| GROFF_MDOC(7) | Miscellaneous Information Manual | GROFF_MDOC(7) |
groff_mdoc —
reference for groff's mdoc implementation
groff
|
A complete reference for writing UNIX
manual pages with the -mdoc macro package; a
content-based
and
domain-based
formatting package for GNU troff(1). Its
predecessor, the -man(7) package, addressed
page layout leaving the manipulation of fonts and other typesetting details
to the individual author. In -mdoc, page layout
macros make up the
page structure
domain which consists of macros for titles, section headers,
displays and lists – essentially items which affect the physical
position of text on a formatted page. In addition to the page structure
domain, there are two more domains, the
manual
domain and the
general
text domain. The general text domain is defined as macros which perform
tasks such as quoting or emphasizing pieces of text. The manual domain is
defined as macros that are a subset of the day to day informal language used
to describe commands, routines and related UNIX
files. Macros in the manual domain handle command names, command-line
arguments and options, function names, function parameters, pathnames,
variables, cross references to other manual pages, and so on. These domain
items have value for both the author and the future user of the manual page.
Hopefully, the consistency gained across the manual set will provide easier
translation to future documentation tools.
Throughout the UNIX manual pages, a manual entry is simply referred to as a man page, regardless of actual length and without sexist intention.
The material presented in the remainder of this document is outlined as follows:
The -mdoc package attempts to simplify the
process of writing a man page. Theoretically, one should not have to learn
the tricky details of GNU troff(1) to use
-mdoc; however, there are a few limitations which
are unavoidable and best gotten out of the way. And, too, be forewarned,
this package is not fast.
As in GNU troff(1), a macro is
called by placing a ‘.’ (dot
character) at the beginning of a line followed by the two-character (or
three-character) name for the macro. There can be space or tab characters
between the dot and the macro name. Arguments may follow the macro separated
by spaces (but
no tabs). It
is the dot character at the beginning of the line which causes GNU
troff(1) to interpret the next two (or
more) characters as a macro name. A single starting dot followed by nothing
is ignored. To place a ‘.’ (dot
character) at the beginning of an input line in some context other than a
macro invocation, precede the ‘.’
(dot) with the ‘\&’ escape
sequence which translates literally to a zero-width space, and is never
displayed in the output.
In general, GNU troff(1) macros accept an unlimited number of arguments (contrary to other versions of troff which can't handle more than nine arguments). In limited cases, arguments may be continued or extended on the next line (See Extended Arguments below). Almost all macros handle quoted arguments (see Passing Space Characters in an Argument below).
Most of the -mdoc general text
domain and manual domain macros are special in that their argument lists are
parsed for callable macro names. This means an argument on
the argument list which matches a general text or manual domain macro name
(and which is defined to be callable) will be executed or called when it is
processed. In this case the argument, although the name of a macro, is not
preceded by a ‘.’ (dot). This makes it
possible to nest macros; for example the option macro,
‘.Op’, may
call the flag and
argument macros, ‘Fl’ and
‘Ar’, to specify an optional flag with
an argument:
-s bytes].Op Fl s Ar
bytes’To prevent a string from being interpreted as a macro name,
precede the string with the escape sequence
‘\&’:
.Op \&Fl s \&Ar
bytes’Here the strings
‘Fl’ and
‘Ar’ are not interpreted as macros.
Macros whose argument lists are parsed for callable arguments are referred
to as parsed and macros which may be called from an
argument list are referred to as
callable
throughout this document. This is a technical
faux pas
as almost all of the macros in -mdoc are parsed, but
as it was cumbersome to constantly refer to macros as being callable and
being able to call other macros, the term parsed has been used.
In the following, we call an
-mdoc macro which starts a line (with a leading dot)
a command if this
distinction is necessary.
Sometimes it is desirable to give as an argument a string
containing one or more blank space characters, say, to specify arguments to
commands which expect particular arrangement of items in the argument list.
Additionally, it makes -mdoc working faster. For
example, the function command ‘.Fn’
expects the first argument to be the name of a function and any remaining
arguments to be function parameters. As ANSI C stipulates the
declaration of function parameters in the parenthesized parameter list, each
parameter is guaranteed to be at minimum a two word string. For example,
int foo.
There are two possible ways to pass an argument which contains an
embedded space. One way of passing a string containing blank spaces is to
use the hard or unpaddable space character
‘\ ’, that is, a blank space
preceded by the escape character ‘\’.
This method may be used with any macro but has the side effect of
interfering with the adjustment of text over the length of a line.
Troff sees the hard space as if it were
any other printable character and cannot split the string into blank or
newline separated pieces as one would expect. This method is useful for
strings which are not expected to overlap a line boundary. An alternative is
to use ‘\~’, a paddable (i.e.
stretchable), unbreakable space (this is a GNU
troff(1) extension). The second method is
to enclose the string with double quotes.
For example:
fetch(char *str).Fn fetch char\
*str’fetch(char *str).Fn fetch "char
*str"’If the ‘\’ before the space
in the first example or double quotes in the second example were omitted,
‘.Fn’ would see three arguments, and
the result would be:
fetch(char,
*str)Troff can be confused by blank
space characters at the end of a line. It is a wise preventive measure to
globally remove all blank spaces from
⟨blank-space⟩⟨end-of-line⟩ character sequences.
Should the need arise to use a blank character at the end of a line, it may
be forced with an unpaddable space and the
‘\&’ escape character. For
example, ‘string\ \&’.
Special characters like the newline character
‘\n’ are handled by replacing the
‘\’ with
‘\e’ (e.g.
‘\en’) to preserve the backslash.
A warning is emitted when an empty input line is found outside of
displays (see below). Use ‘.sp’
instead. (Well, it is even better to use -mdoc
macros to avoid the usage of low-level commands.)
Leading spaces will cause a break and are output directly. Avoid this behaviour if possible. Similarly, do not use more than one space character between words in an ordinary text line; contrary to other text formatters, they are not replaced with a single space.
You can't pass ‘"’
directly as an argument. Use ‘\*[q]’
(or ‘\*q’) instead.
By default, troff(1) inserts two
space characters after a punctuation mark closing a sentence; characters
like ‘)’ or
‘'’ are treated transparently, not
influencing the sentence-ending behaviour. To change this, insert
‘\&’ before or after the dot:
The .Ql . character. .Pp The .Ql \&. character. .Pp .No test . test .Pp .No test. test
gives
The ‘.’ character.
test. test
test. test
As can be seen in the first and third line,
-mdoc handles punctuation characters specially in
macro arguments. This will be explained in section
General Syntax below. In the same
way, you have to protect trailing full stops of abbreviations with a
trailing zero-width space:
‘e.g.\&’.
A comment in the source file of a man page can be either started
with ‘.\"’ on a single line,
‘\"’ after some input, or
‘\#’ anywhere (the latter is a GNU
troff(1) extension); the rest of such a
line is ignored.
The body of a man page is easily constructed from a basic template:
.\" The following commands are required for all man pages. .Dd Month day, year .Dt DOCUMENT_TITLE [section number] [architecture/volume] .Os [OPERATING_SYSTEM] [version/release] .Sh NAME .Nm name .Nd one line description of name .\" This next command is for sections 2 and 3 only. .\" .Sh LIBRARY .Sh SYNOPSIS .Sh DESCRIPTION .\" The following commands should be uncommented and .\" used where appropriate. .\" .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES .\" This next command is for sections 2, 3, and 9 only .\" (function return values). .\" .Sh RETURN VALUES .\" This next command is for sections 1, 6, 7, and 8 only. .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT .\" .Sh FILES .\" This next command is for sections 1, 6, and 8 only .\" (command return values to the shell). .\" .Sh EXIT STATUS .\" .Sh EXAMPLES .\" This next command is for sections 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 only .\" (fprintf/stderr type diagnostics). .\" .Sh DIAGNOSTICS .\" .Sh COMPATIBILITY .\" This next command is for sections 2, 3, 4, and 9 only .\" (settings of the errno variable). .\" .Sh ERRORS .\" .Sh SEE ALSO .\" .Sh STANDARDS .\" .Sh HISTORY .\" .Sh AUTHORS .\" .Sh CAVEATS .\" .Sh BUGS
The first items in the template are the commands
‘.Dd’,
‘.Dt’, and
‘.Os’; the document date, the
operating system the man page or subject source is developed or modified
for, and the man page title (in
upper case) along
with the section of the manual the page belongs in. These commands identify
the page and are discussed below in TITLE
MACROS.
The remaining items in the template are section headers
(.Sh); of which NAME,
SYNOPSIS, and DESCRIPTION are mandatory.
The headers are discussed in
PAGE STRUCTURE DOMAIN, after
presentation of MANUAL DOMAIN.
Several content macros are used to demonstrate page layout macros; reading
about content macros before page layout macros is recommended.
In the description of all macros below, optional arguments are put
into brackets. An ellipsis (‘...’) represents zero or more
additional arguments. Alternative values for a parameter are separated with
‘|’. If there are alternative values
for a mandatory parameter, braces are used (together with
‘|’) to enclose the value set.
Meta-variables are specified within angles.
Example:
.Xx
⟨foo⟩ {bar1 | bar2} [-test1 [-test2 | -test3]]
...Except stated explicitly, all macros are parsed and callable.
Note that a macro takes effect up to the next nested macro. For
example, ‘.Ic foo Aq bar’ doesn't
produce ‘foo <bar>’ but
‘foo ⟨bar⟩’.
Consequently, a warning message is emitted for most commands if the first
argument is a macro itself since it cancels the effect of the calling
command completely. Another consequence is that quoting macros never insert
literal quotes; ‘foo <bar>’ has
been produced by ‘.Ic "foo
<bar>"’.
Most macros have a default width value which can be used to
specify a label width (-width) or offset
(-offset) for the
‘.Bl’ and
‘.Bd’ macros. It is recommended not to
use this rather obscure feature to avoid dependencies on local modifications
of the -mdoc package.
The title macros are part of the page structure domain but are presented first and separately for someone who wishes to start writing a man page yesterday. Three header macros designate the document title or manual page title, the operating system, and the date of authorship. These macros are called once at the very beginning of the document and are used to construct headers and footers only.
.Dt
[⟨document title⟩] [⟨section number⟩]
[⟨volume⟩]unass’,
‘draft’, or
‘paper’. If it is specified, and no
volume name is given, a default volume name is used.
Under , the following sections are defined:
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | |
| 9 |
A volume name may be arbitrary or one of the following:
| USD |
| PS1 |
| AMD |
| SMM |
| URM |
| PRM |
| KM |
| IND |
| LOCAL |
| CON |
For compatibility, ‘MMI’
can be used for ‘IND’, and
‘LOC’ for
‘LOCAL’. Values from the previous
table will specify a new volume name. If the third parameter is a
keyword designating a computer architecture, its value is prepended to
the default volume name as specified by the second parameter. By
default, the following architecture keywords are defined:
If the section number is neither a numeric expression in the range 1 to 9 nor one of the above described keywords, the third parameter is used verbatim as the volume name.
In the following examples, the left (which is identical to the
right) and the middle part of the manual page header strings are shown.
Note how ‘\&’ prevents the
digit 7 from being a valid numeric expression.
.Dt FOO 7FOO(7)’
‘.Dt FOO 7 barFOO(7)’
‘.Dt FOO \&7 barFOO(7)’
‘bar’.Dt FOO 2 i386FOO(2)’
‘/’.Dt FOO "" barFOO’
‘bar’Local, OS-specific additions might be found in the file
mdoc.local; look for strings named
‘volume-ds-XXX’ (for the former
type) and ‘volume-as-XXX’ (for the
latter type); ‘XXX’ then denotes
the keyword to be used with the
‘.Dt’ macro.
This macro is neither callable nor parsed.
.Os
[⟨operating system⟩] [⟨release⟩].Dt’, local additions might be
defined in mdoc.local; look for strings named
‘operating-system-XXX-YYY’, where
‘XXX’ is the acronym for the
operating system and ‘YYY’ the
release ID.
For ATT, an unknown second parameter will be replaced with the string UNIX; for the other predefined acronyms it will be ignored and a warning message emitted. Unrecognized arguments are displayed as given in the page footer. For instance, a typical footer might be:
.Os BSD 4.3giving ‘4.3 Berkeley
Distribution’, or for a locally produced set
.Os CS Departmentwhich will produce
‘CS Department’.
If the ‘.Os’ macro is
not present, the bottom left corner of the manual page will be ugly.
This macro is neither callable nor parsed.
.Dd
[⟨month⟩ ⟨day⟩, ⟨year⟩]Dd’ has no arguments,
‘Epoch’ is used for the date string.
If it has exactly three arguments, they are concatenated, separated with
unbreakable space:
.Dd January 25, 2001The month's name shall not be abbreviated.
With any other number of arguments, the current date is used, ignoring the parameters.
