Clean up the description of .Dt:

[mandoc.git] / mdoc.7

.\"     $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.213 2011/11/01 14:59:27 schwarze Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, 2011 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
.\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
.\"
.\" 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.
.\"
.\" 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: November 1 2011 $
.Dt MDOC 7
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm mdoc
.Nd semantic markup language for formatting manual pages
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm mdoc
language supports authoring of manual pages for the
.Xr man 1
utility by allowing semantic annotations of words, phrases,
page sections and complete manual pages.
Such annotations are used by formatting tools to achieve a uniform
presentation across all manuals written in
.Nm ,
and to support hyperlinking if supported by the output medium.
.Pp
This reference document describes the structure of manual pages
and the syntax and usage of the
.Nm
language.
The reference implementation of a parsing and formatting tool is
.Xr mandoc 1 ;
the
.Sx COMPATIBILITY
section describes compatibility with other implementations.
.Pp
In an
.Nm
document, lines beginning with the control character
.Sq \&.
are called
.Dq macro lines .
The first word is the macro name.
It consists of two or three letters.
Most macro names begin with a capital letter.
For a list of available macros, see
.Sx MACRO OVERVIEW .
The words following the macro name are arguments to the macro, optionally
including the names of other, callable macros; see
.Sx MACRO SYNTAX
for details.
.Pp
Lines not beginning with the control character are called
.Dq text lines .
They provide free-form text to be printed; the formatting of the text
depends on the respective processing context:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Sh Macro lines change control state.
Text lines are interpreted within the current state.
.Ed
.Pp
Many aspects of the basic syntax of the
.Nm
language are based on the
.Xr roff 7
language; see the
.Em LANGUAGE SYNTAX
and
.Em MACRO SYNTAX
sections in the
.Xr roff 7
manual for details, in particular regarding
comments, escape sequences, whitespace, and quoting.
However, using
.Xr roff 7
requests in
.Nm
documents is discouraged;
.Xr mandoc 1
supports some of them merely for backward compatibility.
.Sh MANUAL STRUCTURE
A well-formed
.Nm
document consists of a document prologue followed by one or more
sections.
.Pp
The prologue, which consists of the
.Sx \&Dd ,
.Sx \&Dt ,
and
.Sx \&Os
macros in that order, is required for every document.
.Pp
The first section (sections are denoted by
.Sx \&Sh )
must be the NAME section, consisting of at least one
.Sx \&Nm
followed by
.Sx \&Nd .
.Pp
Following that, convention dictates specifying at least the
.Em SYNOPSIS
and
.Em DESCRIPTION
sections, although this varies between manual sections.
.Pp
The following is a well-formed skeleton
.Nm
file for a utility
.Qq progname :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$
\&.Dt PROGNAME section
\&.Os
\&.Sh NAME
\&.Nm progname
\&.Nd one line about what it does
\&.\e\(dq .Sh LIBRARY
\&.\e\(dq For sections 2, 3, & 9 only.
\&.\e\(dq Not used in OpenBSD.
\&.Sh SYNOPSIS
\&.Nm progname
\&.Op Fl options
\&.Ar
\&.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
\&.Nm
utility processes files ...
\&.\e\(dq .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
\&.\e\(dq Not used in OpenBSD.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh RETURN VALUES
\&.\e\(dq For sections 2, 3, & 9 only.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh ENVIRONMENT
\&.\e\(dq For sections 1, 6, 7, & 8 only.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh FILES
\&.\e\(dq .Sh EXIT STATUS
\&.\e\(dq For sections 1, 6, & 8 only.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh EXAMPLES
\&.\e\(dq .Sh DIAGNOSTICS
\&.\e\(dq For sections 1, 4, 6, 7, & 8 only.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh ERRORS
\&.\e\(dq For sections 2, 3, & 9 only.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh SEE ALSO
\&.\e\(dq .Xr foobar 1
\&.\e\(dq .Sh STANDARDS
\&.\e\(dq .Sh HISTORY
\&.\e\(dq .Sh AUTHORS
\&.\e\(dq .Sh CAVEATS
\&.\e\(dq .Sh BUGS
\&.\e\(dq .Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
\&.\e\(dq Not used in OpenBSD.
.Ed
.Pp
The sections in an
.Nm
document are conventionally ordered as they appear above.
Sections should be composed as follows:
.Bl -ohang -offset Ds
.It Em NAME
The name(s) and a one line description of the documented material.
The syntax for this as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Nm name0 ,
\&.Nm name1 ,
\&.Nm name2
\&.Nd a one line description
.Ed
.Pp
Multiple
.Sq \&Nm
names should be separated by commas.
.Pp
The
.Sx \&Nm
macro(s) must precede the
.Sx \&Nd
macro.
.Pp
See
.Sx \&Nm
and
.Sx \&Nd .
.It Em LIBRARY
The name of the library containing the documented material, which is
assumed to be a function in a section 2, 3, or 9 manual.
The syntax for this is as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Lb libarm
.Ed
.Pp
See
.Sx \&Lb .
.It Em SYNOPSIS
Documents the utility invocation syntax, function call syntax, or device
configuration.
.Pp
For the first, utilities (sections 1, 6, and 8), this is
generally structured as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Nm bar
\&.Op Fl v
\&.Op Fl o Ar file
\&.Op Ar
\&.Nm foo
\&.Op Fl v
\&.Op Fl o Ar file
\&.Op Ar
.Ed
.Pp
Commands should be ordered alphabetically.
.Pp
For the second, function calls (sections 2, 3, 9):
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.In header.h
\&.Vt extern const char *global;
\&.Ft "char *"
\&.Fn foo "const char *src"
\&.Ft "char *"
\&.Fn bar "const char *src"
.Ed
.Pp
Ordering of
.Sx \&In ,
.Sx \&Vt ,
.Sx \&Fn ,
and
.Sx \&Fo
macros should follow C header-file conventions.
.Pp
And for the third, configurations (section 4):
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Cd \(dqit* at isa? port 0x2e\(dq
\&.Cd \(dqit* at isa? port 0x4e\(dq
.Ed
.Pp
Manuals not in these sections generally don't need a
.Em SYNOPSIS .
.Pp
Some macros are displayed differently in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, particularly
.Sx \&Nm ,
.Sx \&Cd ,
.Sx \&Fd ,
.Sx \&Fn ,
.Sx \&Fo ,
.Sx \&In ,
.Sx \&Vt ,
and
.Sx \&Ft .
All of these macros are output on their own line.
If two such dissimilar macros are pairwise invoked (except for
.Sx \&Ft
before
.Sx \&Fo
or
.Sx \&Fn ) ,
they are separated by a vertical space, unless in the case of
.Sx \&Fo ,
.Sx \&Fn ,
and
.Sx \&Ft ,
which are always separated by vertical space.
.Pp
When text and macros following an
.Sx \&Nm
macro starting an input line span multiple output lines,
all output lines but the first will be indented to align
with the text immediately following the
.Sx \&Nm
macro, up to the next
.Sx \&Nm ,
.Sx \&Sh ,
or
.Sx \&Ss
macro or the end of an enclosing block, whichever comes first.
.It Em DESCRIPTION
This begins with an expansion of the brief, one line description in
.Em NAME :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
The
\&.Nm
utility does this, that, and the other.
.Ed
.Pp
It usually follows with a breakdown of the options (if documenting a
command), such as:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
The arguments are as follows:
\&.Bl \-tag \-width Ds
\&.It Fl v
Print verbose information.
\&.El
.Ed
.Pp
Manuals not documenting a command won't include the above fragment.
.Pp
Since the
.Em DESCRIPTION
section usually contains most of the text of a manual, longer manuals
often use the
.Sx \&Ss
macro to form subsections.
In very long manuals, the
.Em DESCRIPTION
may be split into multiple sections, each started by an
.Sx \&Sh
macro followed by a non-standard section name, and each having
several subsections, like in the present
.Nm
manual.
.It Em IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
Implementation-specific notes should be kept here.
This is useful when implementing standard functions that may have side
effects or notable algorithmic implications.
.It Em RETURN VALUES
This section documents the
return values of functions in sections 2, 3, and 9.
.Pp
See
.Sx \&Rv .
.It Em ENVIRONMENT
Lists the environment variables used by the utility,
and explains the syntax and semantics of their values.
The
.Xr environ 7
manual provides examples of typical content and formatting.
.Pp
See
.Sx \&Ev .
.It Em FILES
Documents files used.
It's helpful to document both the file name and a short description of how
the file is used (created, modified, etc.).
.Pp
See
.Sx \&Pa .
.It Em EXIT STATUS
This section documents the
command exit status for section 1, 6, and 8 utilities.
Historically, this information was described in
.Em DIAGNOSTICS ,
a practise that is now discouraged.
.Pp
See
.Sx \&Ex .
.It Em EXAMPLES
Example usages.
This often contains snippets of well-formed, well-tested invocations.
Make sure that examples work properly!
.It Em DIAGNOSTICS
Documents error conditions.
This is most useful in section 4 manuals.
