-.\" $Id: manuals.7,v 1.9 2009/03/24 10:59:50 kristaps Exp $
+.\" $Id: manuals.7,v 1.19 2009/07/27 19:43:02 kristaps Exp $
.\"
-.\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@openbsd.org>
+.\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@kth.se>
.\"
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
-.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the
-.\" above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all
-.\" copies.
+.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
+.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
.\"
-.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL
-.\" WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED
-.\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
-.\" AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
-.\" DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR
-.\" PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER
-.\" TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
-.\" PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
-.\"
-.Dd $Mdocdate: March 24 2009 $
-.Dt manuals 7
+.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
+.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
+.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
+.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
+.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
+.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
+.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
+.\"
+.Dd $Mdocdate: July 27 2009 $
+.Dt MANUALS 7
.Os
.\" SECTION
.Sh NAME
.Pp
A system component's documentation describes the utility of that
component, whether it's a device driver, an executable or, most
-importantly, a game. Although there are plenty of documents available
-on how to read
-.Ux
-documents, or where to find them, few focus on composition.
-.\" PARAGRAPH
+importantly, a game.
.Pp
-This document serves as a tutorial to writing
-.Ux
+This document serves as a tutorial to writing
+.Ux
documentation
.Pq Dq manuals .
-If you add something to your operating system, whether it's a new file
-format or directory structure or device driver, it needs documentation.
.\" SECTION
-.Sh COMPOSITION
-Prepare your composition environment by copying over the manual template
-from
-.Pa /usr/share/misc/mdoc.template .
+.Sh ENVIRONMENT
+First, copy over the manual template from
+.Pa /usr/share/misc/mdoc.template
+into your source directory.
+.Pp
+.Dl % cp /usr/share/misc/mdoc.template \.
.Pp
-If this file doesn't exist, bug your administrator.
.Em \&Do not
start afresh or by copying another manual unless you know exactly what
-you're doing!
+you're doing! If the template doesn't exist, bug your administrator.
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Section Numbering
Find an appropriate section for your manual. There may exist multiple
-manual names per section, so be specific. A table of all available
-manual sections follows:
+manual names per section, so be specific:
.Pp
.\" LIST
.Bl -tag -width "XXXXXXXXXXXX" -offset indent -compact
games
.It 7
tutorials, documents and papers
-.It 8
+.It 8
administrator utilities
.It 9
in-kernel routines
.Ed
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Naming
-Name your component. Be terse, erring on the side of clarity. You may
-want to look for other manuals by that same name before committing:
+Name your component. Be terse, erring on the side of clarity. Look for
+other manuals by that same name before committing:
.Pp
.Dl % apropos myname
.Pp
-Manual files are named
+Manual files are named
.Pa myname.mysection ,
such as
.Pa manuals.7
-for this document.
-.\" SUBSECTION
-.Ss Input Language
-Manuals should
-.Em always
-be written in the
-.Xr mdoc 7
-formatting language.
+for this document. Rename the template file:
.Pp
-There exist other documentation-specific languages, such as the
-historical
-.Xr man 7
-package of
-.Xr roff 7 ;
-newer languages such as DocBook, texinfo or schema-driven XML; or even
-ad-hoc conventions such as README files.
-.Em Avoid these formats .
-Historical formats fail to capture a manual's semantic content, instead
-only modelling its style. Newer methods requires special,
-system-specific tools and may change or become obsolete over the
-life-time of your component.
-.Pp
-There are two canonical references for writing mdoc. Read them.
-.Pp
-.\" LIST
-.Bl -tag -width XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX -offset indent -compact
-.It Xr mdoc 7
-formal language reference
-.It Xr mdoc.samples 7
-macro reference
-.El
-.Pp
-Open the template you've copied into
-.Pa name.section
-and begin editing.
+.Dl % mv mdoc.template myname.mysection
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Development Tools
While writing, make sure that your manual is correctly structured:
.Pp
-.Dl % mandoc \-Tlint \-Wall name.1
+.Dl % mandoc \-Tlint \-Wall \-fstrict name.1
+.Pp
+The quick-fix feature of
+.Xr vim 1
+is useful for checking over many manuals:
+.Bd -literal -offset indent
+% mandoc \-Wall \-fstrict \-Tlint \-fign-errors \e
+ ./path/to/manuals/* 2>&1 > /tmp/mandoc.errs
+% vim -q /tmp/mandoc.errs
+.Ed
.Pp
You may spell-check your work as follows:
.Pp
.Dl % deroff name.1 | spell
+.Pp
+If
+.Xr ispell 1
+is installed, it has a special mode for manuals:
+.Pp
.Dl % ispell \-n name.1
.Pp
-Use
+Use
.Xr cvs 1
-or, if not available,
+or
.Xr rcs 1
to version-control your work. If you wish the last check-in to effect
your document's date, use the following RCS tag for the date macro:
.Pp
-.Dl \&.Dd $Mdocdate: March 24 2009 $
-.Pp
-If using version control, the first line in your manual should be a
-comment with the
-.Li $Id: manuals.7,v 1.9 2009/03/24 10:59:50 kristaps Exp $
-rcs tag.
+.Dl \&.Dd $Mdocdate: July 27 2009 $
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Viewing
-mdoc documents may be paged to your terminal with traditional
-tools such as
-.Xr nroff 1 ,
-.Xr groff 1 ,
-or with newer, more powerful tools such as
-.Xr mandoc 1 :
-.\" DISPLAY
-.Bd -literal -offset indent
-% nroff \-mandoc name.1 | less
-% groff \-Tascii \-mandoc name.1 | less
-% mandoc name.1 | less
-.Ed
-.Pp
-Other output formats are also supported:
-.\" DISPLAY
+mdoc documents may be paged to your terminal with
+.Xr mandoc 1 .
+If you plan on distributing your work to systems without this tool,
+check it against
+.Xr groff 1 :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
-% groff \-Tps \-mandoc name.1 | less
-% mandoc \-Thtml name.1 | less
+% mandoc \-Wall name.1 2>&1 | less
+% groff -mandoc name.1 2>&1 | less
.Ed
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Automation
-Consider adding your mdoc documents to
+Consider adding your mdoc documents to
.Xr make 1
-Makefiles in order to automatically check your input and generate
-output:
+Makefiles in order to automatically check your input:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.SUFFIXES: .html .txt .1 .in
+\&.SUFFIXES: .1 .in
\&.in.1:
mandoc -Wall,error -Tlint $<
cp -f $< $@
-\&.1.html:
- mandoc -Thtml $< >$@
-\&.1.txt:
- mandoc -Tascii $< | col -b >$@
.Ed
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Licensing
Your manual must have a license. It should be listed at the start of
your document, just as in source code.
.\" SECTION
-.Sh BEST PRACTICES
-The
+.Sh COMPOSITION
+Manuals should
+.Em always
+be written in the
.Xr mdoc 7
-and
-.Xr mdoc.samples 7
-files are indispensable in guiding composition. In this section, we
-introduce some
-.Ux
-manual best practices:
+formatting language.
+.\" PARAGRAPH
+.Pp
+Open the template you've copied into
+.Pa myname.mysection
+and begin editing.
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Language
-.Bl -enum
+.Bl -enum
.It
Use clear, concise language. Favour simplicity.
.It
.Ss Style
The structure of the mdoc language makes it very hard to have any
particular format style. Keep your lines under 72 characters in length.
-If you must have long option lines, use
+If you must have long option lines, use
.Sq \&Oo/Oc .
+The same goes for function prototypes.
.Em \&Do not
-use
-.Sq \&Xo/Xc ;
-instead, either fine another way to write long lines, or, at the
-absolute worst, use CPP-style newline escapes.
+use
+.Sq \&Xo/Xc .
+Find another way to structure your line.
.\" SUBSECTION
-.Ss References
+.Ss References
Other components may be referenced with the
.Sq \&Xr
and
block macros.
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Formatting
-.Em Don't style your manual.
+.Em Don't style your manual .
Give it meaningful content. The front-end will worry about formatting
and style.
.\" SECTION
.Sh MAINTENANCE
As your component changes and bugs are fixed, your manual may become out
-of date. You may be tempted to use automation tools like Doxygen to
-smooth the development of your manuals. Don't. Source documentation is
-different from a component manual.
+of date. You may be tempted to use tools like Doxygen to automate the
+development of your manuals. Don't.
+.Pp
+.Em Manuals are part of a system component :
+if you modify your code or specifications, modify the documentation.
git.ckatri.com / mandoc.git / blobdiff