1 .\" $Id: roff.7,v 1.5 2010/05/17 02:38:13 kristaps Exp $
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2010 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
5 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
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17 .Dd $Mdocdate: May 17 2010 $
22 .Nd roff language reference
26 language is a general-purpose text-formatting language. The purpose of
27 this document is to consistently describe those language constructs
30 utility. It is a work in progress.
34 document follows simple rules: lines beginning with the control
39 are parsed for macros. Other lines are interpreted within the scope of
41 .Bd -literal -offset indent
42 \&.xx Macro lines change control state.
43 Other lines are interpreted within the current state.
47 documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the space
48 character, and, in certain circumstances, the tab character. All
53 Macros are arbitrary in length and begin with a control character ,
57 at the beginning of the line.
58 An arbitrary amount of whitespace may sit between the control character
60 Thus, the following are equivalent:
61 .Bd -literal -offset indent
66 This section is a canonical reference of all macros, arranged
69 The syntax of this macro is the same as that of
71 except that a leading argument must be specified.
72 It is ignored, as are its children.
74 The syntax of this macro is the same as that of
76 except that a leading argument must be specified.
77 It is ignored, as are its children.
79 The syntax of this macro is the same as that of
81 except that a leading argument must be specified.
82 It is ignored, as are its children.
84 The syntax of this macro is the same as that of
86 except that a leading argument must be specified.
87 It is ignored, as are its children.
89 The syntax of this macro is the same as that of
91 except that a leading argument must be specified.
92 It is ignored, as are its children.
94 The syntax of this macro is the same as that of
96 except that a leading argument must be specified.
97 It is ignored, as are its children.
101 half of an if/else conditional.
102 Pops a result off the stack of conditional evaluations pushed by
104 and uses it as its conditional.
105 If no stack entries are present (e.g., due to no prior
108 then false is assumed.
109 The syntax of this macro is similar to
111 except that the conditional is missing.
115 half of an if/else conditional.
116 The result of the conditional is pushed into a stack used by subsequent
119 which may be separated by any intervening input (or not exist at all).
120 Its syntax is equivalent to
123 Begins a conditional that always evaluates to false.
124 If a conditional is false, its children are not processed, but are
125 syntactically interpreted to preserve the integrity of the input
133 which may lead to interesting results, but
135 .D1 \&.if t \e .if t \e{\e
137 will continue to syntactically interpret to the block close of the final
139 Sub-conditionals, in this case, obviously inherit the truth value of
141 This macro has the following syntax:
143 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
148 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
152 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
157 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
162 COND is a conditional (for the time being, this always evaluates to
165 If the BODY section is begun by an escaped brace
167 scope continues until a closing-brace macro
169 If the BODY is not enclosed in braces, scope continues until the next
171 If the COND is followed by a BODY on the same line, whether after a
172 brace or not, then macros
174 begin with a control character.
175 It is generally more intuitive, in this case, to write
176 .Bd -literal -offset indent
183 than having the macro follow as
185 .D1 \&.if COND \e{ .foo
187 The scope of a conditional is always parsed, but only executed if the
188 conditional evaluates to true.
190 Note that text subsequent a
193 Furthermore, if an explicit closing sequence
195 is specified in a free-form line, the entire line is accepted within the
196 scope of the prior macro, not only the text preceding the close.
199 Accepts the following syntax:
201 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
206 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
212 In the first case, input is ignored until a
214 macro is encountered on its own line.
215 In the second case, input is ignored until a
224 Do not use the escape
226 anywhere in the definition of END.
227 It causes very strange behaviour.
228 Furthermore, if you redefine a
234 the subsequent invocation of
236 will first signify the end of comment, then be invoked as a macro.
237 This behaviour really shouldn't be counted upon.
239 This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other other
240 troff implementations, at this time limited to GNU troff
244 refers to groff versions before the
247 .Pq somewhere between 1.15 and 1.19 .
251 Historic groff did not accept white-space buffering the custom END tag
258 and family would print funny white-spaces with historic groff when
259 depending on next-line syntax.
264 reference was written by
265 .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@bsd.lv .