1 .\" $Id: roff.7,v 1.33 2011/09/26 23:07:31 schwarze Exp $
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
4 .\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
6 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
7 .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
8 .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
10 .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
11 .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
12 .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
13 .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
14 .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
15 .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
16 .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
18 .Dd $Mdocdate: September 26 2011 $
23 .Nd roff language reference for mandoc
27 language is a general purpose text formatting language.
28 Since traditional implementations of the
32 manual formatting languages are based on it,
33 many real-world manuals use small numbers of
35 requests intermixed with their
40 To properly format such manuals, the
42 utility supports a tiny subset of
45 Only these requests supported by
47 are documented in the present manual,
48 together with the basic language syntax shared by
59 Input lines beginning with the control character
61 are parsed for requests and macros.
67 Requests change the processing state and manipulate the formatting;
68 some macros also define the document structure and produce formatted
72 is accepted as an alternative control character,
78 Lines not beginning with control characters are called
80 They provide free-form text to be printed; the formatting of the text
81 depends on the respective processing context.
84 documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the space
85 character, and, in certain circumstances, the tab character.
86 The back-space character
88 indicates the start of an escape sequence for
90 .Sx Special Characters ,
91 .Sx Predefined Strings ,
93 user-defined strings defined using the
97 Text following an escaped double-quote
99 whether in a request, macro, or text line, is ignored to the end of the line.
100 A request line beginning with a control character and comment escape
103 Furthermore, request lines with only a control character and optional
104 trailing whitespace are stripped from input.
107 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
108 \&.\e\(dq This is a comment line.
109 \&.\e\(dq The next line is ignored:
111 \&.Sh EXAMPLES \e\(dq This is a comment, too.
112 \&example text \e\(dq And so is this.
114 .Ss Special Characters
115 Special characters are used to encode special glyphs and are rendered
116 differently across output media.
117 They may occur in request, macro, and text lines.
118 Sequences begin with the escape character
120 followed by either an open-parenthesis
122 for two-character sequences; an open-bracket
124 for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket
126 or a single one character sequence.
129 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
131 Two-letter em dash escape.
133 One-letter backslash escape.
140 Terms may be text-decorated using the
142 escape followed by an indicator: B (bold), I (italic), R (regular), or P
143 (revert to previous mode).
144 A numerical representation 3, 2, or 1 (bold, italic, and regular,
145 respectively) may be used instead.
148 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
150 Write in bold, then switch to regular font mode.
151 .It Li \efIitalic\efP
152 Write in italic, then return to previous font mode.
159 which encourages semantic annotation.
160 .Ss Predefined Strings
161 Predefined strings, like
162 .Sx Special Characters ,
163 mark special output glyphs.
164 Predefined strings are escaped with the slash-asterisk,
174 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
176 Two-letter ampersand predefined string.
178 One-letter double-quote predefined string.
181 Predefined strings are not recommended for use,
182 as they differ across implementations.
187 Manuals using these predefined strings are almost certainly not portable.
189 Whitespace consists of the space character.
190 In text lines, whitespace is preserved within a line.
191 In request and macro lines, whitespace delimits arguments and is discarded.
193 Unescaped trailing spaces are stripped from text line input unless in a
195 In general, trailing whitespace on any input line is discouraged for
196 reasons of portability.
197 In the rare case that a blank character is needed at the end of an
198 input line, it may be forced by
201 Literal space characters can be produced in the output
202 using escape sequences.
203 In macro lines, they can also be included in arguments using quotation; see
207 Blank text lines, which may include whitespace, are only permitted
208 within literal contexts.
209 If the first character of a text line is a space, that line is printed
210 with a leading newline.
212 Many requests and macros support scaled widths for their arguments.
213 The syntax for a scaled width is
214 .Sq Li [+-]?[0-9]*.[0-9]*[:unit:] ,
215 where a decimal must be preceded or followed by at least one digit.
216 Negative numbers, while accepted, are truncated to zero.
218 The following scaling units are accepted:
220 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
233 default vertical span
245 default horizontal span
250 Using anything other than
256 is necessarily non-portable across output media.
260 If a scaling unit is not provided, the numerical value is interpreted
261 under the default rules of
263 for vertical spaces and
268 .Bl -tag -width ".Bl -tag -width 2i" -offset indent -compact
269 .It Li \&.Bl -tag -width 2i
270 two-inch tagged list indentation in
273 two-inch tagged list indentation in
279 Each sentence should terminate at the end of an input line.
280 By doing this, a formatter will be able to apply the proper amount of
281 spacing after the end of sentence (unescaped) period, exclamation mark,
282 or question mark followed by zero or more non-sentence closing
291 The proper spacing is also intelligently preserved if a sentence ends at
292 the boundary of a macro line.
295 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
296 Do not end sentences mid-line like this. Instead,
297 end a sentence like this.
298 A macro would end like this:
302 A request or macro line consists of:
306 the control character
310 at the beginning of the line,
312 optionally an arbitrary amount of whitespace,
314 the name of the request or the macro, which is one word of arbitrary
315 length, terminated by whitespace,
317 and zero or more arguments delimited by whitespace.
320 Thus, the following request lines are all equivalent:
321 .Bd -literal -offset indent
327 Macros are provided by the
331 languages and can be defined by the
334 When called, they follow the same syntax as requests, except that
335 macro arguments may optionally be quoted by enclosing them
336 in double quote characters
338 Quoted text, even if it contains whitespace or would cause
339 a macro invocation when unquoted, is always considered literal text.
340 Inside quoted text, pairs of double quote characters
342 resolve to single double quote characters.
344 To be recognised as the beginning of a quoted argument, the opening
345 quote character must be preceded by a space character.
346 A quoted argument extends to the next double quote character that is not
347 part of a pair, or to the end of the input line, whichever comes earlier.
348 Leaving out the terminating double quote character at the end of the line
350 For clarity, if more arguments follow on the same input line,
351 it is recommended to follow the terminating double quote character
352 by a space character; in case the next character after the terminating
353 double quote character is anything else, it is regarded as the beginning
354 of the next, unquoted argument.
356 Both in quoted and unquoted arguments, pairs of backslashes
358 resolve to single backslashes.
359 In unquoted arguments, space characters can alternatively be included
360 by preceding them with a backslash
362 but quoting is usually better for clarity.
365 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
366 .It Li .Fn strlen \(dqconst char *s\(dq
369 into one function argument.
375 would be considered separate arguments.
376 .It Li .Op \(dqFl a\(dq
379 as literal text instead of a flag macro.
381 .Sh REQUEST REFERENCE
385 parser recognises the following requests.
388 language defines many more requests not implemented in
391 Set line adjustment mode.
392 This line-scoped request is intended to have one argument to select
393 normal, left, right, or centre adjustment for subsequent text.
394 Currently, it is ignored including its arguments,
395 and the number of arguments is not checked.
397 Append to a macro definition.
398 The syntax of this request is the same as that of
400 It is currently ignored by
404 Append to a macro definition, specifying the macro name indirectly.
405 The syntax of this request is the same as that of
407 It is currently ignored by
411 Append to a macro definition, switching roff compatibility mode off
412 during macro execution.
413 The syntax of this request is the same as that of
415 It is currently ignored by
422 Its syntax can be either
423 .Bd -literal -offset indent
424 .Pf . Cm \&de Ar name
430 .Bd -literal -offset indent
431 .Pf . Cm \&de Ar name Ar end
436 Both forms define or redefine the macro
439 .Ar macro definition ,
440 which may consist of one or more input lines, including the newline
441 characters terminating each line, optionally containing calls to
445 macros or high-level macros like
449 macros, whichever applies to the document in question.
453 macro works in the same way as for
458 .Ar macro definition ,
459 and after that, it is also evaluated as a
463 macro, but not as a high-level macro.
465 The macro can be invoked later using the syntax
467 .D1 Pf . Ar name Op Ar argument Op Ar argument ...
469 Regarding argument parsing, see
473 The line invoking the macro will be replaced
474 in the input stream by the
475 .Ar macro definition ,
476 replacing all occurrences of
481 .Ar N Ns th Ar argument .
483 .Bd -literal -offset indent
485 \efI\e^\e\e$1\e^\efP\e\e$2
492 .D1 \efI\e^XtFree\e^\efP.
494 in the input stream, and thus in the output: \fI\^XtFree\^\fP.
496 Since macros and user-defined strings share a common string table,
499 clobbers the user-defined string
503 can also be printed using the
505 string interpolation syntax described below
507 but this is rarely useful because every macro definition contains at least
508 one explicit newline character.
510 In order to prevent endless recursion, both groff and
512 limit the stack depth for expanding macros and strings
513 to a large, but finite number.
514 Do not rely on the exact value of this limit.
518 macro, specifying the macro name indirectly.
519 The syntax of this request is the same as that of
521 It is currently ignored by
527 macro that will be executed with
529 compatibility mode switched off during macro execution.
530 This is a GNU extension not available in traditional
532 implementations and not even in older versions of groff.
537 compatibility mode at all, it handles this request as an alias for
540 Define a user-defined string.
541 Its syntax is as follows:
543 .D1 Pf . Cm \&ds Ar name Oo \(dq Oc Ns Ar string
549 arguments are space-separated.
552 begins with a double-quote character, that character will not be part
554 All remaining characters on the input line form the
556 including whitespace and double-quote characters, even trailing ones.
560 can be interpolated into subsequent text by using
561 .No \e* Ns Bq Ar name
564 of arbitrary length, or \e*(NN or \e*N if the length of
566 is two or one characters, respectively.
567 Interpolation can be prevented by escaping the leading backslash;
568 that is, an asterisk preceded by an even number of backslashes
569 does not trigger string interpolation.
571 Since user-defined strings and macros share a common string table,
578 used for defining a string can also be invoked as a macro,
579 in which case the following input line will be appended to the
581 forming a new input line passed to the
585 .Bd -literal -offset indent
596 Such abuse is of course strongly discouraged.
600 half of an if/else conditional.
601 Pops a result off the stack of conditional evaluations pushed by
603 and uses it as its conditional.
604 If no stack entries are present (e.g., due to no prior
607 then false is assumed.
608 The syntax of this request is similar to
610 except that the conditional is missing.
612 End an equation block.
616 Begin an equation block.
619 for a description of the equation language.
621 Set automatic hyphenation mode.
622 This line-scoped request is currently ignored.
626 half of an if/else conditional.
627 The result of the conditional is pushed into a stack used by subsequent
630 which may be separated by any intervening input (or not exist at all).
631 Its syntax is equivalent to
634 Begins a conditional.
635 Right now, the conditional evaluates to true
636 if and only if it starts with the letter
638 indicating processing in nroff style as opposed to troff style.
639 If a conditional is false, its children are not processed, but are
640 syntactically interpreted to preserve the integrity of the input
648 which may lead to interesting results, but
650 .D1 \&.if t .if t \e{\e
652 will continue to syntactically interpret to the block close of the final
654 Sub-conditionals, in this case, obviously inherit the truth value of
656 This request has the following syntax:
657 .Bd -literal -offset indent
662 .Bd -literal -offset indent
666 .Bd -literal -offset indent
671 .Bd -literal -offset indent
676 COND is a conditional statement.
677 roff allows for complicated conditionals; mandoc is much simpler.
678 At this time, mandoc supports only
687 All other invocations are read up to the next end of line or space and
690 If the BODY section is begun by an escaped brace
692 scope continues until a closing-brace escape sequence
694 If the BODY is not enclosed in braces, scope continues until
696 If the COND is followed by a BODY on the same line, whether after a
697 brace or not, then requests and macros
699 begin with a control character.
700 It is generally more intuitive, in this case, to write
701 .Bd -literal -offset indent
708 than having the request or macro follow as
710 .D1 \&.if COND \e{ .foo
712 The scope of a conditional is always parsed, but only executed if the
713 conditional evaluates to true.
717 is converted into a zero-width escape sequence if not passed as a
726 being considered an argument of the
731 Its syntax can be either
732 .Bd -literal -offset indent
739 .Bd -literal -offset indent
745 In the first case, input is ignored until a
747 request is encountered on its own line.
748 In the second case, input is ignored until the specified
750 macro is encountered.
751 Do not use the escape character
753 anywhere in the definition of
755 it would cause very strange behaviour.
759 macro is a roff request or a roff macro, like in
763 the subsequent invocation of
765 will first terminate the
767 then be invoked as usual.
768 Otherwise, it only terminates the
770 and arguments following it or the
772 request are discarded.
774 Declare the need for the specified minimum vertical space
775 before the next trap or the bottom of the page.
776 This line-scoped request is currently ignored.
778 Turn off automatic hyphenation mode.
779 This line-scoped request is currently ignored.
781 Remove a request, macro or string.
782 This request is intended to have one argument,
783 the name of the request, macro or string to be undefined.
784 Currently, it is ignored including its arguments,
785 and the number of arguments is not checked.
788 A register is an arbitrary string value that defines some sort of state,
789 which influences parsing and/or formatting.
790 Its syntax is as follows:
792 .D1 Pf \. Cm \&nr Ar name Ar value
796 may, at the moment, only be an integer.
797 So far, only the following register
802 If set to a positive integer value, certain
804 macros will behave in the same way as in the
807 If set to 0, these macros will behave in the same way as outside the
809 section, even when called within the
812 Note that starting a new
816 macro will reset this register.
819 Turn on no-space mode.
820 This line-scoped request is intended to take no arguments.
821 Currently, it is ignored including its arguments,
822 and the number of arguments is not checked.
825 This line-scoped request is intended to take one numerical argument.
826 Currently, it is ignored including its arguments,
827 and the number of arguments is not checked.
829 Include a source file.
830 Its syntax is as follows:
832 .D1 Pf \. Cm \&so Ar file
836 will be read and its contents processed as input in place of the
839 To avoid inadvertent inclusion of unrelated files,
841 only accepts relative paths not containing the strings
847 This line-scoped request can take an arbitrary number of arguments.
848 Currently, it is ignored including its arguments.
850 Output character translation.
851 Its syntax is as follows:
853 .D1 Pf \. Cm \&tr Ar [ab]+
857 characters are replaced
861 Replacement (or origin) characters may also be character escapes; thus,
865 replaces all invocations of \e(xx with \e(yy.
867 Re-start a table layout, retaining the options of the prior table
876 Begin a table, which formats input in aligned rows and columns.
879 for a description of the tbl language.
881 This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other other
883 implementations, at this time limited to GNU troff
887 refers to groff version 1.15.
897 macros are considered regular macros.
900 implementations, these are special macros that must be specified without
901 spacing between the control character (which must be a period) and the
906 register is only compatible with OpenBSD's groff-1.15.
908 Historic groff did not accept white-space before a custom
916 and family would print funny white-spaces with historic groff when
917 using the next-line syntax.
927 .%A Joseph F. Ossanna
928 .%A Brian W. Kernighan
929 .%I AT&T Bell Laboratories
930 .%T Troff User's Manual
931 .%R Computing Science Technical Report
933 .%C Murray Hill, New Jersey
935 .%U http://www.kohala.com/start/troff/cstr54.ps
938 .%A Joseph F. Ossanna
939 .%A Brian W. Kernighan
941 .%T Heirloom Documentation Tools Nroff/Troff User's Manual
942 .%D September 17, 2007
943 .%U http://heirloom.sourceforge.net/doctools/troff.pdf
946 The RUNOFF typesetting system was written in PL/1 for the CTSS
947 operating system by Jerome ("Jerry") E. Saltzer in 1961.
948 It was first used as the main documentation tool by Multics since 1963.
949 Robert ("Bob") H. Morris ported it to the GE-635 and called it
951 Doug McIlroy rewrote it in BCPL in 1969,
952 Joseph F. Ossanna rewrote it in PDP-11 assembly in 1973,
953 and Brian W. Kernighan rewrote it in C in 1975.
958 reference was written by
959 .An Kristaps Dzonsons ,
960 .Mt kristaps@bsd.lv ;
963 .Mt schwarze@openbsd.org .