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 en‐
21 closed 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 ar‐
47 gument. 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.
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, op‐
70 tionally 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-in‐
101 sensitive 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 one or two characters select the font to use for this cell.
112 One-character font names must be followed by a blank or period. See
113 the roff(7) manual for supported font names.
114 i Use an italic font for the contents of this cell.
116 m Specify a cell start macro. This is a GNU extension and currently
118 unsupported.
119 p Set the point size to the following unsigned argument, or change it
121 by the following signed argument. Currently ignored.
122 v Set the vertical line spacing to the following unsigned argument, or
124 change it by the following signed argument. Currently ignored.
125 t Do not vertically center content in this vertical span, leave it in
127 the top row. Currently ignored.
128 u Move cell content up by half a table row. Currently ignored.
130 w Specify a minimum column width.
132 x After determining the width of all other columns, distribute the rest
134 of the line length among all columns having the x modifier.
135 z Do not use this cell for determining the width of this column.
137 | Draw a single vertical line to the right of this cell.
139 || Draw a double vertical line to the right of this cell.
141 If a modifier consists of decimal digits, it specifies a minimum spacing
143 in units of n between this column and the next column to the right. The
144 default is 3. If there is a vertical line, it is drawn inside the spac‐
145 ing.
146 Data
148 The data section follows the last Layout line. Each data line consists
149 of one or more data cells, delimited by tab characters.
150 If a data cell contains only the two bytes ‘\^’, the cell above spans to
152 this row, as if the layout specification of this cell were ^.
153 If a data cell contains only the single character ‘_’ or ‘=’, a single or
155 double horizontal line is drawn across the cell, joining its neighbours.
156 If a data cell contains only the two character sequence ‘\_’ or ‘\=’, a
157 single or double horizontal line is drawn inside the cell, not joining
158 its neighbours. If a data line contains nothing but the single character
159 ‘_’ or ‘=’, a horizontal line across the whole table is inserted without
160 consuming a layout row.
161 In place of any data cell, a text block can be used. It starts with T{
163 at the end of a physical input line. Input line breaks inside the text
164 block neither end the text block nor its data cell. It only ends if T}
165 occurs at the beginning of a physical input line and is followed by an
166 end-of-cell indicator. If the T} is followed by the end of the physical
167 input line, the text block, the data cell, and the data line ends at this
168 point. If the T} is followed by the tab character, only the text block
169 and the data cell end, but the data line continues with the data cell
170 following the tab character. If T} is followed by any other character,
171 it does not end the text block, which instead continues to the following
172 physical input line.
173
175 String justification and font selection:
176 .TS
178 rb c lb
179 r ci l.
180 r center l
181 ri ce le
182 right c left
183 .TE
184 r center l
186 ri ce le
187 right c left
188 Some ports in OpenBSD 6.1 to show number alignment and line drawing:
190 .TS
192 box tab(:);
193 r| l
194 r n.
195 software:version
196 _
197 AFL:2.39b
198 Mutt:1.8.0
199 Ruby:1.8.7.374
200 TeX Live:2015
201 .TE
202 ┌─────────┬───────────┐
204 │software │ version │
205 ├─────────┴───────────┤
206 │ AFL 2.39b │
207 │ Mutt 1.8.0 │
208 │ Ruby 1.8.7.374 │
209 │TeX Live 2015 │
210 └─────────────────────┘
211 Spans and skipping width calculations:
213 .TS
215 box tab(:);
216 lz s | rt
217 lt| cb| ^
218 ^ | rz s.
219 left:r
220 l:center:
221 :right
222 .TE
223 ┌───────────┬───┐
225 │le│ft │ r │
226 │l │ center │ │
227 │ │ right │
228 └──┴────────────┘
229 Text blocks, specifying spacings and specifying and equalizing column
231 widths, putting lines into individual cells, and overriding allbox:
232 .TS
234 allbox tab(:);
235 le le||7 lw10.
236 The fourth line:_:line 1
237 of this column:=:line 2
238 determines:_:line 3
239 the column width.:T{
240 This text is too wide to fit into a column of width 17.
241 T}:line 4
242 T{
243 No break here.
244 T}::line 5
245 .TE
246 ┌────────────────────┬───────────────────────┬┬─────────────┐
248 │The fourth line ├───────────────────────┤│ line 1 │
249 ├────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼┼─────────────┤
250 │of this column ├───────────────────────┤│ line 2 │
251 ├────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼┼─────────────┤
252 │determines │ ──────────────────── ││ line 3 │
253 ├────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼┼─────────────┤
254 │the column width. │ This text is too ││ line 4 │
255 │ │ wide to fit into a ││ │
256 │ │ column of width 17. ││ │
257 ├────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼┼─────────────┤
258 │No break here. │ ││ line 5 │
259 └────────────────────┴───────────────────────┴┴─────────────┘
260 These examples were constructed to demonstrate many tbl features in a
262 compact way. In real manual pages, keep tables as simple as possible.
263 They usually look better, are less fragile, and are more portable.
264
266 The mandoc(1) implementation of tbl doesn't support mdoc(7) and man(7)
267 macros and eqn(7) equations inside tables.
268
270 mandoc(1), man(7), mandoc_char(7), mdoc(7), roff(7)
271 M. E. Lesk, Tbl — A Program to Format Tables, June 11, 1976.
273
275 The tbl utility, a preprocessor for troff, was originally written by M.
276 E. Lesk at Bell Labs in 1975. The GNU reimplementation of tbl, part of
277 the groff package, was released in 1990 by James Clark. A standalone tbl
278 implementation was written by Kristaps Dzonsons in 2010. This formed the
279 basis of the implementation that first appeared in OpenBSD 4.9 as a part
280 of the mandoc(1) utility.
281
283 This tbl reference was written by Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv> and
284 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>.
285
287 In -T utf8 output mode, heavy lines are drawn instead of double lines.
288 This cannot be improved because the Unicode standard only provides an in‐
289 complete set of box drawing characters with double lines, whereas it pro‐
290 vides a full set of box drawing characters with heavy lines. It is un‐
291 likely this can be improved in the future because the box drawing charac‐
292 ters are already marked in Unicode as characters intended only for back‐
293 ward compatibility with legacy systems, and their use is not encouraged.
294 So it seems unlikely that the missing ones might get added in the future.
295BSD September 18, 2021 BSD