As a special exception, the format
.Dd $Mdocdate:
⟨month⟩ ⟨day⟩ ⟨year⟩
$is also recognized. It is used in OpenBSD manuals to automatically insert the current date when committing.
This macro is neither callable nor parsed.
The manual domain macro names are derived from the day to day
informal language used to describe commands, subroutines and related files.
Slightly different variations of this language are used to describe the
three different aspects of writing a man page. First, there is the
description of -mdoc macro command usage. Second is
the description of a UNIX command
with -mdoc macros, and third, the
description of a command to a user in the verbal sense; that is, discussion
of a command in the text of a man page.
In the first case, troff(1) macros are themselves a type of command; the general syntax for a troff command is:
.Xx argument1 argument2
...‘.Xx’ is a macro command,
and anything following it are arguments to be processed. In the second case,
the description of a UNIX command using the content
macros is a bit more involved; a typical
SYNOPSIS command line might be displayed
as:
filter
[-flag] ⟨infile⟩
⟨outfile⟩Here, filter is the command name
and the bracketed string -flag is a
flag argument
designated as optional by the option brackets. In
-mdoc terms,
⟨infile⟩ and
⟨outfile⟩ are called
meta
arguments; in this example, the user has to replace the meta
expressions given in angle brackets with real file names. Note that in this
document meta arguments are used to describe -mdoc
commands; in most man pages, meta variables are not specifically written
with angle brackets. The macros which formatted the above example:
.Nm filter .Op Fl flag .Ao Ar infile Ac Ao Ar outfile Ac
In the third case, discussion of commands and command syntax includes both examples above, but may add more detail. The arguments ⟨infile⟩ and ⟨outfile⟩ from the example above might be referred to as operands or file arguments. Some command-line argument lists are quite long:
make-eiknqrstv] [-D
variable] [-d
flags] [-f
makefile] [-I
directory] [-j
max_jobs]
[variable=value]
[target ...]Here one might talk about the command
make and qualify the argument,
makefile, as an argument to the flag,
-f, or discuss the optional file operand
target. In the verbal context, such detail can prevent
confusion, however the -mdoc package does not have a
macro for an argument
to a flag. Instead the
‘Ar’ argument macro is used for an
operand or file argument like target as well as an
argument to a flag like variable. The make command
line was produced from:
.Nm make .Op Fl eiknqrstv .Op Fl D Ar variable .Op Fl d Ar flags .Op Fl f Ar makefile .Op Fl I Ar directory .Op Fl j Ar max_jobs .Op Ar variable Ns = Ns Ar value .Bk .Op Ar target ... .Ek
The ‘.Bk’ and
‘.Ek’ macros are explained in
Keeps.
The manual domain and general text domain macros share a similar
syntax with a few minor deviations; most notably,
‘.Ar’,
‘.Fl’,
‘.Nm’, and
‘.Pa’ differ only when called without
arguments; and ‘.Fn’ and
‘.Xr’ impose an order on their
argument lists. All content macros are capable of recognizing and properly
handling punctuation, provided each punctuation character is separated by a
leading space. If a command is given:
.Ar sptr, ptr),The result is:
sptr,
ptr),The punctuation is not recognized and all is output in the font
used by ‘.Ar’. If the punctuation is
separated by a leading white space:
.Ar sptr , ptr ) ,The result is:
sptr,
ptrThe punctuation is now recognized and output in the default font
distinguishing it from the argument strings. To remove the special meaning
from a punctuation character escape it with
‘\&’.
The following punctuation characters are recognized by
-mdoc:
. |
, |
: |
; |
( |
) |
[ |
] |
? |
! |
Troff is limited as a macro language, and has difficulty when presented with a string containing a member of the mathematical, logical or quotation set:
{+,-,/,*,%,<,>,<=,>=,=,==,&,`,',"}
The problem is that troff may
assume it is supposed to actually perform the operation or evaluation
suggested by the characters. To prevent the accidental evaluation of these
characters, escape them with ‘\&’.
Typical syntax is shown in the first content macro displayed below,
‘.Ad’.
The address macro identifies an address construct.
Usage: .Ad ⟨address⟩
....Ad
addr1.Ad addr1
..Ad addr1 ,
file2.Ad f1 , f2
, f3 :.Ad addr )
) ,The default width is 12n.
The ‘.An’ macro is used to
specify the name of the author of the item being documented, or the name of
the author of the actual manual page.
Usage: .An ⟨author
name⟩ ....An "Joe
Author".An
"Joe Author" ,.An
"Joe Author" Aq nobody@FreeBSD.org.An
"Joe Author" ) ) ,The default width is 12n.
In the
AUTHORS section,
the ‘.An’ command causes a line break
allowing each new name to appear on its own line. If this is not
desirable,
.An -nosplit
call will turn this off. To turn splitting back on, write
.An -split
The .Ar argument macro may be used
whenever an argument is referenced. If called without arguments, the
‘file ...’ string is output.
Usage: .Ar [⟨argument⟩]
....Ar.Ar file1.Ar file1 ..Ar file1 file2.Ar f1 f2 f3 :.Ar file ) ) ,The default width is 12n.
The ‘.Cd’ macro is used to
demonstrate a config(8) declaration for a
device interface in a section four manual.
Usage: .Cd ⟨argument⟩
....Cd
"device le0 at scode?"device le0 at scode?In the SYNOPSIS section a
‘.Cd’ command causes a line break
before and after its arguments are printed.
The default width is 12n.
The command modifier is identical to the
‘.Fl’ (flag) command with the
exception that the ‘.Cm’ macro does
not assert a dash in front of every argument. Traditionally flags are marked
by the preceding dash, however, some commands or subsets of commands do not
use them. Command modifiers may also be specified in conjunction with
interactive commands such as editor commands. See
Flags.
The default width is 10n.
A variable (or constant) which is defined in an include file is
specified by the macro ‘.Dv’.
Usage: .Dv ⟨defined
variable⟩ ...The default width is 12n.
The ‘.Er’ errno macro
specifies the error return value for section 2, 3, and 9 library
routines. The second example below shows
‘.Er’ used with the
‘.Bq’ general text domain macro, as it
would be used in a section two manual page.
Usage: .Er ⟨errno type⟩
....Er
ENOENTENOENT.Er ENOENT
) ;ENOENT);.Bq Er ENOTDIRENOTDIR]The default width is 17n.
The ‘.Ev’ macro specifies an
environment variable.
Usage: .Ev ⟨argument⟩
...The default width is 15n.
