-.Dd $Mdocdate: March 22 2009 $
-.Dt manuals 7
+.\" $Id: manuals.7,v 1.15 2009/06/25 10:55:40 kristaps Exp $
+.\"
+.\" 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.
+.\"
+.\" 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: June 25 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
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 .
+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
.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
.\" DISPLAY
.Bd -literal -offset indent
% apropos myname
-myname (1) - some description here
+myname (1) - utility description
+myname (3) - library description
% man \-s 1 myname
.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
.Pa myname.mysection ,
such as
.Pa manuals.7
-for this document.
+for this document. Rename the template file:
+.Pp
+.Dl % mv mdoc.template myname.mysection
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Input Language
Manuals should
.Pp
There exist other documentation-specific languages, such as the
historical
-.Xr me 7 ,
-.Xr ms 7
-and
.Xr man 7
-packages of
+package of
.Xr roff 7 ;
-newer languages such as DocBook, texinfo or schema-driven XML; or even
-ad-hoc conventions such as README files.
+newer languages such as DocBook or texinfo; 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
.El
.Pp
Open the template you've copied into
-.Pa name.section
+.Pa myname.mysection
and begin editing.
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Development Tools
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
.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 22 2009 $
+.Dl \&.Dd $Mdocdate: June 25 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
.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
files are indispensable in guiding composition. In this section, we
introduce some
.Ux
-manual best practices:
+manual best practises:
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Language
.Bl -enum
.Xr mdoc 7 .
.El
.\" SUBSECTION
+.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
+.Sq \&Oo/Oc .
+The same goes for function prototypes.
+.Em \&Do not
+use
+.Sq \&Xo/Xc .
+Find another way to structure your line.
+.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss References
Other components may be referenced with the
.Sq \&Xr
block macros.
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Formatting
-Let the front-ends worry about formatting for you, but if you must think
-about formatting (at times necessary, especially for tagged and columnar
-lists), assume that your output device is a fixed-width terminal window:
-.Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.Bl \-tag \-width "-o outfile"
-\&.It \&Fl \&Ar outfile
-.Ed
-.Pp
-You may assume that the width calculated by the string literal
-.Qq Fl o Ar outfile
-will be covered by the \-width argument.
+.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