-.\" $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.187 2011/05/21 15:55:42 schwarze Exp $
+.\" $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.202 2011/08/18 08:58:44 kristaps Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, 2011 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
.\" Copyright (c) 2010 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
-.Dd $Mdocdate: May 21 2011 $
+.Dd $Mdocdate: August 18 2011 $
.Dt MDOC 7
.Os
.Sh NAME
manuals.
This reference document describes its syntax, structure, and
usage.
-The reference implementation is
+The reference implementation for
+.Nm
+formatting is
.Xr mandoc 1 ;
the
.Sx COMPATIBILITY
-section describes compatibility with other troff \-mdoc implementations.
+section describes compatibility with other implementations.
.Pp
An
.Nm
character
.Sq \&.
are parsed for macros.
-Text lines, those not beginning with the control character, are
+Lines not beginning with the control character are
interpreted within the scope of prior macros:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Sh Macro lines change control state.
.Nm
documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the space
character, and, in certain circumstances, the tab character.
-.Pp
-If the first character of a text line is a space, that line is printed
-with a leading newline.
+The back-space character
+.Sq \e
+indicates the start of an escape sequence for
+.Sx Comments ,
+.Sx Predefined Strings ,
+and
+.Sx Special Characters .
.Ss Comments
-Text following a
+Text following an escaped double-quote
.Sq \e\*q ,
whether in a macro or text line, is ignored to the end of
line.
-A macro line with only a control character and comment escape,
-.Sq \&.\e\*q ,
+A macro line beginning with a control character and comment escape
+.Sq \&.\e\*q
is also ignored.
-Macro lines with only a control character and optional whitespace are
+Furthermore,
+macro lines with only a control character and optional trailing
+whitespace are
stripped from input.
-.Ss Reserved Terms
-Within a macro line, the following terms are reserved:
-.Pp
-.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
-.It \&.
-.Pq period
-.It \e.
-.Pq escaped period
-.It \&,
-.Pq comma
-.It \&:
-.Pq colon
-.It \&;
-.Pq semicolon
-.It \&(
-.Pq left-parenthesis
-.It \&)
-.Pq right-parenthesis
-.It \&[
-.Pq left-bracket
-.It \&]
-.Pq right-bracket
-.It \&?
-.Pq question
-.It \&!
-.Pq exclamation
-.It \&|
-.Pq vertical bar
-.It \e*(Ba
-.Pq reserved-word vertical bar
-.El
.Pp
-For general use in macro lines, these can be escaped with a non-breaking
-space
-.Pq Sq \e& .
-In text lines, these may be used as normal punctuation.
+Examples:
+.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
+\&.\e\*q This is a comment line.
+\&.\e\*q The next line is ignored:
+\&.
+\&.Em Emphasis \e\*q This is also a comment.
+.Ed
.Ss Special Characters
-Special characters may occur in both macro and text lines.
+Special characters are used to encode special glyphs and are rendered
+differently across output media.
+They may occur in both macro and text lines.
Sequences begin with the escape character
.Sq \e
followed by either an open-parenthesis
for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket
.Sq \&] ) ;
or a single one character sequence.
+.Pp
+Examples:
+.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
+.It \e(em
+em dash
+.It \ee
+backslash
+.El
+.Pp
See
.Xr mandoc_char 7
for a complete list.
-Examples include
-.Sq \e(em
-.Pq em-dash
-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), R (Roman), or P
-(revert to previous mode):
-.Pp
-.Dl \efBbold\efR \efIitalic\efP
-.Pp
-A numerical representation 3, 2, or 1 (bold, italic, and Roman,
+escape followed by an indicator: B (bold), I (italic), R (regular), or P
+(revert to previous mode).
+A numerical representation 3, 2, or 1 (bold, italic, and regular,
respectively) may be used instead.
If a macro opens a font scope after calling
.Sq \ef ,
.Sx \&Bf
scope.
.Pp
-Note this form is
+Examples:
+.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
+.It \efBbold\efR
+write in bold, then switch to regular
+.It \efIitalic\efP
+write in italic, then return to previous
+.El
+.Pp
+Text decoration is
.Em not
recommended for
.Nm ,
which encourages semantic annotation.
.Ss Predefined Strings
-Historically,
-troff
-also defined a set of package-specific
-.Dq predefined strings ,
-which, like
+Predefined strings, like
.Sx Special Characters ,
-mark special output characters and strings by way of input codes.
+mark special output glyphs.