The ‘.Fl’ macro handles
command-line flags. It prepends a dash,
‘-’, to the flag. For interactive
command flags, which are not prepended with a dash, the
‘.Cm’ (command modifier) macro is
identical, but without the dash.
Usage: .Fl ⟨argument⟩
...The ‘.Fl’ macro without any
arguments results in a dash representing stdin/stdout. Note that giving
‘.Fl’ a single dash will result in two
dashes.
The default width is 12n.
The ‘.Fd’ macro is used in
the SYNOPSIS section with section two or
three functions. It is neither callable nor parsed.
Usage: .Fd ⟨argument⟩
....Fd
"#include <sys/types.h>"#include <sys/types.h>In the SYNOPSIS section a
‘.Fd’ command causes a line break if a
function has already been presented and a break has not occurred. This
leaves a nice vertical space in between the previous function call and the
declaration for the next function.
The ‘.In’ macro, while in
the SYNOPSIS section, represents the
#include statement, and is the short form of the
above example. It specifies the C header file as being included in a
C program. It also causes a line break.
While not in the SYNOPSIS section, it represents the header file enclosed in angle brackets.
Usage: .In ⟨header
file⟩This macro is intended for the SYNOPSIS section. It may be used anywhere else in the man page without problems, but its main purpose is to present the function type in kernel normal form for the SYNOPSIS of sections two and three (it causes a line break, allowing the function name to appear on the next line).
Usage: .Ft ⟨type⟩
....Ft struct
statThe ‘.Fn’ macro is modeled
on ANSI C conventions.
Usage: .Fn ⟨function⟩
[⟨parameter⟩] ....Fn
getchargetchar().Fn strlen
) ,strlen()),.Fn align
"char *ptr" ,align(char
*ptr),Note that any call to another macro signals the end of the
‘.Fn’ call (it will insert a closing
parenthesis at that point).
For functions with many parameters (which is rare), the macros
‘.Fo’ (function open) and
‘.Fc’ (function close) may be used
with ‘.Fa’ (function argument).
Example:
.Ft int .Fo res_mkquery .Fa "int op" .Fa "char *dname" .Fa "int class" .Fa "int type" .Fa "char *data" .Fa "int datalen" .Fa "struct rrec *newrr" .Fa "char *buf" .Fa "int buflen" .Fc
Produces:
res_mkquery(int
op, char *dname, int class,
int type, char *data,
int datalen, struct rrec *newrr,
char *buf, int buflen);In the SYNOPSIS section, the function will always begin at the beginning of line. If there is more than one function presented in the SYNOPSIS section and a function type has not been given, a line break will occur, leaving a nice vertical space between the current function name and the one prior.
The default width values of
‘.Fn’ and
‘.Fo’ are 12n and 16n,
respectively.
The ‘.Fa’ macro is used to
refer to function arguments (parameters) outside of the
SYNOPSIS section of the manual or inside
the SYNOPSIS section if the enclosure
macros ‘.Fo’ and
‘.Fc’ instead of
‘.Fn’ are used.
‘.Fa’ may also be used to refer to
structure members.
Usage: .Fa ⟨function
argument⟩ ....Fa d_namlen )
) ,.Fa
iov_lenThe default width is 12n.
The ‘.Rv’ macro generates
text for use in the RETURN VALUES
section.
Usage: .Rv [-std]
[⟨function⟩ ...]For example, ‘.Rv -std
atexit’ produces:
atexit() function
returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is
returned and the global variable errno is set to
indicate the error.The -std option is valid only for manual
page sections 2 and 3. Currently, this macro does nothing if
used without the -std flag.
The ‘.Ex’ macro generates
text for use in the DIAGNOSTICS
section.
Usage: .Ex [-std]
[⟨utility⟩ ...]For example, ‘.Ex -std cat’
produces:
cat utility
exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.The -std option is valid only for manual
page sections 1, 6 and 8. Currently, this macro does nothing if used
without the -std flag.
The ‘.Ic’ macro designates
an interactive or internal command.
Usage: .Ic ⟨argument⟩
...The default width is 12n.
The ‘.Lb’ macro is used to
specify the library where a particular function is compiled in.
Usage: .Lb ⟨argument⟩
...Available arguments to ‘.Lb’
and their results are:
libarchivelibarmlibarm32libbluetoothlibbsmlibclibc_rlibcalendarlibcamlibcdklibcipherlibcompatlibcryptlibcurseslibdevinfolibdevstatlibdisklibdwarflibeditlibelflibeventlibfetchlibformlibgeomlibgpiblibi386libintllibipseclibipxlibiscsilibjaillibkiconvlibkselibkvmlibmlibm68klibmagiclibmdlibmemstatlibnetgraphlibnetpgplibossaudiolibpamlibpcaplibpcilibpmclibposixlibproplibpthreadlibpuffslibrefuselibresolvlibrpcsec_gsslibrpcsvclibrtlibsdplibssplibSystemlibtermcaplibterminfolibthrlibufslibugidfwlibuloglibusbhidlibutillibvgllibx86_64libzLocal, OS-specific additions might be found in the file
mdoc.local; look for strings named
‘str-Lb-XXX’.
‘XXX’ then denotes the keyword to be
used with the ‘.Lb’ macro.
In the
LIBRARY section
an ‘.Lb’ command causes a line break
before and after its arguments are printed.
The ‘.Li’ literal macro may
be used for special characters, variable constants, etc. - anything which
should be displayed as it would be typed.
Usage: .Li ⟨argument⟩
...The default width is 16n.
The ‘.Nm’ macro is used for
the document title or subject name. It has the peculiarity of remembering
the first argument it was called with, which should always be the subject
name of the page. When called without arguments,
‘.Nm’ regurgitates this initial name
for the sole purpose of making less work for the author.
‘.Nm’ causes a line break within the
SYNOPSIS section.
Note: A section two or three document function name is addressed
with the ‘.Nm’ in the
NAME section, and with
‘.Fn’ in the
SYNOPSIS and remaining sections. For
interactive commands, such as the
‘while’ command keyword in
csh(1), the
‘.Ic’ macro should be used. While
‘.Ic’ is nearly identical to
‘.Nm’, it can not recall the first
argument it was invoked with.
Usage: .Nm [⟨argument⟩]
....Nm
groff_mdocgroff_mdoc.Nm
\-mdoc-mdoc.Nm foo ) )
,foo)),.Nm
:groff_mdoc:The default width is 10n.
