man.7

   1 .\"     $Id: man.7,v 1.13 2009/06/16 19:13:28 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 16 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 and the
  56 space character
  57 .Sq \  .
  58 All manuals must have
  59 .Ux
  60 .Sq \en
  61 line termination.
  62 .Pp
  63 Blank lines are acceptable; where found, the output will assert a
  64 vertical space.
  65 .Pp
  66 The
  67 .Sq \ec
  68 escape is common in historical
  69 .Nm
  70 documents; if encountered at the end of a word, it ensures that the
  71 subsequent word isn't off-set by whitespace.
  72 .\" SUB-SECTION
  73 .Ss Comments
  74 Anything following a
  75 .Sq \e"
  76 delimiter is considered a comment (unless the
  77 .Sq \e
  78 itself has been escaped) and is ignored to the end of line.
  79 Furthermore, a macro line with only a control character
  80 .Sq \. ,
  81 optionally followed by whitespace, is ignored.
  82 .\" SUB-SECTION
  83 .Ss Special Characters
  84 Special character sequences begin with the escape character
  85 .Sq \e
  86 followed by either an open-parenthesis
  87 .Sq \&(
  88 for two-character sequences; an open-bracket
  89 .Sq \&[
  90 for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket
  91 .Sq \&] ) ;
  92 or a single one-character sequence.
  93 .Pp
  94 Characters may alternatively be escaped by a slash-asterisk,
  95 .Sq \e* ,
  96 with the same combinations as described above.  This form is deprecated.
  97 .\" SECTION
  98 .Sh STRUCTURE
  99 Macros are one to three three characters in length and begin with a
 100 control character ,
 101 .Sq \&. ,
 102 at the beginning of the line.  An arbitrary amount of whitespace may
 103 sit between the control character and the macro name.  Thus,
 104 .Sq \&.PP
 105 and
 106 .Sq \&.\ \ \ \&PP
 107 are equivalent.
 108 .Pp
 109 All
 110 .Nm
 111 macros follow the same structural rules:
 112 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 113 \&.YO \(lBbody...\(rB
 114 .Ed
 115 .Pp
 116 The
 117 .Dq body
 118 consists of zero or more arguments to the macro.
 119 .Pp
 120 .Nm
 121 has a primitive notion of multi-line scope for the following macros:
 122 .Sq \&.TM ,
 123 .Sq \&.SM ,
 124 .Sq \&.SB ,
 125 .Sq \&.BI ,
 126 .Sq \&.IB ,
 127 .Sq \&.BR ,
 128 .Sq \&.RB ,
 129 .Sq \&.R ,
 130 .Sq \&.B ,
 131 .Sq \&.I ,
 132 .Sq \&.IR
 133 and
 134 .Sq \&.RI .
 135 When these macros are invoked without arguments, the subsequent line is
 136 considered a continuation of the macro.  Thus:
 137 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 138 \&.RI
 139 foo
 140 .Ed
 141 .Pp
 142 is equivalent to
 143 .Sq \&.RI foo .
 144 If two consecutive lines exhibit the latter behaviour,
 145 an error is raised.  Thus, the following is not acceptable:
 146 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 147 \&.RI
 148 \&.I
 149 Hello, world.
 150 .Ed
 151 .Pp
 152 The
 153 .Sq \&.TP
 154 macro is similar, but does not need an empty argument line to trigger
 155 the behaviour.
 156 .\" PARAGRAPH
 157 .Sh MACROS
 158 This section contains a complete list of all
 159 .Nm
 160 macros and corresponding number of arguments.
 161 .Pp
 162 .Bl -column "MacroX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent
 163 .It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments
 164 .It \&.TH    Ta    >1, <6
 165 .It \&.SH    Ta    >0
 166 .It \&.SS    Ta    >0
 167 .It \&.TP    Ta    n
 168 .It \&.LP    Ta    0
 169 .It \&.PP    Ta    0
 170 .It \&.P     Ta    0
 171 .It \&.IP    Ta    <3
 172 .It \&.HP    Ta    <2
 173 .It \&.SM    Ta    n
 174 .It \&.SB    Ta    n
 175 .It \&.BI    Ta    n
 176 .It \&.IB    Ta    n
 177 .It \&.BR    Ta    n
 178 .It \&.RB    Ta    n
 179 .It \&.R     Ta    n
 180 .It \&.B     Ta    n
 181 .It \&.I     Ta    n
 182 .It \&.IR    Ta    n
 183 .It \&.RI    Ta    n
 184 .El
 185 .Pp
 186 Although not historically part of the
 187 .Nm
 188 system, the following macros are also supported:
 189 .Pp
 190 .Bl -column "MacroX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent
 191 .It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments
 192 .It \&.br    Ta    0
 193 .It \&.i     Ta    n
 194 .El
 195 .Pp
 196 These follow the same calling conventions as the above
 197 .Nm
 198 macros.
 199 .\" SECTION
 200 .Sh SEE ALSO
 201 .Xr mandoc 1 ,
 202 .Xr mandoc_char 7
 203 .\" SECTION
 204 .Sh AUTHORS
 205 The
 206 .Nm
 207 utility was written by
 208 .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@kth.se .
 209 .\" SECTION
 210 .Sh CAVEATS
 211 Do not use this language.  Use
 212 .Xr mdoc 7 ,
 213 instead.