Predefined strings are escaped with the slash-asterisk,
.Sq \e* :
single-character
.Sq \e*(XX ,
and N-character
.Sq \e*[N] .
-See
-.Xr mandoc_char 7
-for a complete list.
-Examples include
-.Sq \e*(Am
-.Pq ampersand
-and
-.Sq \e*(Ba
-.Pq vertical bar .
+.Pp
+Examples:
+.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
+.It \e*(Am
+ampersand
+.It \e*(Ba
+vertical bar
+.El
+.Pp
+These strings are set using
+.Xr roff 7 ,
+although
+.Nm
+consists of several pre-set escapes listed in
+.Xr mandoc_char 7 .
.Ss Whitespace
Whitespace consists of the space character.
-In text lines, whitespace is preserved within a line; unescaped
-trailing spaces are stripped from input (unless in a literal context).
+In text lines, whitespace is preserved within a line.
+In macro lines, whitespace delimits arguments and is discarded.
+.Pp
+Unescaped trailing spaces are stripped from text line input unless in a
+literal context.
+In general, trailing whitespace on any input line is discouraged for
+reasons of portability.
+In the rare case that a blank character is needed at the end of an
+input line, it may be forced by
+.Sq \e\ \e& .
+.Pp
Blank text lines, which may include whitespace, are only permitted
within literal contexts.
-.Pp
-In macro lines, whitespace delimits arguments and is discarded.
-If arguments are quoted, whitespace within the quotes is retained.
+If the first character of a text line is a space, that line is printed
+with a leading newline.
.Ss Quotation
-Macro arguments may be quoted with double-quotes to group
-space-delimited terms or to retain blocks of whitespace.
+Macro arguments may be quoted with double-quotes; in this case,
+whitespace within the quotes is retained as part of the argument.
+For example,
+.Pp
+.D1 Pf \. \&Fn strlen "\(dqconst char *s\(dq"
+.Pp
+renders as
+.Sq Fn strlen "const char *s" ,
+while
+.Pp
+.D1 Pf \. \&Fn strlen "const char *s"
+.Pp
+would produce
+.Sq Fn strlen const char *s .
+.Pp
A quoted argument begins with a double-quote preceded by whitespace.
The next double-quote not pairwise adjacent to another double-quote
terminates the literal, regardless of surrounding whitespace.
.Pp
+In unquoted arguments, space characters can alternatively be included
+by preceding them with a backslash
+.Pq Sq \e\~ ,
+but quoting is usually better for clarity.
+.Pp
Note that any quoted text, even if it would cause a macro invocation
when unquoted, is considered literal text.
Thus, the following produces
.Pp
In text lines, quotes are regarded as opaque text.
.Ss Scaling Widths
-Many macros support scaled widths for their arguments, such as
-stipulating a two-inch list indentation with the following:
-.Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.Bl -tag -width 2i
-.Ed
-.Pp
-The syntax for scaled widths is
+Many macros support scaled widths for their arguments.
+The syntax for a scaled width is
.Sq Li [+-]?[0-9]*.[0-9]*[:unit:] ,
where a decimal must be preceded or proceeded by at least one digit.
Negative numbers, while accepted, are truncated to zero.
+.Pp
The following scaling units are accepted:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
is necessarily non-portable across output media.
See
.Sx COMPATIBILITY .
+.Pp
+Examples:
+.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
+.It \&.Bl -tag -width 2i
+two-inch tagged list indentation
+.Pq see Sx \&Bl
+.It \&.sp 2v
+two vertical spaces
+.Pq see Sx \&sp
+.El
.Ss Sentence Spacing
-When composing a manual, make sure that sentences end at the end of
-a line.
-By doing so, front-ends will be able to apply the proper amount of
+Sentences should terminate at the end of an input line.
+By doing this, a formatter will be able to apply the proper amount of
spacing after the end of sentence (unescaped) period, exclamation mark,
or question mark followed by zero or more non-sentence closing
delimiters
.Pp
The proper spacing is also intelligently preserved if a sentence ends at
the boundary of a macro line.
-For example:
.Pp
-.Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&.
-.Dl \&.Fl T \&Ns \&Cm ascii \&.
+Examples:
+.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
+Do not end sentences mid-line like this. Instead,
+end a sentence like this.
+A macro would end like this:
+\&.Xr mandoc 1 \&.
+.Ed
.Sh MANUAL STRUCTURE
A well-formed
.Nm
.Pp
The following is a well-formed skeleton
.Nm
-file:
+file for a utility
+.Qq progname :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$
-\&.Dt mdoc 7
+\&.Dt PROGNAME section
\&.Os
\&.Sh NAME
-\&.Nm foo
-\&.Nd a description goes here
+\&.Nm progname
+\&.Nd one line about what it does
\&.\e\*q .Sh LIBRARY
\&.\e\*q For sections 2, 3, & 9 only.
\&.\e\*q Not used in OpenBSD.
\&.Sh SYNOPSIS
-\&.Nm foo
+\&.Nm progname
\&.Op Fl options
\&.Ar
\&.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Ed
.Pp
Manuals not documenting a command won't include the above fragment.
+.Pp
+Since the
+.Em DESCRIPTION
+section usually contains most of the text of a manual, longer manuals
+often use the
+.Sx \&Ss
+macro to form subsections.
+In very long manuals, the
+.Em DESCRIPTION
+may be split into multiple sections, each started by an
+.Sx \&Sh
+macro followed by a non-standard section name, and each having
+several subsections, like in the present
+.Nm
+manual.
.It Em IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
Implementation-specific notes should be kept here.
This is useful when implementing standard functions that may have side
Cross-references should conventionally be ordered first by section, then
alphabetically.
.Pp
+References to other documentation concerning the topic of the manual page,
+for example authoritative books or journal articles, may also be
+provided in this section.
+.Pp
See
+.Sx \&Rs
+and
.Sx \&Xr .
.It Em STANDARDS
References any standards implemented or used.
See
.Sx \&St .
.It Em HISTORY
-A brief history of the subject, including where support first appeared.
+A brief history of the subject, including where it was first implemented,
+and when it was ported to or reimplemented for the operating system at hand.
.It Em AUTHORS
Credits to the person or persons who wrote the code and/or documentation.
Authors should generally be noted by both name and email address.
.Em Callable
column indicates that the macro may also be called by passing its name
as an argument to another macro.
+For example,
+.Sq \&.Op \&Fl O \&Ar file
+produces
+.Sq Op Fl O Ar file .
+To prevent a macro call and render the macro name literally,
+escape it by prepending a zero-width space,
+.Sq \e& .
+For example,
+.Sq \&Op \e&Fl O
+produces
+.Sq Op \&Fl O .
If a macro is not callable but its name appears as an argument
to another macro, it is interpreted as opaque text.
For example,
.Pp
.Bl -column -compact -offset indent "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXXXXXXXXXX"
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope
-.It Sx \&It Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&It , Sx \&El
-.It Sx \&Nd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Sh
-.It Sx \&Nm Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Nm , Sx \&Sh , Sx \&Ss
-.It Sx \&Sh Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Sh
-.It Sx \&Ss Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Sh , Sx \&Ss
+.It Sx \&It Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&It , Sx \&El
+.It Sx \&Nd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Sx \&Sh
+.It Sx \&Nm Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Nm , Sx \&Sh , Sx \&Ss
+.It Sx \&Sh Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Sh
+.It Sx \&Ss Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Sh , Sx \&Ss
.El
.Pp
Note that the
.It Sx \&Xo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Xc
.El
.Ss Block partial-implicit
-Like block full-implicit, but with single-line scope closed by
-.Sx Reserved Terms
-or end of line.
+Like block full-implicit, but with single-line scope closed by the
+end of the line.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \(lBres...\(rB
.Ed
.Em SYNOPSIS
section line, else it is
.Sx In-line .
+.Ss Special block macro
+The
+.Sx \&Ta
+macro can only be used below
+.Sx \&It
+in
+.Sx \&Bl Fl column
+lists.
+It delimits blocks representing table cells;
+these blocks have bodies, but no heads.
+.Pp
+.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXXX" -compact -offset indent
+.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope
+.It Sx \&Ta Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Sx \&Ta , Sx \&It
+.El
.Ss In-line
-Closed by
-.Sx Reserved Terms ,
-end of line, fixed argument lengths, and/or subsequent macros.
+Closed by the end of the line, fixed argument lengths,
+and/or subsequent macros.
In-line macros have only text children.
If a number (or inequality) of arguments is
.Pq n ,
.It Sx \&br Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0
.It Sx \&sp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1
.El
+.Ss Delimiters
+When a macro argument consists of one single input character
+considered as a delimiter, the argument gets special handling.
+This does not apply when delimiters appear in arguments containing
+more than one character.
+Consequently, to prevent special handling and just handle it
+like any other argument, a delimiter can be escaped by prepending
+a zero-width space
+.Pq Sq \e& .
+In text lines, delimiters never need escaping, but may be used
+as normal punctuation.
