man.7

   1 .\"     $Id: man.7,v 1.16 2009/06/25 10:48:21 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.
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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 25 2009 $
  18 .Dt MAN 7
  19 .Os
  20 .\" SECTION
  21 .Sh NAME
  22 .Nm man
  23 .Nd man language reference
  24 .\" SECTION
  25 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  26 The
  27 .Nm man
  28 language was historically used to format
  29 .Ux
  30 manuals.  This reference document describes the syntax and structure of
  31 this language.
  32 .Pp
  33 .Em \&Do not
  34 use
  35 .Nm
  36 to write your manuals.  Use the
  37 .Xr mdoc 7
  38 language, instead.
  39 .\" PARAGRAPH
  40 .Pp
  41 An
  42 .Nm
  43 document follows simple rules:  lines beginning with the control
  44 character
  45 .Sq \&.
  46 are parsed for macros.  Other lines are interpreted within the scope of
  47 prior macros:
  48 .Bd -literal -offset indent
  49 \&.SH Macro lines change control state.
  50 Other lines are interpreted within the current state.
  51 .Ed
  52 .\" SECTION
  53 .Sh INPUT ENCODING
  54 .Nm
  55 documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the
  56 space character
  57 .Sq \  ,
  58 and tabs
  59 .Sq \et .
  60 All manuals must have
  61 .Ux
  62 .Sq \en
  63 line termination.
  64 .Pp
  65 Blank lines are acceptable; where found, the output will assert a
  66 vertical space.
  67 .Pp
  68 The
  69 .Sq \ec
  70 escape is common in historical
  71 .Nm
  72 documents; if encountered at the end of a word, it ensures that the
  73 subsequent word isn't off-set by whitespace.
  74 .\" SUB-SECTION
  75 .Ss Comments
  76 Anything following a
  77 .Sq \e"
  78 delimiter is considered a comment (unless the
  79 .Sq \e
  80 itself has been escaped) and is ignored to the end of line.
  81 Furthermore, a macro line with only a control character
  82 .Sq \. ,
  83 optionally followed by whitespace, is ignored.
  84 .\" SUB-SECTION
  85 .Ss Special Characters
  86 Special character sequences begin with the escape character
  87 .Sq \e
  88 followed by either an open-parenthesis
  89 .Sq \&(
  90 for two-character sequences; an open-bracket
  91 .Sq \&[
  92 for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket
  93 .Sq \&] ) ;
  94 or a single one-character sequence.
  95 .Pp
  96 Characters may alternatively be escaped by a slash-asterisk,
  97 .Sq \e* ,
  98 with the same combinations as described above.  This form is deprecated.
  99 .\" SECTION
 100 .Sh STRUCTURE
 101 Each
 102 .Nm
 103 document must contain contains at least the
 104 .Sq \&.TH
 105 macro describing the document's section and title.  It may occur
 106 anywhere in the document, although conventionally, it appears as the
 107 first macro.
 108 .Pp
 109 Beyond the
 110 .Sq \&.TH ,
 111 at least one macro or text node must appear in the document.
 112 .\" SECTION
 113 .Sh SYNTAX
 114 Macros are one to three three characters in length and begin with a
 115 control character ,
 116 .Sq \&. ,
 117 at the beginning of the line.  An arbitrary amount of whitespace may
 118 sit between the control character and the macro name.  Thus,
 119 .Sq \&.PP
 120 and
 121 .Sq \&.\ \ \ \&PP
 122 are equivalent.
 123 .Pp
 124 All
 125 .Nm
 126 macros follow the same structural rules:
 127 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 128 \&.YO \(lBbody...\(rB
 129 .Ed
 130 .Pp
 131 The
 132 .Dq body
 133 consists of zero or more arguments to the macro.
 134 .Pp
 135 .Nm
 136 has a primitive notion of multi-line scope for the following macros:
 137 .Sq \&.TM ,
 138 .Sq \&.SM ,
 139 .Sq \&.SB ,
 140 .Sq \&.BI ,
 141 .Sq \&.IB ,
 142 .Sq \&.BR ,
 143 .Sq \&.RB ,
 144 .Sq \&.R ,
 145 .Sq \&.B ,
 146 .Sq \&.I ,
 147 .Sq \&.IR
 148 and
 149 .Sq \&.RI .
 150 When these macros are invoked without arguments, the subsequent line is
 151 considered a continuation of the macro.  Thus:
 152 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 153 \&.RI
 154 foo
 155 .Ed
 156 .Pp
 157 is equivalent to
 158 .Sq \&.RI foo .
 159 If two consecutive lines exhibit the latter behaviour,
 160 an error is raised.  Thus, the following is not acceptable:
 161 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 162 \&.RI
 163 \&.I
 164 Hello, world.
 165 .Ed
 166 .Pp
 167 The
 168 .Sq \&.TP
 169 macro is similar, but does not need an empty argument line to trigger
 170 the behaviour.
 171 .\" SECTION
 172 .Sh MACROS
 173 This section contains a complete list of all
 174 .Nm
 175 macros and corresponding number of arguments.
 176 .Pp
 177 .Bl -column "MacroX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent
 178 .It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments
 179 .It \&.TH    Ta    >1, <6
 180 .It \&.SH    Ta    >0
 181 .It \&.SS    Ta    >0
 182 .It \&.TP    Ta    n
 183 .It \&.LP    Ta    0
 184 .It \&.PP    Ta    0
 185 .It \&.P     Ta    0
 186 .It \&.IP    Ta    <3
 187 .It \&.HP    Ta    <2
 188 .It \&.SM    Ta    n
 189 .It \&.SB    Ta    n
 190 .It \&.BI    Ta    n
 191 .It \&.IB    Ta    n
 192 .It \&.BR    Ta    n
 193 .It \&.RB    Ta    n
 194 .It \&.R     Ta    n
 195 .It \&.B     Ta    n
 196 .It \&.I     Ta    n
 197 .It \&.IR    Ta    n
 198 .It \&.RI    Ta    n
 199 .El
 200 .Pp
 201 Although not historically part of the
 202 .Nm
 203 system, the following macros are also supported:
 204 .Pp
 205 .Bl -column "MacroX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent
 206 .It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments
 207 .It \&.br    Ta    0
 208 .It \&.i     Ta    n
 209 .El
 210 .Pp
 211 These follow the same calling conventions as the above
 212 .Nm
 213 macros.
 214 .\" SECTION
 215 .Sh SEE ALSO
 216 .Xr mandoc 1 ,
 217 .Xr mandoc_char 7
 218 .\" SECTION
 219 .Sh AUTHORS
 220 The
 221 .Nm
 222 utility was written by
 223 .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@kth.se .
 224 .\" SECTION
 225 .Sh CAVEATS
 226 Do not use this language.  Use
 227 .Xr mdoc 7 ,
 228 instead.