man7/mdoc.7

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  34 .\"     @(#)mdoc.7      8.2 (Berkeley) 12/30/93
  35 .\"     $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.8 1998/12/04 00:51:17 jkoshy Exp $
  36 .\"
  37 .\" The December 30, 1993 version
  38 .\" Modified by David A. Wheeler (dwheeler@ida.org) on 1999-07-11
  39 .\" to conform to Linux.
  40 .\"
  41 .\"
  42 .Dd July 11, 1999
  43 .Dt MDOC 7
  44 .Os Linux
  45 .Sh NAME
  46 .Nm mdoc
  47 .Nd quick reference guide for the
  48 .Nm \-mdoc
  49 macro package
  50 .Sh SYNOPSIS
  51 .Nm groff
  52 .Fl m Ns Ar doc
  53 .Ar files ...
  54 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  55 The
  56 .Nm \-mdoc
  57 package is a set of content-based and domain-based macros
  58 used to format the
  59 .Bx
  60 man pages.
  61 The macro names and their meanings are
  62 listed below for quick reference; for
  63 a detailed explanation on using the package, see
  64 .Xr groff_mdoc 7
  65 and the tutorial sampler
  66 .Xr mdoc.samples 7 .
  67 .Pp
  68 Note that this is not the usual macro package for Linux documentation,
  69 although it is used for documentation of several widely used programs;
  70 see
  71 .Xr man 7 .
  72 .Pp
  73 The macros are described in two groups, the first
  74 includes the structural and physical page layout macros.
  75 The second contains the manual and general text domain
  76 macros which differentiate the
  77 .Nm \-mdoc
  78 package from other
  79 .Xr troff
  80 formatting packages.
  81 .Sh PAGE STRUCTURE DOMAIN
  82 .Ss Title Macros
  83 To create a valid manual page, these three macros, in this order,
  84 are required:
  85 .Pp
  86 .Bl -tag -width "xxxx.Os OPERATINGxSYSTEM [version/release]" -compact
  87 .It Li "\&.Dd  " Ar "Month day, year"
  88 Document date.
  89 .It Li "\&.Dt  " Ar "DOCUMENT_TITLE [section] [volume]"
  90 Title, in uppercase.
  91 .It Li "\&.Os  " Ar "OPERATING_SYSTEM [version/release]"
  92 Operating system
  93 .Pq Tn BSD .
  94 .El
  95 .Ss Page Layout Macros
  96 Section headers, paragraph breaks, lists and displays.
  97 .Pp
  98 .Bl -tag -width flag -compact
  99 .It Li \&.Sh
 100 Section Headers.
 101 Valid headers, in the order of presentation:
 102 .Bl -tag -width "RETURN VALUE" -compact
 103 .It Ar NAME
 104 Name section, should include the
 105 .Ql \&.Nm
 106 or
 107 .Ql \&.Fn
 108 and the
 109 .Ql \&.Nd
 110 macros.
 111 .It Ar SYNOPSIS
 112 Usage.
 113 .It Ar DESCRIPTION
 114 General description, should include
 115 options and parameters.
 116 .It Ar RETURN VALUE
 117 Sections two and three function calls.
 118 .It Ar ENVIRONMENT
 119 Describe environment variables.
 120 .It Ar FILES
 121 Files associated with the subject.
 122 .It Ar EXAMPLES
 123 Examples and suggestions.
 124 .It Ar DIAGNOSTICS
 125 Normally used for section four device interface diagnostics.
 126 .It Ar ERRORS
 127 Sections two and three error and signal
 128 handling.
 129 .It Ar SEE ALSO
 130 Cross references and citations.
 131 .It Ar CONFORMING TO
 132 Conformance to standards if applicable.
 133 .It Ar HISTORY
 134 If a standard is not applicable, the history
 135 of the subject should be given.
 136 .It Ar BUGS
 137 Gotchas and caveats.
 138 .It Ar other
 139 Customized headers may be added at
 140 the authors discretion.
