1TBL(7) BSD Miscellaneous Information Manual TBL(7)
2
4 tbl — tbl language reference for mandoc
5
7 The tbl language formats tables. It is used within mdoc(7) and man(7)
8 pages. This manual describes the subset of the tbl language accepted by
9 the mandoc(1) utility.
10 Each table is started with a roff(7) TS macro, consist of at most one
12 line of Options, one or more Layout lines, one or more Data lines, and
13 ends with a TE macro. All input must be 7-bit ASCII.
14 Options
16 If the first input line of a table ends with a semicolon, it contains
17 case-insensitive options separated by spaces, tabs, or commas. Other‐
18 wise, it is interpreted as the first Layout line.
19 The following options are available. Some of them require arguments
21 enclosed in parentheses:
22 allbox Draw a single-line box around each table cell.
24 box Draw a single-line box around the table. For GNU compatibility,
26 this may also be invoked with frame.
27 center Center the table instead of left-adjusting it. For GNU compati‐
29 bility, this may also be invoked with centre.
30 decimalpoint
32 Use the single-character argument as the decimal point with the n
33 layout key. This is a GNU extension.
34 delim Use the two characters of the argument as eqn(7) delimiters.
36 Currently unsupported.
37 doublebox
39 Draw a double-line box around the table. For GNU compatibility,
40 this may also be invoked with doubleframe.
41 expand Increase the width of the table to the current line length. Cur‐
43 rently ignored.
44 linesize
46 Draw lines with the point size given by the unsigned integer
47 argument. Currently ignored.
48 nokeep Allow page breaks within the table. This is a GNU extension and
50 currently ignored.
51 nospaces
53 Ignore leading and trailing spaces in data cells. This is a GNU
54 extension and currently ignored.
55 nowarn Suppress warnings about tables exceeding the current line length.
57 This is a GNU extension and currently ignored.
58 tab Use the single-character argument as a delimiter between data
60 cells. By default, the horizontal tabulator character is used.
61 Layout
63 The table layout follows an Options line or a roff(7) TS or T& macro.
64 Each layout line specifies how one line of Data is formatted. The last
65 layout line ends with a full stop. It also applies to all remaining data
66 lines. Multiple layout lines can be joined by commas on a single physi‐
67 cal input line.
68 Each layout line consists of one or more layout cell specifications,
70 optionally separated by whitespace. The following case-insensitive key
71 characters start a new cell specification:
72 c Center the string in this cell.
74 r Right-justify the string in this cell.
76 l Left-justify the string in this cell.
78 n Justify a number around its last decimal point. If no decimal point
80 is found in the number, it is assumed to trail the number.
81 s Horizontally span columns from the last non-s layout cell. It is an
83 error if a column span follows a _ or = cell, or comes first on a
84 layout line. The combined cell as a whole consumes only one cell of
85 the corresponding data line.
86 a Left-justify a string and pad with one space.
88 ^ Vertically span rows from the last non-^ layout cell. It is an error
90 to invoke a vertical span on the first layout line. Unlike a hori‐
91 zontal span, a vertical span consumes a data cell and discards the
92 content.
93 _ Draw a single horizontal line in this cell. This consumes a data
95 cell and discards the content. It may also be invoked with -.
96 = Draw a double horizontal line in this cell. This consumes a data
98 cell and discards the content.
99 Each cell key may be followed by zero or more of the following case-
101 insensitive modifiers:
102 b Use a bold font for the contents of this cell.
104 d Move content down to the last row of this vertical span. Currently
106 ignored.
107 e Make this column wider to match the maximum width of any other column
109 also having the e modifier.
110 f The next character selects the font to use for this cell. See the
112 roff(7) manual for supported one-character font names.
113 i Use an italic font for the contents of this cell.
115 m Specify a cell start macro. This is a GNU extension and currently
117 unsupported.
118 p Set the point size to the following unsigned argument, or change it
120 by the following signed argument. Currently ignored.
121 v Set the vertical line spacing to the following unsigned argument, or
123 change it by the following signed argument. Currently ignored.
124 t Do not vertically center content in this vertical span, leave it in
126 the top row. Currently ignored.
127 u Move cell content up by half a table row. Currently ignored.
129 w Specify a minimum column width.
131 x After determining the width of all other columns, distribute the rest
133 of the line length among all columns having the x modifier.
134 z Do not use this cell for determining the width of this column.
136 | Draw a single vertical line to the right of this cell.
138 || Draw a double vertical line to the right of this cell.
140 If a modifier consists of decimal digits, it specifies a minimum spacing
142 in units of n between this column and the next column to the right. The
143 default is 3. If there is a vertical line, it is drawn inside the spac‐
144 ing.
145 Data
147 The data section follows the last Layout line. Each data line consists
148 of one or more data cells, delimited by tab characters.
149 If a data cells contains only the single character ‘_’ or ‘=’, a single
151 or double horizontal line is drawn across the cell, joining its neigh‐
152 bours. If a data cells contains only the two character sequence ‘\_’ or
153 ‘\=’, a single or double horizontal line is drawn inside the cell, not
154 joining its neighbours. If a data line contains nothing but the single
155 character ‘_’ or ‘=’, a horizontal line across the whole table is
156 inserted without consuming a layout row.
157 In place of any data cell, a text block can be used. It starts with T{
159 at the end of a physical input line. Input line breaks inside the text
160 block neither end the text block nor its data cell. It only ends if T}
161 occurs at the beginning of a physical input line and is followed by an
162 end-of-cell indicator. If the T} is followed by the end of the physical
163 input line, the text block, the data cell, and the data line ends at this
164 point. If the T} is followed by the tab character, only the text block
165 and the data cell end, but the data line continues with the data cell
166 following the tab character. If T} is followed by any other character,
167 it does not end the text block, which instead continues to the following
168 physical input line.
169
171 String justification and font selection:
172 .TS
174 rb c lb
175 r ci l.
176 r center l
177 ri ce le
178 right c left
179 .TE
180 r center l
182 ri ce le
183 right c left
184 Some ports in OpenBSD 6.1 to show number alignment and line drawing:
186 .TS
188 box tab(:);
189 r| l
190 r n.
191 software:version
192 _
193 AFL:2.39b
194 Mutt:1.8.0
195 Ruby:1.8.7.374
196 TeX Live:2015
197 .TE
198 ┌─────────┬───────────┐
200 │software │ version │
201 ├─────────┴───────────┤
202 │ AFL 2.39b │
203 │ Mutt 1.8.0 │
204 │ Ruby 1.8.7.374 │
205 │TeX Live 2015 │
206 └─────────────────────┘
207 Spans and skipping width calculations:
209 .TS
211 box tab(:);
212 lz s | rt
213 lt| cb| ^
214 ^ | rz s.
215 left:r
216 l:center:
217 :right
218 .TE
219 ┌───────────┬───┐
221 │le│ft │ r │
222 │l │ center │ │
223 │ │ right │
224 └──┴────────────┘
225 Text blocks, specifying spacings and specifying and equalizing column
227 widths, putting lines into individual cells, and overriding allbox:
228 .TS
230 allbox tab(:);
231 le le||7 lw10.
232 The fourth line:_:line 1
233 of this column:=:line 2
234 determines:_:line 3
235 the column width.:T{
236 This text is too wide to fit into a column of width 17.
237 T}:line 4
238 T{
239 No break here.
240 T}::line 5
241 .TE
242 ┌────────────────────┬───────────────────────┬┬─────────────┐
244 │The fourth line ├───────────────────────┤│ line 1 │
245 ├────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼┼─────────────┤
246 │of this column ├───────────────────────┤│ line 2 │
247 ├────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼┼─────────────┤
248 │determines │ ──────────────────── ││ line 3 │
249 ├────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼┼─────────────┤
250 │the column width. │ This text is too ││ line 4 │
251 │ │ wide to fit into a ││ │
252 │ │ column of width 17. ││ │
253 ├────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼┼─────────────┤
254 │No break here. │ ││ line 5 │
255 └────────────────────┴───────────────────────┴┴─────────────┘
256 These examples were constructed to demonstrate many tbl features in a
258 compact way. In real manual pages, keep tables as simple as possible:
259 Like that, they usually look better, are less fragile, and more portable.
260
262 The mandoc(1) implementation of tbl doesn't support mdoc(7) and man(7)
263 macros and eqn(7) equations inside tables.
264
266 mandoc(1), man(7), mandoc_char(7), mdoc(7), roff(7)
267 M. E. Lesk, Tbl—A Program to Format Tables, June 11, 1976.
269
271 The tbl utility, a preprocessor for troff, was originally written by M.
272 E. Lesk at Bell Labs in 1975. The GNU reimplementation of tbl, part of
273 the groff package, was released in 1990 by James Clark. A standalone tbl
274 implementation was written by Kristaps Dzonsons in 2010. This formed the
275 basis of the implementation that first appeared in OpenBSD 4.9 as a part
276 of the mandoc(1) utility.
277
279 This tbl reference was written by Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv> and
280 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>.
281BSD June 20, 2019 BSD