The ‘.Op’ macro places
option brackets around any remaining arguments on the command line, and
places any trailing punctuation outside the brackets. The macros
‘.Oo’ and
‘.Oc’ (which produce an opening and a
closing option bracket respectively) may be used across one or more lines or
to specify the exact position of the closing parenthesis.
Usage: .Op [⟨option⟩]
....Op.Op Fl k-k].Op Fl k ) .-k])..Op Fl k Ar kookfile-k kookfile].Op Fl k Ar kookfile ,-k kookfile],.Op Ar objfil Op Ar corfil.Op Fl c Ar objfil Op Ar corfil ,-c objfil
[corfil]],.Op word1 word2.Li .Op Oo
Ao option Ac Oc ....Op
[⟨option⟩] ...Here a typical example of the
‘.Oo’ and
‘.Oc’ macros:
.Oo .Op Fl k Ar kilobytes .Op Fl i Ar interval .Op Fl c Ar count .Oc
Produces:
-k
kilobytes] [-i
interval] [-c
count]]The default width values of
‘.Op’ and
‘.Oo’ are 14n and 10n,
respectively.
The ‘.Pa’ macro formats path
or file names. If called without arguments, the
‘~’ string is output, which represents
the current user's home directory.
Usage: .Pa [⟨pathname⟩]
....Pa.Pa /usr/share.Pa /tmp/fooXXXXX ) .The default width is 32n.
The ‘.St’ macro replaces
standard abbreviations with their formal names.
Usage: .St
⟨abbreviation⟩ ...Available pairs for “Abbreviation/Formal Name” are:
ANSI/ISO C
POSIX Part 1: System API
-iso9945-1-90-iso9945-1-96-p1003.1-p1003.1-88-p1003.1-90-p1003.1-96-p1003.1b-93-p1003.1c-95-p1003.1g-2000-p1003.1i-95-p1003.1-2001-p1003.1-2004-p1003.1-2008POSIX Part 2: Shell and Utilities
-iso9945-2-93-p1003.2-p1003.2-92-p1003.2a-92X/Open
-susv2-susv3-svid4-xbd5-xcu5-xcurses4.2-xns5-xns5.2-xpg3-xpg4-xpg4.2-xsh5Miscellaneous
-ieee754-iso8601-iso8802-3The ‘.Vt’ macro may be used
whenever a type is referenced. In the
SYNOPSIS section, it causes a line break
(useful for old style variable declarations).
Usage: .Vt ⟨type⟩
....Vt extern char
*optarg ;.Vt FILE
*Generic variable reference.
Usage: .Va ⟨variable⟩
....Va
count.Va
settimer ,.Va
"int *prt" ) :.Va
"char s" ] ) ) ,The default width is 12n.
The ‘.Xr’ macro expects the
first argument to be a manual page name. The optional second argument, if a
string (defining the manual section), is put into parentheses.
Usage: .Xr ⟨man page
name⟩ [⟨section⟩] ...The default width is 10n.
Usage: .At [⟨version⟩]
....At.At v6 .The following values for ⟨version⟩ are possible:
32v, v1, v2, v3, v4, v5, v6, v7, III,
V, V.1, V.2, V.3, V.4Usage: .Bx {-alpha | -beta | -devel}
... .Bx [⟨version⟩
[⟨release⟩]] ....Bx.Bx 4.3 ..Bx -devel⟨version⟩ will be prepended to the string ‘BSD’. The following values for ⟨release⟩ are possible:
Reno, reno, Tahoe, tahoe, Lite, lite,
Lite2, lite2Usage: .Nx [⟨version⟩]
....Nx.Nx 1.4 .For possible values of ⟨version⟩ see the description
of the ‘.Os’ command above in section
TITLE MACROS.
Usage: .Fx [⟨version⟩]
....Fx.Fx 2.2 .For possible values of ⟨version⟩ see the description
of the ‘.Os’ command above in section
TITLE MACROS.
Usage: .Dx [⟨version⟩]
....Dx.Dx 1.4 .For possible values of ⟨version⟩ see the description
of the ‘.Os’ command above in section
TITLE MACROS.
Usage: .Ox [⟨version⟩]
....Ox
1.0Usage: .Bsx [⟨version⟩]
....Bsx
1.0Usage: .Ux ....UxText may be stressed or emphasized with the
‘.Em’ macro. The usual font for
emphasis is italic.
Usage: .Em ⟨argument⟩
...The default width is 10n.
The ‘.Bf’ font mode must be
ended with the ‘.Ef’ macro (the latter
takes no arguments). Font modes may be nested within other font modes.
‘.Bf’ has the following
syntax:
.Bf ⟨font
mode⟩⟨font mode⟩ must be one of the following three types:
Both macros are neither callable nor parsed.
The concept of enclosure is similar to quoting. The object being
to enclose one or more strings between a pair of characters like quotes or
parentheses. The terms quoting and enclosure are used interchangeably
throughout this document. Most of the one-line enclosure macros end in small
letter ‘q’ to give a hint of quoting,
but there are a few irregularities. For each enclosure macro there is also a
pair of open and close macros which end in small letters
‘o’ and
‘c’ respectively.
| Quote | Open | Close | Function | Result |
| .Aq | .Ao | .Ac | Angle Bracket Enclosure | <string> |
| .Bq | .Bo | .Bc | Bracket Enclosure | [string] |
| .Brq | .Bro | .Brc | Brace Enclosure | {string} |
| .Dq | .Do | .Dc | Double Quote | "string" |
| .Eq | .Eo | .Ec | Enclose String (in XX) | XXstring |
| .Pq | .Po | .Pc | Parenthesis Enclosure | (string) |
| .Ql | Quoted Literal | “string” or string | ||
| .Qo | .Qc | Straight Double Quote | "string" | |
| .Sq | .So | .Sc | Single Quote | 'string' |
All macros ending with ‘q’ and ‘o’ have a default width value of 12n.
.Eo,
.Ec.Es,
.En.Es’ takes the first and second
parameter as the left and right enclosure string, which are then used to
enclose the arguments of ‘.En’. The
default width value is 12n for both macros..Eq.QlThe default width is 16n.
.Pf.Pf ( Fa name2The default width is 12n.
The ‘.Ns’ macro (see
below) performs the analogous suffix function.
.Ap.Ap’ macro inserts an
apostrophe and exits any special text modes, continuing in
‘.No’ mode.Examples of quoting:
For a good example of nested enclosure macros, see the
‘.Op’ option macro. It was created
from the same underlying enclosure macros as those presented in the list
above. The ‘.Xo’ and
‘.Xc’ extended argument list macros
are discussed below.
The ‘.No’ macro can be used
in a macro command line for parameters which should not be
formatted. Be careful to add ‘\&’
to the word ‘No’ if you really want
that English word (and not the macro) as a parameter.
Usage: .No ⟨argument⟩
....No test Ta
with Ta tabsThe default width is 12n.
The ‘.Ns’ macro suppresses
insertion of a space between the current position and its first parameter.
For example, it is useful for old style argument lists where there is no
space between the flag and argument:
Usage: ... ⟨argument⟩
Ns [⟨argument⟩] ... .Ns ⟨argument⟩
....Op Fl I Ns Ar directory-Idirectory]Note: The ‘.Ns’ macro always
invokes the ‘.No’ macro after
eliminating the space unless another macro name follows it. If used as a
command (i.e., the second form above in the ‘Usage’ line),
‘.Ns’ is identical to
‘.No’.
The ‘.Sx’ macro designates a
reference to a section header within the same document.
Usage: .Sx ⟨section
reference⟩ ...The default width is 16n.
The symbolic emphasis macro is generally a boldface macro in either the symbolic sense or the traditional English usage.
Usage: .Sy ⟨symbol⟩
...The default width is 6n.
Use this macro for mathematical symbols and similar things.
Usage: .Ms ⟨math
symbol⟩ ...The default width is 6n.
The following macros make a modest attempt to handle references. At best, the macros make it convenient to manually drop in a subset of refer(1) style references.
.Rs.Re.%A.%B.%C.%D.%I.%J.%N.%O.%P.%Q.%R.%T.%U.%VMacros beginning with ‘%’
are not callable but accept multiple arguments in the usual way. Only the
‘.Tn’ macro is handled properly as a
parameter; other macros will cause strange output.
‘.%B’ and
‘.%T’ can be used outside of the
‘.Rs/.Re’ environment.
Example:
.Rs .%A "Matthew Bar" .%A "John Foo" .%T "Implementation Notes on foobar(1)" .%R "Technical Report ABC-DE-12-345" .%Q "Drofnats College" .%C "Nowhere" .%D "April 1991" .Re
produces
The trade name macro prints its arguments in a smaller font. Its intended use is to imitate a small caps fonts for uppercase acronyms.
Usage: .Tn ⟨symbol⟩
...The default width is 10n.
The .Xo and .Xc
macros allow one to extend an argument list on a macro boundary for the
‘.It’ macro (see below). Note that
.Xo and .Xc are implemented
similarly to all other macros opening and closing an enclosure (without
inserting characters, of course). This means that the following is true for
those macros also.
Here is an example of ‘.Xo’
using the space mode macro to turn spacing off:
.Sm off .It Xo Sy I Ar operation .No \en Ar count No \en .Xc .Sm on
produces
Another one:
.Sm off .It Cm S No / Ar old_pattern Xo .No / Ar new_pattern .No / Op Cm g .Xc .Sm on
produces
S/old_pattern/new_pattern/[g]Another example of ‘.Xo’ and
enclosure macros: Test the value of a variable.
.It Xo .Ic .ifndef .Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar variable Oo .Ar operator variable ... .Oc Xc
produces
.ifndef
[!]variable [operator variable
...]The following ‘.Sh’ section
header macros are required in every man page. The remaining section headers
are recommended at the discretion of the author writing the manual page. The
‘.Sh’ macro is parsed but not
generally callable. It can be used as an argument in a call to
‘.Sh’ only; it then reactivates the
default font for ‘.Sh’.
The default width is 8n.
.Sh
NAME.Sh NAME’ macro is mandatory.
If not specified, headers, footers and page layout defaults will not be
set and things will be rather unpleasant. The NAME
section consists of at least three items. The first is the
‘.Nm’ name macro naming the subject
of the man page. The second is the name description macro,
‘.Nd’, which separates the subject
name from the third item, which is the description. The description should
be the most terse and lucid possible, as the space available is small.
‘.Nd’ first prints
‘-’, then all its arguments.
.Sh
LIBRARY.Lb’ macro
call; see Library Names..Sh
SYNOPSIS.Nm’,
‘.Cd’, or
‘.Fn’ (and possibly
‘.Fo’,
‘.Fc’,
‘.Fd’, and
‘.Ft’). The function name macro
‘.Fn’ is required for manual page
sections 2 and 3; the command and general name macro
‘.Nm’ is required for sections 1, 5,
6, 7, and 8. Section 4 manuals require a
‘.Nm’,
‘.Fd’ or a
‘.Cd’ configuration device usage
macro. Several other macros may be necessary to produce the synopsis line
as shown below:
cat
[-benstuv] [-]
file ...The following macros were used:
.Nm cat.Op Fl benstuv.Op Fl.Ar.Sh
DESCRIPTION.Bl’ (begin list),
‘.It’ (list item) and
‘.El’ (end list) macros are used
(see Lists and Columns
below)..Sh
IMPLEMENTATION NOTES.Sh RETURN
VALUES.Rv’ macro may be used to generate
text for use in the RETURN VALUES
section for most section 2 and 3 library functions; see
Return Values.The following ‘.Sh’ section
headers are part of the preferred manual page layout and must be used
appropriately to maintain consistency. They are listed in the order in which
they would be used.
.Sh
ENVIRONMENT.Sh
FILES.Pa’ macro in the
FILES section..Sh
EXAMPLES.Sh
DIAGNOSTICS.Ex’ macro may be used to generate
text for use in the DIAGNOSTICS
section for most section 1, 6 and 8 commands; see
Exit Status..Sh
COMPATIBILITY.Sh
ERRORS.Er’ macro is used to specify an
error (errno)..Sh SEE
ALSO.Xr’ macro.
Currently refer(1) style references are
not accommodated.
It is recommended that the cross references are sorted on the section number, then alphabetically on the names within a section, and placed in that order and comma separated. Example:
.Sh
STANDARDS.Sh
HISTORY.Sh
AUTHORS.An’ macro for names and the
‘.Aq’ macro for e-mail addresses
within optional contact information. Explicitly indicate whether the
person authored the initial manual page or the software or whatever the
person is being credited for..Sh
BUGSUser-specified ‘.Sh’
sections may be added; for example, this section was set with:
.Sh "PAGE STRUCTURE DOMAIN"
Subsection headers have exactly the same syntax as section
headers: ‘.Ss’ is parsed but not
generally callable. It can be used as an argument in a call to
‘.Ss’ only; it then reactivates the
default font for ‘.Ss’.