 141 .El
 142 .It Li \&.Ss
 143 Subsection Headers.
 144 .It Li \&.Pp
 145 Paragraph Break.
 146 Vertical space (one line).
 147 .It Li \&.D1
 148 (D-one) Display-one
 149 Indent and display one text line.
 150 .It Li \&.Dl
 151 (D-ell) Display-one literal.
 152 Indent and display one line of literal text.
 153 .It Li \&.Bd
 154 Begin-display block.
 155 Display options:
 156 .Bl -tag -width "xoffset string " -compact
 157 .It Fl ragged
 158 Unjustified (ragged edges).
 159 .It Fl filled
 160 Justified.
 161 .It Fl literal
 162 Literal text or code.
 163 .It Fl file Ar name
 164 Read in named
 165 .Ar file
 166 and display.
 167 .It Fl offset Ar string
 168 Offset display.
 169 Acceptable
 170 .Ar string
 171 values:
 172 .Bl -tag -width indent-two -compact
 173 .It Ar left
 174 Align block on left (default).
 175 .It Ar center
 176 Approximate center margin.
 177 .It Ar indent
 178 Six constant width spaces (a tab).
 179 .It Ar indent-two
 180 Two tabs.
 181 .It Ar right
 182 Left aligns block 2 inches from
 183 right.
 184 .It Ar xx Ns Cm n
 185 Where
 186 .Ar xx
 187 is a number from
 188 .No \&4 Ns Cm n
 189 to
 190 .No \&9\&9 Ns Cm n .
 191 .It Ar Aa
 192 Where
 193 .Ar Aa
 194 is a callable macro name.
 195 .It Ar string
 196 The width of
 197 .Ar string
 198 is used.
 199 .El
 200 .El
 201 .It Li \&.Ed
 202 End-display (matches \&.Bd).
 203 .It Li \&.Bl
 204 Begin-list.
 205 Create lists or columns.
 206 Options:
 207 .Bl -tag -width flag -compact
 208 .It Ar List-types
 209 .Bl -column ".Fl bullet" -compact
 210 .It Fl bullet Ta "Bullet Item List"
 211 .It Fl item Ta "Unlabeled List"
 212 .It Fl enum Ta "Enumerated List"
 213 .It Fl tag Ta "Tag Labeled List"
 214 .It Fl diag Ta "Diagnostic List"
 215 .It Fl hang Ta "Hanging Labeled List"
 216 .It Fl ohang Ta "Overhanging Labeled List"
 217 .It Fl inset Ta "Inset or Run-on Labeled List"
 218 .El
 219 .It List-parameters
 220 .Bl -tag -width "xcompact " -compact
 221 .It Fl offset
 222 (All lists.) See
 223 .Ql \&.Bd
 224 begin-display above.
 225 .It Fl width
 226 .Pf ( Fl tag
 227 and
 228 .Fl hang
 229 lists only.)
 230 See
 231 .Ql \&.Bd .
 232 .It Fl compact
 233 (All lists.)
 234 Suppresses blank lines.
 235 .El
 236 .El
 237 .It Li \&.El
 238 End-list.
 239 .It Li \&.It
 240 List item.
 241 .El
 242 .Sh MANUAL AND GENERAL TEXT DOMAIN MACROS
 243 The manual and general text domain macros are special in that
 244 most of them are parsed for callable macros
 245 for example:
 246 .Bl -tag -width ".Op Fl s Ar filex" -offset indent
 247 .It Li "\&.Op Fl s Ar file"
 248 Produces
 249 .Op Fl s Ar file
 250 .El
 251 .Pp
 252 In this example, the option enclosure macro
 253 .Ql \&.Op
 254 is parsed, and calls the callable content macro
 255 .Ql \&Fl
 256 which operates on the argument
 257 .Ql s
 258 and then calls the callable content macro
 259 .Ql \&Ar
 260 which operates on the argument
 261 .Ql file .
 262 Some macros may be callable, but are not parsed and vice versa.
 263 These macros are indicated in the
 264 .Em parsed
 265 and
 266 .Em callable
 267 columns below.