Historically, this section was used in place of
.Em EXIT STATUS
for manuals in sections 1, 6, and 8; however, this practise is
discouraged.
.Pp
See
.Sx \&Bl
.Fl diag .
.It Em ERRORS
Documents error handling in sections 2, 3, and 9.
.Pp
See
.Sx \&Er .
.It Em SEE ALSO
References other manuals with related topics.
This section should exist for most manuals.
Cross-references should conventionally be ordered first by section, then
alphabetically.
.Pp
References to other documentation concerning the topic of the manual page,
for example authoritative books or journal articles, may also be
provided in this section.
.Pp
See
.Sx \&Rs
and
.Sx \&Xr .
.It Em STANDARDS
References any standards implemented or used.
If not adhering to any standards, the
.Em HISTORY
section should be used instead.
.Pp
See
.Sx \&St .
.It Em HISTORY
A brief history of the subject, including where it was first implemented,
and when it was ported to or reimplemented for the operating system at hand.
.It Em AUTHORS
Credits to the person or persons who wrote the code and/or documentation.
Authors should generally be noted by both name and email address.
.Pp
See
.Sx \&An .
.It Em CAVEATS
Common misuses and misunderstandings should be explained
in this section.
.It Em BUGS
Known bugs, limitations, and work-arounds should be described
in this section.
.It Em SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
Documents any security precautions that operators should consider.
.El
.Sh MACRO OVERVIEW
This overview is sorted such that macros of similar purpose are listed
together, to help find the best macro for any given purpose.
Deprecated macros are not included in the overview, but can be found below
in the alphabetical
.Sx MACRO REFERENCE .
.Ss Document preamble and NAME section macros
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Sx \&Dd Ta document date: Cm $\&Mdocdate$ | Ar month day , year
.It Sx \&Dt Ta document title: Ar TITLE section Op Ar volume | arch
.It Sx \&Os Ta operating system version: Op Ar system Op Ar version
.It Sx \&Nm Ta document name (one argument)
.It Sx \&Nd Ta document description (one line)
.El
.Ss Sections and cross references
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Sx \&Sh Ta section header (one line)
.It Sx \&Ss Ta subsection header (one line)
.It Sx \&Sx Ta internal cross reference to a section or subsection
.It Sx \&Xr Ta cross reference to another manual page: Ar name section
.It Sx \&Pp , \&Lp Ta start a text paragraph (no arguments)
.El
.Ss Displays and lists
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Sx \&Bd , \&Ed Ta display block:
.Fl Ar type
.Op Fl offset Ar width
.Op Fl compact
.It Sx \&D1 Ta indented display (one line)
.It Sx \&Dl Ta indented literal display (one line)
.It Sx \&Bl , \&El Ta list block:
.Fl Ar type
.Op Fl width Ar val
.Op Fl offset Ar val
.Op Fl compact
.It Sx \&It Ta list item (syntax depends on Fl Ar type )
.It Sx \&Ta Ta table cell separator in Sx \&Bl Fl column No lists
.It Sx \&Rs , \&%* , \&Re Ta bibliographic block (references)
.El
.Ss Spacing control
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Sx \&Pf Ta prefix, no following horizontal space (one argument)
.It Sx \&Ns Ta roman font, no preceding horizontal space (no arguments)
.It Sx \&Ap Ta apostrophe without surrounding whitespace (no arguments)
.It Sx \&Sm Ta switch horizontal spacing mode: Cm on | off
.It Sx \&Bk , \&Ek Ta keep block: Fl words
.It Sx \&br Ta force output line break in text mode (no arguments)
.It Sx \&sp Ta force vertical space: Op Ar height
.El
.Ss Semantic markup for command line utilities:
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Sx \&Nm Ta start a SYNOPSIS block with the name of a utility
.It Sx \&Fl Ta command line options (flags) (>=0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Cm Ta command modifier (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Ar Ta command arguments (>=0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Op , \&Oo , \&Oc Ta optional syntax elements (enclosure)
.It Sx \&Ic Ta internal or interactive command (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Ev Ta environmental variable (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Pa Ta file system path (>=0 arguments)
.El
.Ss Semantic markup for function libraries:
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Sx \&Lb Ta function library (one argument)
.It Sx \&In Ta include file (one argument)
.It Sx \&Ft Ta function type (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Fo , \&Fc Ta function block: Ar funcname
.It Sx \&Fn Ta function name:
.Op Ar functype
.Ar funcname
.Oo
.Op Ar argtype
.Ar argname
.Oc
.It Sx \&Fa Ta function argument (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Vt Ta variable type (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Va Ta variable name (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Dv Ta defined variable or preprocessor constant (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Er Ta error constant (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Ev Ta environmental variable (>0 arguments)
.El
.Ss Various semantic markup:
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Sx \&An Ta author name (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Lk Ta hyperlink: Ar uri Op Ar name
.It Sx \&Mt Ta Do mailto Dc hyperlink: Ar address
.It Sx \&Cd Ta kernel configuration declaration (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Ad Ta memory address (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Ms Ta mathematical symbol (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Tn Ta tradename (>0 arguments)
.El
.Ss Physical markup
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Sx \&Em Ta italic font or underline (emphasis) (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Sy Ta boldface font (symbolic) (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&Li Ta typewriter font (literal) (>0 arguments)
.It Sx \&No Ta return to roman font (normal) (no arguments)
.It Sx \&Bf , \&Ef Ta font block:
.Op Fl Ar type | Cm \&Em | \&Li | \&Sy
.El
.Ss Physical enclosures
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Sx \&Dq , \&Do , \&Dc Ta enclose in typographic double quotes: Dq text
.It Sx \&Qq , \&Qo , \&Qc Ta enclose in typewriter double quotes: Qq text
.It Sx \&Sq , \&So , \&Sc Ta enclose in single quotes: Sq text
.It Sx \&Ql Ta single-quoted literal text: Ql text
.It Sx \&Pq , \&Po , \&Pc Ta enclose in parentheses: Pq text
.It Sx \&Bq , \&Bo , \&Bc Ta enclose in square brackets: Bq text
.It Sx \&Brq , \&Bro , \&Brc Ta enclose in curly braces: Brq text
.It Sx \&Aq , \&Ao , \&Ac Ta enclose in angle brackets: Aq text
.It Sx \&Eo , \&Ec Ta generic enclosure
.El
.Ss Text production
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Sx \&Ex Fl std Ta standard command exit values: Op Ar utility ...
.It Sx \&Rv Fl std Ta standard function return values: Op Ar function ...
.It Sx \&St Ta reference to a standards document (one argument)
.It Sx \&Ux Ta Ux
.It Sx \&At Ta At
.It Sx \&Bx Ta Bx
.It Sx \&Bsx Ta Bsx
.It Sx \&Nx Ta Nx
.It Sx \&Fx Ta Fx
.It Sx \&Ox Ta Ox
.It Sx \&Dx Ta Dx
.El
.Sh MACRO REFERENCE
This section is a canonical reference of all macros, arranged
alphabetically.
For the scoping of individual macros, see
.Sx MACRO SYNTAX .
.Ss \&%A
Author name of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
Multiple authors should each be accorded their own
.Sx \%%A
line.
Author names should be ordered with full or abbreviated forename(s)
first, then full surname.
.Ss \&%B
Book title of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographic context when
referring to book titles.
.Ss \&%C
Publication city or location of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
.Ss \&%D
Publication date of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
Recommended formats of arguments are
.Ar month day , year
or just
.Ar year .
.Ss \&%I
Publisher or issuer name of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
.Ss \&%J
Journal name of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
.Ss \&%N
Issue number (usually for journals) of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
.Ss \&%O
Optional information of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
.Ss \&%P
Book or journal page number of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
.Ss \&%Q
Institutional author (school, government, etc.) of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
Multiple institutional authors should each be accorded their own
.Sx \&%Q
line.
.Ss \&%R
Technical report name of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
.Ss \&%T
Article title of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographical context when
referring to article titles.
.Ss \&%U
URI of reference document.
.Ss \&%V
Volume number of an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
.Ss \&Ac
Close an
.Sx \&Ao
block.
Does not have any tail arguments.
.Ss \&Ad
Memory address.
Do not use this for postal addresses.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ad [0,$]
.Dl \&.Ad 0x00000000
.Ss \&An
Author name.
Can be used both for the authors of the program, function, or driver
documented in the manual, or for the authors of the manual itself.
Requires either the name of an author or one of the following arguments:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-nosplitX" -offset indent -compact
.It Fl split
Start a new output line before each subsequent invocation of
.Sx \&An .
.It Fl nosplit
The opposite of
.Fl split .
.El
.Pp
The default is
.Fl nosplit .
The effect of selecting either of the
.Fl split
modes ends at the beginning of the
.Em AUTHORS
section.
In the
.Em AUTHORS
section, the default is
.Fl nosplit
for the first author listing and
.Fl split
for all other author listings.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.An -nosplit
.Dl \&.An Kristaps Dzonsons \&Aq kristaps@bsd.lv
.Ss \&Ao
Begin a block enclosed by angle brackets.
Does not have any head arguments.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Fl -key= \&Ns \&Ao \&Ar val \&Ac
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Aq .
