tbl.7

   1 .\"     $Id: tbl.7,v 1.12 2011/02/07 00:05:40 schwarze Exp $
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   3 .\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
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  17 .Dd $Mdocdate: February 7 2011 $
  18 .Dt TBL 7
  19 .Os
  20 .Sh NAME
  21 .Nm tbl
  22 .Nd tbl language reference for mandoc
  23 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  24 The
  25 .Nm tbl
  26 language is a table-formatting language.
  27 It is used within
  28 .Xr mdoc 7
  29 and
  30 .Xr man 7
  31 .Ux
  32 manual pages.
  33 This manual describes the subset of the
  34 .Nm
  35 language accepted by the
  36 .Xr mandoc 1
  37 utility.
  38 .Pp
  39 Tables within
  40 .Xr mdoc 7
  41 or
  42 .Xr man 7
  43 are enclosed by the
  44 .Sq TS
  45 and
  46 .Sq TE
  47 macro tags, whose precise syntax is documented in
  48 .Xr roff 7 .
  49 Tables consist of a series of options on a single line, followed by the
  50 table layout, followed by data.
  51 .Pp
  52 For example, the following creates a boxed table with digits centered in
  53 the cells.
  54 .Bd -literal -offset indent
  55 \&.TS
  56 tab(:) box;
  57 c5 c5 c5.
  58 1:2:3
  59 4:5:6
  60 \&.TE
  61 .Ed
  62 .Pp
  63 When formatted, the following output is produced:
  64 .Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
  65 .TS
  66 tab(:) box;
  67 c5 c5 c5.
  68 1:2:3
  69 4:5:6
  70 .TE
  71 .Ed
  72 .Sh TABLE STRUCTURE
  73 Tables are enclosed by the
  74 .Sq TS
  75 and
  76 .Sq TE
  77 .Xr roff 7
  78 macros.
  79 A table consists of an optional single line of table
  80 .Sx Options
  81 terminated by a semicolon, followed by one or more lines of
  82 .Sx Layout
  83 specifications terminated by a period, then
  84 .Sx Data .
  85 All input must be 7-bit ASCII.
  86 Example:
  87 .Bd -literal -offset indent
  88 \&.TS
  89 box tab(:);
  90 c | c
  91 | c | c.
  92 1:2
  93 3:4
  94 \&.TE
  95 .Ed
  96 .Pp
  97 Table data is
  98 .Em pre-processed ,
  99 that is, data rows are parsed then inserted into the underlying stream
 100 of input data.
 101 This allows data rows to be interspersed by arbitrary
 102 .Xr roff 7 ,
 103 .Xr mdoc 7 ,
 104 and
 105 .Xr man 7
 106 macros such as
 107 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 108 \&.TS
 109 tab(:);
 110 c c c.
 111 1:2:3
 112 \&.Ao
 113 3:2:1
 114 \&.Ac
 115 \&.TE
 116 .Ed
 117 .Pp
 118 in the case of
 119 .Xr mdoc 7
 120 or
 121 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 122 \&.TS
 123 tab(:);
 124 c c c.
 125 \&.ds ab 2
 126 1:\e*(ab:3
 127 \&.I
 128 3:2:1
 129 \&.TE
 130 .Ed
 131 .Pp
 132 in the case of
 133 .Xr man 7 .
 134 .Ss Options
 135 The first line of a table consists of space-separated option keys and
 136 modifiers terminated by a semicolon.
 137 If the first line does not have a terminating semicolon, it is assumed
 138 that no options are specified and instead a
 139 .Sx Layout
 140 is processed.
 141 Some options accept arguments enclosed by parenthesis.
 142 The following case-insensitive options are available:
 143 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 144 .It Cm center
 145 This option is not supported by
 146 .Xr mandoc 1 .
 147 This may also be invoked with
 148 .Cm centre .
 149 .It Cm delim
 150 Accepts a two-character argument.
 151 This option is not supported by
 152 .Xr mandoc 1 .
 153 .It Cm expand
 154 This option is not supported by
 155 .Xr mandoc 1 .
 156 .It Cm box
 157 Draw a single-line box around the table.
 158 This may also be invoked with
 159 .Cm frame .
 160 .It Cm doublebox
 161 Draw a double-line box around the table.
 162 This may also be invoked with
 163 .Cm doubleframe .
 164 .It Cm allbox
 165 This option is not supported by
 166 .Xr mandoc 1 .
 167 .It Cm tab
 168 Accepts a single-character argument.
 169 This character is used as a delimiter between data cells, which otherwise
 170 defaults to the tab character.
 171 .It Cm linesize
 172 Accepts a natural number (all digits).
 173 This option is not supported by
 174 .Xr mandoc 1 .
 175 .It Cm nokeep
 176 This option is not supported by
 177 .Xr mandoc 1 .
 178 .It Cm decimalpoint
 179 Accepts a single-character argument.
 180 This character will be used as the decimal point with the
 181 .Cm n
 182 layout key.
 183 .It Cm nospaces
 184 This option is not supported by
 185 .Xr mandoc 1 .
 186 .El
 187 .Ss Layout
 188 The table layout follows
 189 .Sx Options
 190 or a
 191 .Sq \&T&
 192 macro invocation.
 193 Layout specifies how data rows are displayed on output.
 194 Each layout line corresponds to a line of data; the last layout line
 195 applies to all remaining data lines.
 196 Layout lines may also be separated by a comma.
 197 Each layout cell consists of one of the following case-insensitive keys:
 198 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 199 .It Cm c
 200 Centre a literal string within its column.
 201 .It Cm r
 202 Right-justify a literal string within its column.
 203 .It Cm l
 204 Left-justify a literal string within its column.
 205 .It Cm n
 206 Justify a number around its last decimal point.
 207 If the decimal point is not found on the number, it's assumed to trail
 208 the number.
 209 .It Cm s
 210 Horizontally span columns from the last
 211 .No non- Ns Cm s
 212 data cell.
 213 It is an error if spanning columns follow a
 214 .Cm \-
 215 or
 216 .Cm \(ba
 217 cell, or come first.
 218 This option is not supported by
 219 .Xr mandoc 1 .
 220 .It Cm a
 221 Left-justify a literal string and pad with one space.
 222 .It Cm ^
 223 Vertically span rows from the last
 224 .No non- Ns Cm ^
 225 data cell.
 226 It is an error to invoke a vertical span on the first layout row.
 227 Unlike a horizontal spanner, you must specify an empty cell (if it not
 228 empty, the data is discarded) in the corresponding data cell.
 229 .It Cm \-
 230 Replace the data cell (its contents will be lost) with a single
 231 horizontal line.
 232 This may also be invoked with
 233 .Cm _ .
 234 .It Cm =
 235 Replace the data cell (its contents will be lost) with a double
 236 horizontal line.
 237 .It Cm \(ba
 238 Emit a vertical bar instead of data.
 239 .It Cm \(ba\(ba
 240 Emit a double-vertical bar instead of data.
 241 .El
 242 .Pp
 243 Keys may be followed by a set of modifiers.
 244 A modifier is either a modifier key or a natural number for specifying
 245 the minimum width of a column.
 246 The following case-insensitive modifier keys are available:
 247 .Cm z ,
 248 .Cm u ,
 249 .Cm e ,
 250 .Cm t ,
 251 .Cm d ,
 252 .Cm f ,
 253 .Cm b ,
 254 .Cm i ,
 255 .Cm b ,
 256 and
 257 .Cm i .
 258 All of these are ignored by
 259 .Xr mandoc 1 .
 260 .Pp
 261 For example, the following layout specifies a centre-justified column of
 262 minimum width 10, followed by vertical bar, followed by a left-justified
 263 column of minimum width 10, another vertical bar, then a column
 264 justified about the decimal point in numbers:
 265 .Pp
 266 .Dl c10 | l10 | n
 267 .Ss Data
 268 The data section follows the last layout row.
 269 By default, cells in a data section are delimited by a tab.
 270 This behaviour may be changed with the
 271 .Cm tab
 272 option.
 273 If
 274 .Cm _
 275 or
 276 .Cm =
 277 is specified, a single or double line, respectively, is drawn across the
 278 data field.
 279 If
 280 .Cm \e-
 281 or
 282 .Cm \e=
 283 is specified, a line is drawn within the data field (i.e. terminating
 284 within the cell and not draw to the border).
 285 If the last cell of a line is
 286 .Cm T{ ,
 287 all subsequent lines are included as part of the cell until
 288 .Cm T}
 289 is specified as its own data cell.
 290 It may then be followed by a tab
 291 .Pq or as designated by Cm tab
 292 or an end-of-line to terminate the row.
 293 .Sh COMPATIBILITY
 294 This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other
 295 .Nm
 296 implementations, at this time limited to GNU tbl.
 297 .Pp
 298 .Bl -dash -compact
 299 .It
 300 In GNU tbl, comments and macros are disallowed prior to the data block
 301 of a table.
 302 The
 303 .Xr mandoc 1
 304 implementation allows them.
 305 .El
 306 .Sh SEE ALSO
 307 .Xr mandoc 1 ,
 308 .Xr man 7 ,
 309 .Xr mandoc_char 7 ,
 310 .Xr mdoc 7 ,
 311 .Xr roff 7
 312 .Rs
 313 .%A M. E. Lesk
 314 .%T Tbl\(emA Program to Format Tables
 315 .%D June 11, 1976
 316 .Re
 317 .Sh HISTORY
 318 The tbl utility, a preprocessor for troff, was originally written by M.
 319 E. Lesk at Bell Labs in 1975.
 320 The GNU reimplementation of tbl, part of the groff package, was released
 321 in 1990 by James Clark.
 322 A standalone tbl implementation was written by Kristaps Dzonsons in
 323 2010.
 324 This formed the basis of the implementation that is part of the
 325 .Xr mandoc 1
 326 utility.
 327 .Sh AUTHORS
 328 This partial
 329 .Nm
 330 reference was written by
 331 .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@bsd.lv .