 268 .Pp
 269 Unless stated, manual domain macros share a common syntax:
 270 .Pp
 271 .Dl \&.Va argument [\ .\ ,\ ;\ :\ (\ )\ [\ ]\ argument \...\ ]
 272 .Pp
 273 .Sy Note :
 274 Opening and closing
 275 punctuation characters are recognized as such only if they are presented
 276 one at a time.
 277 The string
 278 .Ql "),"
 279 is not recognized as punctuation and will be output with a leading white
 280 space and in what ever font the calling macro uses.
 281 The
 282 argument list
 283 .Ql "] ) ,"
 284 is recognized as three sequential closing punctuation characters
 285 and a leading white space is not output between the characters
 286 and the previous argument (if any).
 287 The special meaning of a punctuation character may be escaped
 288 with the string
 289 .Ql \e& .
 290 For example the following string,
 291 .Bl -tag -width "&.Ar file1\ , file2\ , file3\ )\ ." -offset indent
 292 .It Li "\&.Ar file1\ , file2\ , file3\ )\ ."
 293 Produces
 294 .Ar file1 , file2 , file3 ) .
 295 .El
 296 .ne 1i
 297 .Ss Manual Domain Macros
 298 .Bl -column "Name" "Parsed" Callable" -compact
 299 .It Em "Name    Parsed  Callable        Description"
 300 .It Li \&Ad Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Address. (This macro may be deprecated.)"
 301 .It Li \&An Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Author name."
 302 .It Li \&Ar Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Command-line argument."
 303 .It Li \&Cd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Configuration declaration (section four only)."
 304 .It Li \&Cm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Command-line argument modifier."
 305 .It Li \&Dv Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Defined variable (source code)."
 306 .It Li \&Er Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Error number (source code)."
 307 .It Li \&Ev Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Environment variable."
 308 .It Li \&Fa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Function argument."
 309 .It Li \&Fd Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Function declaration."
 310 .It Li \&Fn Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Function call (also .Fo and .Fc)."
 311 .It Li \&Ic Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Interactive command."
 312 .It Li \&Li Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Literal text."
 313 .It Li \&Nm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Command name."
 314 .It Li \&Op Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Option (also .Oo and .Oc)."
 315 .It Li \&Ot Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Old style function type (Fortran only)."
 316 .It Li \&Pa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Pathname or filename."
 317 .It Li \&St Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Standards (\-p1003.2, \-p1003.1 or \-ansiC)"
 318 .It Li \&Va Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Variable name."
 319 .It Li \&Vt Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Variable type (Fortran only)."
 320 .It Li \&Xr Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Manual Page Cross Reference."
 321 .El
 322 .Ss General Text Domain Macros
 323 .Bl -column "Name" "Parsed" Callable" -compact
 324 .It Em "Name    Parsed  Callable        Description"
 325 .It Li \&%A Ta Yes Ta \&No Ta "Reference author."
 326 .It Li \&%B Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Reference book title."
 327 .It Li \&%\&C Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Reference place of publishing (city)."
 328 .It Li \&%\&D Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Reference date."
 329 .It Li \&%J Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Reference journal title."
 330 .It Li \&%N Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Reference issue number."
 331 .It Li \&%\&O Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Reference optional information."
 332 .It Li \&%P Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Reference page number(s)."
 333 .It Li \&%R Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Reference report Name."
 334 .It Li \&%T Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Reference article title."
 335 .It Li \&%V Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Reference volume."
 336 .It Li \&Ac Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Angle close quote."
 337 .It Li \&Ao Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Angle open quote."
 338 .It Li \&Ap Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Apostrophe."
 339 .It Li \&Aq Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Angle quote."
 340 .It Li \&At Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta Tn "AT&T UNIX"
 341 .It Li \&Bc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Bracket close quote."
 342 .It Li \&Bf Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Begin font mode."
 343 .It Li \&Bo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Bracket open quote."
 344 .It Li \&Bq Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Bracket quote."
 345 .It Li \&Bx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta Bx .
 346 .It Li \&Db Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Debug (default is \*qoff\*q)"
 347 .It Li \&Dc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Double close quote."
 348 .It Li \&Do Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Double open quote."
 349 .It Li \&Dq Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Double quote."
 350 .It Li \&Ec Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Enclose string close quote."
 351 .It Li \&Ef Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "End font mode."
 352 .It Li \&Em Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Emphasis (traditional English)."
 353 .It Li \&Eo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Enclose string open quote."
 354 .It Li \&Fx Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta Tn "FreeBSD operating system"
 355 .It Li \&No Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Normal text (no-op)."
 356 .It Li \&Ns Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "No space."
 357 .It Li \&Pc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Parenthesis close quote."
 358 .It Li \&Pf Ta Yes Ta \&No Ta "Prefix string."
 359 .It Li \&Po Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Parenthesis open quote."
 360 .It Li \&Pq Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Parentheses quote."
 361 .It Li \&Qc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Straight Double close quote."
 362 .It Li \&Ql Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Quoted literal."
 363 .It Li \&Qo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Straight Double open quote."
 364 .It Li \&Qq Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Straight Double quote."
 365 .It Li \&Re Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Reference end."
 366 .It Li \&Rs Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Reference start."
 367 .It Li \&Rv Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Return values (sections two and three only)."
 368 .It Li \&Sc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Single close quote."
 369 .It Li \&So Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Single open quote."
 370 .It Li \&Sq Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Single quote."
 371 .It Li \&Sm Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Space mode (default is \\*qon\\*q)"
 372 .It Li \&Sx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Section Cross Reference."
 373 .It Li \&Sy Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Symbolic (traditional English)."
 374 .It Li \&Tn Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Trade or type name (small Caps)."
 375 .It Li \&Ux Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta Ux
 376 .It Li \&Xc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Extend argument list close."
 377 .It Li \&Xo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta "Extend argument list open."
 378 .El
 379 .\" .It Sy \&Hf Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta "Include file with header"
 380 .Pp
 381 Macro names ending in
 382 .Ql q
 383 quote remaining items on the argument list.
 384 Macro names ending in
 385 .Ql o
 386 begin a quote which may span more than one line of input and
 387 are close quoted with the matching macro name ending in
 388 .Ql c .
 389 Enclosure macros may be nested and are limited to
 390 eight arguments.
 391 .Pp
 392 Note: the extended argument list macros
 393 .Pf ( Ql \&.Xo ,
 394 .Ql \&.Xc )
 395 and the function enclosure macros
 396 .Pf ( Ql \&.Fo ,
 397 .Ql \&.Fc )
 398 are irregular.
 399 The extended list macros are used when the number of macro arguments
 400 would exceed the
 401 .Xr troff
 402 limitation of nine arguments.
 403 .Pp
 404 The macros UR (starting a URI/URL hypertext reference), UE (ending one),
 405 and UN (identifying a target for a reference) are also available.
 406 See
 407 .Xr man 7
 408 for more information on these macros.
 409 .\" The following does not apply on Linux:
 410 .\" .Sh CONFIGURATION
 411 .\" For site specific configuration of the macro package,
 412 .\" see the file
 413 .\" .Pa /usr/src/share/tmac/README .
 414 .Sh FILES
 415 .Bl -tag -width "tmac.doc-ditroff" -compact
 416 .It Pa doc.tmac
 417 Manual and general text domain macros.
 418 .It Pa tmac/doc-common
 419 Common structural macros and definitions.
 420 .It Pa tmac/doc-nroff
 421 Site dependent
 422 .Xr nroff
 423 style file.
 424 .It Pa tmac/doc-ditroff
 425 Site dependent
 426 .Xr troff
 427 style file.
 428 .It Pa tmac/doc-syms
 429 Special defines (such as the standards macro).
 430 .El
 431 .Sh "SEE ALSO"
 432 .Xr groff_mdoc 7 ,
 433 .Xr man 7 ,
 434 .Xr man-pages 7 ,
 435 .Xr mdoc.samples 7