.Ss \&Ap
Inserts an apostrophe without any surrounding whitespace.
This is generally used as a grammatical device when referring to the verb
form of a function.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Fn execve \&Ap d
.Ss \&Aq
Encloses its arguments in angle brackets.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Fl -key= \&Ns \&Aq \&Ar val
.Pp
.Em Remarks :
this macro is often abused for rendering URIs, which should instead use
.Sx \&Lk
or
.Sx \&Mt ,
or to note pre-processor
.Dq Li #include
statements, which should use
.Sx \&In .
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Ao .
.Ss \&Ar
Command arguments.
If an argument is not provided, the string
.Dq file ...\&
is used as a default.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl ".Fl o Ar file"
.Dl ".Ar"
.Dl ".Ar arg1 , arg2 ."
.Pp
The arguments to the
.Sx \&Ar
macro are names and placeholders for command arguments;
for fixed strings to be passed verbatim as arguments, use
.Sx \&Fl
or
.Sx \&Cm .
.Ss \&At
Formats an AT&T version.
Accepts one optional argument:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "v[1-7] | 32vX" -offset indent -compact
.It Cm v[1-7] | 32v
A version of
.At .
.It Cm III
.At III .
.It Cm V[.[1-4]]?
A version of
.At V .
.El
.Pp
Note that these arguments do not begin with a hyphen.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.At
.Dl \&.At III
.Dl \&.At V.1
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bsx ,
.Sx \&Bx ,
.Sx \&Dx ,
.Sx \&Fx ,
.Sx \&Nx ,
.Sx \&Ox ,
and
.Sx \&Ux .
.Ss \&Bc
Close a
.Sx \&Bo
block.
Does not have any tail arguments.
.Ss \&Bd
Begin a display block.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Pf \. Sx \&Bd
.Fl Ns Ar type
.Op Fl offset Ar width
.Op Fl compact
.Ed
.Pp
Display blocks are used to select a different indentation and
justification than the one used by the surrounding text.
They may contain both macro lines and text lines.
By default, a display block is preceded by a vertical space.
.Pp
The
.Ar type
must be one of the following:
.Bl -tag -width 13n -offset indent
.It Fl centered
Produce one output line from each input line, and centre-justify each line.
Using this display type is not recommended; many
.Nm
implementations render it poorly.
.It Fl filled
Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left- and
right-justify the resulting block.
.It Fl literal
Produce one output line from each input line,
and do not justify the block at all.
Preserve white space as it appears in the input.
Always use a constant-width font.
Use this for displaying source code.
.It Fl ragged
Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left-justify
the resulting block.
.It Fl unfilled
The same as
.Fl literal ,
but using the same font as for normal text, which is a variable width font
if supported by the output device.
.El
.Pp
The
.Ar type
must be provided first.
Additional arguments may follow:
.Bl -tag -width 13n -offset indent
.It Fl offset Ar width
Indent the display by the
.Ar width ,
which may be one of the following:
.Bl -item
.It
One of the pre-defined strings
.Cm indent ,
the width of a standard indentation (six constant width characters);
.Cm indent-two ,
twice
.Cm indent ;
.Cm left ,
which has no effect;
.Cm right ,
which justifies to the right margin; or
.Cm center ,
which aligns around an imagined centre axis.
.It
A macro invocation, which selects a predefined width
associated with that macro.
The most popular is the imaginary macro
.Ar \&Ds ,
which resolves to
.Sy 6n .
.It
A width using the syntax described in
.Sx Scaling Widths .
.It
An arbitrary string, which indents by the length of this string.
.El
.Pp
When the argument is missing,
.Fl offset
is ignored.
.It Fl compact
Do not assert vertical space before the display.
.El
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Bd \-literal \-offset indent \-compact
   Hello       world.
\&.Ed
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&D1
and
.Sx \&Dl .
.Ss \&Bf
Change the font mode for a scoped block of text.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Pf \. Sx \&Bf
.Oo
.Fl emphasis | literal | symbolic |
.Cm \&Em | \&Li | \&Sy
.Oc
.Ed
.Pp
The
.Fl emphasis
and
.Cm \&Em
argument are equivalent, as are
.Fl symbolic
and
.Cm \&Sy ,
and
.Fl literal
and
.Cm \&Li .
Without an argument, this macro does nothing.
The font mode continues until broken by a new font mode in a nested
scope or
.Sx \&Ef
is encountered.
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Li ,
.Sx \&Ef ,
.Sx \&Em ,
and
.Sx \&Sy .
.Ss \&Bk
For each macro, keep its output together on the same output line,
until the end of the macro or the end of the input line is reached,
whichever comes first.
Line breaks in text lines are unaffected.
The syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Bk Fl words
.Pp
The
.Fl words
argument is required; additional arguments are ignored.
.Pp
The following example will not break within each
.Sx \&Op
macro line:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Bk \-words
\&.Op Fl f Ar flags
\&.Op Fl o Ar output
\&.Ek
.Ed
.Pp
Be careful in using over-long lines within a keep block!
Doing so will clobber the right margin.
.Ss \&Bl
Begin a list.
Lists consist of items specified using the
.Sx \&It
macro, containing a head or a body or both.
The list syntax is as follows:
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Pf \. Sx \&Bl
.Fl Ns Ar type
.Op Fl width Ar val
.Op Fl offset Ar val
.Op Fl compact
.Op HEAD ...
.Ed
.Pp
The list
.Ar type
is mandatory and must be specified first.
The
.Fl width
and
.Fl offset
arguments accept
.Sx Scaling Widths
or use the length of the given string.
The
.Fl offset
is a global indentation for the whole list, affecting both item heads
and bodies.
For those list types supporting it, the
.Fl width
argument requests an additional indentation of item bodies,
to be added to the
.Fl offset .
Unless the
.Fl compact
argument is specified, list entries are separated by vertical space.
.Pp
A list must specify one of the following list types:
.Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent
.It Fl bullet
No item heads can be specified, but a bullet will be printed at the head
of each item.
Item bodies start on the same output line as the bullet
and are indented according to the
.Fl width
argument.
.It Fl column
A columnated list.
The
.Fl width
argument has no effect; instead, each argument specifies the width
of one column, using either the
.Sx Scaling Widths
syntax or the string length of the argument.
If the first line of the body of a
.Fl column
list is not an
.Sx \&It
macro line,
.Sx \&It
contexts spanning one input line each are implied until an
.Sx \&It
macro line is encountered, at which point items start being interpreted as
described in the
.Sx \&It
documentation.
.It Fl dash
Like
.Fl bullet ,
except that dashes are used in place of bullets.
.It Fl diag
Like
.Fl inset ,
except that item heads are not parsed for macro invocations.
Most often used in the
.Em DIAGNOSTICS
section with error constants in the item heads.
.It Fl enum
A numbered list.
No item heads can be specified.
Formatted like
.Fl bullet ,
except that cardinal numbers are used in place of bullets,
starting at 1.
.It Fl hang
Like
.Fl tag ,
except that the first lines of item bodies are not indented, but follow
the item heads like in
.Fl inset
lists.
.It Fl hyphen
Synonym for
.Fl dash .
.It Fl inset
Item bodies follow items heads on the same line, using normal inter-word
spacing.
Bodies are not indented, and the
.Fl width
argument is ignored.
.It Fl item
No item heads can be specified, and none are printed.
Bodies are not indented, and the
.Fl width
argument is ignored.
.It Fl ohang
Item bodies start on the line following item heads and are not indented.
The
.Fl width
argument is ignored.
.It Fl tag
Item bodies are indented according to the
.Fl width
argument.
When an item head fits inside the indentation, the item body follows
this head on the same output line.
Otherwise, the body starts on the output line following the head.
.El
.Pp
Lists may be nested within lists and displays.
Nesting of
.Fl column
and
.Fl enum
lists may not be portable.
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&El
and
.Sx \&It .
.Ss \&Bo
Begin a block enclosed by square brackets.
Does not have any head arguments.
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Bo 1 ,
\&.Dv BUFSIZ \&Bc
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bq .
.Ss \&Bq
Encloses its arguments in square brackets.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Bq 1 , \&Dv BUFSIZ
.Pp
.Em Remarks :
this macro is sometimes abused to emulate optional arguments for
commands; the correct macros to use for this purpose are
.Sx \&Op ,
.Sx \&Oo ,
and
.Sx \&Oc .
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bo .
.Ss \&Brc
Close a
.Sx \&Bro
block.
Does not have any tail arguments.
.Ss \&Bro
Begin a block enclosed by curly braces.
Does not have any head arguments.
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Bro 1 , ... ,
\&.Va n \&Brc
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Brq .
.Ss \&Brq
Encloses its arguments in curly braces.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Brq 1 , ... , \&Va n
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bro .
.Ss \&Bsx
Format the BSD/OS version provided as an argument, or a default value if
no argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Bsx 1.0
.Dl \&.Bsx
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&At ,
.Sx \&Bx ,
.Sx \&Dx ,
.Sx \&Fx ,
.Sx \&Nx ,
.Sx \&Ox ,
and
.Sx \&Ux .
