more info from John Gardner about ASCII control chars in roff(7) input

[mandoc.git] / man.7

diff --git a/man.7 b/man.7
index e491a1bf7a7207ca305ab5882710789e0045f202..81e3fd7d30016c143e99592ce0234930aec5888a 100644 (file)
--- a/man.7
+++ b/man.7
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
-.\"    $Id: man.7,v 1.32 2009/08/20 12:08:40 kristaps Exp $
+.\"    $Id: man.7,v 1.145 2020/02/18 17:31:28 schwarze Exp $

 .\"
 .\"

-.\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@kth.se>
+.\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
+.\" Copyright (c) 2011-2015, 2017-2020 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
+.\" Copyright (c) 2017 Anthony Bentley <bentley@openbsd.org>
+.\" Copyright (c) 2010 Joerg Sonnenberger <joerg@netbsd.org>

 .\"
 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
 .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
 .\"
 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
 .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above


@@ -14,523 +17,611 @@
 .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
 .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
 .\"
 .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
 .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
 .\"

-.Dd $Mdocdate: August 20 2009 $
+.Dd $Mdocdate: February 18 2020 $

 .Dt MAN 7
 .Os
 .Dt MAN 7
 .Os

-.
-.

 .Sh NAME
 .Nm man
 .Sh NAME
 .Nm man

-.Nd man language reference
-.
-.
+.Nd legacy formatting language for manual pages

 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 The
 .Nm man
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 The
 .Nm man

-language was historically used to format
-.Ux
-manuals.  This reference document describes its syntax, structure, and
-usage.
-.
-.Pp
-.Bf -emphasis
-Do not use
-.Nm
-to write your manuals.
-.Ef
+language was the standard formatting language for
+.At
+manual pages from 1979 to 1989.
+Do not use it to write new manual pages: it is a purely presentational
+language and lacks support for semantic markup.

 Use the
 .Xr mdoc 7
 language, instead.
 Use the
 .Xr mdoc 7
 language, instead.

-.

 .Pp
 .Pp

-An
+In a

 .Nm
 .Nm

-document follows simple rules:  lines beginning with the control
-character
+document, lines beginning with the control character

 .Sq \&.
 .Sq \&.

-are parsed for macros.  Other lines are interpreted within the scope of
-prior macros:
+are called
+.Dq macro lines .
+The first word is the macro name.
+It usually consists of two capital letters.
+For a list of portable macros, see
+.Sx MACRO OVERVIEW .
+The words following the macro name are arguments to the macro.
+.Pp
+Lines not beginning with the control character are called
+.Dq text lines .
+They provide free-form text to be printed; the formatting of the text
+depends on the respective processing context:

 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 \&.SH Macro lines change control state.
 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 \&.SH Macro lines change control state.

-Other lines are interpreted within the current state.
+Text lines are interpreted within the current state.

 .Ed
 .Ed

-.
-.
-.Sh INPUT ENCODING
-.Nm
-documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the
-space character, and the tabs character.  All manuals must have
-.Ux
-line termination.
-.

 .Pp
 .Pp

-Blank lines are acceptable; where found, the output will assert a
-vertical space.
-.
-.Pp
-The
-.Sq \ec
-escape is common in historical
+Many aspects of the basic syntax of the

 .Nm
 .Nm

-documents; if encountered at the end of a word, it ensures that the
-subsequent word isn't off-set by whitespace.
-.
-.
-.Ss Comments
-Text following a
-.Sq \e\*" ,
-whether in a macro or free-form text line, is ignored to the end of
-line.  A macro line with only a control character and comment escape,
-.Sq \&.\e" ,
-is also ignored.  Macro lines with only a control charater and
-optionally whitespace are stripped from input.
-.
-.
-.Ss Special Characters
-Special characters may occur in both macro and free-form lines.
-Sequences begin with the escape character
-.Sq \e
-followed by either an open-parenthesis
-.Sq \&(
-for two-character sequences; an open-bracket
-.Sq \&[
-for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket
-.Sq \&] ) ;
-or a single one-character sequence.  See
-.Xr mandoc_char 7
-for a complete list.  Examples include
-.Sq \e(em
-.Pq em-dash
+language are based on the
+.Xr roff 7
+language; see the
+.Em LANGUAGE SYNTAX

 and
 and

-.Sq \ee
-.Pq back-slash .
-.
-.
-.Ss Text Decoration
-Terms may be text-decorated using the
-.Sq \ef
-escape followed by an indicator: B (bold), I, (italic), or P and R
-(Roman, or reset).
-.
-.
-.Ss Whitespace
-Unless specifically escaped, consecutive blocks of whitespace are pruned
-from input.  These are later re-added, if applicable, by a front-end
-utility such as
-.Xr mandoc 1 .
-.
-.
-.Sh MANUAL STRUCTURE
+.Em MACRO SYNTAX
+sections in the
+.Xr roff 7
+manual for details, in particular regarding
+comments, escape sequences, whitespace, and quoting.
+.Pp

