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1 .\" $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.126 2010/06/12 11:41:50 kristaps Exp $
2 .\"
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
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.
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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 12 2010 $
18 .Dt MDOC 7
19 .Os
20 .Sh NAME
21 .Nm mdoc
22 .Nd mdoc language reference
23 .Sh DESCRIPTION
24 The
25 .Nm mdoc
26 language is used to format
27 .Bx
28 .Ux
29 manuals. In this reference document, we describe its syntax, structure,
30 and usage. Our reference implementation is mandoc; the
31 .Sx COMPATIBILITY
32 section describes compatibility with other troff \-mdoc implementations.
33 .Pp
34 An
35 .Nm
36 document follows simple rules: lines beginning with the control
37 character
38 .Sq \.
39 are parsed for macros. Other lines are interpreted within the scope of
40 prior macros:
41 .Bd -literal -offset indent
42 \&.Sh Macro lines change control state.
43 Other lines are interpreted within the current state.
44 .Ed
45 .Sh LANGUAGE SYNTAX
46 .Nm
47 documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the space
48 character, and, in certain circumstances, the tab character. All
49 manuals must have
50 .Ux
51 line terminators.
52 .Ss Comments
53 Text following a
54 .Sq \e" ,
55 whether in a macro or free-form text line, is ignored to the end of
56 line. A macro line with only a control character and comment escape,
57 .Sq \&.\e" ,
58 is also ignored. Macro lines with only a control character and optionally
59 whitespace are stripped from input.
60 .Ss Reserved Characters
61 Within a macro line, the following characters are reserved:
62 .Pp
63 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
64 .It \&.
65 .Pq period
66 .It \&,
67 .Pq comma
68 .It \&:
69 .Pq colon
70 .It \&;
71 .Pq semicolon
72 .It \&(
73 .Pq left-parenthesis
74 .It \&)
75 .Pq right-parenthesis
76 .It \&[
77 .Pq left-bracket
78 .It \&]
79 .Pq right-bracket
80 .It \&?
81 .Pq question
82 .It \&!
83 .Pq exclamation
84 .It \&|
85 .Pq vertical bar
86 .El
87 .Pp
88 Use of reserved characters is described in
89 .Sx MACRO SYNTAX .
90 For general use in macro lines, these characters must either be escaped
91 with a non-breaking space
92 .Pq Sq \e&
93 or, if applicable, an appropriate escape sequence used.
94 .Ss Special Characters
95 Special characters may occur in both macro and free-form lines.
96 Sequences begin with the escape character
97 .Sq \e
98 followed by either an open-parenthesis
99 .Sq \&(
100 for two-character sequences; an open-bracket
101 .Sq \&[
102 for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket
103 .Sq \&] ) ;
104 or a single one-character sequence.
105 See
106 .Xr mandoc_char 7
107 for a complete list.
108 Examples include
109 .Sq \e(em
110 .Pq em-dash
111 and
112 .Sq \ee
113 .Pq back-slash .
114 .Ss Text Decoration
115 Terms may be text-decorated using the
116 .Sq \ef
117 escape followed by an indicator: B (bold), I, (italic), R (Roman), or P
118 (revert to previous mode):
119 .Pp
120 .D1 \efBbold\efR \efIitalic\efP
121 .Pp
122 A numerical representation 3, 2, or 1 (bold, italic, and Roman,
123 respectively) may be used instead.
124 A text decoration is valid within
125 the current font scope only: if a macro opens a font scope alongside
126 its own scope, such as
127 .Sx \&Bf
128 .Cm \&Sy ,
129 in-scope invocations of
130 .Sq \ef
131 are only valid within the font scope of the macro.
132 If
133 .Sq \ef
134 is specified outside of any font scope, such as in unenclosed, free-form
135 text, it will affect the remainder of the document.
136 .Pp
137 Text may also be sized with the
138 .Sq \es
139 escape, whose syntax is one of
140 .Sq \es+-n
141 for one-digit numerals;
142 .Sq \es(+-nn
143 or
144 .Sq \es+-(nn
145 for two-digit numerals; and
146 .Sq \es[+-N] ,
147 .Sq \es+-[N] ,
148 .Sq \es'+-N' ,
149 or
150 .Sq \es+-'N'
151 for arbitrary-digit numerals:
152 .Pp
153 .D1 \es+1bigger\es-1
154 .D1 \es[+10]much bigger\es[-10]
155 .D1 \es+(10much bigger\es-(10
156 .D1 \es+'100'much much bigger\es-'100'
157 .Pp
158 Note these forms are
159 .Em not
160 recommended for
161 .Nm ,
162 which encourages semantic annotation.
163 .Ss Predefined Strings
164 Historically,
165 .Xr groff 1
166 also defined a set of package-specific
167 .Dq predefined strings ,
168 which, like
169 .Sx Special Characters ,
170 mark special output characters and strings by way of input codes.
171 Predefined strings are escaped with the slash-asterisk,
172 .Sq \e* :
173 single-character
174 .Sq \e*X ,
175 two-character
176 .Sq \e*(XX ,
177 and N-character
178 .Sq \e*[N] .
179 See
180 .Xr mandoc_char 7
181 for a complete list.
182 Examples include
183 .Sq \e*(Am
184 .Pq ampersand
185 and
186 .Sq \e*(Ba
187 .Pq vertical bar .
188 .Ss Whitespace
189 Whitespace consists of the space character.
190 In free-form lines, whitespace is preserved within a line; un-escaped
191 trailing spaces are stripped from input (unless in a literal context).
192 Blank free-form lines, which may include whitespace, are only permitted
193 within literal contexts.
194 .Pp
195 In macro lines, whitespace delimits arguments and is discarded.
196 If arguments are quoted, whitespace within the quotes is retained.
197 .Ss Quotation
198 Macro arguments may be quoted with a double-quote to group
199 space-delimited terms or to retain blocks of whitespace.
200 A quoted argument begins with a double-quote preceded by whitespace.
201 The next double-quote not pair-wise adjacent to another double-quote
202 terminates the literal, regardless of surrounding whitespace.
203 .Pp
204 This produces tokens
205 .Sq a" ,
206 .Sq b c ,
207 .Sq de ,
208 and
209 .Sq fg" .
210 Note that any quoted term, be it argument or macro, is indiscriminately
211 considered literal text.
212 Thus, the following produces
213 .Sq \&Em a :
214 .Bd -literal -offset indent
215 \&.Em "Em a"
216 .Ed
217 .Pp
218 In free-form mode, quotes are regarded as opaque text.
219 .Ss Dates
220 There are several macros in
221 .Nm
222 that require a date argument.
223 The canonical form for dates is the American format:
224 .Pp
225 .D1 Cm Month Day , Year
226 .Pp
227 The
228 .Cm Day
229 value is an optionally zero-padded numeral.
230 The
231 .Cm Month
232 value is the full month name.
233 The
234 .Cm Year
235 value is the full four-digit year.
236 .Pp
237 Reduced form dates are broken-down canonical form dates:
238 .Pp
239 .D1 Cm Month , Year
240 .D1 Cm Year
241 .Pp
242 Some examples of valid dates follow:
243 .Pp
244 .D1 "May, 2009" Pq reduced form
245 .D1 "2009" Pq reduced form
246 .D1 "May 20, 2009" Pq canonical form
247 .Ss Scaling Widths
248 Many macros support scaled widths for their arguments, such as
249 stipulating a two-inch list indentation with the following:
250 .Bd -literal -offset indent
251 \&.Bl -tag -width 2i
252 .Ed
253 .Pp
254 The syntax for scaled widths is
255 .Sq Li [+-]?[0-9]*.[0-9]*[:unit:] ,
256 where a decimal must be preceded or proceeded by at least one digit.
257 Negative numbers, while accepted, are truncated to zero.
258 The following scaling units are accepted:
259 .Pp
260 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
261 .It c
262 centimetre
263 .It i
264 inch
265 .It P
266 pica (~1/6 inch)
267 .It p
268 point (~1/72 inch)
269 .It f
270 synonym for
271 .Sq u
272 .It v
273 default vertical span
274 .It m
275 width of rendered
276 .Sq m
277 .Pq em
278 character
279 .It n
280 width of rendered
281 .Sq n
282 .Pq en
283 character
284 .It u
285 default horizontal span
286 .It M
287 mini-em (~1/100 em)
288 .El
289 .Pp
290 Using anything other than
291 .Sq m ,
292 .Sq n ,
293 .Sq u ,
294 or
295 .Sq v
296 is necessarily non-portable across output media.
297 See
298 .Sx COMPATIBILITY .
299 .Ss Sentence Spacing
300 When composing a manual, make sure that your sentences end at the end of
301 a line.
302 By doing so, front-ends will be able to apply the proper amount of
303 spacing after the end of sentence (unescaped) period, exclamation mark,
304 or question mark followed by zero or more non-sentence closing
305 delimiters (
306 .Ns Sq \&) ,
307 .Sq \&] ,
308 .Sq \&' ,
309 .Sq \&" ) .
310 .Pp
311 The proper spacing is also intelligently preserved if a sentence ends at
312 the boundary of a macro line, e.g.,
313 .Pp
314 .D1 \&Xr mandoc 1 \.
315 .D1 \&Fl T \&Ns \&Cm ascii \.
