , +.Sq \&.Nx +etc.). +.\" LIST-ITEM +.It +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