The default width is 8n.
.Pp.Pp’ paragraph command may be
used to specify a line space where necessary. The macro is not necessary
after a ‘.Sh’ or
‘.Ss’ macro or before a
‘.Bl’ or
‘.Bd’ macro (which both assert a
vertical distance unless the -compact flag is
given).
The macro is neither callable nor parsed and takes no
arguments; an alternative name is
‘.Lp’.
The only keep that is implemented at this time is for words. The
macros are ‘.Bk’ (begin keep) and
‘.Ek’ (end keep). The only option that
‘.Bk’ accepts currently is
-words (this is also the default if no option is
given) which is useful for preventing line breaks in the middle of options.
In the example for the make command-line arguments (see
What's in a Name), the keep
prevented nroff from placing up the flag
and the argument on separate lines.
Both macros are neither callable nor parsed.
More work needs to be done with the keep macros; specifically, a
-line option should be added.
There are seven types of displays.
.D1-ldghfstruThe above was produced by: .D1 Fl
ldghfstru.
.Dl.Dl’ example macro has
been used throughout this file. It allows the indentation (display) of one
line of text. Its default font is set to constant width (literal).
‘.Dl’ is parsed but not callable.
% ls -ldg
/usr/local/binThe above was produced by: .Dl % ls \-ldg
/usr/local/bin.
.Bd.Bd’ display
must be ended with the ‘.Ed’ macro.
It has the following syntax:
.Bd
{-literal | -filled | -unfilled | -ragged | -centered} [-offset
⟨string⟩] [-file ⟨file name⟩]
[-compact]-ragged-centered-unfilled-filled-literal-file
⟨file name⟩-file flag is
read and displayed before any data enclosed with
‘.Bd’ and
‘.Ed’, using the selected
display type. Any
troff/-mdoc
commands in the file will be processed.-offset
⟨string⟩-offset is specified with one of the
following strings, the string is interpreted to indicate the level of
indentation for the forthcoming block of text:
.Bd’..D1’ and
‘.Dl’ macros, so one is
guaranteed the two types of displays will line up. The indentation
value is normally set to 6n or about two thirds of an inch
(six constant width characters).If ⟨string⟩ is a valid numeric expression
instead (with a scale indicator other than
‘u’), use that value for
indentation. The most useful scale indicators are ‘m’
and ‘n’, specifying the so-called Em
and En square. This is approximately the width of
the letters ‘m’ and ‘n’ respectively of
the current font (for nroff output, both scale indicators give the
same values). If ⟨string⟩ isn't a numeric expression,
it is tested whether it is an -mdoc macro
name, and the default offset value associated with this macro is
used. Finally, if all tests fail, the width of
⟨string⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width font) is taken as
the offset.
-compact.EdThere are several types of lists which may be initiated with the
‘.Bl’ begin-list macro. Items within
the list are specified with the ‘.It’
item macro, and each list must end with the
‘.El’ macro. Lists may be nested
within themselves and within displays. The use of columns inside of lists or
lists inside of columns is unproven.
In addition, several list attributes may be specified such as the
width of a tag, the list offset, and compactness (blank lines between items
allowed or disallowed). Most of this document has been formatted with a tag
style list (-tag).
It has the following syntax forms:
And now a detailed description of the list types.
-bullet.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact .It Bullet one goes here. .It Bullet two here. .El
Produces:
-dash
(or -hyphen).Bl -dash -offset indent -compact .It Dash one goes here. .It Dash two here. .El
Produces:
-enum.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact .It Item one goes here. .It And item two here. .El
The result:
If you want to nest enumerated lists, use the
-nested flag (starting with the second-level
list):
.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact .It Item one goes here .Bl -enum -nested -compact .It Item two goes here. .It And item three here. .El .It And item four here. .El
Result:
-item-item without list markers.
.Bl -item -offset indent .It Item one goes here. Item one goes here. Item one goes here. .It Item two here. Item two here. Item two here. .El
Produces:
-tag-width to specify the tag
width.
The raw text:
.Bl -tag -width "PPID" -compact -offset indent .It SL sleep time of the process (seconds blocked) .It PAGEIN number of disk .Tn I/O Ns 's resulting from references by the process to pages not loaded in core. .It UID numerical user-id of process owner .It PPID numerical id of parent of process priority (non-positive when in non-interruptible wait) .El
-diag-width flag is not meaningful in this context.
Example:
.Bl -diag .It You can't use Sy here. The message says all. .El
produces
-hangAnd the unformatted text which created it:
.Bl -hang -offset indent .It Em Hanged labels appear similar to tagged lists when the label is smaller than the label width. .It Em Longer hanged list labels blend into the paragraph unlike tagged paragraph labels. .El
-ohangThe raw text:
.Bl -ohang -offset indent .It Sy SL sleep time of the process (seconds blocked) .It Sy PAGEIN number of disk .Tn I/O Ns 's resulting from references by the process to pages not loaded in core. .It Sy UID numerical user-id of process owner .It Sy PPID numerical id of parent of process priority (non-positive when in non-interruptible wait) .El
-inset-width attribute as described below.-mdoc manuals to other
formats.Here is the source text which produced the above example:
.Bl -inset -offset indent .It Em Tag The tagged list (also called a tagged paragraph) is the most common type of list used in the Berkeley manuals. .It Em Diag Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists and are similar to inset lists except callable macros are ignored. .It Em Hang Hanged labels are a matter of taste. .It Em Ohang Overhanging labels are nice when space is constrained. .It Em Inset Inset labels are useful for controlling blocks of paragraphs and are valuable for converting .Nm -mdoc manuals to other formats. .El
-column-column list,
⟨string1⟩,
⟨string2⟩, etc. If
⟨stringN⟩ starts with a
‘.’ (dot) immediately followed by a
valid -mdoc macro name, interpret
⟨stringN⟩ and use the width of the
result. Otherwise, the width of
⟨stringN⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width
font) is taken as the Nth column width.
Each ‘.It’ argument is
parsed to make a row, each column within the row is a separate argument
separated by a tab or the ‘.Ta’
macro.
The table:
| String | Nroff | Troff |
<= |
<= | ≤ |
>= |
>= | ≥ |
was produced by:
.Bl -column -offset indent ".Sy String" ".Sy Nroff" ".Sy Troff" .It Sy String Ta Sy Nroff Ta Sy Troff .It Li <= Ta <= Ta \*(<= .It Li >= Ta >= Ta \*(>= .El
Don't abuse this list type! For more complicated cases it might be far better and easier to use tbl(1), the table preprocessor.
Other keywords:
-width
⟨string⟩.’ (dot) immediately followed by a
valid -mdoc macro name, interpret
⟨string⟩ and use the width of the
result. Almost all lists in this document use this option.
Example:
.Bl -tag -width ".Fl test Ao Ar string Ac" .It Fl test Ao Ar string Ac This is a longer sentence to show how the .Fl width flag works in combination with a tag list. .El
gives:
-test
⟨string⟩-width flag works in combination with a tag
list.(Note that the current state of
-mdoc is saved before
⟨string⟩ is interpreted; afterwards,
all variables are restored again. However, boxes (used for enclosures)
can't be saved in GNU troff(1); as a
consequence, arguments must always be
balanced to
avoid nasty errors. For example, do not write
‘.Ao Ar string’ but
‘.Ao Ar string Xc’ instead if you
really need only an opening angle bracket.)
Otherwise, if ⟨string⟩ is
a valid numeric expression (with a scale indicator other
than ‘u’), use that value for
indentation. The most useful scale indicators are ‘m’ and
‘n’, specifying the so-called Em and
En square. This is approximately the width of the
letters ‘m’ and ‘n’ respectively of the
current font (for nroff output, both scale indicators give the same
values). If ⟨string⟩ isn't a numeric
expression, it is tested whether it is an -mdoc
macro name, and the default width value associated with this macro is
used. Finally, if all tests fail, the width of
⟨string⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width
font) is taken as the width.
If a width is not specified for the tag list type, ‘6n’ is used.
-offset
⟨string⟩.Dl’ or
‘.Bd’) is used. If
⟨string⟩ is a valid numeric expression
instead (with a scale indicator other than
‘u’), use that value for indentation. The
most useful scale indicators are ‘m’ and ‘n’,
specifying the so-called Em and En
square. This is approximately the width of the letters
‘m’ and ‘n’ respectively of the current font
(for nroff output, both scale indicators give the same values). If
⟨string⟩ isn't a numeric expression,
it is tested whether it is an -mdoc macro name,
and the default offset value associated with this macro is used. Finally,
if all tests fail, the width of
⟨string⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width
font) is taken as the offset.-compactHere a list of the remaining macros which do not fit well into one
of the above sections. We couldn't find real examples for the following
macros: ‘.Me’ and
‘.Ot’. They are documented here for
completeness - if you know how to use them properly please send a mail to
groff@gnu.org (including an
example).
.BtIt is neither callable nor parsed and takes no arguments.
.FrUsage: .Fr ⟨function
return value⟩ ...Don't use this macro. It allows a break right before the
return value (usually a single digit) which is bad typographical
behaviour. Use ‘\~’ to tie the
return value to the previous word.
.HfFile:’ followed by the file name,
then the contents of ⟨file⟩.
Usage: .Hf
⟨file⟩It is neither callable nor parsed.
.Lk.Me-mdoc source file describes it as a macro for
“menu entries”.
Its default width is 6n.
.Mt.Ot-mdoc source file describes it as “old
function type (fortran)”..SmUsage: .Sm [on | off]
...If space mode is off, no spaces between macro arguments are
inserted. If called without a parameter (or if the next parameter is
neither ‘on’ nor
‘off’,
‘.Sm’ toggles space mode.
.UdIt is neither callable nor parsed and takes no arguments.
The following strings are predefined:
| String | Nroff | Troff | Meaning |
| <= | <= | ≤ | less equal |
| >= | >= | ≥ | greater equal |
| Rq | '' | ” | right double quote |
| Lq | `` | “ | left double quote |
| ua | ^ | ↑ | upwards arrow |
| aa | ´ | ´ | acute accent |
| ga | ` | ` | grave accent |
| q | " | " | straight double quote |
| Pi | pi | pi | greek pi |
| Ne | != | ≠ | not equal |
| Le | <= | ≤ | less equal |
| Ge | >= | ≥ | greater equal |
| Lt | < | < | less than |
| Gt | > | > | greater than |
| Pm | +- | ± | plus minus |
| If | infinity | infinity | infinity |
| Am | & | & | ampersand |
| Na | NaN | NaN | not a number |
| Ba | | | | | vertical bar |
The names of the columns Nroff and Troff are a bit misleading; Nroff shows the ASCII representation, while Troff gives the best glyph form available. For example, a Unicode enabled TTY-device will have proper glyph representations for all strings, whereas the enhancement for a Latin1 TTY-device is only the plus-minus sign.
String names which consist of two characters can be written as
‘\*(xx’; string names which consist of
one character can be written as ‘\*x’.
A generic syntax for a string name of any length is
‘\*[xxx]’ (this is a GNU
troff(1) extension).
The debugging macro ‘.Db’
available in previous versions of -mdoc has been
removed since GNU troff(1) provides better
facilities to check parameters; additionally, many error and warning
messages have been added to this macro package, making it both more robust
and verbose.
The only remaining debugging macro is
‘.Rd’ which yields a register dump of
all global registers and strings. A normal user will never need it.
By default, the package inhibits page breaks, headers, and footers
if displayed with a TTY device like ‘latin1’ or
‘unicode’, to make the manual more efficient for viewing
on-line. This behaviour can be changed (e.g. to create a hardcopy of the TTY
output) by setting the register ‘cR’
to zero while calling groff(1), resulting
in multiple pages instead of a single, very long page:
groff -Tlatin1 -rcR=0 -mdoc foo.man
> foo.txtFor double-sided printing, set register
‘D’ to 1:
groff -Tps -rD1 -mdoc foo.man >
foo.psTo change the document font size to 11pt or 12pt, set register
‘S’ accordingly:
groff -Tdvi -rS11 -mdoc foo.man >
foo.dviRegister ‘S’ is ignored for
TTY devices.
The line and title length can be changed by setting the registers
‘LL’ and
‘LT’, respectively:
groff -Tutf8 -rLL=100n -rLT=100n
-mdoc foo.man | lessIf not set, both registers default to 78n for TTY devices and 6.5i otherwise.
-mdoc
or the -man package should be used. Multiple man
pages (in either format) can be handled.Section 3f has not been added to the header routines.
‘.Nm’ font should be changed
in NAME section.
‘.Fn’ needs to have a check
to prevent splitting up if the line length is too short. Occasionally it
separates the last parenthesis, and sometimes looks ridiculous if a line is
in fill mode.
The list and display macros do not do any keeps and certainly should be able to.
| November 2, 2010 | x86_64 |