groff_mdoc(7) | Miscellaneous Information Manual | groff_mdoc(7) |
Name¶
groff_mdoc
—
compose BSD-style manual (man) pages with GNU
roff
Synopsis¶
groff
-m
doc
file ...
Description¶
The GNU implementation of the mdoc macro package is part of the groff(1) document formatting system. mdoc is a structurally- and semantically-oriented package for writing UNIX manual pages with troff(1). Its predecessor, the man(7) package, primarily addressed page layout and presentational concerns, leaving the selection of fonts and other typesetting details to the individual author. This discretion has led to divergent styling practices among authors using it.
mdoc organizes its macros into domains. The page structure domain lays out the page and comprises titles, section headings, displays, and lists. The general text domain supplies macros to quote or style text, or to interpolate common noun phrases. The manual domain offers semantic macros corresponding to the terminology used by practitioners in discussion of UNIX commands, routines, and files. Manual domain macros distinguish command-line arguments and options, function names, function parameters, pathnames, variables, cross references to other manual pages, and so on. These terms are meaningful both to the author and the readers of a manual page. It is hoped that the resulting increased consistency of the man page corpus will enable easier translation to future documentation tools.
Throughout UNIX documentation, a manual entry is referred to simply as a “man page”, regardless of its length, without gendered implication, and irrespective of the macro package selected for its composition.
Getting started¶
The mdoc package attempts to simplify man page authorship and maintenance without requiring mastery of the roff language. This document presents only essential facts about roff. For further background, including a discussion of basic typographical concepts like “breaking”, “filling”, and “adjustment”, see roff(7). Specialized units of measurement also arise, namely ens, vees, inches, and points, abbreviated “n”, “v”, “i”, and “p”, respectively; see section Measurements of groff(7).
For brief examples, we employ an arrow notation illustrating a
transformation of input on the left to rendered output on the right.
Consider the .Dq
macro, which double-quotes its
arguments.
.Dq man page
- → “man page”
Usage¶
An mdoc
macro is
called
by placing the roff control character,
‘.
’ (dot) at the beginning of a line
followed by its name. In this document, we often discuss a macro name with
this leading dot to identify it clearly, but the dot is
not part of its name. Space or tab characters can separate
the dot from the macro name. Arguments may follow, separated from the macro
name and each other by spaces, but not tabs. The dot at
the beginning of the line prepares the formatter to expect a macro name. A
dot followed immediately by a newline is ignored; this is called the
empty
request. To begin an input line with a dot (or a neutral apostrophe
‘'
’) in some context other than a
macro call, precede it with the
‘\&
’ escape sequence; this is a
dummy character, not formatted for output. The backslash is the
roff escape character; it can appear anywhere and it
always followed by at least one more character. If followed by a newline,
the backslash escapes the input line break; you can thus keep input lines to
a reasonable length without affecting their interpretation.
Macros in GNU troff accept an
unlimited number of arguments, in contrast to other
troffs that often can't handle
more than nine. In limited cases, arguments may be continued or extended on
the next input line without resort to the
‘\newline
’
escape sequence; see subsection
Extended arguments below.
Neutral double quotes "
can be used to group
multiple words into an argument; see subsection
Passing space
characters in an argument below.
Most of mdoc's general text and manual domain macros parse their argument lists for callable macro names. This means that an argument in the list matching a general text or manual domain macro name (and defined to be callable) will be called with the remaining arguments when it is encountered. In such cases, the argument, although the name of a macro, is not preceded by a dot. Macro calls can thus be nested. This approach to macro argument processing is a unique characteristic of the mdoc package, not a general feature of roff syntax.
For example, the option macro, .Op
, may
call the flag and argument macros, .Fl
and
.Ar
, to specify an optional flag with an
argument.
.Op Fl s Ar bytes
- → [
-s
bytes]
.Op \&Fl s \&Ar bytes
- → [Fl s Ar bytes]
In this document, macros whose argument lists are
parsed for callable arguments are referred to as
parsed, and those
that may be called from an argument list are referred to as
callable. This usage is a technical
faux pas,
since all mdoc macros are in fact interpreted (unless
prevented with ‘\&
’), but as it is
cumbersome to constantly refer to macros as “being able to call other
macros”, we employ the term “parsed” instead. Except
where explicitly stated, all mdoc macros are parsed and
callable.
In the following, we term an mdoc macro that starts a line (with a leading dot) a command if a distinction from those appearing as arguments of other macros is necessary.
Passing space characters in an argument¶
Sometimes it is desirable to give a macro an argument containing
one or more space characters, for instance to specify a particular
arrangement of arguments demanded by the macro. Additionally, quoting
multi-word arguments that are to be treated the same makes
mdoc work faster; macros that parse arguments do so once
(at most) for each. For example, the function command
.Fn
expects its first argument to be the name of a
function and any remaining arguments to be function parameters. Because C
language standards mandate the inclusion of types
and
identifiers in the parameter lists of function definitions, each
‘Fn
’ parameter after the first will be
at least two words in length, as in “int
foo”.
There are a few ways to embed a space in a macro
argument. One is to use the unadjustable space escape sequence
\
space.
The formatter treats this escape sequence as if it were any other printable
character, and will not break a line there as it would a word space when the
output line is full. This method is useful for macro arguments that are not
expected to straddle an output line boundary, but has a drawback: this space
does not adjust as others do when the output line is formatted. An
alternative is to use the unbreakable space escape sequence,
‘\~
’, which cannot break but does
adjust. This groff extension is widely but not perfectly
portable. Another method is to enclose the string in double quotes.
.Fn fetch char\ *str
- →
fetch
(char *str) .Fn fetch char\~*str
- →
fetch
(char *str) .Fn fetch "char *str"
- →
fetch
(char *str)
\
’ before the space in the first
example or the double quotes in the third example were omitted,
‘.Fn
’ would see three arguments, and the
result would contain an undesired comma.
.Fn fetch char *str
- →
fetch
(char, *str)
Trailing space characters¶
It is wise to remove trailing spaces from the ends of input lines. Should the need arise to put a formattable space at the end of a line, do so with the unadjustable or unbreakable space escape sequences.
Formatting the backslash glyph¶
When you need the roff escape character
‘\
’ to appear in the output, use
‘\e
’ or
‘\(rs
’ instead. Technically,
‘\e
’ formats the current escape
character; it works reliably as long as no roff request is
used to change it, which should never happen in man pages.
‘\(rs
’ is a groff
special character escape sequence that explicitly formats the
“reverse solidus” (backslash) glyph.
Other possible pitfalls¶
groff mdoc warns when an empty input line is found outside of a display, a topic presented in subsection Examples and displays below. Use empty requests to space the source document for maintenance.
Leading spaces cause a break and are formatted. Avoid this behaviour if possible. Similarly, do not put more than one space between words in an ordinary text line; they are not “normalized” to a single space as other text formatters might do.
Don't try to use the neutral double quote character
‘"
’ to represent itself in an
argument. Use the special character escape sequence
‘\(dq
’ to format it. Further, this
glyph should not be used for conventional quotation; mdoc
offers several quotation macros. See subsection
Enclosure and quoting
macros below.
The formatter attempts to detect the ends of sentences and by
default puts the equivalent of two spaces between sentences on the same
output line; see roff(7). To defeat this detection in a
parsed list of macro arguments, put
‘\&
’ before the punctuation mark.
Thus,
The .Ql . character. .Pp The .Ql \&. character. .Pp .No test . test .Pp .No test. test
’.
character
The ‘.
’ character.
test. test
test. test
A comment in the source file of a man page can begin with
‘.\"
’ at the start of an input
line, ‘\"
’ after other input, or
‘\#
’ anywhere (the last is a
groff extension); the remainder of any such line is
ignored.
A man page template¶
Use mdoc to construct a man page from the following template.
.\" The following three macro calls are required. .Dd date .Dt topic [section-identifier [section-keyword-or-title]] .Os [package-or-operating system [version-or-release]] .Sh Name .Nm topic .Nd summary-description .\" The next heading is used in sections 2 and 3. .\" .Sh Library .\" The next heading is used in sections 1-4, 6, 8, and 9. .Sh Synopsis .Sh Description .\" Uncomment and populate the following sections as needed. .\" .Sh "Implementation notes" .\" The next heading is used in sections 2, 3, and 9. .\" .Sh "Return values" .\" The next heading is used in sections 1, 3, 6, and 8. .\" .Sh Environment .\" .Sh Files .\" The next heading is used in sections 1, 6, and 8. .\" .Sh "Exit status" .\" .Sh Examples .\" The next heading is used in sections 1, 4, 6, 8, and 9. .\" .Sh Diagnostics .\" .Sh Compatibility .\" The next heading is used in sections 2, 3, 4, and 9. .\" .Sh Errors .\" .Sh "See also" .\" .Sh Standards .\" .Sh History .\" .Sh Authors .\" .Sh Caveats .\" .Sh Bugs
The first items in the template are the commands
.Dd
, .Dt
, and
.Os
. They identify the page and are discussed below
in section Title macros.
The remaining items in the template are section headings
(.Sh
); of which Name
and Description are mandatory. These
headings are discussed in section
Page structure domain, which
follows section Manual domain.
Familiarize yourself with manual domain macros first; we use them to
illustrate the use of page structure domain macros.
Conventions¶
In the descriptions of macros below, square brackets surround
optional arguments. An ellipsis (‘...’) represents repetition
of the preceding argument zero or more times. Alternative values of a
parameter are separated with ‘|
’. If a
mandatory parameter can take one of several alternative values, use braces
to enclose the set, with spaces and
‘|
’ separating the items.
ztar
{c
|x
} [-w
[-y
|-z
]] [-f
archive] member ...
ztar
c
[-w
[-y
|-z
]] [-f
archive] member ...ztar
x
[-w
[-y
|-z
]] [-f
archive] member ...