316 .Sh MANUAL STRUCTURE
317 A well-formed
318 .Nm
319 document consists of a document prologue followed by one or more
320 sections.
321 .Pp
322 The prologue, which consists of (in order) the
323 .Sx \&Dd ,
324 .Sx \&Dt ,
325 and
326 .Sx \&Os
327 macros, is required for every document.
328 .Pp
329 The first section (sections are denoted by
330 .Sx \&Sh )
331 must be the NAME section, consisting of at least one
332 .Sx \&Nm
333 followed by
334 .Sx \&Nd .
335 .Pp
336 Following that, convention dictates specifying at least the
337 .Em SYNOPSIS
338 and
339 .Em DESCRIPTION
340 sections, although this varies between manual sections.
341 .Pp
342 The following is a well-formed skeleton
343 .Nm
344 file:
345 .Bd -literal -offset indent
346 \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$
347 \&.Dt mdoc 7
348 \&.Os
349 \&.Sh NAME
350 \&.Nm foo
351 \&.Nd a description goes here
352 \&.\e\*q The next is for sections 2, 3, & 9 only.
353 \&.\e\*q .Sh LIBRARY
354 \&.Sh SYNOPSIS
355 \&.Nm foo
356 \&.Op Fl options
357 \&.Ar
358 \&.Sh DESCRIPTION
359 The
360 \&.Nm
361 utility processes files ...
362 \&.\e\*q .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
363 \&.\e\*q The next is for sections 2, 3, & 9 only.
364 \&.\e\*q .Sh RETURN VALUES
365 \&.\e\*q The next is for sections 1, 6, 7, & 8 only.
366 \&.\e\*q .Sh ENVIRONMENT
367 \&.\e\*q .Sh FILES
368 \&.\e\*q The next is for sections 1 & 8 only.
369 \&.\e\*q .Sh EXIT STATUS
370 \&.\e\*q .Sh EXAMPLES
371 \&.\e\*q The next is for sections 1, 4, 6, 7, & 8 only.
372 \&.\e\*q .Sh DIAGNOSTICS
373 \&.\e\*q The next is for sections 2, 3, & 9 only.
374 \&.\e\*q .Sh ERRORS
375 \&.\e\*q .Sh SEE ALSO
376 \&.\e\*q .Xr foobar 1
377 \&.\e\*q .Sh STANDARDS
378 \&.\e\*q .Sh HISTORY
379 \&.\e\*q .Sh AUTHORS
380 \&.\e\*q .Sh CAVEATS
381 \&.\e\*q .Sh BUGS
382 \&.\e\*q .Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
383 .Ed
384 .Pp
385 The sections in a
386 .Nm
387 document are conventionally ordered as they appear above.
388 Sections should be composed as follows:
389 .Bl -ohang -offset Ds
390 .It Em NAME
391 The name(s) and a short description of the documented material.
392 The syntax for this as follows:
393 .Bd -literal -offset indent
394 \&.Nm name0
395 \&.Nm name1
396 \&.Nm name2
397 \&.Nd a short description
398 .Ed
399 .Pp
400 The
401 .Sx \&Nm
402 macro(s) must precede the
403 .Sx \&Nd
404 macro.
405 .Pp
406 See
407 .Sx \&Nm
408 and
409 .Sx \&Nd .
410 .It Em LIBRARY
411 The name of the library containing the documented material, which is
412 assumed to be a function in a section 2, 3, or 9 manual.
413 The syntax for this is as follows:
414 .Bd -literal -offset indent
415 \&.Lb libarm
416 .Ed
417 .Pp
418 See
419 .Sx \&Lb .
420 .It Em SYNOPSIS
421 Documents the utility invocation syntax, function call syntax, or device
422 configuration.
423 .Pp
424 For the first, utilities (sections 1, 6, and 8), this is
425 generally structured as follows:
426 .Bd -literal -offset indent
427 \&.Nm foo
428 \&.Op Fl v
429 \&.Op Fl o Ar file
430 \&.Op Ar
431 \&.Nm bar
432 \&.Op Fl v
433 \&.Op Fl o Ar file
434 \&.Op Ar
435 .Ed
436 .Pp
437 For the second, function calls (sections 2, 3, 9):
438 .Bd -literal -offset indent
439 \&.Vt extern const char *global;
440 \&.In header.h
441 \&.Ft "char *"
442 \&.Fn foo "const char *src"
443 \&.Ft "char *"
444 \&.Fn bar "const char *src"
445 .Ed
446 .Pp
447 And for the third, configurations (section 4):
448 .Bd -literal -offset indent
449 \&.Cd \*qit* at isa? port 0x2e\*q
450 \&.Cd \*qit* at isa? port 0x4e\*q
451 .Ed
452 .Pp
453 Manuals not in these sections generally don't need a
454 .Em SYNOPSIS .
455 .Pp
456 Some macros are displayed differently in the
457 .Em SYNOPSIS
458 section, particularly
459 .Sx \&Nm ,
460 .Sx \&Cd ,
461 .Sx \&Fd ,
462 .Sx \&Fn ,
463 .Sx \&Fo ,
464 .Sx \&In ,
465 .Sx \&Vt ,
466 and
467 .Sx \&Ft .
468 All of these macros are output on their own line. If two such
469 dissimilar macros are pair-wise invoked (except for
470 .Sx \&Ft
471 before
472 .Sx \&Fo
473 or
474 .Sx \&Fn ) ,
475 they are separated by a vertical space, unless in the case of
476 .Sx \&Fo ,
477 .Sx \&Fn ,
478 and
479 .Sx \&Ft ,
480 which are always separated by vertical space.
481 .It Em DESCRIPTION
482 This expands upon the brief, one-line description in
483 .Em NAME .
484 It usually contains a break-down of the options (if documenting a
485 command), such as:
486 .Bd -literal -offset indent
487 The arguments are as follows:
488 \&.Bl \-tag \-width Ds
489 \&.It Fl v
490 Print verbose information.
491 \&.El
492 .Ed
493 .Pp
494 Manuals not documenting a command won't include the above fragment.
495 .It Em IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
496 Implementation-specific notes should be kept here.
497 This is useful when implementing standard functions that may have side
498 effects or notable algorithmic implications.
499 .It Em RETURN VALUES
500 This section is the dual of
501 .Em EXIT STATUS ,
502 which is used for commands.
503 It documents the return values of functions in sections 2, 3, and 9.
504 .Pp
505 See
506 .Sx \&Rv .
507 .It Em ENVIRONMENT
508 Documents any usages of environment variables, e.g.,
509 .Xr environ 7 .
510 .Pp
511 See
512 .Sx \&Ev .
513 .It Em FILES
514 Documents files used.
515 It's helpful to document both the file and a short description of how
516 the file is used (created, modified, etc.).
517 .Pp
518 See
519 .Sx \&Pa .
520 .It Em EXIT STATUS
521 Command exit status for section 1, 6, and 8 manuals.
522 This section is the dual of
523 .Em RETURN VALUES ,
524 which is used for functions.
525 Historically, this information was described in
526 .Em DIAGNOSTICS ,
527 a practise that is now discouraged.
528 .Pp
529 See
530 .Sx \&Ex .
531 .It Em EXAMPLES
532 Example usages.
533 This often contains snippets of well-formed, well-tested invocations.
534 Make doubly sure that your examples work properly!
535 .It Em DIAGNOSTICS
536 Documents error conditions.
537 This is most useful in section 4 manuals.
538 Historically, this section was used in place of
539 .Em EXIT STATUS
540 for manuals in sections 1, 6, and 8; however, this practise is
541 discouraged.
542 .Pp
543 See
544 .Sx \&Bl
545 .Fl diag .
546 .It Em ERRORS
547 Documents error handling in sections 2, 3, and 9.
548 .Pp
549 See
550 .Sx \&Er .
551 .It Em SEE ALSO
552 References other manuals with related topics.
553 This section should exist for most manuals.
554 Cross-references should conventionally be ordered first by section, then
555 alphabetically.
556 .Pp
557 See
558 .Sx \&Xr .
559 .It Em STANDARDS
560 References any standards implemented or used.
561 If not adhering to any standards, the
562 .Em HISTORY
563 section should be used instead.
564 .Pp
565 See
566 .Sx \&St .
567 .It Em HISTORY
568 The history of any manual without a
569 .Em STANDARDS
570 section should be described in this section.
571 .It Em AUTHORS
572 Credits to authors, if applicable, should appear in this section.
573 Authors should generally be noted by both name and an e-mail address.
574 .Pp
575 See
576 .Sx \&An .
577 .It Em CAVEATS
578 Explanations of common misuses and misunderstandings should be explained
579 in this section.
580 .It Em BUGS
581 Extant bugs should be described in this section.
582 .It Em SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
583 Documents any security precautions that operators should consider.
584 .El
585 .Sh MACRO SYNTAX
586 Macros are one to three three characters in length and begin with a
587 control character ,
588 .Sq \&. ,
589 at the beginning of the line.
590 An arbitrary amount of whitespace may sit between the control character
591 and the macro name.
