man.7

   1 .\" $Id: man.7,v 1.5 2009/03/26 23:01:26 kristaps Exp $
   2 .\"
   3 .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@openbsd.org>
   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
   7 .\" above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all
   8 .\" copies.
   9 .\"
  10 .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL
  11 .\" WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED
  12 .\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
  13 .\" AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
  14 .\" DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR
  15 .\" PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER
  16 .\" TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
  17 .\" PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
  18 .\"
  19 .Dd $Mdocdate: March 26 2009 $
  20 .Dt man 7
  21 .Os
  22 .\" SECTION
  23 .Sh NAME
  24 .Nm man
  25 .Nd man language reference
  26 .\" SECTION
  27 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  28 The
  29 .Nm man
  30 language was historically used to format
  31 .Ux
  32 manuals.  In this reference document, we describe the syntax and
  33 structure of the
  34 .Nm
  35 language.
  36 .Pp
  37 .Em \&Do not ever
  38 use
  39 .Nm
  40 to write your manuals.  Use the
  41 .Xr mdoc 7
  42 language, instead.
  43 .\" PARAGRAPH
  44 .Pp
  45 An
  46 .Nm
  47 document follows simple rules:  lines beginning with the control
  48 character
  49 .Sq \&.
  50 are parsed for macros.  Other lines are interpreted within the scope of
  51 prior macros:
  52 .Bd -literal -offset indent
  53 \&.SH Macro lines change control state.
  54 Other lines are interpreted within the current state.
  55 .Ed
  56 .\" SECTION
  57 .Sh INPUT ENCODING
  58 .Nm
  59 documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters and the
  60 space character
  61 .Sq \  .
  62 All manuals must have
  63 .Ux
  64 .Sq \en
  65 line termination.
  66 .Pp
  67 Blank lines are acceptable; where found, the output will assert a
  68 vertical space.
  69 .Pp
  70 The
  71 .Sq \ec
  72 escape is common in historical
  73 .Nm
  74 documents; if encountered at the end of a word, it ensures that the
  75 subsequent word isn't off-set by whitespace.
  76 .\" SUB-SECTION
  77 .Ss Special Characters
  78 Special character sequences begin with the escape character
  79 .Sq \e
  80 followed by either an open-parenthesis
  81 .Sq \&(
  82 for two-character sequences; an open-bracket
  83 .Sq \&[
  84 for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket
  85 .Sq \&] ) ;
  86 or a single one-character sequence.
  87 .Pp
  88 Characters may alternatively be escaped by a slash-asterisk,
  89 .Sq \e* ,
  90 with the same combinations as described above.  This form is deprecated.
  91 .Pp
  92 The
  93 .Xr mdoc 7
  94 contains a table of all available escapes.
  95 .\" SECTION
  96 .Sh STRUCTURE
  97 Macros are one to three three characters in length and begin with a
  98 control character ,
  99 .Sq \&. ,
 100 at the beginning of the line.  An arbitrary amount of whitespace may
 101 sit between the control character and the macro name.  Thus,
 102 .Sq \&.PP
 103 and
 104 .Sq \&.\ \ \ \&PP
 105 are equivalent.
 106 .Pp
 107 All
 108 .Nm
 109 macros follow the same structural rules:
 110 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 111 \&.YO \(lBbody...\(rB
 112 .Ed
 113 .Pp
 114 The
 115 .Dq body
 116 consists of zero or more arguments to the macro.
 117 .Pp
 118 .Nm
 119 has a primitive notion of multi-line scope for the following macros:
 120 .Sq \&.TM ,
 121 .Sq \&.SM ,
 122 .Sq \&.SB ,
 123 .Sq \&.BI ,
 124 .Sq \&.IB ,
 125 .Sq \&.BR ,
 126 .Sq \&.RB ,
 127 .Sq \&.R ,
 128 .Sq \&.B ,
 129 .Sq \&.I ,
 130 .Sq \&.IR
 131 and
 132 .Sq \&.RI .
 133 When these macros are invoked without arguments, the subsequent line is
 134 considered a continuation of the macro.  Thus:
 135 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 136 \&.RI
 137 foo
 138 .Ed
 139 .Pp
 140 is equivalent to
 141 .Sq \&.RI foo .
 142 If two consecutive lines exhibit the latter behaviour,
 143 an error is raised.  Thus, the following is not acceptable:
 144 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 145 \&.RI
 146 \&.I
 147 Hello, world.
 148 .Ed
 149 .Pp
 150 The
 151 .Sq \&.TP
 152 macro is similar, but does not need an empty argument line to trigger
 153 the behaviour.
 154 .\" PARAGRAPH
 155 .Sh MACROS
 156 This section contains a complete list of all
 157 .Nm
 158 macros and corresponding number of arguments.
 159 .Pp
 160 .Bl -column "MacroX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent
 161 .It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments
 162 .It \&.TH    Ta    >1, <6
 163 .It \&.SH    Ta    >0
 164 .It \&.SS    Ta    >0
 165 .It \&.TP    Ta    n
 166 .It \&.LP    Ta    0
 167 .It \&.PP    Ta    0
 168 .It \&.P     Ta    0
 169 .It \&.IP    Ta    <3
 170 .It \&.HP    Ta    <2
 171 .It \&.SM    Ta    n
 172 .It \&.SB    Ta    n
 173 .It \&.BI    Ta    n
 174 .It \&.IB    Ta    n
 175 .It \&.BR    Ta    n
 176 .It \&.RB    Ta    n
 177 .It \&.R     Ta    n
 178 .It \&.B     Ta    n
 179 .It \&.I     Ta    n
 180 .It \&.IR    Ta    n
 181 .It \&.RI    Ta    n
 182 .El
 183 .\" SECTION
 184 .Sh SEE ALSO
 185 .Xr mandoc 1
 186 .\" SECTION
 187 .Sh AUTHORS
 188 The
 189 .Nm
 190 utility was written by
 191 .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@openbsd.org .
 192 .\" SECTION
 193 .Sh CAVEATS
 194 Do not use this language.  Use
 195 .Xr mdoc 7 ,
 196 instead.