Most macros affect subsequent arguments until another macro or a
newline is encountered. For example, ‘.Li ls Bq Ar
file
’ doesn't produce ‘ls
[file]
’, but ‘ls
[file]’. Consequently, a warning message is
emitted for many commands if the first argument is itself a macro, since it
cancels the effect of the preceding one. On rare occasions, you might want
to format a word along with surrounding brackets as a literal.
.Li "ls [file]"
- →
ls [file]
# list any files named e, f, i, or l
Many macros possess an implicit width, used when they are
contained in lists and displays. If you avoid relying on these default
measurements, you escape potential conflicts with site-local modifications
of the mdoc package. Explicit
-width
and -offset
arguments
to the .Bl
and .Bd
macros
are preferable.
Title macros¶
We present the mandatory title macros first due to their importance even though they formally belong to the page structure domain macros. They designate the topic, date of last revision, and the operating system or software project associated with the page. Call each once at the beginning of the document. They populate the page headers and footers, which are in roff parlance termed “titles”.
.Dd
date- This first macro of any mdoc manual records the last
modification date of the document source. Arguments are concatenated and
separated with space characters.
Historically, date was written in U.S. traditional format, “Month day , year” where Month is the full month name in English, day an integer without a leading zero, and year the four-digit year. This localism is not enforced, however. You may prefer ISO 8601 format, YYYY-MM-DD. A date of the form ‘
$Mdocdate:
Month day year$
’ is also recognized. It is used in OpenBSD manuals to automatically insert the current date when committing.This macro is neither callable nor parsed.
.Dt
topic [section-identifier [section-keyword-or-title]]- topic is the subject of the man page. A
section-identifier that begins with an integer in
the range 1–9 or is one of the words
‘
unass
’, ‘draft
’, or ‘paper
’ selects a predefined section title. This use of “section” has nothing to do with the section headings otherwise discussed in this page; it arises from the organizational scheme of printed and bound Unix manuals.In this implementation, the following titles are defined for integral section numbers.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A section title may be arbitrary or one of the following abbreviations.
USD PS1 AMD SMM URM PRM KM IND LOCAL CON For compatibility, ‘
MMI
’ can be used for ‘IND
’, and ‘LOC
’ for ‘LOCAL
’. Values from the previous table will specify a new section title. If section-keyword-or-title designates a computer architecture recognized by groff mdoc, its value is prepended to the default section title as specified by the second parameter. By default, the following architecture keywords are defined.acorn26, acorn32, algor, alpha, amd64, amiga, amigappc, arc, arm, arm26, arm32, armish, atari, aviion, beagle, bebox, cats, cesfic, cobalt, dreamcast, emips, evbarm, evbmips, evbppc, evbsh3, ews4800mips, hp300, hp700, hpcarm, hpcmips, hpcsh, hppa, hppa64, i386, ia64, ibmnws, iyonix, landisk, loongson, luna68k, luna88k, m68k, mac68k, macppc, mips, mips64, mipsco, mmeye, mvme68k, mvme88k, mvmeppc, netwinder, news68k, newsmips, next68k, ofppc, palm, pc532, playstation2, pmax, pmppc, powerpc, prep, rs6000, sandpoint, sbmips, sgi, sgimips, sh3, shark, socppc, solbourne, sparc, sparc64, sun2, sun3, tahoe, vax, x68k, x86_64, xen, zaurusIf a section title is not determined after the above matches have been attempted, section-keyword-or-title is used.
The effects of varying ‘
.Dt
’ arguments on the page header content are shown below. Observe how ‘\&
’ prevents the numeral 2 from being used to look up a predefined section title..Dt foo 2 → foo(2) System Calls Manual foo(2) .Dt foo 2 m68k → foo(2) m68k System Calls Manual foo(2) .Dt foo 2 baz → foo(2) System Calls Manual foo(2) .Dt foo \&2 baz → foo(2) baz foo(2) .Dt foo "" baz → foo baz foo .Dt foo M Z80 → foo(M) Z80 foo(M) roff strings define section titles and architecture identifiers. Site-specific additions might be found in the file mdoc.local; see section Files below.
This macro is neither callable nor parsed.
.Os
[operating-system-or-package-name [version-or-release]]- This macro associates the document with a software distribution. When
composing a man page to be included in the base installation of an
operating system, do not provide an argument; mdoc will
supply it. In this implementation, that default is “”. It
may be overridden in the site configuration file,
mdoc.local; see section
Files below. A portable software package
maintaining its own man pages can supply its name and version number or
release identifier as optional arguments. A
version-or-release argument should use the standard
nomenclature for the software specified. In the following table,
recognized version-or-release arguments for some
predefined operating systems are listed. As with
.
Dt
, site additions might be defined in mdoc.local.- ATT
- 7th, 7, III, 3, V, V.2, V.3, V.4
- BSD
- 3, 4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.3t, 4.3T, 4.3r, 4.3R, 4.4
- NetBSD
- 0.8, 0.8a, 0.9, 0.9a, 1.0, 1.0a, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2a, 1.2b, 1.2c, 1.2d, 1.2e, 1.3, 1.3a, 1.4, 1.4.1, 1.4.2, 1.4.3, 1.5, 1.5.1, 1.5.2, 1.5.3, 1.6, 1.6.1, 1.6.2, 1.6.3, 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3, 2.1, 3.0, 3.0.1, 3.0.2, 3.0.3, 3.1, 3.1.1, 4.0, 4.0.1, 5.0, 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 5.1.4, 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.0.3, 6.0.4, 6.0.5, 6.0.6, 6.1, 6.1.1, 6.1.2, 6.1.3, 6.1.4, 6.1.5, 7.0, 7.0.1, 7.0.2, 7.1, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 7.2, 8.0, 8.1
- FreeBSD
- 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.5, 1.1.5.1, 2.0, 2.0.5, 2.1, 2.1.5, 2.1.6, 2.1.7, 2.2, 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.5, 2.2.6, 2.2.7, 2.2.8, 2.2.9, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 4.0, 4.1, 4.1.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10, 4.11, 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 11.0, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 12.0, 12.1
- OpenBSD
- 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6
- DragonFly
- 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.8.1, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12, 1.12.2, 1.13, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 2.9.1, 2.10, 2.10.1, 2.11, 2.12, 2.13, 3.0, 3.0.1, 3.0.2, 3.1, 3.2, 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.4.1, 3.4.2, 3.4.3, 3.5, 3.6, 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.7, 3.8, 3.8.1, 3.8.2, 4.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2, 4.0.3, 4.0.4, 4.0.5, 4.0.6, 4.1, 4.2, 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.2.3, 4.2.4, 4.3, 4.4, 4.4.1, 4.4.2, 4.4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.8, 4.8.1, 4.9, 5.0, 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.4.1, 5.4.2, 5.4.3, 5.5, 5.6, 5.6.1, 5.6.2
- Darwin
- 8.0.0, 8.1.0, 8.2.0, 8.3.0, 8.4.0, 8.5.0, 8.6.0, 8.7.0, 8.8.0, 8.9.0, 8.10.0, 8.11.0, 9.0.0, 9.1.0, 9.2.0, 9.3.0, 9.4.0, 9.5.0, 9.6.0, 9.7.0, 9.8.0, 10.0.0, 10.1.0, 10.2.0, 10.3.0, 10.4.0, 10.5.0, 10.6.0, 10.7.0, 10.8.0, 11.0.0, 11.1.0, 11.2.0, 11.3.0, 11.4.0, 11.5.0, 12.0.0, 12.1.0, 12.2.0, 13.0.0, 13.1.0, 13.2.0, 13.3.0, 13.4.0, 14.0.0, 14.1.0, 14.2.0, 14.3.0, 14.4.0, 14.5.0, 15.0.0, 15.1.0, 15.2.0, 15.3.0, 15.4.0, 15.5.0, 15.6.0, 16.0.0, 16.1.0, 16.2.0, 16.3.0, 16.4.0, 16.5.0, 16.6.0, 17.0.0, 17.1.0, 17.2.0, 17.3.0, 17.4.0, 17.5.0, 17.6.0, 17.7.0, 18.0.0, 18.1.0, 18.2.0, 18.3.0, 18.4.0, 18.5.0, 18.6.0, 18.7.0, 19.0.0, 19.1.0, 19.2.0
Historically, the first argument used with .
Dt
wasBSD
orATT
. An unrecognized version argument afterATT
is replaced with “UNIX”; for other predefined abbreviations, it is ignored and a warning diagnostic emitted. Otherwise, unrecognized arguments are displayed verbatim in the page footer. For instance, this page uses “.Os groff 1.23.0
” whereas a locally produced page might employ “.Os "UXYZ CS Department"
”, omitting versioning.This macro is neither callable nor parsed.
Introduction to manual and general text domains¶
What's in a Name...¶
The manual domain macro names are derived from the day to day informal language used to describe commands, subroutines and related files. Slightly different variations of this language are used to describe the three different aspects of writing a man page. First, there is the description of mdoc macro command usage. Second is the description of a UNIX command with mdoc macros, and third, the description of a command to a user in the verbal sense; that is, discussion of a command in the text of a man page.
In the first case, troff macros are themselves a type of command; the general syntax for a troff command is:
.Xx argument1 argument2
...
‘.Xx
’ is a macro command,
and anything following it are arguments to be processed. In the second case,
the description of a UNIX command using the manual
domain macros is a bit more involved; a typical
Synopsis command line might be displayed
as:
filter
[-flag
] ⟨infile⟩
⟨outfile⟩Here, filter
is the command name
and the bracketed string -flag
is a
flag argument
designated as optional by the option brackets. In mdoc
terms, ⟨infile⟩ and
⟨outfile⟩ are called
meta
arguments; in this example, the user has to replace the meta
expressions given in angle brackets with real file names. Note that in this
document meta arguments are used to describe mdoc
commands; in most man pages, meta variables are not specifically written
with angle brackets. The macros that formatted the above example:
.Nm filter .Op Fl flag .Ao Ar infile Ac Ao Ar outfile Ac
In the third case, discussion of commands and command syntax includes both examples above, but may add more detail. The arguments ⟨infile⟩ and ⟨outfile⟩ from the example above might be referred to as operands or file arguments. Some command-line argument lists are quite long:
make
- [
-eiknqrstv
] [-D
variable] [-d
flags] [-f
makefile] [-I
directory] [-j
max_jobs] [variable=value] [target ...]
Here one might talk about the command
make and qualify the argument,
makefile, as an argument to the flag,
-f
, or discuss the optional file operand
target. In the verbal context, such detail can prevent
confusion, however the mdoc package does not have a macro
for an argument to a
flag. Instead the ‘Ar
’ argument macro
is used for an operand or file argument like target as
well as an argument to a flag like variable. The make
command line was produced from:
.Nm make .Op Fl eiknqrstv .Op Fl D Ar variable .Op Fl d Ar flags .Op Fl f Ar makefile .Op Fl I Ar directory .Op Fl j Ar max_jobs .Op Ar variable Ns = Ns Ar value .Bk .Op Ar target ... .Ek
The ‘.Bk
’ and
‘.Ek
’ macros are explained in
Keeps.
General Syntax¶
The manual domain and general text domain macros share a similar
syntax with a few minor deviations; most notably,
‘.Ar
’,
‘.Fl
’,
‘.Nm
’, and
‘.Pa
’ differ only when called without
arguments; and ‘.Fn
’ and
‘.Xr
’ impose an order on their
argument lists. All manual domain macros are capable of recognizing and
properly handling punctuation, provided each punctuation character is
separated by a leading space. If a command is given:
.Ar sptr, ptr),
The result is:
sptr,
ptr),
The punctuation is not recognized and all is output in the font
used by ‘.Ar
’. If the punctuation is
separated by a leading white space:
.Ar sptr , ptr ) ,
The result is:
sptr,
ptr
The punctuation is now recognized and output in the default font
distinguishing it from the argument strings. To remove the special meaning
from a punctuation character, escape it with
‘\&
’.
The following punctuation characters are recognized by mdoc:
. |
, |
: |
; |
( |
) |
[ |
] |
? |
! |
troff is limited as a macro language, and has difficulty when presented with a string containing certain mathematical, logical, or quotation character sequences:
{+,-,/,*,%,<,>,<=,>=,=,==,&,`,',"}
The problem is that troff may assume it is
supposed to actually perform the operation or evaluation suggested by the
characters. To prevent the accidental evaluation of these characters, escape
them with ‘\&
’. Typical syntax is
shown in the first manual domain macro displayed below,
‘.Ad
’.
Manual domain¶
Addresses¶
The address macro identifies an address construct.
Usage: .Ad ⟨address⟩
...
.Ad addr1
- addr1
.Ad addr1 .
- addr1.
.Ad addr1 , file2
- addr1, file2
.Ad f1 , f2 , f3 :
- f1, f2, f3:
.Ad addr ) ) ,
- addr)),
The default width is 12n.
Author Name¶
The ‘.An
’ macro is used to
specify the name of the author of the item being documented, or the name of
the author of the actual manual page.
Usage: .An ⟨author
name⟩ ...
.An "Joe Author"
- Joe Author
.An "Joe Author" ,
- Joe Author,
.An "Joe Author" Aq nobody@FreeBSD.org
- Joe Author ⟨nobody@FreeBSD.org⟩
.An "Joe Author" ) ) ,
- Joe Author)),
The default width is 12n.
In a section titled “Authors”,
‘An
’ causes a break, allowing each new
name to appear on its own line. If this is not desirable,
.An -nosplit
call will turn this off. To turn splitting back on, write
.An -split
Arguments¶
The .Ar
argument macro may be used
whenever an argument is referenced. If called without arguments,
‘file ...’ is output. This places the
ellipsis in italics, which is ugly and incorrect, and will be noticed on
terminals that underline text instead of using an oblique typeface. We
recommend using ‘.Ar file No ...
’
instead.
Usage: .Ar [⟨argument⟩]
...
.Ar
- file ...
.Ar file No ...
- file ...
.Ar file1
- file1
.Ar file1 .
- file1.
.Ar file1 file2
- file1 file2
.Ar f1 f2 f3 :
- f1 f2 f3:
.Ar file ) ) ,
- file)),
The default width is 12n.
Configuration Declaration (Section Four Only)¶
The ‘.Cd
’ macro is used to
demonstrate a config(8) declaration for a device interface
in a section four manual.
Usage: .Cd ⟨argument⟩
...
.Cd "device le0 at scode?"
device le0 at scode?
In a section titled “Synopsis”,
‘Cd
’ causes a break before and after
its arguments.
The default width is 12n.
Command Modifiers¶
The command modifier is identical to the
‘.Fl
’ (flag) command with the
exception that the ‘.Cm
’ macro does
not assert a dash in front of every argument. Traditionally flags are marked
by the preceding dash, however, some commands or subsets of commands do not
use them. Command modifiers may also be specified in conjunction with
interactive commands such as editor commands. See
Flags.
The default width is 10n.
Defined Variables¶
A variable (or constant) that is defined in an include file is
specified by the macro ‘.Dv
’.
Usage: .Dv
⟨defined-variable⟩ ...
The default width is 12n.
Errnos¶
The ‘.Er
’ errno macro
specifies the error return value for section 2, 3, and 9 library
routines. The second example below shows
‘.Er
’ used with the
‘.Bq
’ general text domain macro, as it
would be used in a section two manual page.
Usage: .Er ⟨errno type⟩
...
.Er ENOENT
ENOENT
.Er ENOENT ) ;
ENOENT
);.Bq Er ENOTDIR
- [
ENOTDIR
]
The default width is 17n.
Environment Variables¶
The ‘.Ev
’ macro specifies an
environment variable.
Usage: .Ev ⟨argument⟩
...
The default width is 15n.
Flags¶
The ‘.Fl
’ macro handles
command-line flags. It prepends a dash,
‘-
’, to the flag. For interactive
command flags that are not prepended with a dash, the
‘.Cm
’ (command modifier) macro is
identical, but without the dash.
Usage: .Fl ⟨argument⟩
...
The ‘.Fl
’ macro without any
arguments results in a dash representing stdin/stdout. Note that giving
‘.Fl
’ a single dash will result in two
dashes.
The default width is 12n.
Function Declarations¶
The ‘.Fd
’ macro is used in
the Synopsis section with section two or
three functions. It is neither callable nor parsed.
Usage: .Fd ⟨argument⟩
...
.Fd "#include <sys/types.h>"
#include <sys/types.h>
In a section titled “Synopsis”,
‘Fd
’ causes a break if a function has
already been presented and a break has not occurred, leaving vertical space
between one function declaration and the next.
In a section titled “Synopsis”, the
‘In
’ macro represents the
#include
statement, and is the short form of the
above example. It specifies the C header file as being included in a
C program. It also causes a break.
While not in the “Synopsis” section, it represents the header file enclosed in angle brackets.
Usage: .In ⟨header
file⟩
Function Types¶
This macro is intended for the “Synopsis” section. It may be used anywhere else in the man page without problems, but its main purpose is to present the function type (in BSD kernel normal form) for the “Synopsis” of sections two and three. (It causes a break, allowing the function name to appear on the next line.)
Usage: .Ft ⟨type⟩
...
.Ft struct stat
- struct stat
Functions (Library Routines)¶
The ‘.Fn
’ macro is modeled
on ANSI C conventions.
Usage: .Fn ⟨function⟩
[⟨parameter⟩] ...
.Fn getchar
getchar
().Fn strlen ) ,
strlen
()),.Fn align "char *ptr" ,
align
(char *ptr),
Note that any call to another macro signals the end of the
‘.Fn
’ call (it will insert a closing
parenthesis at that point).
For functions with many parameters (which is rare), the macros
‘.Fo
’ (function open) and
‘.Fc
’ (function close) may be used
with ‘.Fa
’ (function argument).
Example:
.Ft int .Fo res_mkquery .Fa "int op" .Fa "char *dname" .Fa "int class" .Fa "int type" .Fa "char *data" .Fa "int datalen" .Fa "struct rrec *newrr" .Fa "char *buf" .Fa "int buflen" .Fc
Produces:
res_mkquery
(int
op, char *dname, int class,
int type, char *data,
int datalen, struct rrec *newrr,
char *buf, int buflen);Typically, in a “Synopsis” section, the function delcaration will begin the line. If more than one function is presented in the “Synopsis” section and a function type has not been given, a break will occur, leaving vertical space between the current and prior function names.
The default width values of
‘.Fn
’ and
‘.Fo
’ are 12n and 16n,
respectively.
Function Arguments¶
The ‘.Fa
’ macro is used to
refer to function arguments (parameters) outside of the
Synopsis section of the manual or inside
the Synopsis section if the enclosure
macros ‘.Fo
’ and
‘.Fc
’ instead of
‘.Fn
’ are used.
‘.Fa
’ may also be used to refer to
structure members.
Usage: .Fa ⟨function
argument⟩ ...
.Fa d_namlen ) ) ,
- d_namlen)),
.Fa iov_len
- iov_len
The default width is 12n.
Return Values¶
The ‘.Rv
’ macro generates
text for use in the Return values
section.
Usage: .Rv [-std]
[⟨function⟩ ...]
For example, ‘.Rv -std
atexit
’ produces:
atexit
() function
returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is
returned and the global variable errno is set to
indicate the error.The -std
option is valid only for manual
page sections 2 and 3. Currently, this macro does nothing if
used without the -std
flag.
Exit Status¶
The ‘.Ex
’ macro generates
text for use in the Diagnostics
section.
Usage: .Ex [-std]
[⟨utility⟩ ...]
For example, ‘.Ex -std cat
’
produces:
cat
utility
exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.The -std
option is valid only for manual
page sections 1, 6 and 8. Currently, this macro does nothing if used
without the -std
flag.
Interactive Commands¶
The ‘.Ic
’ macro designates
an interactive or internal command.
Usage: .Ic ⟨argument⟩
...
The default width is 12n.
Library Names¶
The ‘.Lb
’ macro is used to
specify the library where a particular function is compiled in.
Usage: .Lb ⟨argument⟩
...
Available arguments to ‘.Lb
’
and their results are:
libarchive
- Streaming Archive Library (libarchive, -larchive)
libarm
- ARM Architecture Library (libarm, -larm)
libarm32
- ARM32 Architecture Library (libarm32, -larm32)
libbluetooth
- Bluetooth Library (libbluetooth, -lbluetooth)
libbsm
- Basic Security Module Library (libbsm, -lbsm)
libc
- Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
libc_r
- Reentrant C Library (libc_r, -lc_r)
libcalendar
- Calendar Arithmetic Library (libcalendar, -lcalendar)
libcam
- Common Access Method User Library (libcam, -lcam)
libcdk
- Curses Development Kit Library (libcdk, -lcdk)
libcipher
- FreeSec Crypt Library (libcipher, -lcipher)
libcompat
- Compatibility Library (libcompat, -lcompat)
libcrypt
- Crypt Library (libcrypt, -lcrypt)
libcurses
- Curses Library (libcurses, -lcurses)
libdevinfo
- Device and Resource Information Utility Library (libdevinfo, -ldevinfo)
libdevstat
- Device Statistics Library (libdevstat, -ldevstat)
libdisk
- Interface to Slice and Partition Labels Library (libdisk, -ldisk)
libdwarf
- DWARF Access Library (libdwarf, -ldwarf)
libedit
- Command Line Editor Library (libedit, -ledit)
libelf
- ELF Access Library (libelf, -lelf)
libevent
- Event Notification Library (libevent, -levent)
libfetch
- File Transfer Library (libfetch, -lfetch)
libform
- Curses Form Library (libform, -lform)
libgeom
- Userland API Library for Kernel GEOM subsystem (libgeom, -lgeom)
libgpib
- library “libgpib”
libi386
- i386 Architecture Library (libi386, -li386)
libintl
- Internationalized Message Handling Library (libintl, -lintl)
libipsec
- IPsec Policy Control Library (libipsec, -lipsec)
libipx
- library “libipx”
libiscsi
- iSCSI protocol library (libiscsi, -liscsi)
libjail
- Jail Library (libjail, -ljail)
libkiconv
- Kernel-side iconv Library (libkiconv, -lkiconv)
libkse
- N:M Threading Library (libkse, -lkse)
libkvm
- Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm, -lkvm)
libm
- Math Library (libm, -lm)
libm68k
- m68k Architecture Library (libm68k, -lm68k)
libmagic
- Magic Number Recognition Library (libmagic, -lmagic)
libmd
- Message Digest (MD4, MD5, etc.) Support Library (libmd, -lmd)
libmemstat
- Kernel Memory Allocator Statistics Library (libmemstat, -lmemstat)
- Curses Menu Library (libmenu, -lmenu)
libnetgraph
- Netgraph User Library (libnetgraph, -lnetgraph)
libnetpgp
- Netpgp Signing, Verification, Encryption and Decryption (libnetpgp, -lnetpgp)
libossaudio
- OSS Audio Emulation Library (libossaudio, -lossaudio)
libpam
- Pluggable Authentication Module Library (libpam, -lpam)
libpcap
- Packet capture Library (libpcap, -lpcap)
libpci
- PCI Bus Access Library (libpci, -lpci)
libpmc
- Performance Counters Library (libpmc, -lpmc)
libposix
- POSIX Compatibility Library (libposix, -lposix)
libprop
- Property Container Object Library (libprop, -lprop)
libpthread
- POSIX Threads Library (libpthread, -lpthread)
libpuffs
- puffs Convenience Library (libpuffs, -lpuffs)
librefuse
- File System in Userspace Convenience Library (librefuse, -lrefuse)
libresolv
- DNS Resolver Library (libresolv, -lresolv)
librpcsec_gss
- RPC GSS-API Authentication Library (librpcsec_gss, -lrpcsec_gss)
librpcsvc
- RPC Service Library (librpcsvc, -lrpcsvc)
librt
- POSIX Real-time Library (librt, -lrt)
libsdp
- Bluetooth Service Discovery Protocol User Library (libsdp, -lsdp)
libssp
- Buffer Overflow Protection Library (libssp, -lssp)
libSystem
- System Library (libSystem, -lSystem)
libtermcap
- Termcap Access Library (libtermcap, -ltermcap)
libterminfo
- Terminal Information Library (libterminfo, -lterminfo)
libthr
- 1:1 Threading Library (libthr, -lthr)
libufs
- UFS File System Access Library (libufs, -lufs)
libugidfw
- File System Firewall Interface Library (libugidfw, -lugidfw)
libulog
- User Login Record Library (libulog, -lulog)
libusbhid
- USB Human Interface Devices Library (libusbhid, -lusbhid)
libutil
- System Utilities Library (libutil, -lutil)
libvgl
- Video Graphics Library (libvgl, -lvgl)
libx86_64
- x86_64 Architecture Library (libx86_64, -lx86_64)
libz
- Compression Library (libz, -lz)
Site-specific additions might be found in the file mdoc.local; see section Files below.
In a section titled “Library”,
‘Lb
’ causes a break before and after
its arguments.
Literals¶
The ‘Li
’ literal macro may
be used for special characters, symbolic constants, and other syntactical
items that should be typed exactly as displayed.
Usage: .Li ⟨argument⟩
...
The default width is 16n.
Names¶
The ‘Nm
’ macro is used for
the document title or page topic. Upon its first call, it has the
peculiarity of remembering its argument, which should always be the topic of
the man page. When subsequently called without arguments,
‘Nm
’ regurgitates this initial name
for the sole purpose of making less work for the author. Use of
‘Nm
’ is also appropriate when
presenting a command synopsis for the topic of a man page in section 1, 6,
or 8. Its behavior changes when presented with arguments of various
forms.
.Nm groff_mdoc
groff_mdoc
.Nm
groff_mdoc
.Nm \-mdoc
-mdoc
.Nm foo ) ) ,
foo
)),.Nm :
groff_mdoc
:
By default, the topic is set in boldface to reflect its prime
importance in the discussion. Cross references to other man page topics
should use ‘Xr
’; including a second
argument for the section number enables them to be hyperlinked. By default,
cross-referenced topics are set in italics to avoid cluttering the page with
boldface.
The default width is 10n.
Options¶
The ‘.Op
’ macro places
option brackets around any remaining arguments on the command line, and
places any trailing punctuation outside the brackets. The macros
‘.Oo
’ and
‘.Oc
’ (which produce an opening and a
closing option bracket, respectively) may be used across one or more lines
or to specify the exact position of the closing parenthesis.
Usage: .Op [⟨option⟩]
...
.Op
- []
.Op Fl k
- [
-k
] .Op Fl k ) .
- [
-k
]). .Op Fl k Ar kookfile
- [
-k
kookfile] .Op Fl k Ar kookfile ,
- [
-k
kookfile], .Op Ar objfil Op Ar corfil
- [objfil [corfil]]
.Op Fl c Ar objfil Op Ar corfil ,
- [
-c
objfil [corfil]], .Op word1 word2
- [word1 word2]
.Li .Op Oo Ao option Ac Oc ...
.Op
[⟨option⟩] ...
Here a typical example of the
‘.Oo
’ and
‘.Oc
’ macros:
.Oo .Op Fl k Ar kilobytes .Op Fl i Ar interval .Op Fl c Ar count .Oc
Produces:
-k
kilobytes] [-i
interval] [-c
count]]The default width values of
‘.Op
’ and
‘.Oo
’ are 14n and 10n,
respectively.
Pathnames¶
The ‘.Pa
’ macro formats file
specifications. If called without arguments,
‘~’ (recognized by many shells) is
output, representing the user's home directory.
Usage: .Pa [⟨pathname⟩]
...
.Pa
- ~
.Pa /usr/share
- /usr/share
.Pa /tmp/fooXXXXX ) .
- /tmp/fooXXXXX).
The default width is 32n.
Standards¶
The ‘.St
’ macro replaces
standard abbreviations with their formal names.
Usage: .St
⟨abbreviation⟩ ...