.Ss \&Bt
Prints
.Dq is currently in beta test.
.Ss \&Bx
Format the BSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if no
argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Bx 4.3 Tahoe
.Dl \&.Bx 4.4
.Dl \&.Bx
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&At ,
.Sx \&Bsx ,
.Sx \&Dx ,
.Sx \&Fx ,
.Sx \&Nx ,
.Sx \&Ox ,
and
.Sx \&Ux .
.Ss \&Cd
Kernel configuration declaration.
This denotes strings accepted by
.Xr config 8 .
It is most often used in section 4 manual pages.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Cd device le0 at scode?
.Pp
.Em Remarks :
this macro is commonly abused by using quoted literals to retain
whitespace and align consecutive
.Sx \&Cd
declarations.
This practise is discouraged.
.Ss \&Cm
Command modifiers.
Typically used for fixed strings passed as arguments, unless
.Sx \&Fl
is more appropriate.
Also useful when specifying configuration options or keys.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl ".Nm mt Fl f Ar device Cm rewind"
.Dl ".Nm ps Fl o Cm pid , Ns Cm command"
.Dl ".Nm dd Cm if= Ns Ar file1 Cm of= Ns Ar file2"
.Dl ".Cm IdentityFile Pa ~/.ssh/id_rsa"
.Dl ".Cm LogLevel Dv DEBUG"
.Ss \&D1
One-line indented display.
This is formatted by the default rules and is useful for simple indented
statements.
It is followed by a newline.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.D1 \&Fl abcdefgh
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bd
and
.Sx \&Dl .
.Ss \&Db
Switch debugging mode.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Db Cm on | off
.Pp
This macro is ignored by
.Xr mandoc 1 .
.Ss \&Dc
Close a
.Sx \&Do
block.
Does not have any tail arguments.
.Ss \&Dd
Document date.
This is the mandatory first macro of any
.Nm
manual.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Dd Ar month day , year
.Pp
The
.Ar month
is the full English month name, the
.Ar day
is an optionally zero-padded numeral, and the
.Ar year
is the full four-digit year.
.Pp
Other arguments are not portable; the
.Xr mandoc 1
utility handles them as follows:
.Bl -dash -offset 3n -compact
.It
To have the date automatically filled in by the
.Ox
version of
.Xr cvs 1 ,
the special string
.Dq $\&Mdocdate$
can be given as an argument.
.It
A few alternative date formats are accepted as well
and converted to the standard form.
.It
If a date string cannot be parsed, it is used verbatim.
.It
If no date string is given, the current date is used.
.El
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$
.Dl \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate: July 21 2007$
.Dl \&.Dd July 21, 2007
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Dt
and
.Sx \&Os .
.Ss \&Dl
One-line intended display.
This is formatted as literal text and is useful for commands and
invocations.
It is followed by a newline.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Dl % mandoc mdoc.7 \e(ba less
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bd
and
.Sx \&D1 .
.Ss \&Do
Begin a block enclosed by double quotes.
Does not have any head arguments.
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Do
April is the cruellest month
\&.Dc
\e(em T.S. Eliot
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Dq .
.Ss \&Dq
Encloses its arguments in
.Dq typographic
double-quotes.
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Dq April is the cruellest month
\e(em T.S. Eliot
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Qq ,
.Sx \&Sq ,
and
.Sx \&Do .
.Ss \&Dt
Document title.
This is the mandatory second macro of any
.Nm
file.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Pf \. Sx \&Dt
.Oo
.Ar title
.Oo
.Ar section
.Op Ar volume
.Op Ar arch
.Oc
.Oc
.Ed
.Pp
Its arguments are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset Ds
.It Ar title
The document's title (name), defaulting to
.Dq UNKNOWN
if unspecified.
It should be capitalised.
.It Ar section
The manual section.
This may be one of
.Ar 1
.Pq utilities ,
.Ar 2
.Pq system calls ,
.Ar 3
.Pq libraries ,
.Ar 3p
.Pq Perl libraries ,
.Ar 4
.Pq devices ,
.Ar 5
.Pq file formats ,
.Ar 6
.Pq games ,
.Ar 7
.Pq miscellaneous ,
.Ar 8
.Pq system utilities ,
.Ar 9
.Pq kernel functions ,
.Ar X11
.Pq X Window System ,
.Ar X11R6
.Pq X Window System ,
.Ar unass
.Pq unassociated ,
.Ar local
.Pq local system ,
.Ar draft
.Pq draft manual ,
or
.Ar paper
.Pq paper .
It should correspond to the manual's filename suffix and defaults to
.Dq 1
if unspecified.
.It Ar volume
This overrides the volume inferred from
.Ar section .
This field is optional, and if specified, must be one of
.Ar USD
.Pq users' supplementary documents ,
.Ar PS1
.Pq programmers' supplementary documents ,
.Ar AMD
.Pq administrators' supplementary documents ,
.Ar SMM
.Pq system managers' manuals ,
.Ar URM
.Pq users' reference manuals ,
.Ar PRM
.Pq programmers' reference manuals ,
.Ar KM
.Pq kernel manuals ,
.Ar IND
.Pq master index ,
.Ar MMI
.Pq master index ,
.Ar LOCAL
.Pq local manuals ,
.Ar LOC
.Pq local manuals ,
or
.Ar CON
.Pq contributed manuals .
.It Ar arch
This specifies the machine architecture a manual page applies to,
where relevant, for example
.Cm alpha ,
.Cm amd64 ,
.Cm i386 ,
or
.Cm sparc64 .
The list of supported architectures varies by operating system.
For the full list of all architectures recognized by
.Xr mandoc 1 ,
see the file
.Pa arch.in
in the source distribution.
.El
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Dt FOO 1
.Dl \&.Dt FOO 4 KM
.Dl \&.Dt FOO 9 i386
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Dd
and
.Sx \&Os .
.Ss \&Dv
Defined variables such as preprocessor constants, constant symbols,
enumeration values, and so on.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Dv NULL
.Dl \&.Dv BUFSIZ
.Dl \&.Dv STDOUT_FILENO
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Er
and
.Sx \&Ev
for special-purpose constants and
.Sx \&Va
for variable symbols.
.Ss \&Dx
Format the DragonFly BSD version provided as an argument, or a default
value if no argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Dx 2.4.1
.Dl \&.Dx
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&At ,
.Sx \&Bsx ,
.Sx \&Bx ,
.Sx \&Fx ,
.Sx \&Nx ,
.Sx \&Ox ,
and
.Sx \&Ux .
.Ss \&Ec
Close a scope started by
.Sx \&Eo .
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ec Op Ar TERM
.Pp
The
.Ar TERM
argument is used as the enclosure tail, for example, specifying \e(rq
will emulate
.Sx \&Dc .
.Ss \&Ed
End a display context started by
.Sx \&Bd .
.Ss \&Ef
End a font mode context started by
.Sx \&Bf .
.Ss \&Ek
End a keep context started by
.Sx \&Bk .
.Ss \&El
End a list context started by
.Sx \&Bl .
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bl
and
.Sx \&It .
.Ss \&Em
Denotes text that should be
.Em emphasised .
Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for
stylistically decorating technical terms.
Depending on the output device, this is usually represented
using an italic font or underlined characters.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Em Warnings!
.Dl \&.Em Remarks :
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bf ,
.Sx \&Li ,
.Sx \&No ,
and
.Sx \&Sy .
.Ss \&En
This macro is obsolete and not implemented in
.Xr mandoc 1 .
.Ss \&Eo
An arbitrary enclosure.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Eo Op Ar TERM
.Pp
The
.Ar TERM
argument is used as the enclosure head, for example, specifying \e(lq
will emulate
.Sx \&Do .
.Ss \&Er
Error constants for definitions of the
.Va errno
libc global variable.
This is most often used in section 2 and 3 manual pages.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Er EPERM
.Dl \&.Er ENOENT
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Dv
for general constants.
.Ss \&Es
This macro is obsolete and not implemented.
.Ss \&Ev
Environmental variables such as those specified in
.Xr environ 7 .
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ev DISPLAY
.Dl \&.Ev PATH
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Dv
for general constants.
.Ss \&Ex
Insert a standard sentence regarding command exit values of 0 on success
and >0 on failure.
This is most often used in section 1, 6, and 8 manual pages.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ex Fl std Op Ar utility ...
.Pp
If
.Ar utility
is not specified, the document's name set by
.Sx \&Nm
is used.
Multiple
.Ar utility
arguments are treated as separate utilities.
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Rv .
.Ss \&Fa
Function argument.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Pf \. Sx \&Fa
.Op Cm argtype
.Cm argname
.Ed
.Pp
This may be invoked for names with or without the corresponding type.
It is also used to specify the field name of a structure.
Most often, the
.Sx \&Fa
macro is used in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
within
.Sx \&Fo
section when documenting multi-line function prototypes.
If invoked with multiple arguments, the arguments are separated by a
comma.
Furthermore, if the following macro is another
.Sx \&Fa ,
the last argument will also have a trailing comma.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Fa \(dqconst char *p\(dq
.Dl \&.Fa \(dqint a\(dq \(dqint b\(dq \(dqint c\(dq
.Dl \&.Fa foo
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Fo .
.Ss \&Fc
End a function context started by
.Sx \&Fo .
.Ss \&Fd
Historically used to document include files.
This usage has been deprecated in favour of
.Sx \&In .
Do not use this macro.
.Pp
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
and
.Sx \&In .
.Ss \&Fl
Command-line flag or option.
Used when listing arguments to command-line utilities.
Prints a fixed-width hyphen
.Sq \-
directly followed by each argument.
If no arguments are provided, a hyphen is printed followed by a space.
If the argument is a macro, a hyphen is prefixed to the subsequent macro
output.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl ".Fl R Op Fl H | L | P"
.Dl ".Op Fl 1AaCcdFfgHhikLlmnopqRrSsTtux"
.Dl ".Fl type Cm d Fl name Pa CVS"
.Dl ".Fl Ar signal_number"
.Dl ".Fl o Fl"
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Cm .
.Ss \&Fn
A function name.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Pf \. Ns Sx \&Fn
.Op Ar functype
.Ar funcname
.Op Oo Ar argtype Oc Ar argname
.Ed
.Pp
Function arguments are surrounded in parenthesis and
are delimited by commas.
If no arguments are specified, blank parenthesis are output.
In the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, this macro starts a new output line,
and a blank line is automatically inserted between function definitions.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Fn \(dqint funcname\(dq \(dqint arg0\(dq \(dqint arg1\(dq
.Dl \&.Fn funcname \(dqint arg0\(dq
.Dl \&.Fn funcname arg0
.Pp
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Ft functype
\&.Fn funcname
.Ed
.Pp
When referring to a function documented in another manual page, use
.Sx \&Xr
instead.
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,
.Sx \&Fo ,
and
.Sx \&Ft .
.Ss \&Fo
Begin a function block.
This is a multi-line version of
.Sx \&Fn .
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Fo Ar funcname
.Pp
Invocations usually occur in the following context:
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Pf \. Sx \&Ft Ar functype
.br
.Pf \. Sx \&Fo Ar funcname
.br
.Pf \. Sx \&Fa Oo Ar argtype Oc Ar argname
.br
\&.\.\.
.br
.Pf \. Sx \&Fc
.Ed
.Pp
A
.Sx \&Fo
scope is closed by
.Sx \&Fc .
.Pp
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,
.Sx \&Fa ,
.Sx \&Fc ,
and
.Sx \&Ft .
.Ss \&Fr
This macro is obsolete and not implemented in
.Xr mandoc 1 .
.Pp
It was used to show function return values.
The syntax was:
.Pp
.Dl Pf . Sx \&Fr Ar value
.Ss \&Ft
A function type.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ft Ar functype
.Pp
In the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, a new output line is started after this macro.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ft int
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Ft functype
\&.Fn funcname
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,
.Sx \&Fn ,
and
.Sx \&Fo .
.Ss \&Fx
Format the
.Fx
version provided as an argument, or a default value
if no argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Fx 7.1
.Dl \&.Fx
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&At ,
.Sx \&Bsx ,
.Sx \&Bx ,
.Sx \&Dx ,
.Sx \&Nx ,
.Sx \&Ox ,
and
.Sx \&Ux .
.Ss \&Hf
This macro is not implemented in
.Xr mandoc 1 .
.Pp
It was used to include the contents of a (header) file literally.
The syntax was:
.Pp
.Dl Pf . Sx \&Hf Ar filename
.Ss \&Ic
Designate an internal or interactive command.
This is similar to
.Sx \&Cm
but used for instructions rather than values.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ic :wq
.Dl \&.Ic hash
.Dl \&.Ic alias
.Pp
Note that using
.Sx \&Bd Fl literal
or
.Sx \&D1
is preferred for displaying code; the
.Sx \&Ic
macro is used when referring to specific instructions.
.Ss \&In
An
.Dq include
file.
When invoked as the first macro on an input line in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, the argument is displayed in angle brackets
and preceded by
.Dq #include ,
and a blank line is inserted in front if there is a preceding
function declaration.
This is most often used in section 2, 3, and 9 manual pages.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.In sys/types.h
.Pp
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .
.Ss \&It
A list item.
The syntax of this macro depends on the list type.
.Pp
Lists
of type
.Fl hang ,
.Fl ohang ,
.Fl inset ,
and
.Fl diag
have the following syntax:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Ar args
.Pp
Lists of type
.Fl bullet ,
.Fl dash ,
.Fl enum ,
.Fl hyphen
and
.Fl item
have the following syntax:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It
.Pp
with subsequent lines interpreted within the scope of the
.Sx \&It
until either a closing
.Sx \&El
or another
.Sx \&It .
.Pp
The
.Fl tag
list has the following syntax:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Op Cm args
.Pp
Subsequent lines are interpreted as with
.Fl bullet
and family.
The line arguments correspond to the list's left-hand side; body
arguments correspond to the list's contents.
.Pp
The
.Fl column
list is the most complicated.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Ar cell Op <TAB> Ar cell ...
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Ar cell Op Sx \&Ta Ar cell ...
.Pp
The arguments consist of one or more lines of text and macros
representing a complete table line.
Cells within the line are delimited by tabs or by the special
.Sx \&Ta
block macro.
The tab cell delimiter may only be used within the
.Sx \&It
line itself; on following lines, only the
.Sx \&Ta
macro can be used to delimit cells, and
.Sx \&Ta
is only recognised as a macro when called by other macros,
not as the first macro on a line.
.Pp
Note that quoted strings may span tab-delimited cells on an
.Sx \&It
line.
For example,
.Pp
.Dl .It \(dqcol1 ; <TAB> col2 ;\(dq \&;
.Pp
will preserve the semicolon whitespace except for the last.
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bl .
.Ss \&Lb
Specify a library.
The syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Lb Ar library
.Pp
The
.Ar library
parameter may be a system library, such as
.Cm libz
or
.Cm libpam ,
in which case a small library description is printed next to the linker
invocation; or a custom library, in which case the library name is
printed in quotes.
This is most commonly used in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section as described in
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Lb libz
.Dl \&.Lb mdoc
.Ss \&Li
Denotes text that should be in a
.Li literal
font mode.
Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for
stylistically decorating technical terms.
.Pp
On terminal output devices, this is often indistinguishable from
normal text.
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bf ,
.Sx \&Em ,
.Sx \&No ,
and
.Sx \&Sy .
.Ss \&Lk
Format a hyperlink.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Lk Ar uri Op Ar name
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Lk http://bsd.lv \(dqThe BSD.lv Project\(dq
.Dl \&.Lk http://bsd.lv
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Mt .
.Ss \&Lp
Synonym for
.Sx \&Pp .
.Ss \&Ms
Display a mathematical symbol.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ms Ar symbol
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ms sigma
.Dl \&.Ms aleph
.Ss \&Mt
Format a
.Dq mailto:
hyperlink.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Mt Ar address
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Mt discuss@manpages.bsd.lv
.Ss \&Nd
A one line description of the manual's content.
This may only be invoked in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section subsequent the
.Sx \&Nm
macro.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl Pf . Sx \&Nd mdoc language reference
.Dl Pf . Sx \&Nd format and display UNIX manuals
.Pp
The
.Sx \&Nd
macro technically accepts child macros and terminates with a subsequent
.Sx \&Sh
invocation.
Do not assume this behaviour: some
.Xr whatis 1
database generators are not smart enough to parse more than the line
arguments and will display macros verbatim.
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Nm .
.Ss \&Nm
The name of the manual page, or \(em in particular in section 1, 6,
and 8 pages \(em of an additional command or feature documented in
the manual page.
When first invoked, the
.Sx \&Nm
macro expects a single argument, the name of the manual page.
Usually, the first invocation happens in the
.Em NAME
section of the page.
The specified name will be remembered and used whenever the macro is
called again without arguments later in the page.
The
.Sx \&Nm
macro uses
.Sx Block full-implicit
semantics when invoked as the first macro on an input line in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section; otherwise, it uses ordinary
.Sx In-line
semantics.
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Sh SYNOPSIS
\&.Nm cat
\&.Op Fl benstuv
\&.Op Ar
.Ed
.Pp
In the
.Em SYNOPSIS
of section 2, 3 and 9 manual pages, use the
.Sx \&Fn
macro rather than
.Sx \&Nm
to mark up the name of the manual page.
.Ss \&No
Normal text.
Closes the scope of any preceding in-line macro.
When used after physical formatting macros like
.Sx \&Em
or
.Sx \&Sy ,
switches back to the standard font face and weight.
Can also be used to embed plain text strings in macro lines
using semantic annotation macros.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl ".Em italic , Sy bold , No and roman"
.Pp
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Sm off
\&.Cm :C No / Ar pattern No / Ar replacement No /
\&.Sm on
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Em ,
.Sx \&Li ,
and
.Sx \&Sy .
.Ss \&Ns
Suppress a space between the output of the preceding macro
and the following text or macro.
Following invocation, input is interpreted as normal text
just like after an
.Sx \&No
macro.
.Pp
This has no effect when invoked at the start of a macro line.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl ".Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value"
.Dl ".Cm :M Ns Ar pattern"
.Dl ".Fl o Ns Ar output"
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&No
and
.Sx \&Sm .
.Ss \&Nx
Format the
.Nx
version provided as an argument, or a default value if
no argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Nx 5.01
.Dl \&.Nx
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&At ,
.Sx \&Bsx ,
.Sx \&Bx ,
.Sx \&Dx ,
.Sx \&Fx ,
.Sx \&Ox ,
and
.Sx \&Ux .
.Ss \&Oc
Close multi-line
.Sx \&Oo
context.
.Ss \&Oo
Multi-line version of
.Sx \&Op .
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Oo
\&.Op Fl flag Ns Ar value
\&.Oc
.Ed
.Ss \&Op
Optional part of a command line.
Prints the argument(s) in brackets.
This is most often used in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section of section 1 and 8 manual pages.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Op \&Fl a \&Ar b
.Dl \&.Op \&Ar a | b
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Oo .
.Ss \&Os
Document operating system version.
This is the mandatory third macro of
any
.Nm
file.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Os Op Ar system Op Ar version
.Pp
The optional
.Ar system
parameter specifies the relevant operating system or environment.
Left unspecified, it defaults to the local operating system version.
This is the suggested form.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Os
.Dl \&.Os KTH/CSC/TCS
.Dl \&.Os BSD 4.3
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Dd
and
.Sx \&Dt .
.Ss \&Ot
This macro is obsolete and not implemented in
.Xr mandoc 1 .
.Pp
Historical
.Xr mdoc 7
packages described it as
.Dq "old function type (FORTRAN)" .
.Ss \&Ox
Format the
.Ox
version provided as an argument, or a default value
if no argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ox 4.5
.Dl \&.Ox
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&At ,
.Sx \&Bsx ,
.Sx \&Bx ,
.Sx \&Dx ,
.Sx \&Fx ,
.Sx \&Nx ,
and
.Sx \&Ux .
.Ss \&Pa
An absolute or relative file system path, or a file or directory name.
If an argument is not provided, the character
.Sq \(ti
is used as a default.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Pa /usr/bin/mandoc
.Dl \&.Pa /usr/share/man/man7/mdoc.7
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Lk .
.Ss \&Pc
Close parenthesised context opened by
.Sx \&Po .
.Ss \&Pf
Removes the space between its argument
.Pq Dq prefix
and the following macro.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 .Pf Ar prefix macro arguments ...
.Pp
This is equivalent to:
.Pp
.D1 .No Ar prefix No \&Ns Ar macro arguments ...
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl ".Pf $ Ar variable_name"
.Dl ".Pf 0x Ar hex_digits"
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Ns
and
.Sx \&Sm .
.Ss \&Po
Multi-line version of
.Sx \&Pq .
.Ss \&Pp
Break a paragraph.
This will assert vertical space between prior and subsequent macros
and/or text.
.Pp
Paragraph breaks are not needed before or after
.Sx \&Sh
or
.Sx \&Ss
macros or before displays
.Pq Sx \&Bd
or lists
.Pq Sx \&Bl
unless the
.Fl compact
flag is given.
.Ss \&Pq
Parenthesised enclosure.
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Po .
.Ss \&Qc
Close quoted context opened by
.Sx \&Qo .
.Ss \&Ql
Format a single-quoted literal.
See also
.Sx \&Qq
and
.Sx \&Sq .
.Ss \&Qo
Multi-line version of
.Sx \&Qq .
.Ss \&Qq
Encloses its arguments in
.Qq typewriter
double-quotes.
Consider using
.Sx \&Dq .
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Dq ,
.Sx \&Sq ,
and
.Sx \&Qo .
.Ss \&Re
Close an
.Sx \&Rs
block.
Does not have any tail arguments.
.Ss \&Rs
Begin a bibliographic
.Pq Dq reference
block.
Does not have any head arguments.
The block macro may only contain
.Sx \&%A ,
.Sx \&%B ,
.Sx \&%C ,
.Sx \&%D ,
.Sx \&%I ,
.Sx \&%J ,
.Sx \&%N ,
.Sx \&%O ,
.Sx \&%P ,
.Sx \&%Q ,
.Sx \&%R ,
.Sx \&%T ,
.Sx \&%U ,
and
.Sx \&%V
child macros (at least one must be specified).
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Rs
\&.%A J. E. Hopcroft
\&.%A J. D. Ullman
\&.%B Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation
\&.%I Addison-Wesley
\&.%C Reading, Massachusettes
\&.%D 1979
\&.Re
.Ed
.Pp
If an
.Sx \&Rs
block is used within a SEE ALSO section, a vertical space is asserted
before the rendered output, else the block continues on the current
line.
.Ss \&Rv
Insert a standard sentence regarding a function call's return value of 0
on success and \-1 on error, with the
.Va errno
libc global variable set on error.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Rv Fl std Op Ar function ...
.Pp
If
.Ar function
is not specified, the document's name set by
.Sx \&Nm
is used.
Multiple
.Ar function
arguments are treated as separate functions.
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Ex .
.Ss \&Sc
Close single-quoted context opened by
.Sx \&So .
.Ss \&Sh
Begin a new section.
For a list of conventional manual sections, see
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .
These sections should be used unless it's absolutely necessary that
custom sections be used.
.Pp
Section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by
.Sx \&Sx .
Although this macro is parsed, it should not consist of child node or it
may not be linked with
.Sx \&Sx .
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Pp ,
.Sx \&Ss ,
and
.Sx \&Sx .
.Ss \&Sm
Switches the spacing mode for output generated from macros.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Sm Cm on | off
.Pp
By default, spacing is
.Cm on .
When switched
.Cm off ,
no white space is inserted between macro arguments and between the
output generated from adjacent macros, but text lines
still get normal spacing between words and sentences.
.Ss \&So
Multi-line version of
.Sx \&Sq .
.Ss \&Sq
Encloses its arguments in
.Sq typewriter
single-quotes.
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Dq ,
.Sx \&Qq ,
and
.Sx \&So .
.Ss \&Ss
Begin a new subsection.
Unlike with
.Sx \&Sh ,
there is no convention for the naming of subsections.
Except
.Em DESCRIPTION ,
the conventional sections described in
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
rarely have subsections.
.Pp
Sub-section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by
.Sx \&Sx .
Although this macro is parsed, it should not consist of child node or it
may not be linked with
.Sx \&Sx .
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Pp ,
.Sx \&Sh ,
and
.Sx \&Sx .
.Ss \&St
Replace an abbreviation for a standard with the full form.
The following standards are recognised:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000X" -compact
.It \-p1003.1-88
.St -p1003.1-88
.It \-p1003.1-90
.St -p1003.1-90
.It \-p1003.1-96
.St -p1003.1-96
.It \-p1003.1-2001
.St -p1003.1-2001
.It \-p1003.1-2004
.St -p1003.1-2004
.It \-p1003.1-2008
.St -p1003.1-2008
.It \-p1003.1
.St -p1003.1
.It \-p1003.1b
.St -p1003.1b
.It \-p1003.1b-93
.St -p1003.1b-93
.It \-p1003.1c-95
.St -p1003.1c-95
.It \-p1003.1g-2000
.St -p1003.1g-2000
.It \-p1003.1i-95
.St -p1003.1i-95
.It \-p1003.2-92
.St -p1003.2-92
.It \-p1003.2a-92
.St -p1003.2a-92
.It \-p1387.2-95
.St -p1387.2-95
.It \-p1003.2
.St -p1003.2
.It \-p1387.2
.St -p1387.2
.It \-isoC
.St -isoC
.It \-isoC-90
.St -isoC-90
.It \-isoC-amd1
.St -isoC-amd1
.It \-isoC-tcor1
.St -isoC-tcor1
.It \-isoC-tcor2
.St -isoC-tcor2
.It \-isoC-99
.St -isoC-99
.It \-iso9945-1-90
.St -iso9945-1-90
.It \-iso9945-1-96
.St -iso9945-1-96
.It \-iso9945-2-93
.St -iso9945-2-93
.It \-ansiC
.St -ansiC
.It \-ansiC-89
.St -ansiC-89
.It \-ansiC-99
.St -ansiC-99
.It \-ieee754
.St -ieee754
.It \-iso8802-3
.St -iso8802-3
.It \-iso8601
.St -iso8601
.It \-ieee1275-94
.St -ieee1275-94
.It \-xpg3
.St -xpg3
.It \-xpg4
.St -xpg4
.It \-xpg4.2
.St -xpg4.2
.It \-xpg4.3
.St -xpg4.3
.It \-xbd5
.St -xbd5
.It \-xcu5
.St -xcu5
.It \-xsh5
.St -xsh5
.It \-xns5
.St -xns5
.It \-xns5.2
.St -xns5.2
.It \-xns5.2d2.0
.St -xns5.2d2.0
.It \-xcurses4.2
.St -xcurses4.2
.It \-susv2
.St -susv2
.It \-susv3
.St -susv3
.It \-svid4
.St -svid4
.El
.Ss \&Sx
Reference a section or subsection in the same manual page.
The referenced section or subsection name must be identical to the
enclosed argument, including whitespace.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Sh
and
.Sx \&Ss .
.Ss \&Sy
Format enclosed arguments in symbolic
.Pq Dq boldface .
Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for
stylistically decorating technical terms.
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bf ,
.Sx \&Em ,
.Sx \&Li ,
and
.Sx \&No .
.Ss \&Ta
Table cell separator in
.Sx \&Bl Fl column
lists; can only be used below
.Sx \&It .
.Ss \&Tn
Format a tradename.
.Pp
Since this macro is often implemented to use a small caps font,
it has historically been used for acronyms (like ASCII) as well.
Such usage is not recommended because it would use the same macro
sometimes for semantical annotation, sometimes for physical formatting.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Tn IBM
.Ss \&Ud
Prints out
.Dq currently under development.
.Ss \&Ux
Format the UNIX name.
Accepts no argument.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ux
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&At ,
.Sx \&Bsx ,
.Sx \&Bx ,
.Sx \&Dx ,
.Sx \&Fx ,
.Sx \&Nx ,
and
.Sx \&Ox .
.Ss \&Va
A variable name.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Va foo
.Dl \&.Va const char *bar ;
.Ss \&Vt
A variable type.
This is also used for indicating global variables in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, in which case a variable name is also specified.
Note that it accepts
.Sx Block partial-implicit
syntax when invoked as the first macro on an input line in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, else it accepts ordinary
.Sx In-line
syntax.
In the former case, this macro starts a new output line,
and a blank line is inserted in front if there is a preceding
function definition or include directive.
.Pp
Note that this should not be confused with
.Sx \&Ft ,
which is used for function return types.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Vt unsigned char
.Dl \&.Vt extern const char * const sys_signame[] \&;
.Pp
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
and
.Sx \&Va .
.Ss \&Xc
Close a scope opened by
.Sx \&Xo .
.Ss \&Xo
Extend the header of an
.Sx \&It
macro or the body of a partial-implicit block macro
beyond the end of the input line.
This macro originally existed to work around the 9-argument limit
of historic
.Xr roff 7 .
.Ss \&Xr
Link to another manual
.Pq Qq cross-reference .
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Xr Ar name section
.Pp
The
.Ar name
and
.Ar section
are the name and section of the linked manual.
If
.Ar section
is followed by non-punctuation, an
.Sx \&Ns
is inserted into the token stream.
This behaviour is for compatibility with
GNU troff.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1
.Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&;
.Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&Ns s behaviour
.Ss \&br
Emits a line-break.
This macro should not be used; it is implemented for compatibility with
historical manuals.
.Pp
Consider using
.Sx \&Pp
in the event of natural paragraph breaks.
.Ss \&sp
Emits vertical space.
This macro should not be used; it is implemented for compatibility with
historical manuals.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&sp Op Ar height
.Pp
The
.Ar height
argument must be formatted as described in
.Sx Scaling Widths .
If unspecified,
.Sx \&sp
asserts a single vertical space.
.Sh MACRO SYNTAX
The syntax of a macro depends on its classification.
In this section,
.Sq \-arg
refers to macro arguments, which may be followed by zero or more
.Sq parm
parameters;
.Sq \&Yo
opens the scope of a macro; and if specified,
.Sq \&Yc
closes it out.
.Pp
The
.Em Callable
column indicates that the macro may also be called by passing its name
as an argument to another macro.
For example,
.Sq \&.Op \&Fl O \&Ar file
produces
.Sq Op Fl O Ar file .
To prevent a macro call and render the macro name literally,
escape it by prepending a zero-width space,
.Sq \e& .
For example,
.Sq \&Op \e&Fl O
produces
.Sq Op \&Fl O .
If a macro is not callable but its name appears as an argument
to another macro, it is interpreted as opaque text.
For example,
.Sq \&.Fl \&Sh
produces
.Sq Fl \&Sh .
.Pp
The
.Em Parsed
column indicates whether the macro may call other macros by receiving
their names as arguments.
If a macro is not parsed but the name of another macro appears
as an argument, it is interpreted as opaque text.
.Pp
The
.Em Scope
column, if applicable, describes closure rules.
.Ss Block full-explicit
Multi-line scope closed by an explicit closing macro.
All macros contains bodies; only
.Sx \&Bf
and
.Pq optionally
.Sx \&Bl
contain a head.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB
\(lBbody...\(rB
\&.Yc
.Ed
.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXX" -offset indent
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope
.It Sx \&Bd  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    closed by Sx \&Ed
.It Sx \&Bf  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    closed by Sx \&Ef
.It Sx \&Bk  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    closed by Sx \&Ek
.It Sx \&Bl  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    closed by Sx \&El
.It Sx \&Ed  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    opened by Sx \&Bd
.It Sx \&Ef  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    opened by Sx \&Bf
.It Sx \&Ek  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    opened by Sx \&Bk
.It Sx \&El  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    opened by Sx \&Bl
.El
.Ss Block full-implicit
Multi-line scope closed by end-of-file or implicitly by another macro.
All macros have bodies; some
.Po
.Sx \&It Fl bullet ,
.Fl hyphen ,
.Fl dash ,
.Fl enum ,
.Fl item
.Pc
don't have heads; only one
.Po
.Sx \&It
in
.Sx \&Bl Fl column
.Pc
has multiple heads.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead... \(lBTa head...\(rB\(rB
\(lBbody...\(rB
.Ed
.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXXXXXXXXXX" -offset indent
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope
.It Sx \&It Ta \&No Ta Yes  Ta closed by Sx \&It , Sx \&El
.It Sx \&Nd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Sh
.It Sx \&Nm Ta \&No Ta Yes  Ta closed by Sx \&Nm , Sx \&Sh , Sx \&Ss
.It Sx \&Sh Ta \&No Ta Yes  Ta closed by Sx \&Sh
.It Sx \&Ss Ta \&No Ta Yes  Ta closed by Sx \&Sh , Sx \&Ss
.El
.Pp
Note that the
.Sx \&Nm
macro is a
.Sx Block full-implicit
macro only when invoked as the first macro
in a
.Em SYNOPSIS
section line, else it is
.Sx In-line .
.Ss Block partial-explicit
Like block full-explicit, but also with single-line scope.
Each has at least a body and, in limited circumstances, a head
.Po
.Sx \&Fo ,
.Sx \&Eo
.Pc
and/or tail
.Pq Sx \&Ec .
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB
\(lBbody...\(rB
\&.Yc \(lBtail...\(rB

\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \
\(lBbody...\(rB \&Yc \(lBtail...\(rB
.Ed
.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXXX" -offset indent
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope
.It Sx \&Ac  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Sx \&Ao
.It Sx \&Ao  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Sx \&Ac
.It Sx \&Bc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Sx \&Bo
.It Sx \&Bo  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Sx \&Bc
.It Sx \&Brc Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Sx \&Bro
.It Sx \&Bro Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Sx \&Brc
.It Sx \&Dc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Sx \&Do
.It Sx \&Do  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Sx \&Dc
.It Sx \&Ec  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Sx \&Eo
.It Sx \&Eo  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Sx \&Ec
.It Sx \&Fc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Sx \&Fo
.It Sx \&Fo  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    closed by Sx \&Fc
.It Sx \&Oc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Sx \&Oo
.It Sx \&Oo  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Sx \&Oc
.It Sx \&Pc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Sx \&Po
.It Sx \&Po  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Sx \&Pc
.It Sx \&Qc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Sx \&Oo
.It Sx \&Qo  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Sx \&Oc
.It Sx \&Re  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    opened by Sx \&Rs
.It Sx \&Rs  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    closed by Sx \&Re
.It Sx \&Sc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Sx \&So
.It Sx \&So  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Sx \&Sc
.It Sx \&Xc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Sx \&Xo
.It Sx \&Xo  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Sx \&Xc
.El
.Ss Block partial-implicit
Like block full-implicit, but with single-line scope closed by the
end of the line.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \(lBres...\(rB
.Ed
.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" -offset indent
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed
.It Sx \&Aq  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Sx \&Bq  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Sx \&Brq Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Sx \&D1  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&Yes
.It Sx \&Dl  Ta    \&No     Ta    Yes
.It Sx \&Dq  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Sx \&Op  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Sx \&Pq  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Sx \&Ql  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Sx \&Qq  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Sx \&Sq  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Sx \&Vt  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.El
.Pp
Note that the
.Sx \&Vt
macro is a
.Sx Block partial-implicit
only when invoked as the first macro
in a
.Em SYNOPSIS
section line, else it is
.Sx In-line .
.Ss Special block macro
The
.Sx \&Ta
macro can only be used below
.Sx \&It
in
.Sx \&Bl Fl column
lists.
It delimits blocks representing table cells;
these blocks have bodies, but no heads.
.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXXX" -offset indent
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope
.It Sx \&Ta  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes    Ta closed by Sx \&Ta , Sx \&It
.El
.Ss In-line
Closed by the end of the line, fixed argument lengths,
and/or subsequent macros.
In-line macros have only text children.
If a number (or inequality) of arguments is
.Pq n ,
then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of arguments.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB \(lBres...\(rB

\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB Yc...

\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB arg0 arg1 argN
.Ed
.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "Arguments" -offset indent
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Arguments
.It Sx \&%A  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%B  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%C  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%D  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%I  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%J  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%N  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%O  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%P  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%Q  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%R  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%T  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%U  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&%V  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Ad  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&An  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Ap  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    0
.It Sx \&Ar  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Sx \&At  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    1
.It Sx \&Bsx Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Sx \&Bt  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    0
.It Sx \&Bx  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Sx \&Cd  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Cm  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Db  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    1
.It Sx \&Dd  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Sx \&Dt  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Sx \&Dv  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Dx  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Sx \&Em  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&En  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    0
.It Sx \&Er  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Es  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    0
.It Sx \&Ev  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Ex  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Sx \&Fa  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Fd  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Fl  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Sx \&Fn  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Fr  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Sx \&Ft  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Fx  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Sx \&Hf  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Sx \&Ic  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&In  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    1
.It Sx \&Lb  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    1
.It Sx \&Li  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Lk  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Lp  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    0
.It Sx \&Ms  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Mt  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Nm  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Sx \&No  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    0
.It Sx \&Ns  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    0
.It Sx \&Nx  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Sx \&Os  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Sx \&Ot  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Sx \&Ox  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Sx \&Pa  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Sx \&Pf  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    1
.It Sx \&Pp  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    0
.It Sx \&Rv  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Sx \&Sm  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    1
.It Sx \&St  Ta    \&No     Ta    Yes      Ta    1
.It Sx \&Sx  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Sy  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Tn  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Ud  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    0
.It Sx \&Ux  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Sx \&Va  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Sx \&Vt  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&Xr  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Sx \&br  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    0
.It Sx \&sp  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    1
.El
.Ss Delimiters
When a macro argument consists of one single input character
considered as a delimiter, the argument gets special handling.
This does not apply when delimiters appear in arguments containing
more than one character.
Consequently, to prevent special handling and just handle it
like any other argument, a delimiter can be escaped by prepending
a zero-width space
.Pq Sq \e& .
In text lines, delimiters never need escaping, but may be used
as normal punctuation.
.Pp
For many macros, when the leading arguments are opening delimiters,
these delimiters are put before the macro scope,
and when the trailing arguments are closing delimiters,
these delimiters are put after the macro scope.
For example,
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. \&Aq "( [ word ] ) ."
.Pp
renders as:
.Pp
.D1 Aq ( [ word ] ) .
.Pp
Opening delimiters are:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It \&(
left parenthesis
.It \&[
left bracket
.El
.Pp
Closing delimiters are:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It \&.
period
.It \&,
comma
.It \&:
colon
.It \&;
semicolon
.It \&)
right parenthesis
.It \&]
right bracket
.It \&?
question mark
.It \&!
exclamation mark
.El
.Pp
Note that even a period preceded by a backslash
.Pq Sq \e.\&
gets this special handling; use
.Sq \e&.
to prevent that.
.Pp
Many in-line macros interrupt their scope when they encounter
delimiters, and resume their scope when more arguments follow that
are not delimiters.
For example,
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. \&Fl "a ( b | c \e*(Ba d ) e"
.Pp
renders as:
.Pp
.D1 Fl a ( b | c \*(Ba d ) e
.Pp
This applies to both opening and closing delimiters,
and also to the middle delimiter:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It \&|
vertical bar
.El
.Pp
As a special case, the predefined string \e*(Ba is handled and rendered
in the same way as a plain
.Sq \&|
character.
Using this predefined string is not recommended in new manuals.
.Ss Font handling
In
.Nm
documents, usage of semantic markup is recommended in order to have
proper fonts automatically selected; only when no fitting semantic markup
is available, consider falling back to
.Sx Physical markup
macros.
Whenever any
.Nm
macro switches the
.Xr roff 7
font mode, it will automatically restore the previous font when exiting
its scope.
Manually switching the font using the
.Xr roff 7
.Ql \ef
font escape sequences is never required.
.Sh COMPATIBILITY
This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other other
troff implementations, at this time limited to GNU troff
.Pq Qq groff .
The term
.Qq historic groff
refers to groff versions before 1.17,
which featured a significant update of the
.Pa doc.tmac
file.
.Pp
Heirloom troff, the other significant troff implementation accepting
\-mdoc, is similar to historic groff.
.Pp
The following problematic behaviour is found in groff:
.ds hist (Historic groff only.)
.Pp
.Bl -dash -compact
.It
Display macros
.Po
.Sx \&Bd ,
.Sx \&Dl ,
and
.Sx \&D1
.Pc
may not be nested.
\*[hist]
.It
.Sx \&At
with unknown arguments produces no output at all.
\*[hist]
Newer groff and mandoc print
.Qq AT&T UNIX
and the arguments.
.It
.Sx \&Bl Fl column
does not recognise trailing punctuation characters when they immediately
precede tabulator characters, but treats them as normal text and
outputs a space before them.
.It
.Sx \&Bd Fl ragged compact
does not start a new line.
\*[hist]
.It
.Sx \&Dd
with non-standard arguments behaves very strangely.
When there are three arguments, they are printed verbatim.
Any other number of arguments is replaced by the current date,
but without any arguments the string
.Dq Epoch
is printed.
.It
.Sx \&Fl
does not print a dash for an empty argument.
\*[hist]
.It
.Sx \&Fn
does not start a new line unless invoked as the line macro in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section.
\*[hist]
.It
.Sx \&Fo
with
.Pf non- Sx \&Fa
children causes inconsistent spacing between arguments.
In mandoc, a single space is always inserted between arguments.
.It
.Sx \&Ft
in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
causes inconsistent vertical spacing, depending on whether a prior
.Sx \&Fn
has been invoked.
See
.Sx \&Ft
and
.Sx \&Fn
for the normalised behaviour in mandoc.
.It
.Sx \&In
ignores additional arguments and is not treated specially in the
.Em SYNOPSIS .
\*[hist]
.It
.Sx \&It
sometimes requires a
.Fl nested
flag.
\*[hist]
In new groff and mandoc, any list may be nested by default and
.Fl enum
lists will restart the sequence only for the sub-list.
.It
.Sx \&Li
followed by a delimiter is incorrectly used in some manuals
instead of properly quoting that character, which sometimes works with
historic groff.
.It
.Sx \&Lk
only accepts a single link-name argument; the remainder is misformatted.
.It
.Sx \&Pa
does not format its arguments when used in the FILES section under
certain list types.
.It
.Sx \&Ta
can only be called by other macros, but not at the beginning of a line.
.It
.Sx \&%C
is not implemented.
.It
Historic groff only allows up to eight or nine arguments per macro input
line, depending on the exact situation.
Providing more arguments causes garbled output.
The number of arguments on one input line is not limited with mandoc.
.It
Historic groff has many un-callable macros.
Most of these (excluding some block-level macros) are callable
in new groff and mandoc.
.It
.Sq \(ba
(vertical bar) is not fully supported as a delimiter.
\*[hist]
.It
.Sq \ef
.Pq font face
and
.Sq \ef
.Pq font family face
.Sx Text Decoration
escapes behave irregularly when specified within line-macro scopes.
.It
Negative scaling units return to prior lines.
Instead, mandoc truncates them to zero.
.El
.Pp
The following features are unimplemented in mandoc:
.Pp
.Bl -dash -compact
.It
.Sx \&Bd
.Fl file Ar file .
.It
.Sx \&Bd
.Fl offset Ar center
and
.Fl offset Ar right .
Groff does not implement centred and flush-right rendering either,
but produces large indentations.
.It
The
.Sq \eh
.Pq horizontal position ,
.Sq \ev
.Pq vertical position ,
.Sq \em
.Pq text colour ,
.Sq \eM
.Pq text filling colour ,
.Sq \ez
.Pq zero-length character ,
.Sq \ew
.Pq string length ,
.Sq \ek
.Pq horizontal position marker ,
.Sq \eo
.Pq text overstrike ,
and
.Sq \es
.Pq text size
escape sequences are all discarded in mandoc.
.It
The
.Sq \ef
scaling unit is accepted by mandoc, but rendered as the default unit.
.It
In quoted literals, groff allows pairwise double-quotes to produce a
standalone double-quote in formatted output.
This is not supported by mandoc.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr man 1 ,
.Xr mandoc 1 ,
.Xr eqn 7 ,
.Xr man 7 ,
.Xr mandoc_char 7 ,
.Xr roff 7 ,
.Xr tbl 7
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
language first appeared as a troff macro package in
.Bx 4.4 .
It was later significantly updated by Werner Lemberg and Ruslan Ermilov
in groff-1.17.
The standalone implementation that is part of the
.Xr mandoc 1
utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in
.Ox 4.6 .
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
reference was written by
.An Kristaps Dzonsons ,
.Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .