man.7

   1 .\"     $Id: man.7,v 1.17 2009/06/25 11:35:28 kristaps Exp $
   2 .\"
   3 .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@kth.se>
   4 .\"
   5 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
   6 .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
   7 .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
   8 .\"
   9 .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
  10 .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
  11 .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
  12 .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
  13 .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
  14 .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
  15 .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
  16 .\"
  17 .Dd $Mdocdate: June 25 2009 $
  18 .Dt MAN 7
  19 .Os
  20 .\" SECTION
  21 .Sh NAME
  22 .Nm man
  23 .Nd man language reference
  24 .\" SECTION
  25 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  26 The
  27 .Nm man
  28 language was historically used to format
  29 .Ux
  30 manuals.  This reference document describes the syntax and structure of
  31 this language.
  32 .Pp
  33 .Em \&Do not
  34 use
  35 .Nm
  36 to write your manuals.  Use the
  37 .Xr mdoc 7
  38 language, instead.
  39 .\" PARAGRAPH
  40 .Pp
  41 An
  42 .Nm
  43 document follows simple rules:  lines beginning with the control
  44 character
  45 .Sq \&.
  46 are parsed for macros.  Other lines are interpreted within the scope of
  47 prior macros:
  48 .Bd -literal -offset indent
  49 \&.SH Macro lines change control state.
  50 Other lines are interpreted within the current state.
  51 .Ed
  52 .\" SECTION
  53 .Sh INPUT ENCODING
  54 .Nm
  55 documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the
  56 space character
  57 .Sq \  ,
  58 and tabs
  59 .Sq \et .
  60 All manuals must have
  61 .Ux
  62 .Sq \en
  63 line termination.
  64 .Pp
  65 Blank lines are acceptable; where found, the output will assert a
  66 vertical space.
  67 .Pp
  68 The
  69 .Sq \ec
  70 escape is common in historical
  71 .Nm
  72 documents; if encountered at the end of a word, it ensures that the
  73 subsequent word isn't off-set by whitespace.
  74 .\" SUB-SECTION
  75 .Ss Comments
  76 Anything following a
  77 .Sq \e"
  78 delimiter is considered a comment (unless the
  79 .Sq \e
  80 itself has been escaped) and is ignored to the end of line.
  81 Furthermore, a macro line with only a control character
  82 .Sq \. ,
  83 optionally followed by whitespace, is ignored.
  84 .\" SUB-SECTION
  85 .Ss Special Characters
  86 Special character sequences begin with the escape character
  87 .Sq \e
  88 followed by either an open-parenthesis
  89 .Sq \&(
  90 for two-character sequences; an open-bracket
  91 .Sq \&[
  92 for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket
  93 .Sq \&] ) ;
  94 or a single one-character sequence.
  95 .Pp
  96 Characters may alternatively be escaped by a slash-asterisk,
  97 .Sq \e* ,
  98 with the same combinations as described above.  This form is deprecated.
  99 .\" SUB-SECTION
 100 .Ss Whitespace
 101 Unless specifically escaped, consecutive blocks of whitespace are pruned
 102 from input.  These are later re-added, if applicable, by a front-end
 103 utility such as
 104 .Xr mandoc 1 .
 105 .\" SECTION
 106 .Sh STRUCTURE
 107 Each
 108 .Nm
 109 document must contain contains at least the
 110 .Sq \&.TH
 111 macro describing the document's section and title.  It may occur
 112 anywhere in the document, although conventionally, it appears as the
 113 first macro.
 114 .Pp
 115 Beyond the
 116 .Sq \&.TH ,
 117 at least one macro or text node must appear in the document.
 118 .\" SECTION
 119 .Sh SYNTAX
 120 Macros are one to three three characters in length and begin with a
 121 control character ,
 122 .Sq \&. ,
 123 at the beginning of the line.  An arbitrary amount of whitespace may
 124 sit between the control character and the macro name.  Thus,
 125 .Sq \&.PP
 126 and
 127 .Sq \&.\ \ \ \&PP
 128 are equivalent.
 129 .Pp
 130 All
 131 .Nm
 132 macros follow the same structural rules:
 133 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 134 \&.YO \(lBbody...\(rB
 135 .Ed
 136 .Pp
 137 The
 138 .Dq body
 139 consists of zero or more arguments to the macro.
 140 .Pp
 141 .Nm
 142 has a primitive notion of multi-line scope for the following macros:
 143 .Sq \&.TM ,
 144 .Sq \&.SM ,
 145 .Sq \&.SB ,
 146 .Sq \&.BI ,
 147 .Sq \&.IB ,
 148 .Sq \&.BR ,
 149 .Sq \&.RB ,
 150 .Sq \&.R ,
 151 .Sq \&.B ,
 152 .Sq \&.I ,
 153 .Sq \&.IR
 154 and
 155 .Sq \&.RI .
 156 When these macros are invoked without arguments, the subsequent line is
 157 considered a continuation of the macro.  Thus:
 158 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 159 \&.RI
 160 foo
 161 .Ed
 162 .Pp
 163 is equivalent to
 164 .Sq \&.RI foo .
 165 If two consecutive lines exhibit the latter behaviour,
 166 an error is raised.  Thus, the following is not acceptable:
 167 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 168 \&.RI
 169 \&.I
 170 Hello, world.
 171 .Ed
 172 .Pp
 173 The
 174 .Sq \&.TP
 175 macro is similar, but does not need an empty argument line to trigger
 176 the behaviour.
 177 .\" SECTION
 178 .Sh MACROS
 179 This section contains a complete list of all
 180 .Nm
 181 macros and corresponding number of arguments.
 182 .Pp
 183 .Bl -column "MacroX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent
 184 .It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments
 185 .It \&.TH    Ta    >1, <6
 186 .It \&.SH    Ta    >0
 187 .It \&.SS    Ta    >0
 188 .It \&.TP    Ta    n
 189 .It \&.LP    Ta    0
 190 .It \&.PP    Ta    0
 191 .It \&.P     Ta    0
 192 .It \&.IP    Ta    <3
 193 .It \&.HP    Ta    <2
 194 .It \&.SM    Ta    n
 195 .It \&.SB    Ta    n
 196 .It \&.BI    Ta    n
 197 .It \&.IB    Ta    n
 198 .It \&.BR    Ta    n
 199 .It \&.RB    Ta    n
 200 .It \&.R     Ta    n
 201 .It \&.B     Ta    n
 202 .It \&.I     Ta    n
 203 .It \&.IR    Ta    n
 204 .It \&.RI    Ta    n
 205 .El
 206 .Pp
 207 Although not historically part of the
 208 .Nm
 209 system, the following macros are also supported:
 210 .Pp
 211 .Bl -column "MacroX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent
 212 .It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments
 213 .It \&.br    Ta    0
 214 .It \&.i     Ta    n
 215 .El
 216 .Pp
 217 These follow the same calling conventions as the above
 218 .Nm
 219 macros.
 220 .\" SECTION
 221 .Sh SEE ALSO
 222 .Xr mandoc 1 ,
 223 .Xr mandoc_char 7
 224 .\" SECTION
 225 .Sh AUTHORS
 226 The
 227 .Nm
 228 utility was written by
 229 .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@kth.se .
 230 .\" SECTION
 231 .Sh CAVEATS
 232 Do not use this language.  Use
 233 .Xr mdoc 7 ,
 234 instead.