Available pairs for “Abbreviation/Formal Name” are:
ANSI/ISO C
POSIX Part 1: System API
-iso9945-1-90
- ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (“POSIX.1”)
-iso9945-1-96
- ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1
- IEEE Std 1003.1 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-88
- IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-90
- IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-96
- ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1b-93
- IEEE Std 1003.1b-1993 (“POSIX.1b”)
-p1003.1c-95
- IEEE Std 1003.1c-1995 (“POSIX.1c”)
-p1003.1g-2000
- IEEE Std 1003.1g-2000 (“POSIX.1g”)
-p1003.1i-95
- IEEE Std 1003.1i-1995 (“POSIX.1i”)
-p1003.1-2001
- IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-2004
- IEEE Std 1003.1-2004 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-2008
- IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”)
POSIX Part 2: Shell and Utilities
-iso9945-2-93
- ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993 (“POSIX.2”)
-p1003.2
- IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”)
-p1003.2-92
- IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (“POSIX.2”)
-p1003.2a-92
- IEEE Std 1003.2a-1992 (“POSIX.2”)
X/Open
-susv1
- Version 1 of the Single UNIX Specification (“SUSv1”)
-susv2
- Version 2 of the Single UNIX Specification (“SUSv2”)
-susv3
- Version 3 of the Single UNIX Specification (“SUSv3”)
-susv4
- Version 4 of the Single UNIX Specification (“SUSv4”)
-svid4
- System V Interface Definition, Fourth Edition (“SVID4”)
-xbd5
- X/Open Base Definitions Issue 5 (“XBD5”)
-xcu5
- X/Open Commands and Utilities Issue 5 (“XCU5”)
-xcurses4.2
- X/Open Curses Issue 4, Version 2 (“XCURSES4.2”)
-xns5
- X/Open Networking Services Issue 5 (“XNS5”)
-xns5.2
- X/Open Networking Services Issue 5.2 (“XNS5.2”)
-xpg3
- X/Open Portability Guide Issue 3 (“XPG3”)
-xpg4
- X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4 (“XPG4”)
-xpg4.2
- X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4, Version 2 (“XPG4.2”)
-xsh5
- X/Open System Interfaces and Headers Issue 5 (“XSH5”)
Miscellaneous
-ieee754
- IEEE Std 754-1985
-iso8601
- ISO 8601
-iso8802-3
- ISO 8802-3: 1989
Variable Types¶
The ‘.Vt
’ macro may be used
whenever a type is referenced. In a section titled “Synopsis”,
‘Vt
’ causes a break (useful for
old-style C variable declarations).
Usage: .Vt ⟨type⟩
...
.Vt extern char *optarg ;
- extern char *optarg;
.Vt FILE *
- FILE *
Variables¶
Generic variable reference.
Usage: .Va ⟨variable⟩
...
.Va count
- count
.Va settimer ,
- settimer,
.Va "int *prt" ) :
- int *prt):
.Va "char s" ] ) ) ,
- char s])),
The default width is 12n.
Manual Page Cross References¶
The ‘.Xr
’ macro expects the
first argument to be a manual page name. The optional second argument, if a
string (defining the manual section), is put into parentheses.
Usage: .Xr ⟨man page
name⟩ [⟨section⟩] ...
The default width is 10n.
General text domain¶
AT&T Macro¶
Usage: .At [⟨version⟩]
...
.At
- AT&T UNIX
.At v6 .
- Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
The following values for ⟨version⟩ are possible:
32v, v1, v2, v3, v4, v5, v6, v7, III,
V, V.1, V.2, V.3, V.4
BSD Macro¶
Usage: .Bx {-alpha | -beta | -devel}
...
.Bx [⟨version⟩
[⟨release⟩]] ...
.Bx
- BSD
.Bx 4.3 .
- 4.3BSD.
.Bx -devel
- -develBSD
⟨version⟩ will be prepended to the string ‘BSD’. The following values for ⟨release⟩ are possible:
Reno, reno, Tahoe, tahoe, Lite, lite,
Lite2, lite2
NetBSD Macro¶
Usage: .Nx [⟨version⟩]
...
.Nx
- NetBSD
.Nx 1.4 .
- NetBSD 1.4.
For possible values of ⟨version⟩ see the description
of the ‘.Os
’ command above in section
Title macros.
FreeBSD Macro¶
Usage: .Fx [⟨version⟩]
...
.Fx
- FreeBSD
.Fx 2.2 .
- FreeBSD 2.2.
For possible values of ⟨version⟩ see the description
of the ‘.Os
’ command above in section
Title macros.
DragonFly Macro¶
Usage: .Dx [⟨version⟩]
...
.Dx
- DragonFly
.Dx 1.4 .
- DragonFly 1.4.
For possible values of ⟨version⟩ see the description
of the ‘.Os
’ command above in section
Title macros.
OpenBSD Macro¶
Usage: .Ox [⟨version⟩]
...
.Ox 1.0
- OpenBSD 1.0
BSD/OS Macro¶
Usage: .Bsx [⟨version⟩]
...
.Bsx 1.0
- BSD/OS 1.0
Unix Macro¶
Usage: .Ux ...
.Ux
- UNIX
Emphasis Macro¶
Text may be stressed or emphasized with the
‘.Em
’ macro. The usual font for
emphasis is italic.
Usage: .Em ⟨argument⟩
...
The default width is 10n.
Font Mode¶
The ‘.Bf
’ font mode must be
ended with the ‘.Ef
’ macro (the latter
takes no arguments). Font modes may be nested within other font modes.
‘.Bf
’ has the following
syntax:
.Bf ⟨font
mode⟩
⟨font mode⟩ must be one of the following three types:
Both macros are neither callable nor parsed.
Enclosure and Quoting Macros¶
The concept of enclosure is similar to quoting. The object being
to enclose one or more strings between a pair of characters like quotes or
parentheses. The terms quoting and enclosure are used interchangeably
throughout this document. Most of the one-line enclosure macros end in small
letter ‘q
’ to give a hint of quoting,
but there are a few irregularities. For each enclosure macro, there is a
pair of opening and closing macros that end with the lowercase letters
‘o
’ and
‘c
’ respectively.
Quote | Open | Close | Function | Result |
.Aq | .Ao | .Ac | Angle Bracket Enclosure | <string> |
.Bq | .Bo | .Bc | Bracket Enclosure | [string] |
.Brq | .Bro | .Brc | Brace Enclosure | {string} |
.Dq | .Do | .Dc | Double Quote | “string” |
.Eq | .Eo | .Ec | Enclose String (in XY) | XstringY |
.Pq | .Po | .Pc | Parenthesis Enclosure | (string) |
.Ql | Quoted Literal | “string” or string | ||
.Qo | .Qc | Straight Double Quote | "string" | |
.Sq | .So | .Sc | Single Quote | ‘string’ |
All macros ending with ‘q’ and ‘o’ have a default width value of 12n.
.Eo
,.Ec
- These macros expect the first argument to be the opening and closing strings, respectively.
.Es
,.En
- To work around the nine-argument limit in the original
troff program, mdoc supports two other
macros that are now obsolete. ‘
.Es
’ uses its first and second parameters as opening and closing marks which are then used to enclose the arguments of ‘.En
’. The default width value is 12n for both macros. .Eq
- The first and second arguments of this macro are the opening and closing strings respectively, followed by the arguments to be enclosed.
.Ql
- The quoted literal macro behaves differently in troff
and nroff modes. If formatted with
nroff(1), a quoted literal is always quoted. If
formatted with troff, an item is only quoted if the
width of the item is less than three constant-width characters. This is to
make short strings more visible where the font change to literal
(constant-width) is less noticeable.
The default width is 16n.
.Pf
- The prefix macro suppresses the whitespace between its first and second
argument:
.Pf ( Fa name2
- (name2
The default width is 12n.
The ‘
.Ns
’ macro (see below) performs the analogous suffix function. .Ap
- The ‘
.Ap
’ macro inserts an apostrophe and exits any special text modes, continuing in ‘.No
’ mode.
Examples of quoting:
For a good example of nested enclosure macros, see the
‘.Op
’ option macro. It was created
from the same underlying enclosure macros as those presented in the list
above. The ‘.Xo
’ and
‘.Xc
’ extended argument list macros
are discussed below.
Normal text macro¶
‘No
’ formats subsequent
argument(s) normally, ending the effect of
‘Em
’ and similar. Parsing is
not suppressed, so you must prefix words like
‘No
’ with
‘\&
’ to avoid their interpretation
as mdoc macros.
Usage: .No
argument ...
.Em Use caution No here .
- → Use caution here.
.Em No dogs allowed .
- → No dogs allowed.
.Em \&No dogs allowed .
- → No dogs allowed.
The default width is 12n.
No-Space Macro¶
The ‘.Ns
’ macro suppresses
insertion of a space between the current position and its first parameter.
For example, it is useful for old style argument lists where there is no
space between the flag and argument:
Usage: ... ⟨argument⟩
Ns [⟨argument⟩] ...
.Ns ⟨argument⟩
...
.Op Fl I Ns Ar directory
- [
-I
directory]
Note: The ‘.Ns
’ macro always
invokes the ‘.No
’ macro after
eliminating the space unless another macro name follows it. If used as a
command (i.e., the second form above in the ‘Usage’ line),
‘.Ns
’ is identical to
‘.No
’.
(Sub)section cross references¶
Use the ‘.Sx
’ macro to cite
a (sub)section heading within the given document.
Usage: .Sx
⟨section-reference⟩ ...
The default width is 16n.
Symbolics¶
The symbolic emphasis macro is generally a boldface macro in either the symbolic sense or the traditional English usage.
Usage: .Sy ⟨symbol⟩
...
The default width is 6n.
Mathematical Symbols¶
Use this macro for mathematical symbols and similar things.
Usage: .Ms ⟨math
symbol⟩ ...
.Ms sigma
- → sigma
The default width is 6n.
References and Citations¶
The following macros make a modest attempt to handle references. At best, the macros make it convenient to manually drop in a subset of refer(1) style references.
.Rs
- Reference start (does not take arguments). In a section titled “See also”, it causes a break and begins collection of reference information until the reference end macro is read.
.Re
- Reference end (does not take arguments). The reference is printed.
.%A
- Reference author name; one name per invocation.
.%B
- Book title.
.%C
- City/place.
.%D
- Date.
.%I
- Issuer/publisher name.
.%J
- Journal name.
.%N
- Issue number.
.%O
- Optional information.
.%P
- Page number.
.%Q
- Corporate or foreign author.
.%R
- Report name.
.%T
- Title of article.
.%U
- Optional hypertext reference.
.%V
- Volume.
Macros beginning with ‘%
’
are not callable but accept multiple arguments in the usual way. Only the
‘.Tn
’ macro is handled properly as a
parameter; other macros will cause strange output.
‘.%B
’ and
‘.%T
’ can be used outside of the
‘.Rs/.Re
’ environment.
Example:
.Rs .%A "Matthew Bar" .%A "John Foo" .%T "Implementation Notes on foobar(1)" .%R "Technical Report ABC-DE-12-345" .%Q "Drofnats College" .%C "Nowhere" .%D "April 1991" .Re
produces
Trade Names or Acronyms¶
The trade name macro prints its arguments at a smaller type size. It is intended to imitate a small caps fonts for fully capitalized acronyms.
Usage: .Tn ⟨symbol⟩
...
The default width is 10n.
Extended Arguments¶
The .Xo
and .Xc
macros allow one to extend an argument list on a macro boundary for the
‘.It
’ macro (see below). Note that
.Xo
and .Xc
are implemented
similarly to all other macros opening and closing an enclosure (without
inserting characters, of course). This means that the following is true for
those macros also.
Here is an example of ‘.Xo
’
using the space mode macro to turn spacing off:
.Bd -literal -offset indent .Sm off .It Xo Sy I Ar operation .No \en Ar count No \en .Xc .Sm on .Ed
produces
- Ioperation\ncount\n
Another one:
.Bd -literal -offset indent .Sm off .It Cm S No / Ar old_pattern Xo .No / Ar new_pattern .No / Op Cm g .Xc .Sm on .Ed
produces
S
/old_pattern/new_pattern/[g
]
Another example of ‘.Xo
’ and
enclosure macros: Test the value of a variable.
.Bd -literal -offset indent .It Xo .Ic .ifndef .Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar variable Oo .Ar operator variable No ... .Oc Xc .Ed
produces
.ifndef
[!]variable [operator variable ...]
Page structure domain¶
Section headings¶
The following ‘.Sh
’ section
heading macros are required in every man page. The remaining section
headings are recommended at the discretion of the author writing the manual
page. The ‘.Sh
’ macro is parsed but
not generally callable. It can be used as an argument in a call to
‘.Sh
’ only; it then reactivates the
default font for ‘.Sh
’.
The default width is 8n.
.Sh Name
- The ‘
.Sh Name
’ macro is mandatory. If not specified, headers, footers, and page layout defaults will not be set and things will be rather unpleasant. The Name section consists of at least three items. The first is the ‘.Nm
’ name macro naming the subject of the man page. The second is the name description macro, ‘.Nd
’, which separates the subject name from the third item, which is the description. The description should be the most terse and lucid possible, as the space available is small.‘
.Nd
’ first prints ‘-
’, then all its arguments. .Sh Library
- This section is for section two and three function calls. It should
consist of a single ‘
.Lb
’ macro call; see Library Names. .Sh Synopsis
- The Synopsis section describes the
typical usage of the subject of a man page. The macros required are either
‘
.Nm
’, ‘.Cd
’, or ‘.Fn
’ (and possibly ‘.Fo
’, ‘.Fc
’, ‘.Fd
’, and ‘.Ft
’). The function name macro ‘.Fn
’ is required for manual page sections 2 and 3; the command and general name macro ‘.Nm
’ is required for sections 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Section 4 manuals require a ‘.Nm
’, ‘.Fd
’ or a ‘.Cd
’ configuration device usage macro. Several other macros may be necessary to produce the synopsis line as shown below:cat
[-benstuv
] [-
] file ...The following macros were used:
.Nm cat
.Op Fl benstuv
.Op Fl
.Ar file No ...
.Sh Description
- In most cases the first text in the
Description section is a brief
paragraph on the command, function or file, followed by a lexical list of
options and respective explanations. To create such a list, the
‘
.Bl
’ (begin list), ‘.It
’ (list item) and ‘.El
’ (end list) macros are used (see Lists and Columns below). .Sh Implementation notes
- Implementation specific information should be placed here.
.Sh Return values
- Sections 2, 3 and 9 function return values should go here. The
‘
.Rv
’ macro may be used to generate text for use in the Return values section for most section 2 and 3 library functions; see Return Values.
The following ‘.Sh
’ section
headings are part of the preferred manual page layout and must be used
appropriately to maintain consistency. They are listed in the order in which
they would be used.
.Sh Environment
- The Environment section should reveal any related environment variables and clues to their behavior and/or usage.
.Sh Files
- Files which are used or created by the man page subject should be listed
via the ‘
.Pa
’ macro in the Files section. .Sh Examples
- There are several ways to create examples. See subsection Examples and Displays below for details.
.Sh Diagnostics
- Diagnostic messages from a command should be placed in this section. The
‘
.Ex
’ macro may be used to generate text for use in the Diagnostics section for most section 1, 6 and 8 commands; see Exit Status. .Sh Compatibility
- Known compatibility issues (e.g. deprecated options or parameters) should be listed here.
.Sh Errors
- Specific error handling, especially from library functions (man page
sections 2, 3, and 9) should go here. The
‘
.Er
’ macro is used to specify an error (errno). .Sh See also
- References to other material on the man page topic and cross references to
other relevant man pages should be placed in the
See also section. Cross references are
specified using the ‘
.Xr
’ macro. Currently refer(1) style references are not accommodated.It is recommended that the cross references be sorted by section number, then alphabetically by name within each section, then separated by commas. Example:
.Sh Standards
- If the command, library function, or file adheres to a specific implementation such as IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) or ANSI X3.159-1989 (“ANSI C89”) this should be noted here. If the command does not adhere to any standard, its history should be noted in the History section.
.Sh History
- Any command which does not adhere to any specific standards should be outlined historically in this section.
.Sh Authors
- Credits should be placed here. Use the
‘
.An
’ macro for names and the ‘.Aq
’ macro for email addresses within optional contact information. Explicitly indicate whether the person authored the initial manual page or the software or whatever the person is being credited for. .Sh Bugs
- Blatant problems with the topic go here.
User-specified ‘.Sh
’
sections may be added; for example, this section was set with:
.Sh "Page structure domain"
Subsection headings¶
Subsection headings have exactly the same syntax as section
headings: ‘.Ss
’ is parsed but not
generally callable. It can be used as an argument in a call to
‘.Ss
’ only; it then reactivates the
default font for ‘.Ss
’.
The default width is 8n.
Paragraphs and Line Spacing¶
.Pp
- The ‘
.Pp
’ paragraph command may be used to specify a line space where necessary. The macro is not necessary after a ‘.Sh
’ or ‘.Ss
’ macro or before a ‘.Bl
’ or ‘.Bd
’ macro (which both assert a vertical distance unless the-compact
flag is given).The macro is neither callable nor parsed and takes no arguments; an alternative name is ‘
.Lp
’.
Keeps¶
The only keep that is implemented at this time is for words. The
macros are ‘.Bk
’ (begin keep) and
‘.Ek
’ (end keep). The only option that
‘.Bk
’ currently accepts is
-words
(also the default); this prevents breaks in
the middle of options. In the example for make
command-line arguments (see What's in
a Name), the keep prevents nroff from placing the flag
and the argument on separate lines.
Neither macro is callable or parsed.
More work needs to be done on the keep macros; specifically, a
-line
option should be added.
Examples and Displays¶
There are seven types of displays.
.D1
- (This is D-one.) Display one line of indented text. This macro is parsed
but not callable.
-ldghfstru
The above was produced by:
.D1 Fl ldghfstru
. .Dl
- (This is D-ell.) Display one line of indented literal
text. The ‘
.Dl
’ example macro has been used throughout this file. It allows the indentation (display) of one line of text. Its default font is set to constant width (literal). ‘.Dl
’ is parsed but not callable.% ls -ldg /usr/local/bin
The above was produced by:
.Dl % ls \-ldg /usr/local/bin
. .Bd
- Begin display. The ‘
.Bd
’ display must be ended with the ‘.Ed
’ macro. It has the following syntax:.Bd
{-literal | -filled | -unfilled | -ragged | -centered} [-offset ⟨string⟩] [-file ⟨file name⟩] [-compact]
-ragged
- Fill, but do not adjust the right margin (only left-justify).
-centered
- Center lines between the current left and right margin. Note that each single line is centered.
-unfilled
- Do not fill; break lines where their input lines are broken. This can produce overlong lines without warning messages.
-filled
- Display a filled block. The block of text is formatted (i.e., the text is justified on both the left and right side).
-literal
- Display block with literal font (usually fixed-width). Useful for source code or simple tabbed or spaced text.
-file
⟨file name⟩- The file whose name follows the
-file
flag is read and displayed before any data enclosed with ‘.Bd
’ and ‘.Ed
’, using the selected display type. Any troff/mdoc commands in the file will be processed. -offset
⟨string⟩- If
-offset
is specified with one of the following strings, the string is interpreted to indicate the level of indentation for the forthcoming block of text:- left
- Align block on the current left margin; this is the default mode
of ‘
.Bd
’. - center
- Supposedly center the block. At this time unfortunately, the block merely gets left aligned about an imaginary center margin.
- indent
- Indent by one default indent value or tab. The default indent
value is also used for the
‘
.D1
’ and ‘.Dl
’ macros, so one is guaranteed the two types of displays will line up. The indentation value is normally set to 6n or about two thirds of an inch (six constant width characters). - indent-two
- Indent two times the default indent value.
- right
- This left aligns the block about two inches from the right side of the page. This macro needs work and perhaps may never do the right thing within troff.
If ⟨string⟩ is a valid numeric expression instead (with a scaling indicator other than ‘u’), use that value for indentation. The most useful scaling indicators are ‘m’ and ‘n’, specifying the so-called Em and En square. This is approximately the width of the letters ‘m’ and ‘n’ respectively of the current font (for nroff output, both scaling indicators give the same values). If ⟨string⟩ isn't a numeric expression, it is tested whether it is an mdoc macro name, and the default offset value associated with this macro is used. Finally, if all tests fail, the width of ⟨string⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width font) is taken as the offset.
-compact
- Suppress insertion of vertical space before begin of display.
.Ed
- End display (takes no arguments).
Lists and Columns¶
There are several types of lists which may be initiated with the
‘.Bl
’ begin-list macro. Items within
the list are specified with the ‘.It
’
item macro, and each list must end with the
‘.El
’ macro. Lists may be nested
within themselves and within displays. The use of columns inside of lists or
lists inside of columns is untested.
In addition, several list attributes may be specified such as the
width of a tag, the list offset, and compactness (blank lines between items
allowed or disallowed). Most of this document has been formatted with a tag
style list (-tag
).
It has the following syntax forms:
And now a detailed description of the list types.
-bullet
- A bullet list.
.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact .It Bullet one goes here. .It Bullet two here. .El
Produces:
- Bullet one goes here.
- Bullet two here.
-dash
(or-hyphen
)- A dash list.
.Bl -dash -offset indent -compact .It Dash one goes here. .It Dash two here. .El
Produces:
- Dash one goes here.
- Dash two here.
-enum
- An enumerated list.
.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact .It Item one goes here. .It And item two here. .El
The result:
- Item one goes here.
- And item two here.
If you want to nest enumerated lists, use the
-nested
flag (starting with the second-level list):.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact .It Item one goes here .Bl -enum -nested -compact .It Item two goes here. .It And item three here. .El .It And item four here. .El
Result:
- Item one goes here.
- Item two goes here.
- And item three here.
- And item four here.
-item
- A list of type
-item
without list markers..Bl -item -offset indent .It Item one goes here. Item one goes here. Item one goes here. .It Item two here. Item two here. Item two here. .El
Produces:
- Item one goes here. Item one goes here. Item one goes here.
- Item two here. Item two here. Item two here.
-tag
- A list with tags. Use
-width
to specify the tag width.- SL
- sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
- PAGEIN
- number of disk I/O operations resulting from references by the process to pages not loaded in core.
- UID
- numerical user-id of process owner
- PPID
- numerical id of parent of process priority (non-positive when in non-interruptible wait)
The raw text:
.Bl -tag -width "PPID" -compact -offset indent .It SL sleep time of the process (seconds blocked) .It PAGEIN number of disk I/O operations resulting from references by the process to pages not loaded in core. .It UID numerical user-id of process owner .It PPID numerical id of parent of process priority (non-positive when in non-interruptible wait) .El
-diag
- Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists and are similar to inset
lists except callable macros are ignored. The
-width
flag is not meaningful in this context.Example:
.Bl -diag .It You can't use Sy here. The message says all. .El
produces
- You can't use Sy here.
- The message says all.
-hang
- A list with hanging tags.
- Hanged
- labels appear similar to tagged lists when the label is smaller than the label width.
- Longer hanged list labels
- blend into the paragraph unlike tagged paragraph labels.
And the unformatted text which created it:
.Bl -hang -offset indent .It Em Hanged labels appear similar to tagged lists when the label is smaller than the label width. .It Em Longer hanged list labels blend into the paragraph unlike tagged paragraph labels. .El
-ohang
- Lists with overhanging tags do not use indentation for the items; tags are
written to a separate line.
- SL
- sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
- PAGEIN
- number of disk I/O operations resulting from references by the process to pages not loaded in core.
- UID
- numerical user-id of process owner
- PPID
- numerical id of parent of process priority (non-positive when in non-interruptible wait)
The raw text:
.Bl -ohang -offset indent .It Sy SL sleep time of the process (seconds blocked) .It Sy PAGEIN number of disk I/O operations resulting from references by the process to pages not loaded in core. .It Sy UID numerical user-id of process owner .It Sy PPID numerical id of parent of process priority (non-positive when in non-interruptible wait) .El
-inset
- Here is an example of inset labels:
- Tag
- The tagged list (also called a tagged paragraph) is the most common
type of list used in the Berkeley manuals. Use a
-width
attribute as described below. - Diag
- Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists and are similar to inset lists except callable macros are ignored.
- Hang
- Hanged labels are a matter of taste.
- Ohang
- Overhanging labels are nice when space is constrained.
- Inset
- Inset labels are useful for controlling blocks of paragraphs and are valuable for converting mdoc manuals to other formats.
Here is the source text which produced the above example:
.Bl -inset -offset indent .It Em Tag The tagged list (also called a tagged paragraph) is the most common type of list used in the Berkeley manuals. .It Em Diag Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists and are similar to inset lists except callable macros are ignored. .It Em Hang Hanged labels are a matter of taste. .It Em Ohang Overhanging labels are nice when space is constrained. .It Em Inset Inset labels are useful for controlling blocks of paragraphs and are valuable for converting .Xr mdoc manuals to other formats. .El
-column
- This list type generates multiple columns. The number of columns and the
width of each column is determined by the arguments to the
-column
list, ⟨string1⟩, ⟨string2⟩, etc. If ⟨stringN⟩ starts with a ‘.
’ (dot) immediately followed by a valid mdoc macro name, interpret ⟨stringN⟩ and use the width of the result. Otherwise, the width of ⟨stringN⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width font) is taken as the Nth column width.Each ‘
.It
’ argument is parsed to make a row, each column within the row is a separate argument separated by a tab or the ‘.Ta
’ macro.The table:
String Nroff Troff <=
<= ≤ >=
>= ≥ was produced by:
.Bl -column -offset indent ".Sy String" ".Sy Nroff" ".Sy Troff" .It Sy String Ta Sy Nroff Ta Sy Troff .It Li <= Ta <= Ta \*(<= .It Li >= Ta >= Ta \*(>= .El
Don't abuse this list type! For more complicated cases it might be far better and easier to use tbl(1), the table preprocessor.
Other keywords:
-width
⟨string⟩- If ⟨string⟩ starts with a
‘
.
’ (dot) immediately followed by a valid mdoc macro name, interpret ⟨string⟩ and use the width of the result. Almost all lists in this document use this option.Example:
.Bl -tag -width ".Fl test Ao Ar string Ac" .It Fl test Ao Ar string Ac This is a longer sentence to show how the .Fl width flag works in combination with a tag list. .El
gives:
-test
⟨string⟩- This is a longer sentence to show how the
-width
flag works in combination with a tag list.
(Note that the current state of mdoc is saved before ⟨string⟩ is interpreted; afterwards, all variables are restored again. However, boxes (used for enclosures) can't be saved in GNU troff(1); as a consequence, arguments must always be balanced to avoid nasty errors. For example, do not write ‘
.Ao Ar string
’ but ‘.Ao Ar string Xc
’ instead if you really need only an opening angle bracket.)Otherwise, if ⟨string⟩ is a valid numeric expression (with a scaling indicator other than ‘u’), use that value for indentation. The most useful scaling indicators are ‘m’ and ‘n’, specifying the so-called Em and En square. This is approximately the width of the letters ‘m’ and ‘n’ respectively of the current font (for nroff output, both scaling indicators give the same values). If ⟨string⟩ isn't a numeric expression, it is tested whether it is an mdoc macro name, and the default width value associated with this macro is used. Finally, if all tests fail, the width of ⟨string⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width font) is taken as the width.
If a width is not specified for the tag list type, ‘6n’ is used.
-offset
⟨string⟩- If ⟨string⟩ is
indent, a default indent value (normally set
to 6n, similar to the value used in
‘
.Dl
’ or ‘.Bd
’) is used. If ⟨string⟩ is a valid numeric expression instead (with a scaling indicator other than ‘u’), use that value for indentation. The most useful scaling indicators are ‘m’ and ‘n’, specifying the so-called Em and En square. This is approximately the width of the letters ‘m’ and ‘n’ respectively of the current font (for nroff output, both scaling indicators give the same values). If ⟨string⟩ isn't a numeric expression, it is tested whether it is an mdoc macro name, and the default offset value associated with this macro is used. Finally, if all tests fail, the width of ⟨string⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width font) is taken as the offset. -compact
- Suppress insertion of vertical space before the list and between list items.
Miscellaneous macros¶
A double handful of macros fit only uncomfortably into one of the
above sections. Of these, we couldn't find attested examples for
‘Me
’ or
‘Ot
’. They are documented here for
completeness—if you know their proper usage, please send a mail to
groff@gnu.org and include a
specimen with its provenance.
.Bt
- formats boilerplate text.
.Bt
- → is currently in beta test.
It is neither callable nor parsed and takes no arguments. Its default width is 6n.
.Fr
- is an obsolete means of specifying a function return value.
Usage: .
Fr
return-value ...‘
Fr
’ allows a break right before the return value (usually a single digit) which is bad typographical behaviour. Instead, set the return value with the rest of the code, using ‘\~
’ to tie the return value to the previous word.Its default width is 12n.
.Hf
- Inlines the contents of a (header) file into the document.
Usage: .
Hf
fileIt first prints ‘
File:
’ followed by the file name, then the contents of file. It is neither callable nor parsed. .Lk
- Embed hyperlink.
Usage: .
Lk
uri [link-text]Its default width is 6n.
.Me
- Usage unknown. The mdoc sources describe it as a macro
for “menu entries”.
Its default width is 6n.
.Mt
- Embed email address.
Usage: .
Mt
email-addressIts default width is 6n.
.Ot
- Usage unknown. The mdoc sources describe it as “old function type (fortran)”.
.Sm
- Manipulate or toggle argument-spacing mode.
Usage: .
Sm
[on
|off
] ...If argument-spacing mode is off, no spaces between macro arguments are inserted. If called without a parameter (or if the next parameter is neither ‘
on
’ nor ‘off
’), ‘Sm
’ toggles argument-spacing mode.Its default width is 8n.
.Ud
- formats boilerplate text.
.Ud
- → currently under development.
It is neither callable nor parsed and takes no arguments. Its default width is 8n.
Predefined strings¶
The following strings are predefined for compatibility with legacy mdoc documents. Contemporary ones should use the alternatives shown in the “Prefer” column below. See groff_char(7) for a full discussion of these special character escape sequences.
String | 7-bit | 8-bit | UCS | Prefer | Meaning |
\*(<= | <= | <= | ≤ | \(<= | less than or equal to |
\*(>= | >= | >= | ≥ | \(>= | greater than or equal to |
\*(Rq | " | " | ” | \(rq | right double quote |
\*(Lq | " | " | “ | \(lq | left double quote |
\*(ua | ^ | ^ | ↑ | \(ua | vertical arrow up |
\*(aa | ' | ´ | ´ | \(aa | acute accent |
\*(ga | ` | ` | ` | \(ga | grave accent |
\*(q | " | " | " | \(dq | neutral double quote |
\*(Pi | pi | pi | pi | \(*p | lowercase pi |
\*(Ne | != | != | ≠ | \(!= | not equals |
\*(Le | <= | <= | ≤ | \(<= | less than or equal to |
\*(Ge | >= | >= | ≥ | \(>= | greater than or equal to |
\*(Lt | < | < | < | < | less than |
\*(Gt | > | > | > | > | greater than |
\*(Pm | +- | ± | ± | \(+- | plus or minus |
\*(If | infinity | infinity | infinity | \(if | infinity |
\*(Am | & | & | & | & | ampersand |
\*(Na | NaN | NaN | NaN | NaN | not a number |
\*(Ba | | | | | | | | | bar |
Some column headings are shorthand for standardized character
encodings; “7-bit” for ISO 646:1991 IRV (US-ASCII),
“8-bit” for ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) and IBM code page 1047, and
“UCS” for ISO 10646 (Unicode character set). Historically,
mdoc configured the string definitions to fit the
capabilities expected of the output device. Old typesetters lacked
directional double quotes, producing repeated directional single quotes
‘‘like this’’; early versions of
mdoc in fact defined the
‘Lq
’ and
‘Rq
’ strings this way. Nowadays,
output drivers take on the responsibility of glyph substitution, as they
possess relevant knowledge of their available repertoires.
Diagnostics¶
The debugging macro ‘.Db
’
offered by previous versions of mdoc is unavailable in GNU
troff(1) since the latter provides better facilities to
check parameters; additionally, groff mdoc implements many
error and warning messages, making the package more robust and more
verbose.
The remaining debugging macro is
‘.Rd
’, which dumps the package's
global register and string contents to the standard error stream. A normal
user will never need it.
Options¶
The following groff options set registers (with
-r
) and strings (with -d
)
recognized and used by the mdoc macro package. To ensure
rendering consistent with output device capabilities and reader preferences,
man pages should never manipulate them.
Setting string ‘AD
’
configures the adjustment mode for most formatted text. Typical values are
‘b
’ for adjustment to both margins
(the default), or ‘l
’ for left
alignment (ragged right margin). Any valid argument to
groff's ‘ad
’ request
may be used. See groff(7) for less-common choices.
groff -Tutf8 -dAD=l -mdoc
groff_mdoc.7 | less -R
Setting register ‘C
’
to 1 numbers output pages consecutively, rather than resetting the
page number to 1 (or the value of register
‘P
’) with each new
mdoc document.
By default, the package inhibits page breaks, headers, and footers
in the midst of the document text if it is being displayed with a terminal
device such as ‘latin1’ or ‘utf8’, to enable
more efficient viewing of the page. This behavior can be changed to format
the page as if for 66-line Teletype output by setting the continuous
rendering register ‘cR
’ to zero while
calling groff(1).
groff -Tlatin1 -rcR=0 -mdoc foo.man
> foo.txt
Section headings (defined with
‘.Sh
’) and page titles in headers
(defined with ‘.Dt
’) can be presented
in full capitals by setting the registers
‘CS
’ and
‘CT
’, respectively, to 1. These
transformations are off by default because they discard case distinction
information.
Setting register ‘D
’
to 1 enables double-sided page layout, which is only distinct when
not continuously rendering. It places the page number at the bottom right on
odd-numbered (recto) pages, and at the bottom left on even-numbered (verso)
pages, swapping places with the arguments to
‘.Os
’.
groff -Tps -rD1 -mdoc foo.man >
foo.ps
The value of the ‘FT
’
register determines the footer's distance from the page bottom; this amount
is always negative and should specify a scaling unit. At one half-inch above
this location, the page text is broken before writing the footer. It is
ignored if continuous rendering is enabled. The default is -0.5i.
The ‘HF
’ string sets the
font used for section and subsection headings; the default is
‘B
’ (bold style of the default
family). Any valid argument to groff's
‘ft
’ request may be used.
Normally, automatic hyphenation is enabled using a mode
appropriate to the groff locale; see section
“Localization“ of groff(7). It can be
disabled by setting the ‘HY
’ register
to zero.
groff -Tutf8 -rHY=0 -mdoc foo.man |
less -R
The paragraph and subsection heading indentation amounts can be
changed by setting the registers ‘IN
’
and ‘SN
’.
groff -Tutf8 -rIN=5n -rSN=2n -mdoc
foo.man | less -R
The line and title lengths can be changed by setting the registers
‘LL
’ and
‘LT
’, respectively:
groff -Tutf8 -rLL=100n -rLT=100n
-mdoc foo.man | less -R
Setting the ‘P
’ register
starts enumeration of pages at its value. The default is 1.
To change the document font size to 11p or 12p, set register
‘S
’ accordingly:
groff -Tdvi -rS11 -mdoc foo.man >
foo.dvi
S
’ is ignored when formatting
for terminal devices.
Setting the ‘X
’ register to
a page number p numbers its successors as
pa
,
pb
,
pc
, and so forth. The register
tracking the suffixed page letter uses format
‘a
’ (see the
‘af
’ request in
groff(7)).
Files¶
- /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/andoc.tmac
- This brief groff program detects whether the
man or mdoc macro package is being
used by a document and loads the correct macro definitions, taking
advantage of the fact that pages using them must call
TH
orDd
, respectively, before any other macros. A user typing, for example,need not know which package the file page.1 uses. Multiple man pages, in either format, can be handled; andoc.tmac reloads each macro package as necessary.groff -mandoc page.1
- /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/doc.tmac
- implements the bulk of the groff mdoc package and loads further components as needed from the mdoc subdirectory.
- /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mdoc.tmac
- is a wrapper that loads doc.tmac.
- /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mdoc/doc-common
- defines macros, registers, and strings concerned with the production of
formatted output. It includes strings of the form
‘
doc-volume-ds-X
’ and ‘doc-volume-as-X
’ for manual section titles and architecture identifiers, respectively, where X is an argument recognized by .Dt
. - /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mdoc/doc-nroff
- defines parameters appropriate for rendering to terminal devices.
- /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mdoc/doc-ditroff
- defines parameters appropriate for rendering to typesetter devices.
- /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mdoc/doc-syms
- defines many strings and macros that interpolate formatted text, such as
names of operating system releases, *BSD libraries, and standards
documents. The string names are of the form
‘
doc-str-O
’, ‘-
Vdoc-str-St
’ (observe the double dashes), or ‘--
S-
Idoc-str-Lb-L
’, where O is one of the operating system macros from section General text domain above, V is an encoding of an operating system release (sometimes omitted along with the ‘-
’ preceding it), S an identifier for a standards body or committee, I one for an issue of a standard promulgated by S, and L a keyword identifying a *BSD library. - /usr/share/groff/site-tmac/mdoc.local
- This file houses local additions and customizations to the package. It can be empty.
See also¶
The mandoc project maintains an independent implementation of the mdoc language and a renderer that directly parses its markup as well as that of man.
Bugs¶
Section 3f has not been added to the header routines.
‘.Fn
’ needs to have a check
to prevent splitting up the line if its length is too short. Occasionally it
separates the last parenthesis, and sometimes looks ridiculous if output
lines are being filled.
The list and display macros do not do any keeps and certainly should be able to.
As of groff 1.23,
‘Tn
’ no longer changes the type size;
this functionality may return in the next release.
5 December 2024 | groff 1.23.0 |