592 Thus, the following are equivalent:
593 .Bd -literal -offset indent
594 \&.Pp
595 \&.\ \ \ \&Pp
596 .Ed
597 .Pp
598 The syntax of a macro depends on its classification.
599 In this section,
600 .Sq \-arg
601 refers to macro arguments, which may be followed by zero or more
602 .Sq parm
603 parameters;
604 .Sq \&Yo
605 opens the scope of a macro; and if specified,
606 .Sq \&Yc
607 closes it out.
608 .Pp
609 The
610 .Em Callable
611 column indicates that the macro may be called subsequent to the initial
612 line-macro.
613 If a macro is not callable, then its invocation after the initial line
614 macro is interpreted as opaque text, such that
615 .Sq \&.Fl \&Sh
616 produces
617 .Sq Fl \&Sh .
618 .Pp
619 The
620 .Em Parsable
621 column indicates whether the macro may be followed by further
622 (ostensibly callable) macros.
623 If a macro is not parsable, subsequent macro invocations on the line
624 will be interpreted as opaque text.
625 .Pp
626 The
627 .Em Scope
628 column, if applicable, describes closure rules.
629 .Ss Block full-explicit
630 Multi-line scope closed by an explicit closing macro.
631 All macros contains bodies; only
632 .Sx \&Bf
633 contains a head.
634 .Bd -literal -offset indent
635 \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB
636 \(lBbody...\(rB
637 \&.Yc
638 .Ed
639 .Pp
640 .Bl -column -compact -offset indent "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "closed by XXX"
641 .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Scope
642 .It Sx \&Bd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Ed
643 .It Sx \&Bf Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Ef
644 .It Sx \&Bk Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Ek
645 .It Sx \&Bl Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&El
646 .It Sx \&Ed Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Sx \&Bd
647 .It Sx \&Ef Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Sx \&Bf
648 .It Sx \&Ek Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Sx \&Bk
649 .It Sx \&El Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Sx \&Bl
650 .El
651 .Ss Block full-implicit
652 Multi-line scope closed by end-of-file or implicitly by another macro.
653 All macros have bodies; some
654 .Po
655 .Sx \&It Fl bullet ,
656 .Fl hyphen ,
657 .Fl dash ,
658 .Fl enum ,
659 .Fl item
660 .Pc
661 don't have heads; only one
662 .Po
663 .Sx \&It Fl column
664 .Pc
665 has multiple heads.
666 .Bd -literal -offset indent
667 \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead... \(lBTa head...\(rB\(rB
668 \(lBbody...\(rB
669 .Ed
670 .Pp
671 .Bl -column -compact -offset indent "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "closed by XXXXXXXXXXX"
672 .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Scope
673 .It Sx \&It Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&It , Sx \&El
674 .It Sx \&Nd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Sh
675 .It Sx \&Sh Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Sh
676 .It Sx \&Ss Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Sh , Sx \&Ss
677 .El
678 .Ss Block partial-explicit
679 Like block full-explicit, but also with single-line scope.
680 Each has at least a body and, in limited circumstances, a head
681 .Po
682 .Sx \&Fo ,
683 .Sx \&Eo
684 .Pc
685 and/or tail
686 .Pq Sx \&Ec .
687 .Bd -literal -offset indent
688 \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB
689 \(lBbody...\(rB
690 \&.Yc \(lBtail...\(rB
691
692 \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \
693 \(lBbody...\(rB \&Yc \(lBtail...\(rB
694 .Ed
695 .Pp
696 .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "closed by XXXX" -compact -offset indent
697 .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Scope
698 .It Sx \&Ac Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Ao
699 .It Sx \&Ao Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Ac
700 .It Sx \&Bc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Bo
701 .It Sx \&Bo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Bc
702 .It Sx \&Brc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Bro
703 .It Sx \&Bro Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Brc
704 .It Sx \&Dc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Do
705 .It Sx \&Do Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Dc
706 .It Sx \&Ec Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Eo
707 .It Sx \&Eo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Ec
708 .It Sx \&Fc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Fo
709 .It Sx \&Fo Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Fc
710 .It Sx \&Oc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Oo
711 .It Sx \&Oo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Oc
712 .It Sx \&Pc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Po
713 .It Sx \&Po Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Pc
714 .It Sx \&Qc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Oo
715 .It Sx \&Qo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Oc
716 .It Sx \&Re Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Sx \&Rs
717 .It Sx \&Rs Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Re
718 .It Sx \&Sc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&So
719 .It Sx \&So Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Sc
720 .It Sx \&Xc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Sx \&Xo
721 .It Sx \&Xo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Xc
722 .El
723 .Ss Block partial-implicit
724 Like block full-implicit, but with single-line scope closed by
725 .Sx Reserved Characters
726 or end of line.
727 .Bd -literal -offset indent
728 \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \(lBres...\(rB
729 .Ed
730 .Pp
731 .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" -compact -offset indent
732 .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable
733 .It Sx \&Aq Ta Yes Ta Yes
734 .It Sx \&Bq Ta Yes Ta Yes
735 .It Sx \&Brq Ta Yes Ta Yes
736 .It Sx \&D1 Ta \&No Ta \&Yes
737 .It Sx \&Dl Ta \&No Ta Yes
738 .It Sx \&Dq Ta Yes Ta Yes
739 .It Sx \&Op Ta Yes Ta Yes
740 .It Sx \&Pq Ta Yes Ta Yes
741 .It Sx \&Ql Ta Yes Ta Yes
742 .It Sx \&Qq Ta Yes Ta Yes
743 .It Sx \&Sq Ta Yes Ta Yes
744 .It Sx \&Vt Ta Yes Ta Yes
745 .El
746 .Pp
747 Note that the
748 .Sx \&Vt
749 macro is a
750 .Sx Block partial-implicit
751 only when invoked as the first macro
752 in a
753 .Em SYNOPSIS
754 section line, else it is
755 .Sx In-line .
756 .Ss In-line
757 Closed by
758 .Sx Reserved Characters ,
759 end of line, fixed argument lengths, and/or subsequent macros.
760 In-line macros have only text children.
761 If a number (or inequality) of arguments is
762 .Pq n ,
763 then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of arguments.
764 .Bd -literal -offset indent
765 \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB \(lbres...\(rb
766
767 \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB Yc...
768
769 \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB arg0 arg1 argN
770 .Ed
771 .Pp
772 .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent
773 .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Arguments
774 .It Sx \&%A Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
775 .It Sx \&%B Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
776 .It Sx \&%C Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
777 .It Sx \&%D Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
778 .It Sx \&%I Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
779 .It Sx \&%J Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
780 .It Sx \&%N Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
781 .It Sx \&%O Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
782 .It Sx \&%P Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
783 .It Sx \&%Q Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
784 .It Sx \&%R Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
785 .It Sx \&%T Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
786 .It Sx \&%U Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
787 .It Sx \&%V Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
788 .It Sx \&Ad Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
789 .It Sx \&An Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
790 .It Sx \&Ap Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0
791 .It Sx \&Ar Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
792 .It Sx \&At Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 1
793 .It Sx \&Bsx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
794 .It Sx \&Bt Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0
795 .It Sx \&Bx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
796 .It Sx \&Cd Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0
797 .It Sx \&Cm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
798 .It Sx \&Db Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1
799 .It Sx \&Dd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
800 .It Sx \&Dt Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n
801 .It Sx \&Dv Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
802 .It Sx \&Dx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
803 .It Sx \&Em Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0
804 .It Sx \&En Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0
805 .It Sx \&Er Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0
806 .It Sx \&Es Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0
807 .It Sx \&Ev Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
808 .It Sx \&Ex Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n
809 .It Sx \&Fa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
810 .It Sx \&Fd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0
811 .It Sx \&Fl Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
812 .It Sx \&Fn Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0
813 .It Sx \&Fr Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n
814 .It Sx \&Ft Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
815 .It Sx \&Fx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
816 .It Sx \&Hf Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n
817 .It Sx \&Ic Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0
818 .It Sx \&In Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n
819 .It Sx \&Lb Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1
820 .It Sx \&Li Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
821 .It Sx \&Lk Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
822 .It Sx \&Lp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0
823 .It Sx \&Ms Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0
824 .It Sx \&Mt Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0
825 .It Sx \&Nm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
826 .It Sx \&No Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0
827 .It Sx \&Ns Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0
828 .It Sx \&Nx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
829 .It Sx \&Os Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n
830 .It Sx \&Ot Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n
831 .It Sx \&Ox Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
832 .It Sx \&Pa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
833 .It Sx \&Pf Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 1
834 .It Sx \&Pp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0
835 .It Sx \&Rv Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n
836 .It Sx \&Sm Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1
837 .It Sx \&St Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta 1
838 .It Sx \&Sx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0
839 .It Sx \&Sy Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0
840 .It Sx \&Tn Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0
841 .It Sx \&Ud Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0
842 .It Sx \&Ux Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
843 .It Sx \&Va Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n
844 .It Sx \&Vt Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0
845 .It Sx \&Xr Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0
846 .It Sx \&br Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0
847 .It Sx \&sp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1
848 .El
849 .Sh REFERENCE
850 This section is a canonical reference of all macros, arranged
851 alphabetically.
852 For the scoping of individual macros, see
853 .Sx MACRO SYNTAX .
854 .Ss \&%A
855 Author name of an
856 .Sx \&Rs
857 block. Multiple authors should each be accorded their own
858 .Sx \%%A
859 line. Author names should be ordered with full or abbreviated
860 forename(s) first, then full surname.
861 .Ss \&%B
862 Book title of an
863 .Sx \&Rs
864 block. This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographic context when
865 referring to book titles.
866 .Ss \&%C
867 Publication city or location of an
868 .Sx \&Rs
869 block.
870 .Pp
871 .Em Remarks :
872 this macro is not implemented in
873 .Xr groff 1 .
874 .Ss \&%D
875 Publication date of an
876 .Sx \&Rs
877 block. This should follow the reduced or canonical form syntax
878 described in
879 .Sx Dates .
880 .Ss \&%I
881 Publisher or issuer name of an
882 .Sx \&Rs
883 block.
884 .Ss \&%J
885 Journal name of an
886 .Sx \&Rs
887 block.
888 .Ss \&%N
889 Issue number (usually for journals) of an
890 .Sx \&Rs
891 block.
892 .Ss \&%O
893 Optional information of an
894 .Sx \&Rs
895 block.
896 .Ss \&%P
897 Book or journal page number of an
898 .Sx \&Rs
899 block.
900 .Ss \&%Q
901 Institutional author (school, government, etc.) of an
902 .Sx \&Rs
903 block. Multiple institutional authors should each be accorded their own
904 .Sx \&%Q
905 line.
906 .Ss \&%R
907 Technical report name of an
908 .Sx \&Rs
909 block.
910 .Ss \&%T
911 Article title of an
912 .Sx \&Rs
913 block. This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographical context
914 when referring to article titles.
915 .Ss \&%U
916 URI of reference document.
917 .Ss \&%V
918 Volume number of an
919 .Sx \&Rs
920 block.
921 .Ss \&Ac
922 Closes an
923 .Sx \&Ao
924 block. Does not have any tail arguments.
925 .Ss \&Ad
926 Address construct: usually in the context of an computational address in
927 memory, not a physical (post) address.
928 .Pp
929 Examples:
930 .D1 \&.Ad [0,$]
931 .D1 \&.Ad 0x00000000
932 .Ss \&An
933 Author name.
934 This macro may alternatively accepts the following arguments, although
935 these may not be specified along with a parameter:
936 .Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent
937 .It Fl split
938 Renders a line break before each author listing.
939 .It Fl nosplit
940 The opposite of
941 .Fl split .
942 .El
943 .Pp
944 In the AUTHORS section, the default is not to split the first author
945 listing, but all subsequent author listings, whether or not they're
946 interspersed by other macros or text, are split.
947 Thus, specifying
948 .Fl split
949 will cause the first listing also to be split.
950 If not in the AUTHORS section, the default is not to split.
951 .Pp
952 Examples:
953 .D1 \&.An -nosplit
954 .D1 \&.An J. D. Ullman .
955 .Pp
956 .Em Remarks :
957 the effects of
958 .Fl split
959 or
960 .Fl nosplit
961 are re-set when entering the AUTHORS section, so if one specifies
962 .Sx \&An Fl nosplit
963 in the general document body, it must be re-specified in the AUTHORS
964 section.
965 .Ss \&Ao
966 Begins a block enclosed by angled brackets.
967 Does not have any head arguments.
968 .Pp
969 Examples:
970 .D1 \&.Fl -key= \&Ns \&Ao \&Ar val \&Ac
971 .Pp
972 See also
973 .Sx \&Aq .
974 .Ss \&Ap
975 Inserts an apostrophe without any surrounding white-space.
976 This is generally used as a grammatical device when referring to the verb
977 form of a function:
978 .Bd -literal -offset indent
979 \&.Fn execve Ap d
980 .Ed
981 .Ss \&Aq
982 Encloses its arguments in angled brackets.
983 .Pp
984 Examples:
985 .D1 \&.Fl -key= \&Ns \&Aq \&Ar val
986 .Pp
987 .Em Remarks :
988 this macro is often abused for rendering URIs, which should instead use
989 .Sx \&Lk
990 or
991 .Sx \&Mt ,
992 or to note pre-processor
993 .Dq Li #include
994 statements, which should use
995 .Sx \&In .
996 .Pp
997 See also
998 .Sx \&Ao .
999 .Ss \&Ar
1000 Command arguments.
1001 If an argument is not provided, the string
1002 .Dq file ...
1003 is used as a default.
1004 .Pp
1005 Examples:
1006 .D1 \&.Fl o \&Ns \&Ar file1
1007 .D1 \&.Ar
1008 .D1 \&.Ar arg1 , arg2 .
1009 .Ss \&At
1010 Formats an AT&T version.
1011 Accepts at most one parameter:
1012 .Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent
1013 .It Cm v[1-7] | 32v
1014 A version of
1015 .At .
1016 .It Cm V[.[1-4]]?
1017 A system version of
1018 .At .
1019 .El
1020 .Pp
1021 Note that these parameters do not begin with a hyphen.
1022 .Pp
1023 Examples:
1024 .D1 \&.At
1025 .D1 \&.At V.1
1026 .Pp
1027 See also
1028 .Sx \&Bsx ,
1029 .Sx \&Bx ,
1030 .Sx \&Dx ,
1031 .Sx \&Fx ,
1032 .Sx \&Nx ,
1033 .Sx \&Ox ,
1034 and
1035 .Sx \&Ux .
1036 .Ss \&Bc
1037 Closes a
1038 .Sx \&Bo
1039 block. Does not have any tail arguments.
1040 .Ss \&Bd
1041 Begins a display block.
1042 A display is collection of macros or text which may be collectively
1043 offset or justified in a manner different from that
1044 of the enclosing context.
1045 By default, the block is preceded by a vertical space.
1046 .Pp
1047 Each display is associated with a type, which must be one of the
1048 following arguments:
1049 .Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent
1050 .It Fl ragged
1051 Only left-justify the block.
1052 .It Fl unfilled
1053 Do not justify the block at all.
1054 .It Fl filled
1055 Left- and right-justify the block.
1056 .It Fl literal
1057 Alias for
1058 .Fl unfilled .
1059 .It Fl centered
1060 Centre-justify each line.
1061 .El
1062 .Pp
1063 The type must be provided first.
1064 Secondary arguments are as follows:
1065 .Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent
1066 .It Fl offset Ar width
1067 Offset by the value of
1068 .Ar width ,
1069 which is interpreted as one of the following, specified in order:
1070 .Bl -item
1071 .It
1072 As one of the pre-defined strings
1073 .Ar indent ,
1074 the width of standard indentation;
1075 .Ar indent-two ,
1076 twice
1077 .Ar indent ;
1078 .Ar left ,
1079 which has no effect ;
1080 .Ar right ,
1081 which justifies to the right margin; and
1082 .Ar center ,
1083 which aligns around an imagined centre axis.
1084 .It
1085 As a precalculated width for a named macro.
1086 The most popular is the imaginary macro
1087 .Ar \&Ds ,
1088 which resolves to
1089 .Ar 6n .
1090 .It
1091 As a scaling unit following the syntax described in
1092 .Sx Scaling Widths .
1093 .It
1094 As the calculated string length of the opaque string.
1095 .El
1096 .Pp
1097 If not provided an argument, it will be ignored.
1098 .It Fl compact
1099 Do not assert a vertical space before the block.
1100 .It Fl file Ar file
1101 Prepend the file
1102 .Ar file
1103 before any text or macros within the block.
1104 .El
1105 .Pp
1106 Examples:
1107 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1108 \&.Bd \-unfilled \-offset two-indent \-compact
1109 Hello world.
1110 \&.Ed
1111 .Ed
1112 .Pp
1113 See also
1114 .Sx \&D1
1115 and
1116 .Sx \&Dl .
1117 .Ss \&Bf
1118 .Ss \&Bk
1119 .Ss \&Bl
1120 Begins a list composed of one or more list entries.
1121 A list is associated with a type, which is a required argument.
1122 Other arguments are
1123 .Fl width ,
1124 defined per-type as accepting a literal or
1125 .Sx Scaling Widths
1126 value;
1127 .Fl offset ,
1128 also accepting a literal or
1129 .Sx Scaling Widths
1130 value setting the list's global offset; and
1131 .Fl compact ,
1132 suppressing the default vertical space printed before each list entry.
1133 A list entry is specified by the
1134 .Sx \&It
1135 macro, which consists of a head and optional body (depending on the list
1136 type).
1137 A list must specify one of the following list types:
1138 .Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent
1139 .It Fl bullet
1140 A list offset by a bullet.
1141 The head of list entries must be empty.
1142 List entry bodies are positioned after the bullet.
1143 The
1144 .Fl width
1145 argument varies the width of list bodies' left-margins.
1146 .It Fl column
1147 A columnated list.
1148 The
1149 .Fl width
1150 argument has no effect.
1151 The number of columns is specified as parameters to the
1152 .Sx \&Bl
1153 macro.
1154 These dictate the width of columns either as
1155 .Sx Scaling Widths
1156 or literal text.
1157 If the initial macro of a
1158 .Fl column
1159 list is not an
1160 .Sx \&It ,
1161 an
1162 .Sx \&It
1163 context spanning each line is implied until an
1164 .Sx \&It
1165 line macro is encountered, at which point list bodies are interpreted as
1166 described in the
1167 .Sx \&It
1168 documentation.
1169 .It Fl dash
1170 A list offset by a dash (hyphen).
1171 The head of list entries must be empty.
1172 List entry bodies are positioned past the dash.
1173 The
1174 .Fl width
1175 argument varies the width of list bodies' left-margins.
1176 .It Fl diag
1177 Like
1178 .Fl inset ,
1179 but with additional formatting to the head.
1180 The
1181 .Fl width
1182 argument varies the width of list bodies' left-margins.
1183 .It Fl enum
1184 An enumerated list offset by the enumeration from 1.
1185 The head of list entries must be empty.
1186 List entry bodies are positioned after the enumeration.
1187 The
1188 .Fl width
1189 argument varies the width of list bodies' left-margins.
1190 .It Fl hang
1191 Like
1192 .Fl tag ,
1193 but instead of list bodies positioned after the head, they trail the
1194 head text.
1195 The
1196 .Fl width
1197 argument varies the width of list bodies' left-margins.
1198 .It Fl hyphen
1199 Synonym for
1200 .Fl dash .
1201 .It Fl inset
1202 List bodies follow the list head.
1203 The
1204 .Fl width
1205 argument is ignored.
1206 .It Fl item
1207 This produces blocks of text.
1208 The head of list entries must be empty.
1209 The
1210 .Fl width
1211 argument is ignored.
1212 .It Fl ohang
1213 List bodies are positioned on the line following the head.
1214 The
1215 .Fl width
1216 argument is ignored.
1217 .It Fl tag
1218 A list offset by list entry heads. List entry bodies are positioned
1219 after the head as specified by the
1220 .Fl width
1221 argument.
1222 .El
1223 .Pp
1224 See also
1225 .Sx \&It .
1226 .Ss \&Bo
1227 Begins a block enclosed by square brackets.
1228 Does not have any head arguments.
1229 .Pp
1230 Examples:
1231 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1232 \&.Bo 1 ,
1233 \&.Dv BUFSIZ \&Bc
1234 .Ed
1235 .Pp
1236 See also
1237 .Sx \&Bq .
1238 .Ss \&Bq
1239 Encloses its arguments in square brackets.
1240 .Pp
1241 Examples:
1242 .D1 \&.Bq 1 , \&Dv BUFSIZ
1243 .Pp
1244 .Em Remarks :
1245 this macro is sometimes abused to emulate optional arguments for
1246 commands; the correct macros to use for this purpose are
1247 .Sx \&Op ,
1248 .Sx \&Oo ,
1249 and
1250 .Sx \&Oc .
1251 .Pp
1252 See also
1253 .Sx \&Bo .
1254 .Ss \&Brc
1255 Closes a
1256 .Sx \&Bro
1257 block. Does not have any tail arguments.
1258 .Ss \&Bro
1259 Begins a block enclosed by curly braces.
1260 Does not have any head arguments.
1261 .Pp
1262 Examples:
1263 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1264 \&.Bro 1 , ... ,
1265 \&.Va n \&Brc
1266 .Ed
1267 .Pp
1268 See also
1269 .Sx \&Brq .
1270 .Ss \&Brq
1271 Encloses its arguments in curly braces.
1272 .Pp
1273 Examples:
1274 .D1 \&.Brq 1 , ... , \&Va n
1275 .Pp
1276 See also
1277 .Sx \&Bro .
1278 .Ss \&Bsx
1279 Format the BSD/OS version provided as an argument, or a default value if
1280 no argument is provided.
1281 .Pp
1282 Examples:
1283 .D1 \&.Bsx 1.0
1284 .D1 \&.Bsx
1285 .Pp
1286 See also
1287 .Sx \&At ,
1288 .Sx \&Bx ,
1289 .Sx \&Dx ,
1290 .Sx \&Fx ,
1291 .Sx \&Nx ,
1292 .Sx \&Ox ,
1293 and
1294 .Sx \&Ux .
1295 .Ss \&Bt
1296 Prints
1297 .Dq is currently in beta test.
1298 .Ss \&Bx
1299 Format the BSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if no
1300 argument is provided.
1301 .Pp
1302 Examples:
1303 .D1 \&.Bx 4.4
1304 .D1 \&.Bx
1305 .Pp
1306 See also
1307 .Sx \&At ,
1308 .Sx \&Bsx ,
1309 .Sx \&Dx ,
1310 .Sx \&Fx ,
1311 .Sx \&Nx ,
1312 .Sx \&Ox ,
1313 and
1314 .Sx \&Ux .
1315 .Ss \&Cd
1316 Configuration declaration.
1317 This denotes strings accepted by
1318 .Xr config 8 .
1319 .Pp
1320 Examples:
1321 .D1 \&.Cd device le0 at scode?
1322 .Pp
1323 .Em Remarks :
1324 this macro is commonly abused by using quoted literals to retain
1325 white-space and align consecutive
1326 .Sx \&Cd
1327 declarations.
1328 This practise is discouraged.
1329 .Ss \&Cm
1330 Command modifiers.
1331 Useful when specifying configuration options or keys.
1332 .Pp
1333 Examples:
1334 .D1 \&.Cm ControlPath
1335 .D1 \&.Cm ControlMaster
1336 .Pp
1337 See also
1338 .Sx \&Fl .
1339 .Ss \&D1
1340 One-line indented display.
1341 This is formatted by the default rules and is useful for simple indented
1342 statements.
1343 It is followed by a newline.
1344 .Pp
1345 Examples:
1346 .D1 \&.D1 \&Fl abcdefgh
1347 .Pp
1348 See also
1349 .Sx \&Bd
1350 and
1351 .Sx \&Dl .
1352 .Ss \&Db
1353 Start a debugging context.
1354 This macro is parsed, but generally ignored.
1355 Its syntax is as follows:
1356 .Pp
1357 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Db Cm on | off
1358 .Ss \&Dc
1359 Closes a
1360 .Sx \&Do
1361 block. Does not have any tail arguments.
1362 .Ss \&Dd
1363 Document date.
1364 This is the mandatory first macro of any
1365 .Nm
1366 manual.
1367 Its syntax is as follows:
1368 .Pp
1369 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Dd Cm date
1370 .Pp
1371 The
1372 .Cm date
1373 field may be either
1374 .Ar $\&Mdocdate$ ,
1375 which signifies the current manual revision date dictated by
1376 .Xr cvs 1 ,
1377 or instead a valid canonical date as specified by
1378 .Sx Dates .
1379 If a date does not conform, the current date is used instead.
1380 .Pp
1381 Examples:
1382 .D1 \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$
1383 .D1 \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate: July 21 2007$
1384 .D1 \&.Dd July 21, 2007
1385 .Pp
1386 See also
1387 .Sx \&Dt
1388 and
1389 .Sx \&Os .
1390 .Ss \&Dl
1391 One-line intended display.
1392 This is formatted as literal text and is useful for commands and
1393 invocations.
1394 It is followed by a newline.
1395 .Pp
1396 Examples:
1397 .D1 \&.Dl % mandoc mdoc.7 | less
1398 .Pp
1399 See also
1400 .Sx \&Bd
1401 and
1402 .Sx \&D1 .
1403 .Ss \&Do
1404 Begins a block enclosed by double quotes. Does not have any head
1405 arguments.
1406 .Pp
1407 Examples:
1408 .D1 \&.D1 \&Do April is the cruellest month \&Dc \e(em T.S. Eliot
1409 .Pp
1410 See also
1411 .Sx \&Dq .
1412 .Ss \&Dq
1413 Encloses its arguments in double quotes.
1414 .Pp
1415 Examples:
1416 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
1417 \&.Dq April is the cruellest month
1418 \e(em T.S. Eliot
1419 .Ed
1420 .Pp
1421 See also
1422 .Sx \&Do .
1423 .Ss \&Dt
1424 Document title.
1425 This is the mandatory second macro of any
1426 .Nm
1427 file.
1428 Its syntax is as follows:
1429 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
1430 .Pf \. Sx \&Dt
1431 .Oo
1432 .Cm title
1433 .Oo
1434 .Cm section
1435 .Op Cm volume | arch
1436 .Oc
1437 .Oc
1438 .Ed
1439 .Pp
1440 Its arguments are as follows:
1441 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset Ds
1442 .It Cm title
1443 The document's title (name), defaulting to
1444 .Qq UNKNOWN
1445 if unspecified.
1446 It should be capitalised.
1447 .It Cm section
1448 The manual section.
1449 This may be one of
1450 .Ar 1
1451 .Pq utilities ,
1452 .Ar 2
1453 .Pq system calls ,
1454 .Ar 3
1455 .Pq libraries ,
1456 .Ar 3p
1457 .Pq Perl libraries ,
1458 .Ar 4
1459 .Pq devices ,
1460 .Ar 5
1461 .Pq file formats ,
1462 .Ar 6
1463 .Pq games ,
1464 .Ar 7
1465 .Pq miscellaneous ,
1466 .Ar 8
1467 .Pq system utilities ,
1468 .Ar 9
1469 .Pq kernel functions ,
1470 .Ar X11
1471 .Pq X Window System ,
1472 .Ar X11R6
1473 .Pq X Window System ,
1474 .Ar unass
1475 .Pq unassociated ,
1476 .Ar local
1477 .Pq local system ,
1478 .Ar draft
1479 .Pq draft manual ,
1480 or
1481 .Ar paper
1482 .Pq paper .
1483 It should correspond to the manual's filename suffix and defaults to
1484 .Qq 1
1485 if unspecified.
1486 .It Cm volume
1487 This overrides the volume inferred from
1488 .Ar section .
1489 This field is optional, and if specified, must be one of
1490 .Ar USD
1491 .Pq users' supplementary documents ,
1492 .Ar PS1
1493 .Pq programmers' supplementary documents ,
1494 .Ar AMD
1495 .Pq administrators' supplementary documents ,
1496 .Ar SMM
1497 .Pq system managers' manuals ,
1498 .Ar URM
1499 .Pq users' reference manuals ,
1500 .Ar PRM
1501 .Pq programmers' reference manuals ,
1502 .Ar KM
1503 .Pq kernel manuals ,
1504 .Ar IND
1505 .Pq master index ,
1506 .Ar MMI
1507 .Pq master index ,
1508 .Ar LOCAL
1509 .Pq local manuals ,
1510 .Ar LOC
1511 .Pq local manuals ,
1512 or
1513 .Ar CON
1514 .Pq contributed manuals .
1515 .It Cm arch
1516 This specifies a specific relevant architecture.
1517 If
1518 .Cm volume
1519 is not provided, it may be used in its place, else it may be used
1520 subsequent that.
1521 It, too, is optional.
1522 It must be one of
1523 .Ar alpha ,
1524 .Ar amd64 ,
1525 .Ar amiga ,
1526 .Ar arc ,
1527 .Ar arm ,
1528 .Ar armish ,
1529 .Ar aviion ,
1530 .Ar hp300 ,
1531 .Ar hppa ,
1532 .Ar hppa64 ,
1533 .Ar i386 ,
1534 .Ar landisk ,
1535 .Ar loongson ,
1536 .Ar luna88k ,
1537 .Ar mac68k ,
1538 .Ar macppc ,
1539 .Ar mvme68k ,
1540 .Ar mvme88k ,
1541 .Ar mvmeppc ,
1542 .Ar pmax ,
1543 .Ar sgi ,
1544 .Ar socppc ,
1545 .Ar sparc ,
1546 .Ar sparc64 ,
1547 .Ar sun3 ,
1548 .Ar vax ,
1549 or
1550 .Ar zaurus .
1551 .El
1552 .Pp
1553 Examples:
1554 .D1 \&.Dt FOO 1
1555 .D1 \&.Dt FOO 4 KM
1556 .D1 \&.Dt FOO 9 i386
1557 .Pp
1558 See also
1559 .Sx \&Dd
1560 and
1561 .Sx \&Os .
1562 .Ss \&Dv
1563 Defined variables such as preprocessor constants.
1564 .Pp
1565 Examples:
1566 .D1 \&.Dv BUFSIZ
1567 .D1 \&.Dv STDOUT_FILENO
1568 .Pp
1569 See also
1570 .Sx \&Er .
1571 .Ss \&Dx
1572 Format the DragonFly BSD version provided as an argument, or a default
1573 value if no argument is provided.
1574 .Pp
1575 Examples:
1576 .D1 \&.Dx 2.4.1
1577 .D1 \&.Dx
1578 .Pp
1579 See also
1580 .Sx \&At ,
1581 .Sx \&Bsx ,
1582 .Sx \&Bx ,
1583 .Sx \&Fx ,
1584 .Sx \&Nx ,
1585 .Sx \&Ox ,
1586 and
1587 .Sx \&Ux .
1588 .Ss \&Ec
1589 .Ss \&Ed
1590 .Ss \&Ef
1591 .Ss \&Ek
1592 .Ss \&El
1593 Ends a list context started by
1594 .Sx \&Bl .
1595 .Pp
1596 See also
1597 .Sx \&Bl
1598 and
1599 .Sx \&It .
1600 .Ss \&Em
1601 Denotes text that should be emphasised.
1602 Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for
1603 stylistically decorating technical terms.
1604 .Pp
1605 Examples:
1606 .D1 \&.Em Warnings!
1607 .D1 \&.Em Remarks :
1608 .Ss \&En
1609 .Ss \&Eo
1610 .Ss \&Er
1611 Display error constants.
1612 .Pp
1613 Examples:
1614 .D1 \&.Er EPERM
1615 .D1 \&.Er ENOENT
1616 .Pp
1617 See also
1618 .Sx \&Dv .
1619 .Ss \&Es
1620 .Ss \&Ev
1621 Environmental variables such as those specified in
1622 .Xr environ 7 .
1623 .Pp
1624 Examples:
1625 .D1 \&.Ev DISPLAY
1626 .D1 \&.Ev PATH
1627 .Ss \&Ex
1628 Inserts text regarding a utility's exit values.
1629 This macro must have first the
1630 .Fl std
1631 argument specified, then an optional
1632 .Ar utility .
1633 If
1634 .Ar utility
1635 is not provided, the document's name as stipulated in
1636 .Sx \&Nm
1637 is provided.
1638 .Ss \&Fa
1639 Function argument.
1640 Its syntax is as follows:
1641 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
1642 .Pf \. Sx \&Fa
1643 .Op Cm argtype
1644 .Cm argname
1645 .Ed
1646 .Pp
1647 This may be invoked for names with or without the corresponding type.
1648 It is also used to specify the field name of a structure.
1649 Most often, the
1650 .Sx \&Fa
1651 macro is used in the
1652 .Em SYNOPSIS
1653 within
1654 .Sx \&Fo
1655 section when documenting multi-line function prototypes.
1656 If invoked with multiple arguments, the arguments are separated by a
1657 comma.
1658 Furthermore, if the following macro is another
1659 .Sx \&Fa ,
1660 the last argument will also have a trailing comma.
1661 .Pp
1662 Examples:
1663 .D1 \&.Fa \(dqconst char *p\(dq
1664 .D1 \&.Fa \(dqint a\(dq \(dqint b\(dq \(dqint c\(dq
1665 .D1 \&.Fa foo
1666 .Pp
1667 See also
1668 .Sx \&Fo .
1669 .Ss \&Fc
1670 .Ss \&Fd
1671 Historically used to document include files.
1672 This usage has been deprecated in favour of
1673 .Sx \&In .
1674 Do not use this macro.
1675 .Pp
1676 See also
1677 .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
1678 and
1679 .Sx \&In .
1680 .Ss \&Fl
1681 Command-line flag.
1682 Used when listing arguments to command-line utilities.
1683 Prints a fixed-width hyphen
1684 .Sq \-
1685 directly followed by each argument.
1686 If no arguments are provided, a hyphen is printed followed by a space.
1687 If the argument is a macro, a hyphen is prefixed to the subsequent macro
1688 output.
1689 .Pp
1690 Examples:
1691 .D1 \&.Fl a b c
1692 .D1 \&.Fl \&Pf a b
1693 .D1 \&.Fl
1694 .D1 \&.Op \&Fl o \&Ns \&Ar file
1695 .Pp
1696 See also
1697 .Sx \&Cm .
1698 .Ss \&Fn
1699 A function name.
1700 Its syntax is as follows:
1701 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
1702 .Pf \. Ns Sx \&Fn
1703 .Op Cm functype
1704 .Cm funcname
1705 .Op Oo Cm argtype Oc Cm argname
1706 .Ed
1707 .Pp
1708 Function arguments are surrounded in parenthesis and
1709 are delimited by commas.
1710 If no arguments are specified, blank parenthesis are output.
1711 .Pp
1712 Examples:
1713 .D1 \&.Fn "int funcname" "int arg0" "int arg1"
1714 .D1 \&.Fn funcname "int arg0"
1715 .D1 \&.Fn funcname arg0
1716 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
1717 \&.Ft functype
1718 \&.Fn funcname
1719 .Ed
1720 .Pp
1721 See also
1722 .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
1723 and
1724 .Sx \&Ft .
1725 .Ss \&Fo
1726 Begin a function block.
1727 This is a multi-line version of
1728 .Sx \&Fn .
1729 Its syntax is as follows:
1730 .Pp
1731 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Fo Cm funcname
1732 .Pp
1733 Invocations usually occur in the following context:
1734 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
1735 .Pf \. Sx \&Ft Cm functype
1736 .br
1737 .Pf \. Sx \&Fo Cm funcname
1738 .br
1739 .Pf \. Sx \&Fa Oo Cm argtype Oc Cm argname
1740 .br
1741 \.\.\.
1742 .br
1743 .Pf \. Sx \&Fc
1744 .Ed
1745 .Pp
1746 A
1747 .Sx \&Fo
1748 scope is closed by
1749 .Pp
1750 See also
1751 .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,
1752 .Sx \&Fa ,
1753 .Sx \&Fc ,
1754 and
1755 .Ss \&Ft
1756 A function type.
1757 Its syntax is as follows:
1758 .Pp
1759 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ft Cm functype
1760 .Pp
1761 Examples:
1762 .D1 \&.Ft int
1763 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
1764 \&.Ft functype
1765 \&.Fn funcname
1766 .Ed
1767 .Pp
1768 See also
1769 .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,
1770 .Sx \&Fn ,
1771 and
1772 .Sx \&Fo .
1773 .Ss \&Fx
1774 Format the FreeBSD version provided as an argument, or a default value
1775 if no argument is provided.
1776 .Pp
1777 Examples:
1778 .D1 \&.Fx 7.1
1779 .D1 \&.Fx
1780 .Pp
1781 See also
1782 .Sx \&At ,
1783 .Sx \&Bsx ,
1784 .Sx \&Bx ,
1785 .Sx \&Dx ,
1786 .Sx \&Nx ,
1787 .Sx \&Ox ,
1788 and
1789 .Sx \&Ux .
1790 .Ss \&Hf
1791 .Ss \&Ic
1792 .Ss \&In
1793 An
1794 .Qq include
1795 file.
1796 In the
1797 .Em SYNOPSIS
1798 section (only if invoked as the line macro), the first argument is
1799 preceded by
1800 .Qq #include ,
1801 the arguments is enclosed in angled braces.
1802 .Pp
1803 Examples:
1804 .D1 \&.In sys/types
1805 .Pp
1806 See also
1807 .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .
1808 .Ss \&It
1809 A list item.
1810 The syntax of this macro depends on the list type.
1811 .Pp
1812 Lists
1813 of type
1814 .Fl hang ,
1815 .Fl ohang ,
1816 .Fl inset ,
1817 and
1818 .Fl diag
1819 have the following syntax:
1820 .Pp
1821 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Cm args
1822 .Pp
1823 Lists of type
1824 .Fl bullet ,
1825 .Fl dash ,
1826 .Fl enum ,
1827 .Fl hyphen
1828 and
1829 .Fl item
1830 have the following syntax:
1831 .Pp
1832 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&It
1833 .Pp
1834 with subsequent lines interpreted within the scope of the
1835 .Sx \&It
1836 until either a closing
1837 .Sx \&El
1838 or another
1839 .Sx \&It .
1840 .Pp
1841 The
1842 .Fl tag
1843 list has the following syntax:
1844 .Pp
1845 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Op Cm args
1846 .Pp
1847 Subsequent lines are interpreted as with
1848 .Fl bullet
1849 and family.
1850 The line arguments correspond to the list's left-hand side; body
1851 arguments correspond to the list's contents.
1852 .Pp
1853 The
1854 .Fl column
1855 list is the most complicated.
1856 Its syntax is as follows:
1857 .Pp
1858 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Op Cm args
1859 .Pp
1860 The
1861 .Cm args
1862 are phrases, a mix of macros and text corresponding to a line column,
1863 delimited by tabs or the special
1864 .Sq \&Ta
1865 pseudo-macro.
1866 Lines subsequent the
1867 .Sx \&It
1868 are interpreted within the scope of the last phrase.
1869 Calling the pseudo-macro
1870 .Sq \&Ta
1871 will open a new phrase scope (this must occur on a macro line to be
1872 interpreted as a macro). Note that the tab phrase delimiter may only be
1873 used within the
1874 .Sx \&It
1875 line itself.
1876 Subsequent this, only the
1877 .Sq \&Ta
1878 pseudo-macro may be used to delimit phrases.
1879 Furthermore, note that quoted sections propagate over tab-delimited
1880 phrases on an
1881 .Sx \&It ,
1882 for example,
1883 .Pp
1884 .D1 .It \(dqcol1 ; <TAB> col2 ;\(dq \&;
1885 .Pp
1886 will preserve the semicolon whitespace except for the last.
1887 .Pp
1888 See also
1889 .Sx \&Bl .
1890 .Ss \&Lb
1891 Specify a library.
1892 The syntax is as follows:
1893 .Pp
1894 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Lb Cm library
1895 .Pp
1896 The
1897 .Cm library
1898 parameter may be a system library, such as
1899 .Cm libz
1900 or
1901 .Cm libpam ,
1902 in which case a small library description is printed next to the linker
1903 invocation; or a custom library, in which case the library name is
1904 printed in quotes.
1905 This is most commonly used in the
1906 .Em SYNOPSIS
1907 section as described in
1908 .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .
1909 .Pp
1910 Examples:
1911 .D1 \&.Lb libz
1912 .D1 \&.Lb mdoc
1913 .Ss \&Li
1914 .Ss \&Lk
1915 Format a hyperlink.
1916 Its syntax is as follows:
1917 .Pp
1918 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Lk Cm uri Op Cm name
1919 .Pp
1920 Examples:
1921 .D1 \&.Lk http://bsd.lv "The BSD.lv Project"
1922 .D1 \&.Lk http://bsd.lv
1923 .Pp
1924 See also
1925 .Sx \&Mt .
1926 .Ss \&Lp
1927 .Ss \&Ms
1928 .Ss \&Mt
1929 Format a
1930 .Qq mailto:
1931 hyperlink.
1932 Its syntax is as follows:
1933 .Pp
1934 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Mt Cm address
1935 .Pp
1936 Examples:
1937 .D1 \&.Mt discuss@manpages.bsd.lv
1938 .Ss \&Nd
1939 .Ss \&Nm
1940 .Ss \&No
1941 .Ss \&Ns
1942 .Ss \&Nx
1943 Format the NetBSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if
1944 no argument is provided.
1945 .Pp
1946 Examples:
1947 .D1 \&.Nx 5.01
1948 .D1 \&.Nx
1949 .Pp
1950 See also
1951 .Sx \&At ,
1952 .Sx \&Bsx ,
1953 .Sx \&Bx ,
1954 .Sx \&Dx ,
1955 .Sx \&Fx ,
1956 .Sx \&Ox ,
1957 and
1958 .Sx \&Ux .
1959 .Ss \&Oc
1960 .Ss \&Oo
1961 .Ss \&Op
1962 .Ss \&Os
1963 Document operating system version.
1964 This is the mandatory third macro of
1965 any
1966 .Nm
1967 file.
1968 Its syntax is as follows:
1969 .Pp
1970 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Os Op Cm system
1971 .Pp
1972 The optional
1973 .Cm system
1974 parameter specifies the relevant operating system or environment.
1975 Left unspecified, it defaults to the local operating system version.
1976 This is the suggested form.
1977 .Pp
1978 Examples:
1979 .D1 \&.Os
1980 .D1 \&.Os KTH/CSC/TCS
1981 .D1 \&.Os BSD 4.3
1982 .Pp
1983 See also
1984 .Sx \&Dd
1985 and
1986 .Sx \&Dt .
1987 .Ss \&Ot
1988 Unknown usage.
1989 .Pp
1990 .Em Remarks :
1991 this macro has been deprecated.
1992 .Ss \&Ox
1993 Format the OpenBSD version provided as an argument, or a default value
1994 if no argument is provided.
1995 .Pp
1996 Examples:
1997 .D1 \&.Ox 4.5
1998 .D1 \&.Ox
1999 .Pp
2000 See also
2001 .Sx \&At ,
2002 .Sx \&Bsx ,
2003 .Sx \&Bx ,
2004 .Sx \&Dx ,
2005 .Sx \&Fx ,
2006 .Sx \&Nx ,
2007 and
2008 .Sx \&Ux .
2009 .Ss \&Pa
2010 .Ss \&Pc
2011 .Ss \&Pf
2012 .Ss \&Po
2013 .Ss \&Pp
2014 .Ss \&Pq
2015 .Ss \&Qc
2016 .Ss \&Ql
2017 .Ss \&Qo
2018 .Ss \&Qq
2019 .Ss \&Re
2020 Closes a
2021 .Sx \&Rs
2022 block.
2023 Does not have any tail arguments.
2024 .Ss \&Rs
2025 Begins a bibliographic
2026 .Pq Dq reference
2027 block.
2028 Does not have any head arguments.
2029 The block macro may only contain
2030 .Sx \&%A ,
2031 .Sx \&%B ,
2032 .Sx \&%C ,
2033 .Sx \&%D ,
2034 .Sx \&%I ,
2035 .Sx \&%J ,
2036 .Sx \&%N ,
2037 .Sx \&%O ,
2038 .Sx \&%P ,
2039 .Sx \&%Q ,
2040 .Sx \&%R ,
2041 .Sx \&%T ,
2042 .Sx \&%U ,
2043 and
2044 .Sx \&%V
2045 child macros (at least one must be specified).
2046 .Pp
2047 Examples:
2048 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
2049 \&.Rs
2050 \&.%A J. E. Hopcroft
2051 \&.%A J. D. Ullman
2052 \&.%B Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation
2053 \&.%I Addison-Wesley
2054 \&.%C Reading, Massachusettes
2055 \&.%D 1979
2056 \&.Re
2057 .Ed
2058 .Pp
2059 If an
2060 .Sx \&Rs
2061 block is used within a SEE ALSO section, a vertical space is asserted
2062 before the rendered output, else the block continues on the current
2063 line.
2064 .Ss \&Rv
2065 .Ss \&Sc
2066 .Ss \&Sh
2067 .Ss \&Sm
2068 .Ss \&So
2069 .Ss \&Sq
2070 .Ss \&Ss
2071 .Ss \&St
2072 .Ss \&Sx
2073 .Ss \&Sy
2074 .Ss \&Tn
2075 .Ss \&Ud
2076 Prints out
2077 .Dq currently under development.
2078 .Ss \&Ux
2079 Format the UNIX name.
2080 Accepts no argument.
2081 .Pp
2082 Examples:
2083 .D1 \&.Ux
2084 .Pp
2085 See also
2086 .Sx \&At ,
2087 .Sx \&Bsx ,
2088 .Sx \&Bx ,
2089 .Sx \&Dx ,
2090 .Sx \&Fx ,
2091 .Sx \&Nx ,
2092 and
2093 .Sx \&Ox .
2094 .Ss \&Va
2095 .Ss \&Vt
2096 A variable type.
2097 This is also used for indicating global variables in the
2098 .Em SYNOPSIS
2099 section, in which case a variable name is also specified.
2100 Note that it accepts
2101 .Sx Block partial-implicit
2102 syntax when invoked as the first macro in the
2103 .Em SYNOPSIS
2104 section, else it accepts ordinary
2105 .Sx In-line
2106 syntax.
2107 .Pp
2108 Note that this should not be confused with
2109 .Sx \&Ft ,
2110 which is used for function return types.
2111 .Pp
2112 Examples:
2113 .D1 \&.Vt unsigned char
2114 .D1 \&.Vt extern const char * const sys_signame[] \&;
2115 .Pp
2116 See also
2117 .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
2118 and
2119 .Sx \&Va .
2120 .Ss \&Xc
2121 Close a scope opened by
2122 .Sx \&Xo .
2123 .Ss \&Xo
2124 Open an extension scope.
2125 This macro originally existed to extend the 9-argument limit of troff;
2126 since this limit has been lifted, the macro has been deprecated.
2127 .Ss \&Xr
2128 Link to another manual
2129 .Pq Qq cross-reference .
2130 Its syntax is as follows:
2131 .Pp
2132 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Xr Cm name section
2133 .Pp
2134 The
2135 .Cm name
2136 and
2137 .Cm section
2138 are the name and section of the linked manual.
2139 If
2140 .Cm section
2141 is followed by non-punctuation, an
2142 .Sx \&Ns
2143 is inserted into the token stream.
2144 This behaviour is for compatibility with
2145 .Xr groff 1 .
2146 .Pp
2147 Examples:
2148 .D1 \&.Xr mandoc 1
2149 .D1 \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&;
2150 .D1 \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&Ns s behaviour
2151 .Ss \&br
2152 .Ss \&sp
2153 .Sh COMPATIBILITY
2154 This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other other
2155 troff implementations, at this time limited to GNU troff
2156 .Pq Qq groff .
2157 The term
2158 .Qq historic groff
2159 refers to groff versions before the
2160 .Pa doc.tmac
2161 file re-write
2162 .Pq somewhere between 1.15 and 1.19 .
2163 .Pp
2164 Heirloom troff, the other significant troff implementation accepting
2165 \-mdoc, is similar to historic groff.
2166 .Pp
2167 .Bl -dash -compact
2168 .It
2169 Old groff fails to assert a newline before
2170 .Sx \&Bd Fl ragged compact .
2171 .It
2172 groff behaves inconsistently when encountering
2173 .Pf non- Sx \&Fa
2174 children of
2175 .Sx \&Fo
2176 regarding spacing between arguments.
2177 In mandoc, this is not the case: each argument is consistently followed
2178 by a single space and the trailing
2179 .Sq \&)
2180 suppresses prior spacing.
2181 .It
2182 groff behaves inconsistently when encountering
2183 .Sx \&Ft
2184 and
2185 .Sx \&Fn
2186 in the
2187 .Em SYNOPSIS :
2188 at times newline(s) are suppressed depending on whether a prior
2189 .Sx \&Fn
2190 has been invoked.
2191 In mandoc, this is not the case.
2192 See
2193 .Sx \&Ft
2194 and
2195 .Sx \&Fn
2196 for the normalised behaviour.
2197 .It
2198 Historic groff does not break before an
2199 .Sx \&Fn
2200 when not invoked as the line macro in the
2201 .Em SYNOPSIS
2202 section.
2203 .It
2204 Historic groff formats the
2205 .Sx \&In
2206 badly: trailing arguments are trashed and
2207 .Em SYNOPSIS
2208 is not specially treated.
2209 .It
2210 groff does not accept the
2211 .Sq \&Ta
2212 pseudo-macro as a line macro.
2213 mandoc does.
2214 .It
2215 The comment syntax
2216 .Sq \e."
2217 is no longer accepted.
2218 .It
2219 In groff, the
2220 .Sx \&Pa
2221 macro does not format its arguments when used in the FILES section under
2222 certain list types.
2223 mandoc does.
2224 .It
2225 Historic groff does not print a dash for empty
2226 .Sx \&Fl
2227 arguments.
2228 mandoc and newer groff implementations do.
2229 .It
2230 groff behaves irregularly when specifying
2231 .Sq \ef
2232 .Sx Text Decoration
2233 within line-macro scopes.
2234 mandoc follows a consistent system.
2235 .It
2236 In mandoc, negative scaling units are truncated to zero; groff would
2237 move to prior lines.
2238 Furthermore, the
2239 .Sq f
2240 scaling unit, while accepted, is rendered as the default unit.
2241 .It
2242 In quoted literals, groff allowed pair-wise double-quotes to produce a
2243 standalone double-quote in formatted output.
2244 This idiosyncratic behaviour is not applicable in mandoc.
2245 .It
2246 Display offsets
2247 .Sx \&Bd
2248 .Fl offset Ar center
2249 and
2250 .Fl offset Ar right
2251 are disregarded in mandoc.
2252 Furthermore, the
2253 .Fl file Ar file
2254 argument is not supported in mandoc.
2255 Lastly, since text is not right-justified in mandoc (or even groff),
2256 .Fl ragged
2257 and
2258 .Fl filled
2259 are aliases, as are
2260 .Fl literal
2261 and
2262 .Fl unfilled .
2263 .It
2264 Historic groff has many un-callable macros.
2265 Most of these (excluding some block-level macros) are now callable.
2266 .It
2267 The vertical bar
2268 .Sq \(ba
2269 made historic groff
2270 .Qq go orbital
2271 but has been a proper delimiter since then.
2272 .It
2273 .Sx \&It Fl nested
2274 is assumed for all lists (it wasn't in historic groff): any list may be
2275 nested and
2276 .Fl enum
2277 lists will restart the sequence only for the sub-list.
2278 .It
2279 Some manuals use
2280 .Sx \&Li
2281 incorrectly by following it with a reserved character and expecting the
2282 delimiter to render.
2283 This is not supported in mandoc.
2284 .It
2285 In groff, the
2286 .Sx \&Cd ,
2287 .Sx \&Er ,
2288 .Sx \&Ex ,
2289 and
2290 .Sx \&Rv
2291 macros were stipulated only to occur in certain manual sections.
2292 mandoc does not have these restrictions.
2293 .It
2294 Newer groff and mandoc print
2295 .Qq AT&T UNIX
2296 prior to unknown arguments of
2297 .Sx \&At ;
2298 older groff did nothing.
2299 .El
2300 .Sh SEE ALSO
2301 .Xr mandoc 1 ,
2302 .Xr mandoc_char 7
2303 .Sh AUTHORS
2304 The
2305 .Nm
2306 reference was written by
2307 .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@bsd.lv .
2308 .\"
2309 .\" XXX: this really isn't the place for these caveats.
2310 .\" .
2311 .\" .
2312 .\" .Sh CAVEATS
2313 .\" There are many ambiguous parts of mdoc.
2314 .\" .
2315 .\" .Pp
2316 .\" .Bl -dash -compact
2317 .\" .It
2318 .\" .Sq \&Fa
2319 .\" should be
2320 .\" .Sq \&Va
2321 .\" as function arguments are variables.
2322 .\" .It
2323 .\" .Sq \&Ft
2324 .\" should be
2325 .\" .Sq \&Vt
2326 .\" as function return types are still types. Furthermore, the
2327 .\" .Sq \&Ft
2328 .\" should be removed and
2329 .\" .Sq \&Fo ,
2330 .\" which ostensibly follows it, should follow the same convention as
2331 .\" .Sq \&Va .
2332 .\" .It
2333 .\" .Sq \&Va
2334 .\" should formalise that only one or two arguments are acceptable: a
2335 .\" variable name and optional, preceding type.
2336 .\" .It
2337 .\" .Sq \&Fd
2338 .\" is ambiguous. It's commonly used to indicate an include file in the
2339 .\" synopsis section.
2340 .\" .Sq \&In
2341 .\" should be used, instead.
2342 .\" .It
2343 .\" Only the
2344 .\" .Sq \-literal
2345 .\" argument to
2346 .\" .Sq \&Bd
2347 .\" makes sense. The remaining ones should be removed.
2348 .\" .It
2349 .\" The
2350 .\" .Sq \&Xo
2351 .\" and
2352 .\" .Sq \&Xc
2353 .\" macros should be deprecated.
2354 .\" .It
2355 .\" The
2356 .\" .Sq \&Dt
2357 .\" macro lacks clarity. It should be absolutely clear which title will
2358 .\" render when formatting the manual page.
2359 .\" .It
2360 .\" A
2361 .\" .Sq \&Lx
2362 .\" should be provided for Linux (\(`a la
2363 .\" .Sq \&Ox ,
2364 .\" .Sq \&Nx
2365 .\" etc.).
2366 .\" .It
2367 .\" There's no way to refer to references in
2368 .\" .Sq \&Rs/Re
2369 .\" blocks.
2370 .\" .It
2371 .\" The \-split and \-nosplit dictates via
2372 .\" .Sq \&An
2373 .\" are re-set when entering and leaving the AUTHORS section.
2374 .\" .El
2375 .\" .