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 cell contains only the two bytes ‘\^’, the cell above spans to
151 this row, as if the layout specification of this cell were ^.
152 If a data cell contains only the single character ‘_’ or ‘=’, a single or
154 double horizontal line is drawn across the cell, joining its neighbours.
155 If a data cell contains only the two character sequence ‘\_’ or ‘\=’, a
156 single or double horizontal line is drawn inside the cell, not joining
157 its neighbours. If a data line contains nothing but the single character
158 ‘_’ or ‘=’, a horizontal line across the whole table is inserted without
159 consuming a layout row.
160 In place of any data cell, a text block can be used. It starts with T{
162 at the end of a physical input line. Input line breaks inside the text
163 block neither end the text block nor its data cell. It only ends if T}
164 occurs at the beginning of a physical input line and is followed by an
165 end-of-cell indicator. If the T} is followed by the end of the physical
166 input line, the text block, the data cell, and the data line ends at this
167 point. If the T} is followed by the tab character, only the text block
168 and the data cell end, but the data line continues with the data cell
169 following the tab character. If T} is followed by any other character,
170 it does not end the text block, which instead continues to the following
171 physical input line.
172
174 String justification and font selection:
175 .TS
177 rb c lb
178 r ci l.
179 r center l
180 ri ce le
181 right c left
182 .TE
183 r center l
185 ri ce le
186 right c left
187 Some ports in OpenBSD 6.1 to show number alignment and line drawing:
189 .TS
191 box tab(:);
192 r| l
193 r n.
194 software:version
195 _
196 AFL:2.39b
197 Mutt:1.8.0
198 Ruby:1.8.7.374
199 TeX Live:2015
200 .TE
201 ┌─────────┬───────────┐
203 │software │ version │
204 ├─────────┴───────────┤
205 │ AFL 2.39b │
206 │ Mutt 1.8.0 │
207 │ Ruby 1.8.7.374 │
208 │TeX Live 2015 │
209 └─────────────────────┘
210 Spans and skipping width calculations:
212 .TS
214 box tab(:);
215 lz s | rt
216 lt| cb| ^
217 ^ | rz s.
218 left:r
219 l:center:
220 :right
221 .TE
222 ┌───────────┬───┐
224 │le│ft │ r │
225 │l │ center │ │
226 │ │ right │
227 └──┴────────────┘
228 Text blocks, specifying spacings and specifying and equalizing column
230 widths, putting lines into individual cells, and overriding allbox:
231 .TS
233 allbox tab(:);
234 le le||7 lw10.
235 The fourth line:_:line 1
236 of this column:=:line 2
237 determines:_:line 3
238 the column width.:T{
239 This text is too wide to fit into a column of width 17.
240 T}:line 4
241 T{
242 No break here.
243 T}::line 5
244 .TE
245 ┌────────────────────┬───────────────────────┬┬─────────────┐
247 │The fourth line ├───────────────────────┤│ line 1 │
248 ├────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼┼─────────────┤
249 │of this column ├───────────────────────┤│ line 2 │
250 ├────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼┼─────────────┤
251 │determines │ ──────────────────── ││ line 3 │
252 ├────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼┼─────────────┤
253 │the column width. │ This text is too ││ line 4 │
254 │ │ wide to fit into a ││ │
255 │ │ column of width 17. ││ │
256 ├────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼┼─────────────┤
257 │No break here. │ ││ line 5 │
258 └────────────────────┴───────────────────────┴┴─────────────┘
259 These examples were constructed to demonstrate many tbl features in a
261 compact way. In real manual pages, keep tables as simple as possible.
262 They usually look better, are less fragile, and are more portable.
263
265 The mandoc(1) implementation of tbl doesn't support mdoc(7) and man(7)
266 macros and eqn(7) equations inside tables.
267
269 mandoc(1), man(7), mandoc_char(7), mdoc(7), roff(7)
270 M. E. Lesk, Tbl—A Program to Format Tables, June 11, 1976.
272
274 The tbl utility, a preprocessor for troff, was originally written by M.
275 E. Lesk at Bell Labs in 1975. The GNU reimplementation of tbl, part of
276 the groff package, was released in 1990 by James Clark. A standalone tbl
277 implementation was written by Kristaps Dzonsons in 2010. This formed the
278 basis of the implementation that first appeared in OpenBSD 4.9 as a part
279 of the mandoc(1) utility.
280
282 This tbl reference was written by Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv> and
283 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>.
284
286 In -T utf8 output mode, heavy lines are drawn instead of double lines.
287 This cannot be improved because the Unicode standard only provides an
288 incomplete set of box drawing characters with double lines, whereas it
289 provides a full set of box drawing characters with heavy lines. It is
290 unlikely this can be improved in the future because the box drawing char‐
291 acters are already marked in Unicode as characters intended only for
292 backward compatibility with legacy systems, and their use is not encour‐
293 aged. So it seems unlikely that the missing ones might get added in the
294 future.
295BSD May 10, 2020 BSD