+.Pp
+For many macros, when the leading arguments are opening delimiters,
+these delimiters are put before the macro scope,
+and when the trailing arguments are closing delimiters,
+these delimiters are put after the macro scope.
+For example,
+.Pp
+.D1 Pf \. \&Aq "( [ word ] ) ."
+.Pp
+renders as:
+.Pp
+.D1 Aq ( [ word ] ) .
+.Pp
+Opening delimiters are:
+.Pp
+.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
+.It \&(
+left parenthesis
+.It \&[
+left bracket
+.El
+.Pp
+Closing delimiters are:
+.Pp
+.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
+.It \&.
+period
+.It \&,
+comma
+.It \&:
+colon
+.It \&;
+semicolon
+.It \&)
+right parenthesis
+.It \&]
+right bracket
+.It \&?
+question mark
+.It \&!
+exclamation mark
+.El
+.Pp
+Note that even a period preceded by a backslash
+.Pq Sq \e.\&
+gets this special handling; use
+.Sq \e&.
+to prevent that.
+.Pp
+Many in-line macros interrupt their scope when they encounter
+delimiters, and resume their scope when more arguments follow that
+are not delimiters.
+For example,
+.Pp
+.D1 Pf \. \&Fl "a ( b | c \e*(Ba d ) e"
+.Pp
+renders as:
+.Pp
+.D1 Fl a ( b | c \*(Ba d ) e
+.Pp
+This applies to both opening and closing delimiters,
+and also to the middle delimiter:
+.Pp
+.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
+.It \&|
+vertical bar
+.El
+.Pp
+As a special case, the predefined string \e*(Ba is handled and rendered
+in the same way as a plain
+.Sq \&|
+character.
+Using this predefined string is not recommended in new manuals.
.Sh REFERENCE
This section is a canonical reference of all macros, arranged
alphabetically.
.Dl \&.Ad 0x00000000
.Ss \&An
Author name.
+Can be used both for the authors of the program, function, or driver
+documented in the manual, or for the authors of the manual itself.
Requires either the name of an author or one of the following arguments:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-nosplitX" -offset indent -compact
is used as a default.
.Pp
Examples:
-.Dl \&.Fl o \&Ns \&Ar file1
-.Dl \&.Ar
-.Dl \&.Ar arg1 , arg2 .
+.Dl ".Fl o Ar file"
+.Dl ".Ar"
+.Dl ".Ar arg1 , arg2 ."
+.Pp
+The arguments to the
+.Sx \&Ar
+macro are names and placeholders for command arguments;
+for fixed strings to be passed verbatim as arguments, use
+.Sx \&Fl
+or
+.Sx \&Cm .
.Ss \&At
Formats an AT&T version.
Accepts one optional argument:
.It Cm v[1-7] | 32v
A version of
.At .
+.It Cm III
+.At III .
.It Cm V[.[1-4]]?
A version of
.At V .
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.At
+.Dl \&.At III
.Dl \&.At V.1
.Pp
See also
must be one of the following:
.Bl -tag -width 13n -offset indent
.It Fl centered
-Centre-justify each line.
+Produce one output line from each input line, and centre-justify each line.
Using this display type is not recommended; many
.Nm
implementations render it poorly.
.It Fl filled
-Left- and right-justify the block.
+Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left- and
+right-justify the resulting block.
.It Fl literal
-Do not justify the block at all.
+Produce one output line from each input line,
+and do not justify the block at all.
Preserve white space as it appears in the input.
+Always use a constant-width font.
+Use this for displaying source code.
.It Fl ragged
-Only left-justify the block.
+Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left-justify
+the resulting block.
.It Fl unfilled
-An alias for
-.Fl literal .
+The same as
+.Fl literal ,
+but using the same font as for normal text, which is a variable width font
+if supported by the output device.
.El
.Pp
The
.It
One of the pre-defined strings
.Cm indent ,
-the width of standard indentation;
+the width of a standard indentation (six constant width characters);
.Cm indent-two ,
twice
.Cm indent ;
Like
.Fl inset ,
except that item heads are not parsed for macro invocations.
-.\" but with additional formatting to the head.
+Most often used in the
+.Em DIAGNOSTICS
+section with error constants in the item heads.
.It Fl enum
A numbered list.
+No item heads can be specified.
Formatted like
.Fl bullet ,
except that cardinal numbers are used in place of bullets,
Otherwise, the body starts on the output line following the head.
.El
.Pp
+Lists may be nested within lists and displays.
+Nesting of
+.Fl column
+and
+.Fl enum
+lists may not be portable.
+.Pp
See also
.Sx \&El
and
.Sx \&Ux .
.Ss \&Bt
Prints
-.Dq is currently in beta test .
+.Dq is currently in beta test.
.Ss \&Bx
Format the BSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if no
argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
+.Dl \&.Bx 4.3 Tahoe
.Dl \&.Bx 4.4
.Dl \&.Bx
.Pp
Kernel configuration declaration.
This denotes strings accepted by
.Xr config 8 .
+It is most often used in section 4 manual pages.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Cd device le0 at scode?
This practise is discouraged.
.Ss \&Cm
Command modifiers.
-Useful when specifying configuration options or keys.
+Typically used for fixed strings passed as arguments, unless
+.Sx \&Fl
+is more appropriate.
+Also useful when specifying configuration options or keys.
.Pp
Examples:
-.Dl \&.Cm ControlPath
-.Dl \&.Cm ControlMaster
-.Pp
-See also
-.Sx \&Fl .
+.Dl ".Nm mt Fl f Ar device Cm rewind"
+.Dl ".Nm ps Fl o Cm pid , Ns Cm command"
+.Dl ".Nm dd Cm if= Ns Ar file1 Cm of= Ns Ar file2"
+.Dl ".Cm IdentityFile Pa ~/.ssh/id_rsa"
+.Dl ".Cm LogLevel Dv DEBUG"
.Ss \&D1
One-line indented display.
This is formatted by the default rules and is useful for simple indented
and
.Sx \&Os .
.Ss \&Dv
-Defined variables such as preprocessor constants.
+Defined variables such as preprocessor constants, constant symbols,
+enumeration values, and so on.
.Pp
Examples:
+.Dl \&.Dv NULL
.Dl \&.Dv BUFSIZ
.Dl \&.Dv STDOUT_FILENO
.Pp
See also
-.Sx \&Er .
+.Sx \&Er
+and
+.Sx \&Ev
+for special-purpose constants and
+.Sx \&Va
+for variable symbols.
.Ss \&Dx
Format the DragonFly BSD version provided as an argument, or a default
value if no argument is provided.
and
.Sx \&It .
.Ss \&Em
-Denotes text that should be emphasised.
+Denotes text that should be
+.Em emphasised .
Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for
stylistically decorating technical terms.
+Depending on the output device, this is usually represented
+using an italic font or underlined characters.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Em Warnings!
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bf ,
-.Sx \&Sy ,
+.Sx \&Li ,
+.Sx \&No ,
and
-.Sx \&Li .
+.Sx \&Sy .
.Ss \&En
This macro is obsolete and not implemented in
.Xr mandoc 1 .
will emulate
.Sx \&Do .
.Ss \&Er
-Display error constants.
+Error constants for definitions of the
+.Va errno
+libc global variable.
+This is most often used in section 2 and 3 manual pages.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Er EPERM
.Dl \&.Er ENOENT
.Pp
See also
-.Sx \&Dv .
+.Sx \&Dv
+for general constants.
.Ss \&Es
This macro is obsolete and not implemented.
.Ss \&Ev
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ev DISPLAY
.Dl \&.Ev PATH
+.Pp
+See also
+.Sx \&Dv
+for general constants.
.Ss \&Ex
-Insert a standard sentence regarding exit values.
+Insert a standard sentence regarding command exit values of 0 on success
+and >0 on failure.
+This is most often used in section 1, 6, and 8 manual pages.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
-.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ex Fl std Op Ar utility
+.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ex Fl std Op Ar utility ...
.Pp
-When
+If
.Ar utility
is not specified, the document's name set by
.Sx \&Nm
is used.
+Multiple
+.Ar utility
+arguments are treated as separate utilities.
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Rv .
and
.Sx \&In .
.Ss \&Fl
-Command-line flag.
+Command-line flag or option.
Used when listing arguments to command-line utilities.
Prints a fixed-width hyphen
.Sq \-
output.
.Pp
Examples:
-.Dl \&.Fl a b c
-.Dl \&.Fl \&Pf a b
-.Dl \&.Fl
-.Dl \&.Op \&Fl o \&Ns \&Ar file
+.Dl ".Fl R Op Fl H | L | P"
+.Dl ".Op Fl 1AaCcdFfgHhikLlmnopqRrSsTtux"
+.Dl ".Fl type Cm d Fl name Pa CVS"
+.Dl ".Fl Ar signal_number"
+.Dl ".Fl o Fl"
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Cm .
Function arguments are surrounded in parenthesis and
are delimited by commas.
If no arguments are specified, blank parenthesis are output.
+In the
+.Em SYNOPSIS
+section, this macro starts a new output line,
+and a blank line is automatically inserted between function definitions.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Fn \*qint funcname\*q \*qint arg0\*q \*qint arg1\*q
.Dl \&.Fn funcname \*qint arg0\*q
.Dl \&.Fn funcname arg0
+.Pp
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Ft functype
\&.Fn funcname
.Sx \&Xr
instead.
See also
-.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
+.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,
+.Sx \&Fo ,
and
.Sx \&Ft .
.Ss \&Fo
A
.Sx \&Fo
scope is closed by
+.Sx \&Fc .
.Pp
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,
.Sx \&Fc ,
and
.Sx \&Ft .
+.Ss \&Fr
+This macro is obsolete and not implemented in
+.Xr mandoc 1 .
+.Pp
+It was used to show function return values.
+The syntax was:
+.Pp
+.Dl Pf . Sx \&Fr Ar value
.Ss \&Ft
A function type.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Ft Ar functype
.Pp
+In the
+.Em SYNOPSIS
+section, a new output line is started after this macro.
+.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ft int
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
and
.Sx \&Ux .
.Ss \&Hf
-This macro is obsolete and not implemented.
+This macro is not implemented in
+.Xr mandoc 1 .
+.Pp
+It was used to include the contents of a (header) file literally.
+The syntax was:
+.Pp
+.Dl Pf . Sx \&Hf Ar filename
.Ss \&Ic
Designate an internal or interactive command.
This is similar to
but used for instructions rather than values.
.Pp
Examples:
+.Dl \&.Ic :wq
.Dl \&.Ic hash
.Dl \&.Ic alias
.Pp
An
.Dq include
file.
-In the
+When invoked as the first macro on an input line in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
-section (only if invoked as the line macro), the first argument is
-preceded by
+section, the argument is displayed in angle brackets
+and preceded by
.Dq #include ,
-the arguments is enclosed in angle brackets.
+and a blank line is inserted in front if there is a preceding
+function declaration.
+This is most often used in section 2, 3, and 9 manual pages.
.Pp
Examples:
-.Dl \&.In sys/types
+.Dl \&.In sys/types.h
.Pp
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .
list is the most complicated.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
-.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Op Cm args
+.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Ar cell Op <TAB> Ar cell ...
+.D1 Pf \. Sx \&It Ar cell Op Sx \&Ta Ar cell ...
.Pp
-The
-.Cm args
-are phrases, a mix of macros and text corresponding to a line column,
-delimited by tabs or the special
-.Sq \&Ta
-pseudo-macro.
-Lines subsequent the
+The arguments consist of one or more lines of text and macros
+representing a complete table line.
+Cells within the line are delimited by tabs or by the special
+.Sx \&Ta
+block macro.
+The tab cell delimiter may only be used within the
.Sx \&It
-are interpreted within the scope of the last phrase.
-Calling the pseudo-macro
-.Sq \&Ta
-will open a new phrase scope (this must occur on a macro line to be
-interpreted as a macro).
-Note that the tab phrase delimiter may only be used within the
+line itself; on following lines, only the
+.Sx \&Ta
+macro can be used to delimit cells, and
+.Sx \&Ta
+is only recognized as a macro when called by other macros,
+not as the first macro on a line.
+.Pp
+Note that quoted strings may span tab-delimited cells on an
.Sx \&It
-line itself.
-Subsequent this, only the
-.Sq \&Ta
-pseudo-macro may be used to delimit phrases.
-Furthermore, note that quoted sections propagate over tab-delimited
-phrases on an
-.Sx \&It ,
-for example,
+line.
+For example,
.Pp
.Dl .It \(dqcol1 ; <TAB> col2 ;\(dq \&;
.Pp
The
.Ar library
parameter may be a system library, such as
-.Ar libz
+.Cm libz
or
-.Ar libpam ,
+.Cm libpam ,
in which case a small library description is printed next to the linker
invocation; or a custom library, in which case the library name is
printed in quotes.
.Dl \&.Lb libz
.Dl \&.Lb mdoc
.Ss \&Li
-Denotes text that should be in a literal font mode.
+Denotes text that should be in a
+.Li literal
+font mode.
Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for
stylistically decorating technical terms.
.Pp
+On terminal output devices, this is often indistinguishable from
+normal text.
+.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bf ,
-.Sx \&Sy ,
+.Sx \&Em ,
+.Sx \&No ,
and
-.Sx \&Em .
+.Sx \&Sy .
.Ss \&Lk
Format a hyperlink.
Its syntax is as follows:
macro.
.Pp
Examples:
-.Dl \&.Sx \&Nd mdoc language reference
-.Dl \&.Sx \&Nd format and display UNIX manuals
+.Dl Pf . Sx \&Nd mdoc language reference
+.Dl Pf . Sx \&Nd format and display UNIX manuals
.Pp
The
.Sx \&Nd
.Sx \&Nm
to mark up the name of the manual page.
.Ss \&No
-A
-.Dq noop
-macro used to terminate prior macro contexts.
+Normal text.
+Closes the scope of any preceding in-line macro.
+When used after physical formatting macros like
+.Sx \&Em
+or
+.Sx \&Sy ,
+switches back to the standard font face and weight.
+Can also be used to embed plain text strings in macro lines
+using semantic annotation macros.
.Pp
Examples:
-.Dl \&.Sx \&Fl ab \&No cd \&Fl ef
+.Dl ".Em italic , Sy bold , No and roman"
+.Pp
+.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
+\&.Sm off
+\&.Cm :C No / Ar pattern No / Ar replacement No /
+\&.Sm on
+.Ed
+.Pp
+See also
+.Sx \&Em ,
+.Sx \&Li ,
+and
+.Sx \&Sy .
.Ss \&Ns
-Suppress a space.
-Following invocation, text is interpreted as free-form text until a
-macro is encountered.
+Suppress a space between the output of the preceding macro
+and the following text or macro.
+Following invocation, input is interpreted as normal text
+just like after an
+.Sx \&No
+macro.
.Pp
This has no effect when invoked at the start of a macro line.
.Pp
Examples:
-.Dl \&.Fl o \&Ns \&Ar output
+.Dl ".Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value"
+.Dl ".Cm :M Ns Ar pattern"
+.Dl ".Fl o Ns Ar output"
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&No
\&.Oc
.Ed
.Ss \&Op
-Command-line option.
-Used when listing options to command-line utilities.
+Optional part of a command line.
Prints the argument(s) in brackets.
+This is most often used in the
+.Em SYNOPSIS
+section of section 1 and 8 manual pages.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Op \&Fl a \&Ar b
and
.Sx \&Dt .
.Ss \&Ot
-Unknown usage.
+This macro is obsolete and not implemented in
+.Xr mandoc 1 .
.Pp
-.Em Remarks :
-this macro has been deprecated.
+Historical
+.Xr mdoc 7
+packages described it as
+.Dq "old function type (FORTRAN)" .
.Ss \&Ox
Format the
.Ox
and
.Sx \&Ux .
.Ss \&Pa
-A file-system path.
-If an argument is not provided, the string
-.Dq \(ti
+An absolute or relative file system path, or a file or directory name.
+If an argument is not provided, the character
+.Sq \(ti
is used as a default.
.Pp
Examples:
Close parenthesised context opened by
.Sx \&Po .
.Ss \&Pf
-Removes the space
+Removes the space between its argument
.Pq Dq prefix
-between its arguments.
+and the following macro.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
-.D1 Pf \. \&Pf Ar prefix suffix
+.D1 .Pf Ar prefix macro arguments ...
.Pp
-The
-.Ar suffix
-argument may be a macro.
+This is equivalent to:
+.Pp
+.D1 .No Ar prefix No \&Ns Ar macro arguments ...
.Pp
Examples:
-.Dl \&.Pf \e. \&Sx \&Pf \&Ar prefix suffix
+.Dl ".Pf $ Ar variable_name"
+.Dl ".Pf 0x Ar hex_digits"
+.Pp
+See also
+.Sx \&Ns
+and
+.Sx \&Sm .
.Ss \&Po
Multi-line version of
.Sx \&Pq .
Break a paragraph.
This will assert vertical space between prior and subsequent macros
and/or text.
+.Pp
+Paragraph breaks are not needed before or after
+.Sx \&Sh
+or
+.Sx \&Ss
+macros or before displays
+.Pq Sx \&Bd
+or lists
+.Pq Sx \&Bl
+unless the
+.Fl compact
+flag is given.
.Ss \&Pq
Parenthesised enclosure.
.Pp
.Sx \&Qq .
.Ss \&Qq
Encloses its arguments in
-.Dq typewriter
+.Qq typewriter
double-quotes.
Consider using
.Sx \&Dq .
before the rendered output, else the block continues on the current
line.
.Ss \&Rv
-Inserts text regarding a function call's return value.
-This macro must consist of the
-.Fl std
-argument followed by an optional
-.Ar function .
+Insert a standard sentence regarding a function call's return value of 0
+on success and \-1 on error, with the
+.Va errno
+libc global variable set on error.
+Its syntax is as follows:
+.Pp
+.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Rv Fl std Op Ar function ...
+.Pp
If
.Ar function
-is not provided, the document's name as stipulated by the first
+is not specified, the document's name set by
.Sx \&Nm
-is provided.
+is used.
+Multiple
+.Ar function
+arguments are treated as separate functions.
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Ex .
.Pp
Section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by
.Sx \&Sx .
+Although this macro is parsed, it should not consist of child node or it
+may not be linked with
+.Sx \&Sx .
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Pp ,
.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Sm Cm on | off
.Pp
By default, spacing is
-.Ar on .
+.Cm on .
When switched
-.Ar off ,
+.Cm off ,
no white space is inserted between macro arguments and between the
output generated from adjacent macros, but text lines
still get normal spacing between words and sentences.
.Sx \&Sq .
.Ss \&Sq
Encloses its arguments in
-.Dq typewriter
+.Sq typewriter
single-quotes.
.Pp
See also
and
.Sx \&So .
.Ss \&Ss
-Begin a new sub-section.
+Begin a new subsection.
Unlike with
.Sx \&Sh ,
-there's no convention for sub-sections.
-Conventional sections, as described in
-.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,
-rarely have sub-sections.
+there is no convention for the naming of subsections.
+Except
+.Em DESCRIPTION ,
+the conventional sections described in
+.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
+rarely have subsections.
.Pp
Sub-section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by
.Sx \&Sx .
+Although this macro is parsed, it should not consist of child node or it
+may not be linked with
+.Sx \&Sx .
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Pp ,
.St -xpg4
.It \-xpg4.2
.St -xpg4.2
+.It \-xpg4.3
.St -xpg4.3
.It \-xbd5
.St -xbd5
.St -svid4
.El
.Ss \&Sx
-Reference a section or sub-section.
-The referenced section or sub-section name must be identical to the
+Reference a section or subsection in the same manual page.
+The referenced section or subsection name must be identical to the
enclosed argument, including whitespace.
.Pp
Examples:
.Pp
See also
.Sx \&Bf ,
+.Sx \&Em ,
.Sx \&Li ,
and
-.Sx \&Em .
+.Sx \&No .
+.Ss \&Ta
+Table cell separator in
+.Sx \&Bl Fl column
+lists; can only be used below
+.Sx \&It .
.Ss \&Tn
Format a tradename.
.Pp
+Since this macro is often implemented to use a small caps font,
+it has historically been used for acronyms (like ASCII) as well.
+Such usage is not recommended because it would use the same macro
+sometimes for semantical annotation, sometimes for physical formatting.
+.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Tn IBM
.Ss \&Ud
Prints out
-.Dq currently under development .
+.Dq currently under development.
.Ss \&Ux
Format the UNIX name.
Accepts no argument.
section, in which case a variable name is also specified.
Note that it accepts
.Sx Block partial-implicit
-syntax when invoked as the first macro in the
+syntax when invoked as the first macro on an input line in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, else it accepts ordinary
.Sx In-line
syntax.
+In the former case, this macro starts a new output line,
+and a blank line is inserted in front if there is a preceding
+function definition or include directive.
.Pp
Note that this should not be confused with
.Sx \&Ft ,
.Qq AT&T UNIX
and the arguments.
.It
-.Sx \&Bd Fl column
+.Sx \&Bl Fl column
does not recognize trailing punctuation characters when they immediately
precede tabulator characters, but treats them as normal text and
outputs a space before them.
lists will restart the sequence only for the sub-list.
.It
.Sx \&Li
-followed by a reserved character is incorrectly used in some manuals
+followed by a delimiter is incorrectly used in some manuals
instead of properly quoting that character, which sometimes works with
historic groff.
.It
.Xr mandoc 1 ,
.Xr eqn 7 ,
.Xr man 7 ,
-.Xr mandoc_char 7
+.Xr mandoc_char 7 ,
.Xr roff 7 ,
.Xr tbl 7
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
reference was written by
-.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@bsd.lv .
+.An Kristaps Dzonsons ,
+.Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .
git.ckatri.com / mandoc.git / blobdiff