 Each
 .Nm
 Each
 .Nm

-document must contain contains at least the
-.Sq TH
-macro describing the document's section and title.  It may occur
-anywhere in the document, although conventionally, it appears as the
-first macro.
-.
-.Pp
-Beyond
-.Sq TH ,
-at least one macro or text node must appear in the document.  Documents
-are generally structured as follows:
+document starts with the
+.Ic TH
+macro specifying the document's name and section, followed by the
+.Sx NAME
+section formatted as follows:

 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 .Bd -literal -offset indent

-\&.TH FOO 1 "13 Aug 2009"
-\&.
+\&.TH PROGNAME 1 1979-01-10

 \&.SH NAME
 \&.SH NAME

-\efBfoo\efR \e(en a description goes here
-\&.
-\&.SH SYNOPSIS
-\efBfoo\efR [\efB\e-options\efR] arguments...
-\&.
-\&.SH DESCRIPTION
-The \efBfoo\efR utility does...
-\&.
-\&.\e\*q .SH RETURN VALUES
-\&.\e\*q .SH ENVIRONMENT
-\&.\e\*q .SH FILES
-\&.\e\*q .SH EXAMPLES
-\&.\e\*q .SH DIAGNOSTICS
-\&.\e\*q .SH ERRORS
-\&.\e\*q .SH SEE ALSO
-\&.\e\*q \efBbar\efR(1)
-\&.\e\*q .SH STANDARDS
-\&.\e\*q .SH HISTORY
-\&.\e\*q .SH AUTHORS
-\&.\e\*q .SH CAVEATS
-\&.\e\*q .SH BUGS
-.Ed
-.
-.
-.Sh MACRO SYNTAX
-Macros are one to three three characters in length and begin with a
-control character ,
-.Sq \&. ,
-at the beginning of the line.  An arbitrary amount of whitespace may
-sit between the control character and the macro name.  Thus,
-.Sq .PP
-and
-.Sq \&.\ \ \ PP
-are equivalent.
-.
-.Pp
-The
-.Nm
-macros are classified by scope: line scope or block scope.  Line
-macros are only scoped to the current line (and, in some situations,
-the subsequent line).  Block macros are scoped to the current line and
-subsequent lines until closed by another block macro.
-.
-.
-.Ss Line Macros
-Line macros are generally scoped to the current line, with the body
-consisting of zero or more arguments.  If a macro is scoped to the next
-line and the line arguments are empty, the next line is used instead,
-else the general syntax is used.  Thus:
-.Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.I
-foo
+\efBprogname\efR \e(en one line about what it does

 .Ed
 .Ed

-.
-.Pp
-is equivalent to
-.Sq \&.I foo .
-.\" PARAGRAPH
-Consecutive next-line scope invocations are disallowed.
-.Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.YO \(lBbody...\(rB
-\(lBbody...\(rB
-.Ed
-.
-.Pp
-It is considered an error when next-line scope is open at the end of
-file.
-.
-.Pp
-.Bl -column -compact -offset indent "MacroX" "ArgumentsX" "ScopeXXXXX"
-.It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments Ta Em Scope
-.It    B     Ta    n         Ta    next-line
-.It    BI    Ta    n         Ta    current
-.It    BR    Ta    n         Ta    current
-.It    DT    Ta    0         Ta    current
-.It    I     Ta    n         Ta    next-line
-.It    IB    Ta    n         Ta    current
-.It    IR    Ta    n         Ta    current
-.It    R     Ta    n         Ta    next-line
-.It    RB    Ta    n         Ta    current
-.It    RI    Ta    n         Ta    current
-.It    SB    Ta    n         Ta    next-line
-.It    SM    Ta    n         Ta    next-line
-.It    TH    Ta    >1, <6    Ta    current
-.It    br    Ta    0         Ta    current
-.It    fi    Ta    0         Ta    current
-.It    i     Ta    n         Ta    current
-.It    na    Ta    0         Ta    current
-.It    nf    Ta    0         Ta    current
-.It    r     Ta    0         Ta    current
-.It    sp    Ta    1         Ta    current
+.Sh MACRO OVERVIEW
+This overview is sorted such that macros of similar purpose are listed
+together.
+Deprecated and non-portable macros are not included in the overview,
+but can be found in the alphabetical reference below.
+.Ss Page header and footer meta-data
+.Bl -column "RS, RE" description
+.It Ic TH Ta set the title: Ar name section date Op Ar source Op Ar volume
+.It Ic AT Ta display AT&T UNIX version in the page footer (<= 1 argument)
+.It Ic UC Ta display BSD version in the page footer (<= 1 argument)

 .El
 .El

-.
-.Pp
-The
-.Sq RS ,
-.Sq RE ,
-.Sq br ,
-.Sq fi ,
-.Sq i ,
-.Sq na ,
-.Sq nf ,
-.Sq r ,
-and
-.Sq sp
-macros aren't historically part of
-.Nm
-and should not be used.  They're included for compatibility.
-.
-.
-.Ss Block Macros
-Block macros are comprised of a head and body.  Like for in-line macros,
-the head is scoped to the current line and, in one circumstance, the
-next line; the body is scoped to subsequent lines and is closed out by a
-subsequent block macro invocation.
-.Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.YO \(lBhead...\(rB
-\(lBhead...\(rB
-\(lBbody...\(rB
-.Ed
-.
-.Pp
-The closure of body scope may be to the section, where a macro is closed
-by
-.Sq SH ;
-sub-section, closed by a section or
-.Sq SS ;
-part, closed by a section, sub-section, or
-.Sq RE ;
-or paragraph, closed by a section, sub-section, part, 
-.Sq HP ,
-.Sq IP ,
-.Sq LP ,
-.Sq P ,
-.Sq PP ,
-or
-.Sq TP .
-No closure refers to an explicit block closing macro.
-.
-.Pp
-It is considered an error when part or next-line scope is open at the
-end of file.
-.
-.Pp
-.Bl -column "MacroX" "ArgumentsX" "Head ScopeX" "sub-sectionX" -compact -offset indent
-.It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments Ta Em Head Scope Ta Em Body Scope
-.It   HP     Ta    <2        Ta    current    Ta    paragraph
-.It   IP     Ta    <3        Ta    current    Ta    paragraph
-.It   LP     Ta    0         Ta    current    Ta    paragraph
-.It   P      Ta    0         Ta    current    Ta    paragraph
-.It   PP     Ta    0         Ta    current    Ta    paragraph
-.It   RE     Ta    0         Ta    current    Ta    none
-.It   RS     Ta    1         Ta    current    Ta    part
-.It   SH     Ta    >0        Ta    current    Ta    section
-.It   SS     Ta    >0        Ta    current    Ta    sub-section
-.It   TP     Ta    n         Ta    next-line  Ta    paragraph
+.Ss Sections and paragraphs
+.Bl -column "RS, RE" description
+.It Ic SH Ta section header (one line)
+.It Ic SS Ta subsection header (one line)
+.It Ic PP Ta start an undecorated paragraph (no arguments)
+.It Ic RS , RE Ta reset the left margin: Op Ar width
+.It Ic IP Ta indented paragraph: Op Ar head Op Ar width
+.It Ic TP Ta tagged paragraph: Op Ar width
+.It Ic PD Ta set vertical paragraph distance: Op Ar height
+.It Ic in Ta additional indent: Op Ar width

 .El
 .El

-.
-.Pp
-If a block macro is next-line scoped, it may only be followed by in-line
-macros (excluding
-.Sq DT ,
-.Sq TH ,
-.Sq br ,
-.Sq na ,
-.Sq sp ,
-.Sq nf ,
-and
-.Sq fi ) .
-.
-.
-.Sh REFERENCE
+.Ss Physical markup
+.Bl -column "RS, RE" description
+.It Ic B Ta boldface font
+.It Ic I Ta italic font
+.It Ic SB Ta small boldface font
+.It Ic SM Ta small roman font
+.It Ic BI Ta alternate between boldface and italic fonts
+.It Ic BR Ta alternate between boldface and roman fonts
+.It Ic IB Ta alternate between italic and boldface fonts
+.It Ic IR Ta alternate between italic and roman fonts
+.It Ic RB Ta alternate between roman and boldface fonts
+.It Ic RI Ta alternate between roman and italic fonts
+.El
+.Sh MACRO REFERENCE

 This section is a canonical reference to all macros, arranged
 This section is a canonical reference to all macros, arranged

-alphabetically.  For the scoping of individual macros, see
+alphabetically.
+For the scoping of individual macros, see

 .Sx MACRO SYNTAX .
 .Sx MACRO SYNTAX .

-.
-.
-.Ss Definitions
-In this reference, a numerical width may be either a standalone natural
-number (such as 3, 4, 10, etc.) or a natural number followed by a width
-multiplier 
-.Qq n ,
-corresponding to the width of the formatted letter n, or
-.Qq m ,
-corresponding to the width of the formatted letter m.  The latter is the
-default, if unspecified.  Thus,
-.Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.HP 12n
-.Ed
-.
-.Pp
-indicates an offset of 12 
-.Qq n
-.Ns -sized
-letters.
-.
-.
-.Ss Macro Reference
-.Bl -tag -width Ds
-.It B
+.Bl -tag -width 3n
+.It Ic AT
+Sets the volume for the footer for compatibility with man pages from
+.At
+releases.
+The optional arguments specify which release it is from.
+This macro is an extension that first appeared in
+.Bx 4.3 .
+.It Ic B

 Text is rendered in bold face.
 Text is rendered in bold face.

-.It BI
-Text is rendered alternately in bold face and italic.  Thus, 
+.It Ic BI
+Text is rendered alternately in bold face and italic.
+Thus,

 .Sq .BI this word and that
 causes
 .Sq this
 and
 .Sq and
 .Sq .BI this word and that
 causes
 .Sq this
 and
 .Sq and

-to render in bold face, while 
+to render in bold face, while

 .Sq word
 and
 .Sq that
 .Sq word
 and
 .Sq that

-render in italics.  Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
-.It BR
+render in italics.
+Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
+.Pp
+Example:
+.Pp
+.Dl \&.BI bold italic bold italic
+.It Ic BR

 Text is rendered alternately in bold face and roman (the default font).
 Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
 Text is rendered alternately in bold face and roman (the default font).
 Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

-.It DT
-Re-set the tab spacing to 0.5 inches.
-.It HP
+See also
+.Ic BI .
+.It Ic DT
+Restore the default tabulator positions.
+They are at intervals of 0.5 inches.
+This has no effect unless the tabulator positions were changed with the
+.Xr roff 7
+.Ic ta
+request.
+.It Ic EE
+This is a non-standard Version 9
+.At
+extension later adopted by GNU.
+In
+.Xr mandoc 1 ,
+it does the same as the
+.Xr roff 7
+.Ic fi
+request (switch to fill mode).
+.It Ic EX
+This is a non-standard Version 9
+.At
+extension later adopted by GNU.
+In
+.Xr mandoc 1 ,
+it does the same as the
+.Xr roff 7
+.Ic nf
+request (switch to no-fill mode).
+.It Ic HP

 Begin a paragraph whose initial output line is left-justified, but
 subsequent output lines are indented, with the following syntax:
 Begin a paragraph whose initial output line is left-justified, but
 subsequent output lines are indented, with the following syntax:

-.Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.HP [width]
-.Ed
-.

 .Pp
 .Pp

-If 
-.Va width
-is specified, it's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if
-unspecified, the saved or default width is used.
-.It I
+.D1 Pf . Ic HP Op Ar width
+.Pp
+The
+.Ar width
+argument is a
+.Xr roff 7
+scaling width.
+If specified, it's saved for later paragraph left margins;
+if unspecified, the saved or default width is used.
+.Pp
+This macro is portable, but deprecated
+because it has no good representation in HTML output,
+usually ending up indistinguishable from
+.Ic PP .
+.It Ic I

 Text is rendered in italics.
 Text is rendered in italics.

-.It IB
-Text is rendered alternately in italics and bold face.  Whitespace
-between arguments is omitted in output.
-.It IP
-Begin a paragraph with the following syntax:
-.Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.IP [head [width]]
-.Ed
-.
-.Pp
-This follows the behaviour of the
-.Sq TP
-except for the macro syntax (all arguments on the line, instead of
-having next-line scope).  If
-.Va width
-is specified, it's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if
-unspecified, the saved or default width is used.
-.It IR
+.It Ic IB
+Text is rendered alternately in italics and bold face.
+Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
+See also
+.Ic BI .
+.It Ic IP
+Begin an indented paragraph with the following syntax:
+.Pp
+.D1 Pf . Ic IP Op Ar head Op Ar width
+.Pp
+The
+.Ar width
+argument is a
+.Xr roff 7
+scaling width defining the left margin.
+It's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if unspecified, the saved or
+default width is used.
+.Pp
+The
+.Ar head
+argument is used as a leading term, flushed to the left margin.
+This is useful for bulleted paragraphs and so on.
+.It Ic IR

 Text is rendered alternately in italics and roman (the default font).
 Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
 Text is rendered alternately in italics and roman (the default font).
 Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

-.It LP, P, PP
-Begin an undecorated paragraph.  The scope of a paragraph is closed by a
-subsequent paragraph, sub-section, section, or end of file.  The saved
-paragraph left-margin width is re-set to the default.
-.It R
-Text is rendered in roman (the default font).
-.It RB
+See also
+.Ic BI .
+.It Ic LP
+A synonym for
+.Ic PP .
+.It Ic ME
+End a mailto block started with
+.Ic MT .
+This is a non-standard GNU extension.
+.It Ic MT
+Begin a mailto block.
+This is a non-standard GNU extension.
+It has the following syntax:
+.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
+.Pf . Ic MT Ar address
+link description to be shown
+.Pf . Ic ME
+.Ed
+.It Ic OP
+Optional command-line argument.
+This is a non-standard GNU extension.
+It has the following syntax:
+.Pp
+.D1 Pf . Ic OP Ar key Op Ar value
+.Pp
+The
+.Ar key
+is usually a command-line flag and
+.Ar value
+its argument.
+.It Ic P
+This synonym for
+.Ic PP
+is an
+.At III
+extension later adopted by
+.Bx 4.3 .
+.It Ic PD
+Specify the vertical space to be inserted before each new paragraph.
+.br
+The syntax is as follows:
+.Pp
+.D1 Pf . Ic PD Op Ar height
+.Pp
+The
+.Ar height
+argument is a
+.Xr roff 7
+scaling width.
+It defaults to
+.Cm 1v .
+If the unit is omitted,
+.Cm v
+is assumed.
+.Pp
+This macro affects the spacing before any subsequent instances of
+.Ic HP ,
+.Ic IP ,
+.Ic LP ,
+.Ic P ,
+.Ic PP ,
+.Ic SH ,
+.Ic SS ,
+.Ic SY ,
+and
+.Ic TP .
+.It Ic PP
+Begin an undecorated paragraph.
+The scope of a paragraph is closed by a subsequent paragraph,
+sub-section, section, or end of file.
+The saved paragraph left-margin width is reset to the default.
+.It Ic RB

 Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and bold face.
 Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
 Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and bold face.
 Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

-.It RE
+See also
+.Ic BI .
+.It Ic RE

 Explicitly close out the scope of a prior
 Explicitly close out the scope of a prior

-.Sq RS .
-.It RI
+.Ic RS .
+The default left margin is restored to the state before that
+.Ic RS
+invocation.
+.Pp
+The syntax is as follows:
+.Pp
+.D1 Pf . Ic RE Op Ar level
+.Pp
+Without an argument, the most recent
+.Ic RS
+block is closed out.
+If
+.Ar level
+is 1, all open
+.Ic RS
+blocks are closed out.
+Otherwise,
+.Ar level No \(mi 1
+nested
+.Ic RS
+blocks remain open.
+.It Ic RI

 Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and italics.
 Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.
 Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and italics.
 Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

-.It RS
-Begin a part setting the left margin.  The left margin controls the
-offset, following an initial indentation, to un-indented text such as
-that of
-.Sq PP .
-The width may be specified as following:
-.Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.RS [width]
-.Ed
-.
+See also
+.Ic BI .
+.It Ic RS
+Temporarily reset the default left margin.
+This has the following syntax:

 .Pp
 .Pp

-If
-.Va width
-is not specified, the saved or default width is used. 
-.It SB
+.D1 Pf . Ic RS Op Ar width
+.Pp
+The
+.Ar width
+argument is a
+.Xr roff 7
+scaling width.
+If not specified, the saved or default width is used.
+.Pp
+See also
+.Ic RE .
+.It Ic SB

 Text is rendered in small size (one point smaller than the default font)
 bold face.
 Text is rendered in small size (one point smaller than the default font)
 bold face.

-.It SH
-Begin a section.  The scope of a section is only closed by another
-section or the end of file.  The paragraph left-margin width is re-set
-to the default.
-.It SM
+This macro is an extension that probably first appeared in SunOS 4.0
+and was later adopted by GNU and by
+.Bx 4.4 .
+.It Ic SH
+Begin a section.
+The scope of a section is only closed by another section or the end of
+file.
+The paragraph left-margin width is reset to the default.
+.It Ic SM

 Text is rendered in small size (one point smaller than the default
 font).
 Text is rendered in small size (one point smaller than the default
 font).

-.It SS
-Begin a sub-section.  The scope of a sub-section is closed by a
-subsequent sub-section, section, or end of file.  The paragraph
-left-margin width is re-set to the default.
-.It TH
-Sets the title of the manual page with the following syntax:
-.Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.TH title section [date [source [volume]]]
+.It Ic SS
+Begin a sub-section.
+The scope of a sub-section is closed by a subsequent sub-section,
+section, or end of file.
+The paragraph left-margin width is reset to the default.
+.It Ic SY
+Begin a synopsis block with the following syntax:
+.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
+.Pf . Ic SY Ar command
+.Ar arguments
+.Pf . Ic YS

 .Ed
 .Ed

-.

 .Pp
 .Pp

-At least the 
-.Va title
-and
-.Va section
-arguments must be provided.  The
-.Va date
-argument should be formatted as
-.Qq %b [%d] %Y
-format, described in
-.Xr strptime 3 .
+This is a non-standard GNU extension
+and very rarely used even in GNU manual pages.
+Formatting is similar to
+.Ic IP .
+.It Ic TH
+Set the name of the manual page for use in the page header
+and footer with the following syntax:
+.Pp
+.D1 Pf . Ic TH Ar name section date Op Ar source Op Ar volume
+.Pp
+Conventionally, the document
+.Ar name
+is given in all caps.

 The
 The

-.Va source
-string specifies the organisation providing the utility.  The
-.Va volume
-replaces the default rendered volume as dictated by the manual section.
-.It TP
-Begin a paragraph where the head, if exceeding the indentation width, is
-followed by a newline; if not, the body follows on the same line after a
-buffer to the indentation width.  Subsequent output lines are indented.
-.
+.Ar section
+is usually a single digit, in a few cases followed by a letter.
+The recommended
+.Ar date
+format is
+.Sy YYYY-MM-DD
+as specified in the ISO-8601 standard;
+if the argument does not conform, it is printed verbatim.
+If the
+.Ar date
+is empty or not specified, the current date is used.
+The optional
+.Ar source
+string specifies the organisation providing the utility.
+When unspecified,
+.Xr mandoc 1
+uses its
+.Fl Ios
+argument.
+The
+.Ar volume
+string replaces the default volume title of the
+.Ar section .

 .Pp
 .Pp

-The indentation width may be set as follows:
-.Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.TP [width]
+Examples:
+.Pp
+.Dl \&.TH CVS 5 "1992-02-12" GNU
+.It Ic TP
+Begin a paragraph where the head, if exceeding the indentation width, is
+followed by a newline; if not, the body follows on the same line after
+advancing to the indentation width.
+Subsequent output lines are indented.
+The syntax is as follows:
+.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
+.Pf . Ic TP Op Ar width
+.Ar head No \e" one line
+.Ar body

 .Ed
 .Ed

-.

 .Pp
 .Pp

-Where
-.Va width
-must be a properly-formed numeric width.  If
-.Va width
-is specified, it's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if
+The
+.Ar width
+argument is a
+.Xr roff 7
+scaling width.
+If specified, it's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if

 unspecified, the saved or default width is used.
 unspecified, the saved or default width is used.

-.It br
-Breaks the current line.  Consecutive invocations have no further effect.
-.It fi
-End literal mode begun by
-.Sq nf .
-.It i
-Italicise arguments.  If no arguments are specified, all subsequent text
-is italicised.
-.It na
-Don't alignment the right margin.
-.It nf
-Begin literal mode: all subsequent free-form lines have their end of
-line boundaries preserved.  May be ended by
-.Sq fi .
-.It r
-Fonts and styles (bold face, italics) reset to roman (default font).
-.It sp
-Insert n spaces, where n is the macro's positive numeric argument.  If
-0, this is equivalent to the
-.Sq br
-macro.
+.It Ic TQ
+Like
+.Ic TP ,
+except that no vertical spacing is inserted before the paragraph.
+This is a non-standard GNU extension
+and very rarely used even in GNU manual pages.
+.It Ic UC
+Sets the volume for the footer for compatibility with man pages from
+.Bx
+releases.
+The optional first argument specifies which release it is from.
+This macro is an extension that first appeared in
+.Bx 3 .
+.It Ic UE
+End a uniform resource identifier block started with
+.Ic UR .
+This is a non-standard GNU extension.
+.It Ic UR
+Begin a uniform resource identifier block.
+This is a non-standard GNU extension.
+It has the following syntax:
+.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
+.Pf . Ic UR Ar uri
+link description to be shown
+.Pf . Ic UE
+.Ed
+.It Ic YS
+End a synopsis block started with
+.Ic SY .
+This is a non-standard GNU extension.
+.It Ic in
+Indent relative to the current indentation:
+.Pp
+.D1 Pf . Ic in Op Ar width
+.Pp
+If
+.Ar width
+is signed, the new offset is relative.
+Otherwise, it is absolute.
+This value is reset upon the next paragraph, section, or sub-section.

 .El
 .El

-.
-.
-.Sh COMPATIBILITY
-This section documents compatibility with other roff implementations, at
-this time limited to
-.Xr groff 1 .
-.Bl -hyphen
-.It
-In quoted literals, groff allowed pair-wise double-quotes to produce a
-standalone double-quote in formatted output.  This idiosyncratic
-behaviour is no longer applicable.
-.It
+.Sh MACRO SYNTAX

 The
 The

-.Sq sp
-macro does not accept negative numbers.
-.It
-Blocks of whitespace are stripped from both macro and free-form text
-lines (except when in literal mode), while groff would retain whitespace
-in free-form text lines.
+.Nm
+macros are classified by scope: line scope or block scope.
+Line macros are only scoped to the current line (and, in some
+situations, the subsequent line).
+Block macros are scoped to the current line and subsequent lines until
+closed by another block macro.
+.Ss Line Macros
+Line macros are generally scoped to the current line, with the body
+consisting of zero or more arguments.
+If a macro is scoped to the next line and the line arguments are empty,
+the next line, which must be text, is used instead.
+Thus:
+.Bd -literal -offset indent
+\&.I
+foo
+.Ed
+.Pp
+is equivalent to
+.Sq .I foo .
+If next-line macros are invoked consecutively, only the last is used.
+If a next-line macro is followed by a non-next-line macro, an error is
+raised.
+.Pp
+The syntax is as follows:
+.Bd -literal -offset indent
+\&.YO \(lBbody...\(rB
+\(lBbody...\(rB
+.Ed
+.Bl -column "MacroX" "ArgumentsX" "ScopeXXXXX" "CompatX" -offset indent
+.It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments Ta Em Scope     Ta Em Notes
+.It Ic AT  Ta    <=1       Ta    current   Ta    \&
+.It Ic B   Ta    n         Ta    next-line Ta    \&
+.It Ic BI  Ta    n         Ta    current   Ta    \&
+.It Ic BR  Ta    n         Ta    current   Ta    \&
+.It Ic DT  Ta    0         Ta    current   Ta    \&
+.It Ic EE  Ta    0         Ta    current   Ta    Version 9 At
+.It Ic EX  Ta    0         Ta    current   Ta    Version 9 At
+.It Ic I   Ta    n         Ta    next-line Ta    \&
+.It Ic IB  Ta    n         Ta    current   Ta    \&
+.It Ic IR  Ta    n         Ta    current   Ta    \&
+.It Ic OP  Ta    >=1       Ta    current   Ta    GNU
+.It Ic PD  Ta    1         Ta    current   Ta    \&
+.It Ic RB  Ta    n         Ta    current   Ta    \&
+.It Ic RI  Ta    n         Ta    current   Ta    \&
+.It Ic SB  Ta    n         Ta    next-line Ta    \&
+.It Ic SM  Ta    n         Ta    next-line Ta    \&
+.It Ic TH  Ta    >1, <6    Ta    current   Ta    \&
+.It Ic UC  Ta    <=1       Ta    current   Ta    \&
+.It Ic in  Ta    1         Ta    current   Ta    Xr roff 7

 .El
 .El

-.
-.
+.Ss Block Macros
+Block macros comprise a head and body.
+As with in-line macros, the head is scoped to the current line and, in
+one circumstance, the next line (the next-line stipulations as in
+.Sx Line Macros
+apply here as well).
+.Pp
+The syntax is as follows:
+.Bd -literal -offset indent
+\&.YO \(lBhead...\(rB
+\(lBhead...\(rB
+\(lBbody...\(rB
+.Ed
+.Pp
+The closure of body scope may be to the section, where a macro is closed
+by
+.Ic SH ;
+sub-section, closed by a section or
+.Ic SS ;
+or paragraph, closed by a section, sub-section,
+.Ic HP ,
+.Ic IP ,
+.Ic LP ,
+.Ic P ,
+.Ic PP ,
+.Ic RE ,
+.Ic SY ,
+or
+.Ic TP .
+No closure refers to an explicit block closing macro.
+.Pp
+As a rule, block macros may not be nested; thus, calling a block macro
+while another block macro scope is open, and the open scope is not
+implicitly closed, is syntactically incorrect.
+.Bl -column "MacroX" "ArgumentsX" "Head ScopeX" "sub-sectionX" "compatX" -offset indent
+.It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments Ta Em Head Scope Ta Em Body Scope  Ta Em Notes
+.It Ic HP  Ta    <2        Ta    current    Ta    paragraph   Ta    \&
+.It Ic IP  Ta    <3        Ta    current    Ta    paragraph   Ta    \&
+.It Ic LP  Ta    0         Ta    current    Ta    paragraph   Ta    \&
+.It Ic ME  Ta    0         Ta    none       Ta    none        Ta    GNU
+.It Ic MT  Ta    1         Ta    current    Ta    to \&ME     Ta    GNU
+.It Ic P   Ta    0         Ta    current    Ta    paragraph   Ta    \&
+.It Ic PP  Ta    0         Ta    current    Ta    paragraph   Ta    \&
+.It Ic RE  Ta    <=1       Ta    current    Ta    none        Ta    \&
+.It Ic RS  Ta    1         Ta    current    Ta    to \&RE     Ta    \&
+.It Ic SH  Ta    >0        Ta    next-line  Ta    section     Ta    \&
+.It Ic SS  Ta    >0        Ta    next-line  Ta    sub-section Ta    \&
+.It Ic SY  Ta    1         Ta    current    Ta    to \&YS     Ta    GNU
+.It Ic TP  Ta    n         Ta    next-line  Ta    paragraph   Ta    \&
+.It Ic TQ  Ta    n         Ta    next-line  Ta    paragraph   Ta    GNU
+.It Ic UE  Ta    0         Ta    current    Ta    none        Ta    GNU
+.It Ic UR  Ta    1         Ta    current    Ta    part        Ta    GNU
+.It Ic YS  Ta    0         Ta    none       Ta    none        Ta    GNU
+.El
+.Pp
+If a block macro is next-line scoped, it may only be followed by in-line
+macros for decorating text.
+.Ss Font handling
+In
+.Nm
+documents, both
+.Sx Physical markup
+macros and
+.Xr roff 7
+.Ql \ef
+font escape sequences can be used to choose fonts.
+In text lines, the effect of manual font selection by escape sequences
+only lasts until the next macro invocation; in macro lines, it only lasts
+until the end of the macro scope.
+Note that macros like
+.Ic BR
+open and close a font scope for each argument.

 .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Sh SEE ALSO

+.Xr man 1 ,

 .Xr mandoc 1 ,
 .Xr mandoc 1 ,

-.Xr mandoc_char 7
-.
-.
-.Sh AUTHORS
+.Xr eqn 7 ,
+.Xr mandoc_char 7 ,
+.Xr mdoc 7 ,
+.Xr roff 7 ,
+.Xr tbl 7
+.Sh HISTORY

 The
 .Nm
 The
 .Nm

+language first appeared as a macro package for the roff typesetting
+system in
+.At v7 .
+It was later rewritten by James Clark as a macro package for groff.
+Eric S. Raymond wrote the extended
+.Nm
+macros for groff in 2007.
+The stand-alone implementation that is part of the
+.Xr mandoc 1
+utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in
+.Ox 4.6 .
+.Sh AUTHORS
+This
+.Nm

 reference was written by
 reference was written by

-.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@kth.se .
-.
-.
-.Sh CAVEATS
-Do not use this language.  Use
-.Xr mdoc 7 ,
-instead.
-.
+.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .