1MDOC.SAMPLES(7)      BSD Miscellaneous Information Manual      MDOC.SAMPLES(7)
2

NAME

4     mdoc.samples — tutorial sampler for writing BSD manuals with -mdoc
5

SYNOPSIS

7     man mdoc.samples
8

DESCRIPTION

10     A tutorial sampler for writing BSD manual pages with the -mdoc macro
11     package, a content-based and domain-based formatting package for
12     troff(1).  Its predecessor, the -man(7) package, addressed page layout
13     leaving the manipulation of fonts and other typesetting details to the
14     individual author.  In -mdoc, page layout macros make up the page
15     structure domain which consists of macros for titles, section headers,
16     displays and lists. Essentially items which affect the physical position
17     of text on a formatted page.  In addition to the page structure domain,
18     there are two more domains, the manual domain and the general text
19     domain.  The general text domain is defined as macros which perform tasks
20     such as quoting or emphasizing pieces of text.  The manual domain is
21     defined as macros that are a subset of the day to day informal language
22     used to describe commands, routines and related BSD files.  Macros in the
23     manual domain handle command names, command line arguments and options,
24     function names, function parameters, pathnames, variables, cross refer‐
25     ences to other manual pages, and so on.  These domain items have value
26     for both the author and the future user of the manual page.  It is hoped
27     the consistency gained across the manual set will provide easier transla‐
28     tion to future documentation tools.
29
30     Throughout the UNIX manual pages, a manual entry is simply referred to as
31     a man page, regardless of actual length and without sexist intention.
32

GETTING STARTED

34     Since a tutorial document is normally read when a person desires to use
35     the material immediately, the assumption has been made that the user of
36     this document may be impatient.  The material presented in the remained
37     of this document is outlined as follows:
38
39           1.   TROFF IDIOSYNCRASIES
40                      Macro Usage.
41                      Passing Space Characters in an Argument.
42                      Trailing Blank Space Characters (a warning).
43                      Escaping Special Characters.
44
45           2.   THE ANATOMY OF A MAN PAGE
46                      A manual page template.
47
48           3.   TITLE MACROS.
49
50           4.   INTRODUCTION OF MANUAL AND GENERAL TEXT DOMAINS.
51                      What's in a name....
52                      General Syntax.
53
54           5.   MANUAL DOMAIN
55                      Addresses.
56                      Author name.
57                      Arguments.
58                      Configuration Declarations (section four only).
59                      Command Modifier.
60                      Defined Variables.
61                      Errno's (Section two only).
62                      Environment Variables.
63                      Function Argument.
64                      Function Declaration.
65                      Flags.
66                      Functions (library routines).
67                      Function Types.
68                      Interactive Commands.
69                      Names.
70                      Options.
71                      Pathnames.
72                      Variables.
73                      Cross References.
74
75           6.   GENERAL TEXT DOMAIN
76                      AT&T Macro.
77                      BSD Macro.
78                      FreeBSD Macro.
79                      UNIX Macro.
80                      Enclosure/Quoting Macros
81                                  Angle Bracket Quote/Enclosure.
82                                  Bracket Quotes/Enclosure.
83                                  Double Quote macro/Enclosure.
84                                  Parenthesis Quote/Enclosure.
85                                  Single Quotes/Enclosure.
86                                  Prefix Macro.
87                      No-Op or Normal Text Macro.
88                      No Space Macro.
89                      Section Cross References.
90                      References and Citations.
91                      Return Values (sections two and three only)
92                      Trade Names (Acronyms and Type Names).
93                      Extended  Arguments.
94
95           7.   PAGE STRUCTURE DOMAIN
96                      Section Headers.
97                      Paragraphs and Line Spacing.
98                      Keeps.
99                      Displays.
100                      Font Modes (Emphasis, Literal, and Symbolic).
101                      Lists and Columns.
102
103           8.   PREDEFINED STRINGS
104
105           9.   DIAGNOSTICS
106
107           10.  FORMATTING WITH GROFF, TROFF AND NROFF
108
109           11.  BUGS
110

TROFF IDIOSYNCRASIES

112     The -mdoc package attempts to simplify the process of writing a man page.
113     Theoretically, one should not have to learn the dirty details of troff(1)
114     to use -mdoc; however, there are a few limitations which are unavoidable
115     and best gotten out of the way.  And, too, be forewarned, this package is
116     not fast.
117
118   Macro Usage
119     As in troff(1), a macro is called by placing a ‘.’ (dot character) at the
120     beginning of a line followed by the two character name for the macro.
121     Arguments may follow the macro separated by spaces.  It is the dot char‐
122     acter at the beginning of the line which causes troff(1) to interpret the
123     next two characters as a macro name.  To place a ‘.’ (dot character) at
124     the beginning of a line in some context other than a macro invocation,
125     precede the ‘.’ (dot) with the ‘\&’ escape sequence.  The ‘\&’ translates
126     literally to a zero width space, and is never displayed in the output.
127
128     In general, troff(1) macros accept up to nine arguments, any extra argu‐
129     ments are ignored.  Most macros in -mdoc accept nine arguments and, in
130     limited cases, arguments may be continued or extended on the next line
131     (See Extensions).  A few macros handle quoted arguments (see Passing
132     Space Characters in an Argument below).
133
134     Most of the -mdoc general text domain and manual domain macros are spe‐
135     cial in that their argument lists are parsed for callable macro names.
136     This means an argument on the argument list which matches a general text
137     or manual domain macro name and is determined to be callable will be exe‐
138     cuted or called when it is processed.  In this case the argument,
139     although the name of a macro, is not preceded by a ‘.’ (dot).  It is in
140     this manner that many macros are nested; for example the option macro,
141     ‘.Op’, may call the flag and argument macros, ‘Fl’ and ‘Ar’, to specify
142     an optional flag with an argument:
143
144           [-s bytes]         is produced by .Op Fl s Ar bytes
145
146     To prevent a two character string from being interpreted as a macro name,
147     precede the string with the escape sequence ‘\&’:
148
149           [Fl s Ar bytes]    is produced by .Op \&Fl s \&Ar bytes
150
151     Here the strings ‘Fl’ and ‘Ar’ are not interpreted as macros.  Macros
152     whose argument lists are parsed for callable arguments are referred to as
153     parsed and macros which may be called from an argument list are referred
154     to as callable throughout this document and in the companion quick refer‐
155     ence manual mdoc(7).  This is a technical faux pas as almost all of the
156     macros in -mdoc are parsed, but as it was cumbersome to constantly refer
157     to macros as being callable and being able to call other macros, the term
158     parsed has been used.
159
160   Passing Space Characters in an Argument
161     Sometimes it is desirable to give as one argument a string containing one
162     or more blank space characters.  This may be necessary to defeat the nine
163     argument limit or to specify arguments to macros which expect particular
164     arrangement of items in the argument list.  For example, the function
165     macro ‘.Fn’ expects the first argument to be the name of a function and
166     any remaining arguments to be function parameters.  As ANSI C stipulates
167     the declaration of function parameters in the parenthesized parameter
168     list, each parameter is guaranteed to be at minimum a two word string.
169     For example, int foo.
170
171     There are two possible ways to pass an argument which contains an embed‐
172     ded space.  Implementation note: Unfortunately, the most convenient way
173     of passing spaces in between quotes by reassigning individual arguments
174     before parsing was fairly expensive speed wise and space wise to imple‐
175     ment in all the macros for AT&T troff.  It is not expensive for groff but
176     for the sake of portability, has been limited to the following macros
177     which need it the most:
178
179           Cd    Configuration declaration (section 4 SYNOPSIS)
180           Bl    Begin list (for the width specifier).
181           Em    Emphasized text.
182           Fn    Functions (sections two and four).
183           It    List items.
184           Li    Literal text.
185           Sy    Symbolic text.
186           %B    Book titles.
187           %J    Journal names.
188           %O    Optional notes for a reference.
189           %R    Report title (in a reference).
190           %T    Title of article in a book or journal.
191
192     One way of passing a string containing blank spaces is to use the hard or
193     unpaddable space character ‘\ ’, that is, a blank space preceded by the
194     escape character ‘\’.  This method may be used with any macro but has the
195     side effect of interfering with the adjustment of text over the length of
196     a line.  Troff sees the hard space as if it were any other printable
197     character and cannot split the string into blank or newline separated
198     pieces as one would expect.  The method is useful for strings which are
199     not expected to overlap a line boundary.  For example:
200
201           fetch(char *str)  is created by ‘.Fn fetch char\ *str’
202
203           fetch(char *str)  can also be created by ‘.Fn fetch "char *str"’
204
205     If the ‘\’ or quotes were omitted, ‘.Fn’ would see three arguments and
206     the result would be:
207
208           fetch(char, *str)
209
210     For an example of what happens when the parameter list overlaps a newline
211     boundary, see the BUGS section.
212
213   Trailing Blank Space Characters
214     Troff can be confused by blank space characters at the end of a line.  It
215     is a wise preventive measure to globally remove all blank spaces from
216     <blank-space><end-of-line> character sequences.  Should the need arise to
217     force a blank character at the end of a line, it may be forced with an
218     unpaddable space and the ‘\&’ escape character.  For example,
219     ‘string\ \&’.
220
221   Escaping Special Characters
222     Special characters like the newline character ‘\n’, are handled by
223     replacing the ‘\’ with ‘\e’ (e.g.  ‘\en’) to preserve the backslash.
224

THE ANATOMY OF A MAN PAGE

226     The body of a man page is easily constructed from a basic template found
227     in the file /usr/share/misc/mdoc.template.  Several example man pages can
228     also be found in /usr/share/examples/mdoc.
229
230   A manual page template
231           .\" The following requests are required for all man pages.
232           .Dd Month day, year
233           .Os OPERATING_SYSTEM [version/release]
234           .Dt DOCUMENT_TITLE [section number] [volume]
235           .Sh NAME
236           .Nm name
237           .Nd one line description of name
238           .Sh SYNOPSIS
239           .Sh DESCRIPTION
240           .\" The following requests should be uncommented and
241           .\" used where appropriate.  This next request is
242           .\" for sections 2 and 3 function return values only.
243           .\" .Sh RETURN VALUES
244           .\" This next request is for sections 1, 6, 7 & 8 only
245           .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT
246           .\" .Sh FILES
247           .\" .Sh EXAMPLES
248           .\" This next request is for sections 1, 6, 7 & 8 only
249           .\"     (command return values (to shell) and
250           .\"       fprintf/stderr type diagnostics)
251           .\" .Sh DIAGNOSTICS
252           .\" The next request is for sections 2 and 3 error
253           .\" and signal handling only.
254           .\" .Sh ERRORS
255           .\" .Sh SEE ALSO
256           .\" .Sh CONFORMING TO
257           .\" .Sh HISTORY
258           .\" .Sh AUTHORS
259           .\" .Sh BUGS
260
261     The first items in the template are the macros (.Dd, .Os, .Dt); the docu‐
262     ment date, the operating system the man page or subject source is devel‐
263     oped or modified for, and the man page title (in upper case) along with
264     the section of the manual the page belongs in.  These macros identify the
265     page, and are discussed below in TITLE MACROS.
266
267     The remaining items in the template are section headers (.Sh); of which
268     NAME, SYNOPSIS and DESCRIPTION are mandatory.  The headers are discussed
269     in PAGE STRUCTURE DOMAIN, after presentation of MANUAL DOMAIN.  Several
270     content macros are used to demonstrate page layout macros; reading about
271     content macros before page layout macros is recommended.
272

TITLE MACROS

274     The title macros are the first portion of the page structure domain, but
275     are presented first and separate for someone who wishes to start writing
276     a man page yesterday.  Three header macros designate the document title
277     or manual page title, the operating system, and the date of authorship.
278     These macros are one called once at the very beginning of the document
279     and are used to construct the headers and footers only.
280
281     .Dt DOCUMENT_TITLE section# [volume]
282             The document title is the subject of the man page and must be in
283             CAPITALS due to troff limitations.  The section number may be
284             1, ..., 8, and if it is specified, the volume title may be omit‐
285             ted.  A volume title may be arbitrary or one of the following:
286
287                   AMD    UNIX Ancestral Manual Documents
288                   SMM    UNIX System Manager's Manual
289                   URM    UNIX Reference Manual
290                   PRM    UNIX Programmer's Manual
291
292             The default volume labeling is URM for sections 1, 6, and 7; SMM
293             for section 8; PRM for sections 2, 3, 4, and 5.
294
295     .Os operating_system release#
296             The name of the operating system should be the common acronym,
297             e.g.  BSD or FreeBSD or ATT.  The release should be the standard
298             release nomenclature for the system specified, e.g. 4.3,
299             4.3+Tahoe, V.3, V.4.  Unrecognized arguments are displayed as
300             given in the page footer.  For instance, a typical footer might
301             be:
302
303                   .Os 4.3BSD
304
305             or
306                   .Os FreeBSD 2.2
307
308             or for a locally produced set
309
310                   .Os CS Department
311
312             The Berkeley default, ‘.Os’ without an argument, has been defined
313             as BSD in the site specific file /usr/share/tmac/mdoc/doc-common.
314             It really should default to LOCAL.  Note, if the ‘.Os’ macro is
315             not present, the bottom left corner of the page will be ugly.
316
317     .Dd month day, year
318             The date should be written formally:
319
320                   January 25, 1989
321

INTRODUCTION OF MANUAL AND GENERAL TEXT DOMAINS

323   What's in a name...
324     The manual domain macro names are derived from the day to day informal
325     language used to describe commands, subroutines and related files.
326     Slightly different variations of this language are used to describe the
327     three different aspects of writing a man page.  First, there is the
328     description of -mdoc macro request usage.  Second is the description of a
329     UNIX command with -mdoc macros and third, the description of a command to
330     a user in the verbal sense; that is, discussion of a command in the text
331     of a man page.
332
333     In the first case, troff(1) macros are themselves a type of command; the
334     general syntax for a troff command is:
335
336           .Va argument1 argument2 ... argument9
337
338     The ‘.Va’ is a macro command or request, and anything following it is an
339     argument to be processed.  In the second case, the description of a UNIX
340     command using the content macros is a bit more involved; a typical
341     SYNOPSIS command line might be displayed as:
342
343           filter [-flag] infile outfile
344
345     Here, filter is the command name and the bracketed string -flag is a flag
346     argument designated as optional by the option brackets.  In -mdoc terms,
347     infile and outfile are called arguments.  The macros which formatted the
348     above example:
349
350           .Nm filter
351           .Op Fl flag
352           .Ar infile outfile
353
354     In the third case, discussion of commands and command syntax includes
355     both examples above, but may add more detail.  The arguments infile and
356     outfile from the example above might be referred to as operands or file
357     arguments.  Some command line argument lists are quite long:
358
359           make  [-eiknqrstv] [-D variable] [-d flags] [-f makefile]
360                 [-I directory] [-j max_jobs] [variable=value] [target ...]
361
362     Here one might talk about the command make and qualify the argument
363     makefile, as an argument to the flag, -f, or discuss the optional file
364     operand target.  In the verbal context, such detail can prevent confu‐
365     sion, however the -mdoc package does not have a macro for an argument to
366     a flag.  Instead the ‘Ar’ argument macro is used for an operand or file
367     argument like target as well as an argument to a flag like variable.  The
368     make command line was produced from:
369
370           .Nm make
371           .Op Fl eiknqrstv
372           .Op Fl D Ar variable
373           .Op Fl d Ar flags
374           .Op Fl f Ar makefile
375           .Op Fl I Ar directory
376           .Op Fl j Ar max_jobs
377           .Op Ar variable=value
378           .Bk -words
379           .Op Ar target ...
380           .Ek
381
382     The ‘.Bk’ and ‘.Ek’ macros are explained in Keeps.
383
384   General Syntax
385     The manual domain and general text domain macros share a similar syntax
386     with a few minor deviations: ‘.Ar’, ‘.Fl’, ‘.Nm’, and ‘.Pa’ differ only
387     when called without arguments; ‘.Fn’ and ‘.Xr’ impose an order on their
388     argument lists and the ‘.Op’ and ‘.Fn’ macros have nesting limitations.
389     All content macros are capable of recognizing and properly handling punc‐
390     tuation, provided each punctuation character is separated by a leading
391     space.  If an request is given:
392
393           .Li sptr, ptr),
394
395     The result is:
396
397           sptr, ptr),
398
399     The punctuation is not recognized and all is output in the literal font.
400     If the punctuation is separated by a leading white space:
401
402           .Li sptr , ptr ) ,
403
404     The result is:
405
406           sptr, ptr),
407
408     The punctuation is now recognized and is output in the default font dis‐
409     tinguishing it from the strings in literal font.
410
411     To remove the special meaning from a punctuation character escape it with
412     ‘\&’.  Troff is limited as a macro language, and has difficulty when pre‐
413     sented with a string containing a member of the mathematical, logical or
414     quotation set:
415
416                 {+,-,/,*,%,<,>,<=,>=,=,==,&,`,',"}
417
418     The problem is that troff may assume it is supposed to actually perform
419     the operation or evaluation suggested by the characters.  To prevent the
420     accidental evaluation of these characters, escape them with ‘\&’.  Typi‐
421     cal syntax is shown in the first content macro displayed below, ‘.Ad’.
422

MANUAL DOMAIN

424   Address Macro
425     The address macro identifies an address construct of the form
426     addr1[,addr2[,addr3]].
427
428           Usage: .Ad address ...
429                   .Ad addr1    addr1
430                   .Ad addr1 .  addr1.
431                   .Ad addr1 , file2
432                                addr1, file2
433                   .Ad f1 , f2 , f3 :
434                                f1, f2, f3:
435                   .Ad addr ) ) ,
436                                addr)),
437
438     It is an error to call ‘.Ad’ without arguments.  ‘.Ad’ is callable by
439     other macros and is parsed.
440
441   Author Name
442     The ‘.An’ macro is used to specify the name of the author of the item
443     being documented, or the name of the author of the actual manual page.
444     Any remaining arguments after the name information are assumed to be
445     punctuation.
446
447           Usage: .An author_name
448                   .An Joe Author
449                                  Joe Author
450                   .An Joe Author ,
451                                  Joe Author,
452                   .An Joe Author Aq nobody@FreeBSD.ORG
453                                  Joe Author <nobody@FreeBSD.ORG>
454                   .An Joe Author ) ) ,
455                                  Joe Author)),
456
457     The ‘.An’ macro is parsed and is callable.  It is an error to call ‘.An’
458     without any arguments.
459
460   Argument Macro
461     The ‘.Ar’ argument macro may be used whenever a command line argument is
462     referenced.
463
464           Usage: .Ar argument ...
465                    .Ar          file ...
466                    .Ar file1    file1
467                    .Ar file1 .  file1.
468                    .Ar file1 file2
469                                 file1 file2
470                    .Ar f1 f2 f3 :
471                                 f1 f2 f3:
472                    .Ar file ) ) ,
473                                 file)),
474
475     If ‘.Ar’ is called without arguments ‘file ...’ is assumed.  The ‘.Ar’
476     macro is parsed and is callable.
477
478   Configuration Declaration (section four only)
479     The ‘.Cd’ macro is used to demonstrate a config(8) declaration for a
480     device interface in a section four manual.  This macro accepts quoted
481     arguments (double quotes only).
482
483           device le0 at scode?  produced by: ‘.Cd device le0 at scode?’.
484
485   Command Modifier
486     The command modifier is identical to the ‘.Fl’ (flag) command with the
487     exception the ‘.Cm’ macro does not assert a dash in front of every argu‐
488     ment.  Traditionally flags are marked by the preceding dash, some com‐
489     mands or subsets of commands do not use them.  Command modifiers may also
490     be specified in conjunction with interactive commands such as editor com‐
491     mands.  See Flags.
492
493   Defined Variables
494     A variable which is defined in an include file is specified by the macro
495     ‘.Dv’.
496
497           Usage: .Dv defined_variable ...
498                   .Dv MAXHOSTNAMELEN
499                                   MAXHOSTNAMELEN
500                   .Dv TIOCGPGRP )
501                                   TIOCGPGRP)
502
503     It is an error to call ‘.Dv’ without arguments.  ‘.Dv’ is parsed and is
504     callable.
505
506   Errno's (Section two only)
507     The ‘.Er’ errno macro specifies the error return value for section two
508     library routines.  The second example below shows ‘.Er’ used with the
509     ‘.Bq’ general text domain macro, as it would be used in a section two
510     manual page.
511
512           Usage: .Er ERRNOTYPE ...
513                   .Er ENOENT
514                              ENOENT
515                   .Er ENOENT ) ;
516                              ENOENT);
517                   .Bq Er ENOTDIR
518                              [ENOTDIR]
519
520     It is an error to call ‘.Er’ without arguments.  The ‘.Er’ macro is
521     parsed and is callable.
522
523   Environment Variables
524     The ‘.Ev’ macro specifies an environment variable.
525
526           Usage: .Ev argument ...
527                   .Ev DISPLAY
528                               DISPLAY
529                   .Ev PATH .  PATH.
530                   .Ev PRINTER ) ) ,
531                               PRINTER)),
532
533     It is an error to call ‘.Ev’ without arguments.  The ‘.Ev’ macro is
534     parsed and is callable.
535
536   Function Argument
537     The ‘.Fa’ macro is used to refer to function arguments (parameters) out‐
538     side of the SYNOPSIS section of the manual or inside the SYNOPSIS section
539     should a parameter list be too long for the ‘.Fn’ macro and the enclosure
540     macros ‘.Fo’ and ‘.Fc’ must be used.  ‘.Fa’ may also be used to refer to
541     structure members.
542
543           Usage: .Fa function_argument ...
544                   .Fa d_namlen ) ) ,
545                                   d_namlen)),
546                   .Fa iov_len     iov_len
547
548     It is an error to call ‘.Fa’ without arguments.  ‘.Fa’ is parsed and is
549     callable.
550
551   Function Declaration
552     The ‘.Fd’ macro is used in the SYNOPSIS section with section two or three
553     functions.  The ‘.Fd’ macro does not call other macros and is not
554     callable by other macros.
555
556           Usage: .Fd include_file (or defined variable)
557
558     In the SYNOPSIS section a ‘.Fd’ request causes a line break if a function
559     has already been presented and a break has not occurred.  This leaves a
560     nice vertical space in between the previous function call and the decla‐
561     ration for the next function.
562
563   Flags
564     The ‘.Fl’ macro handles command line flags.  It prepends a dash, ‘-’, to
565     the flag.  For interactive command flags, which are not prepended with a
566     dash, the ‘.Cm’ (command modifier) macro is identical, but without the
567     dash.
568
569           Usage: .Fl argument ...
570                   .Fl          -
571                   .Fl cfv      -cfv
572                   .Fl cfv .    -cfv.
573                   .Fl s v t    -s -v -t
574                   .Fl - ,      --,
575                   .Fl xyz ) ,  -xyz),
576
577     The ‘.Fl’ macro without any arguments results in a dash representing
578     stdin/stdout.  Note that giving ‘.Fl’ a single dash, will result in two
579     dashes.  The ‘.Fl’ macro is parsed and is callable.
580
581   Functions (library routines)
582     The .Fn macro is modeled on ANSI C conventions.
583
584     Usage: .Fn [type] function [[type] parameters ... ]
585     .Fn getchar                              getchar()
586     .Fn strlen ) ,                           strlen()),
587     .Fn "int align" "const * char *sptrs",   int align(const * char *sptrs),
588
589     It is an error to call ‘.Fn’ without any arguments.  The ‘.Fn’ macro is
590     parsed and is callable, note that any call to another macro signals the
591     end of the ‘.Fn’ call (it will close-parenthesis at that point).
592
593     For functions that have more than eight parameters (and this is rare),
594     the macros ‘.Fo’ (function open) and ‘.Fc’ (function close) may be used
595     with ‘.Fa’ (function argument) to get around the limitation. For example:
596
597           .Fo "int res_mkquery"
598           .Fa "int op"
599           .Fa "char *dname"
600           .Fa "int class"
601           .Fa "int type"
602           .Fa "char *data"
603           .Fa "int datalen"
604           .Fa "struct rrec *newrr"
605           .Fa "char *buf"
606           .Fa "int buflen"
607           .Fc
608
609     Produces:
610
611           int    res_mkquery(int op,    char *dname,   int class,   int type,
612           char *data, int datalen, struct rrec *newrr, char *buf, int buflen)
613
614     The ‘.Fo’ and ‘.Fc’ macros are parsed and are callable.  In the SYNOPSIS
615     section, the function will always begin at the beginning of line.  If
616     there is more than one function presented in the SYNOPSIS section and a
617     function type has not been given, a line break will occur, leaving a nice
618     vertical space between the current function name and the one prior.  At
619     the moment, ‘.Fn’ does not check its word boundaries against troff line
620     lengths and may split across a newline ungracefully.  This will be fixed
621     in the near future.
622
623   Function Type
624     This macro is intended for the SYNOPSIS section.  It may be used anywhere
625     else in the man page without problems, but its main purpose is to present
626     the function type in kernel normal form for the SYNOPSIS of sections two
627     and three (it causes a line break allowing the function name to appear on
628     the next line).
629
630           Usage: .Ft type ...
631                   .Ft struct stat  struct stat
632
633     The ‘.Ft’ request is not callable by other macros.
634
635   Interactive Commands
636     The ‘.Ic’ macro designates an interactive or internal command.
637
638           Usage: .Ic argument ...
639                   .Ic :wq             :wq
640                   .Ic do while {...}  do while {...}
641                   .Ic setenv , unsetenv
642                                       setenv, unsetenv
643
644     It is an error to call ‘.Ic’ without arguments.  The ‘.Ic’ macro is
645     parsed and is callable.
646
647   Name Macro
648     The ‘.Nm’ macro is used for the document title or subject name.  It has
649     the peculiarity of remembering the first argument it was called with,
650     which should always be the subject name of the page.  When called without
651     arguments, ‘.Nm’ regurgitates this initial name for the sole purpose of
652     making less work for the author.  Note: a section two or three document
653     function name is addressed with the ‘.Nm’ in the NAME section, and with
654     ‘.Fn’ in the SYNOPSIS and remaining sections.  For interactive commands,
655     such as the ‘while’ command keyword in csh(1), the ‘.Ic’ macro should be
656     used.  While the ‘.Ic’ is nearly identical to ‘.Nm’, it can not recall
657     the first argument it was invoked with.
658
659           Usage: .Nm argument ...
660                   .Nm mdoc.sample
661                                mdoc.sample
662                   .Nm \-mdoc   -mdoc.
663                   .Nm foo ) ) ,
664                                foo)),
665                   .Nm          mdoc.samples
666
667     The ‘.Nm’ macro is parsed and is callable.
668
669   Options
670     The ‘.Op’ macro places option brackets around the any remaining arguments
671     on the command line, and places any trailing punctuation outside the
672     brackets.  The macros ‘.Oc’ and ‘.Oo’ may be used across one or more
673     lines.
674
675           Usage: .Op options ...
676           .Op                    []
677           .Op Fl k               [-k]
678           .Op Fl k ) .           [-k]).
679           .Op Fl k Ar kookfile   [-k kookfile]
680           .Op Fl k Ar kookfile ,
681                                  [-k kookfile],
682           .Op Ar objfil Op Ar corfil
683                                  [objfil [corfil]]
684           .Op Fl c Ar objfil Op Ar corfil ,
685                                  [-c objfil [corfil]],
686           .Op word1 word2        [word1 word2]
687
688     The ‘.Oc’ and ‘.Oo’ macros:
689
690           .Oo
691           .Op Fl k Ar kilobytes
692           .Op Fl i Ar interval
693           .Op Fl c Ar count
694           .Oc
695
696     Produce: [[-k kilobytes] [-i interval] [-c count]]
697
698     The macros ‘.Op’, ‘.Oc’ and ‘.Oo’ are parsed and are callable.
699
700   Pathnames
701     The ‘.Pa’ macro formats pathnames or filenames.
702
703           Usage: .Pa pathname
704                   .Pa /usr/share   /usr/share
705                   .Pa /tmp/fooXXXXX ) .
706                                    /tmp/fooXXXXX).
707
708     The ‘.Pa’ macro is parsed and is callable.
709
710   Variables
711     Generic variable reference:
712
713           Usage: .Va variable ...
714                   .Va count   count
715                   .Va settimer,
716                               settimer,
717                   .Va int *prt ) :
718                               int *prt):
719                   .Va char s ] ) ) ,
720                               char s])),
721
722     It is an error to call ‘.Va’ without any arguments.  The ‘.Va’ macro is
723     parsed and is callable.
724
725   Manual Page Cross References
726     The ‘.Xr’ macro expects the first argument to be a manual page name, and
727     the second argument, if it exists, to be either a section page number or
728     punctuation.  Any remaining arguments are assumed to be punctuation.
729
730           Usage: .Xr man_page [1,...,8]
731                   .Xr mdoc    mdoc
732                   .Xr mdoc ,  mdoc,
733                   .Xr mdoc 7  mdoc(7)
734                   .Xr mdoc 7 ) ) ,
735                               mdoc(7))),
736
737     The ‘.Xr’ macro is parsed and is callable.  It is an error to call ‘.Xr’
738     without any arguments.
739

GENERAL TEXT DOMAIN

741   AT&T Macro
742           Usage: .At [v6 | v7 | 32v | V.1 | V.4] ...
743                   .At                    AT&T UNIX
744                   .At v6 .               Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
745
746     The ‘.At’ macro is not parsed and not callable. It accepts at most two
747     arguments.
748
749   BSD Macro
750           Usage: .Bx [Version/release] ...
751                   .Bx       BSD
752                   .Bx 4.3 .
753                             4.3BSD.
754
755     The ‘.Bx’ macro is parsed and is callable.
756
757   FreeBSD Macro
758           Usage: .Fx Version.release ...
759                   .Fx 2.2 .      FreeBSD 2.2.
760
761     The ‘.Fx’ macro is not parsed and not callable. It accepts at most two
762     arguments.
763
764   UNIX Macro
765           Usage: .Ux ...
766                   .Ux         UNIX
767
768     The ‘.Ux’ macro is parsed and is callable.
769
770   Enclosure and Quoting Macros
771     The concept of enclosure is similar to quoting.  The object being to
772     enclose one or more strings between a pair of characters like quotes or
773     parentheses.  The terms quoting and enclosure are used interchangeably
774     throughout this document.  Most of the one line enclosure macros end in
775     small letter ‘q’ to give a hint of quoting, but there are a few irregu‐
776     larities.  For each enclosure macro there is also a pair of open and
777     close macros which end in small letters ‘o’ and ‘c’ respectively.  These
778     can be used across one or more lines of text and while they have nesting
779     limitations, the one line quote macros can be used inside of them.
780
781            Quote    Close    Open   Function                  Result
782           .Aq      .Ac      .Ao     Angle Bracket Enclosure   <string>
783           .Bq      .Bc      .Bo     Bracket Enclosure         [string]
784           .Dq      .Dc      .Do     Double Quote              ``string''
785                    .Ec      .Eo     Enclose String (in XX)    XXstringXX
786           .Pq      .Pc      .Po     Parenthesis Enclosure     (string)
787           .Ql                       Quoted Literal            `st' or string
788           .Qq      .Qc      .Qo     Straight Double Quote     "string"
789           .Sq      .Sc      .So     Single Quote              `string'
790
791     Except for the irregular macros noted below, all of the quoting macros
792     are parsed and callable.  All handle punctuation properly, as long as it
793     is presented one character at a time and separated by spaces.  The quot‐
794     ing macros examine opening and closing punctuation to determine whether
795     it comes before or after the enclosing string. This makes some nesting
796     possible.
797
798     .Ec, .Eo  These macros expect the first argument to be the opening and
799               closing strings respectively.
800
801     .Ql       The quoted literal macro behaves differently for troff than
802               nroff.  If formatted with nroff, a quoted literal is always
803               quoted. If formatted with troff, an item is only quoted if the
804               width of the item is less than three constant width characters.
805               This is to make short strings more visible where the font
806               change to literal (constant width) is less noticeable.
807
808     .Pf       The prefix macro is not callable, but it is parsed:
809
810                     .Pf ( Fa name2
811                              becomes (name2.
812
813               The ‘.Ns’ (no space) macro performs the analogous suffix func‐
814               tion.
815
816     Examples of quoting:
817           .Aq                   ⟨⟩
818           .Aq Ar ctype.h ) ,    ⟨ctype.h⟩),
819           .Bq                   []
820           .Bq Em Greek , French .
821                                 [Greek, French].
822           .Dq                   “”
823           .Dq string abc .      “string abc”.
824           .Dq ´^[A-Z]´          “´^[A-Z]´”
825           .Ql man mdoc          ‘man mdoc’
826           .Qq                   ""
827           .Qq string ) ,        "string"),
828           .Qq string Ns ),      "string),"
829           .Sq                   ‘’
830           .Sq string            ‘string’
831
832     For a good example of nested enclosure macros, see the ‘.Op’ option
833     macro.  It was created from the same underlying enclosure macros as those
834     presented in the list above.  The ‘.Xo’ and ‘.Xc’ extended argument list
835     macros were also built from the same underlying routines and are a good
836     example of -mdoc macro usage at its worst.
837
838   No-Op or Normal Text Macro
839     The macro ‘.No’ is a hack for words in a macro command line which should
840     not be formatted and follows the conventional syntax for content macros.
841
842   Space Macro
843     The ‘.Ns’ macro eliminates unwanted spaces in between macro requests.  It
844     is useful for old style argument lists where there is no space between
845     the flag and argument:
846
847           .Op Fl I Ns Ar directory
848                            produces [-Idirectory]
849
850     Note: the ‘.Ns’ macro always invokes the ‘.No’ macro after eliminating
851     the space unless another macro name follows it.  The macro ‘.Ns’ is
852     parsed and is callable.
853
854   Section Cross References
855     The ‘.Sx’ macro designates a reference to a section header within the
856     same document.  It is parsed and is callable.
857
858                   .Sx FILES     FILES
859
860   References and Citations
861     The following macros make a modest attempt to handle references.  At
862     best, the macros make it convenient to manually drop in a subset of refer
863     style references.
864
865           .Rs     Reference Start.  Causes a line break and begins collection
866                   of reference information until the reference end macro is
867                   read.
868           .Re     Reference End.  The reference is printed.
869           .%A     Reference author name, one name per invocation.
870           .%B     Book title.
871           .%C     City/place.
872           .%D     Date.
873           .%J     Journal name.
874           .%N     Issue number.
875           .%O     Optional information.
876           .%P     Page number.
877           .%R     Report name.
878           .%T     Title of article.
879           .%V     Volume(s).
880
881     The macros beginning with ‘%’ are not callable, and are parsed only for
882     the trade name macro which returns to its caller.  (And not very pre‐
883     dictably at the moment either.)  The purpose is to allow trade names to
884     be pretty printed in troff/ditroff output.
885
886   Return Values
887     The ‘.Rv’ macro generates text for use in the RETURN VALUES section.
888
889           Usage: .Rv [-std function]
890
891     ‘.Rv -std atexit’ will generate the following text:
892
893     The atexit() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the
894     value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the
895     error.
896
897     The -std option is valid only for manual page sections 2 and 3.
898
899   Trade Names (or Acronyms and Type Names)
900     The trade name macro is generally a small caps macro for all upper case
901     words longer than two characters.
902
903           Usage: .Tn symbol ...
904                   .Tn DEC
905                          DEC
906                   .Tn ASCII
907                          ASCII
908
909     The ‘.Tn’ macro is parsed and is callable by other macros.
910
911   Extended Arguments
912     The ‘.Xo’ and ‘.Xc’ macros allow one to extend an argument list on a
913     macro boundary.  Argument lists cannot be extended within a macro which
914     expects all of its arguments on one line such as ‘.Op’.
915
916     Here is an example of ‘.Xo’ using the space mode macro to turn spacing
917     off:
918
919           .Sm off
920           .It Xo Sy I Ar operation
921           .No \en Ar count No \en
922           .Xc
923           .Sm on
924
925     Produces
926
927           Ioperation\ncount\n
928
929     Another one:
930
931           .Sm off
932           .It Cm S No / Ar old_pattern Xo
933           .No / Ar new_pattern
934           .No / Op Cm g
935           .Xc
936           .Sm on
937
938     Produces
939
940           S/old_pattern/new_pattern/[g]
941
942     Another example of ‘.Xo’ and using enclosure macros: Test the value of an
943     variable.
944
945           .It Xo
946           .Ic .ifndef
947           .Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar variable
948           .Op Ar operator variable ...
949           .Xc
950
951     Produces
952
953           .ifndef [!]variable [operator variable ...]
954
955     All of the above examples have used the ‘.Xo’ macro on the argument list
956     of the ‘.It’ (list-item) macro.  The extend macros are not used very
957     often, and when they are it is usually to extend the list-item argument
958     list.  Unfortunately, this is also where the extend macros are the most
959     finicky.  In the first two examples, spacing was turned off; in the
960     third, spacing was desired in part of the output but not all of it.  To
961     make these macros work in this situation make sure the ‘.Xo’ and ‘.Xc’
962     macros are placed as shown in the third example.  If the ‘.Xo’ macro is
963     not alone on the ‘.It’ argument list, spacing will be unpredictable.  The
964     ‘.Ns’ (no space macro) must not occur as the first or last macro on a
965     line in this situation.  Out of 900 manual pages (about 1500 actual
966     pages) currently released with BSD only fifteen use the ‘.Xo’ macro.
967

PAGE STRUCTURE DOMAIN

969   Section Headers
970     The first three ‘.Sh’ section header macros list below are required in
971     every man page.  The remaining section headers are recommended at the
972     discretion of the author writing the manual page.  The ‘.Sh’ macro can
973     take up to nine arguments.  It is parsed and but is not callable.
974
975     .Sh NAME  The ‘.Sh NAME’ macro is mandatory.  If not specified, the head‐
976               ers, footers and page layout defaults will not be set and
977               things will be rather unpleasant.  The NAME section consists of
978               at least three items.  The first is the ‘.Nm’ name macro naming
979               the subject of the man page.  The second is the Name Descrip‐
980               tion macro, ‘.Nd’, which separates the subject name from the
981               third item, which is the description.  The description should
982               be the most terse and lucid possible, as the space available is
983               small.
984
985     .Sh SYNOPSIS
986               The SYNOPSIS section describes the typical usage of the subject
987               of a man page.  The  macros required are either ‘.Nm’, ‘.Cd’,
988               ‘.Fn’, (and possibly ‘.Fo’, ‘.Fc’, ‘.Fd’, ‘.Ft’ macros).  The
989               function name macro ‘.Fn’ is required for manual page sections
990               2 and 3, the command and general name macro ‘.Nm’ is required
991               for sections 1, 5, 6, 7, 8.  Section 4 manuals require a ‘.Nm’,
992               ‘.Fd’ or a ‘.Cd’ configuration device usage macro.  Several
993               other macros may be necessary to produce the synopsis line as
994               shown below:
995
996                     cat [-benstuv] [-] file ...
997
998               The following macros were used:
999
1000                     .Nm cat
1001                     .Op Fl benstuv
1002                     .Op Fl
1003                     .Ar
1004
1005               Note: The macros ‘.Op’, ‘.Fl’, and ‘.Ar’ recognize the pipe bar
1006               character ‘|’, so a command line such as:
1007
1008                     .Op Fl a | Fl b
1009
1010               will not go orbital.  Troff normally interprets a | as a spe‐
1011               cial operator.  See PREDEFINED STRINGS for a usable | character
1012               in other situations.
1013
1014     .Sh DESCRIPTION
1015               In most cases the first text in the DESCRIPTION section is a
1016               brief paragraph on the command, function or file, followed by a
1017               lexical list of options and respective explanations.  To create
1018               such a list, the ‘.Bl’ begin-list, ‘.It’ list-item and ‘.El’
1019               end-list macros are used (see Lists and Columns below).
1020
1021     The following ‘.Sh’ section headers are part of the preferred manual page
1022     layout and must be used appropriately to maintain consistency.  They are
1023     listed in the order in which they would be used.
1024
1025     .Sh ENVIRONMENT
1026               The ENVIRONMENT section should reveal any related environment
1027               variables and clues to their behavior and/or usage.
1028
1029     .Sh EXAMPLES
1030               There are several ways to create examples.  See the EXAMPLES
1031               section below for details.
1032
1033     .Sh FILES
1034               Files which are used or created by the man page subject should
1035               be listed via the ‘.Pa’ macro in the FILES section.
1036
1037     .Sh SEE ALSO
1038               References to other material on the man page topic and cross
1039               references to other relevant man pages should be placed in the
1040               SEE ALSO section.  Cross references are specified using the
1041               ‘.Xr’ macro.  Cross references in the SEE ALSO section should
1042               be sorted by section number, and then placed in alphabetical
1043               order and comma separated.  For example:
1044
1045               ls(1), ps(1), group(5), passwd(5).
1046
1047               At this time refer(1) style references are not accommodated.
1048
1049     .Sh CONFORMING TO
1050               If the command, library function or file adheres to a specific
1051               implementation such as IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) or ANSI
1052               X3.159-1989 (“ANSI C89”) this should be noted here.  If the
1053               command does not adhere to any standard, its history should be
1054               noted in the HISTORY section.
1055
1056     .Sh HISTORY
1057               Any command which does not adhere to any specific standards
1058               should be outlined historically in this section.
1059
1060     .Sh AUTHORS
1061               Credits, if need be, should be placed here.
1062
1063     .Sh DIAGNOSTICS
1064               Diagnostics from a command should be placed in this section.
1065
1066     .Sh ERRORS
1067               Specific error handling, especially from library functions (man
1068               page sections 2 and 3) should go here.  The ‘.Er’ macro is used
1069               to specify an errno.
1070
1071     .Sh BUGS  Blatant problems with the topic go here...
1072
1073     User specified ‘.Sh’ sections may be added, for example, this section was
1074     set with:
1075
1076                   .Sh PAGE STRUCTURE DOMAIN
1077
1078   Paragraphs and Line Spacing.
1079     .Pp     The ‘.Pp’ paragraph command may be used to specify a line space
1080             where necessary.  The macro is not necessary after a ‘.Sh’ or
1081             ‘.Ss’ macro or before a ‘.Bl’ macro.  (The ‘.Bl’ macro asserts a
1082             vertical distance unless the -compact flag is given).
1083
1084   Keeps
1085     The only keep that is implemented at this time is for words.  The macros
1086     are ‘.Bk’ (begin-keep) and ‘.Ek’ (end-keep).  The only option that ‘.Bk’
1087     accepts is -words and is useful for preventing line breaks in the middle
1088     of options.  In the example for the make command line arguments (see
1089     What's in a name), the keep prevented nroff from placing up the flag and
1090     the argument on separate lines.  (Actually, the option macro used to pre‐
1091     vent this from occurring, but was dropped when the decision (religious)
1092     was made to force right justified margins in troff as options in general
1093     look atrocious when spread across a sparse line.  More work needs to be
1094     done with the keep macros, a -line option needs to be added.)
1095
1096   Examples and Displays
1097     There are five types of displays, a quickie one line indented display
1098     ‘.D1’, a quickie one line literal display ‘.Dl’, and a block literal,
1099     block filled and block ragged which use the ‘.Bd’ begin-display and ‘.Ed’
1100     end-display macros.
1101
1102     .D1    (D-one) Display one line of indented text.  This macro is parsed,
1103            but it is not callable.
1104
1105                  -ldghfstru
1106
1107            The above was produced by: .Dl -ldghfstru.
1108
1109     .Dl    (D-ell) Display one line of indented literal text.  The ‘.Dl’
1110            example macro has been used throughout this file.  It allows the
1111            indent (display) of one line of text.  Its default font is set to
1112            constant width (literal) however it is parsed and will recognized
1113            other macros.  It is not callable however.
1114
1115                  % ls -ldg /usr/local/bin
1116
1117            The above was produced by .Dl % ls -ldg /usr/local/bin.
1118
1119     .Bd    Begin-display.  The ‘.Bd’ display must be ended with the ‘.Ed’
1120            macro.  Displays may be nested within displays and lists.  ‘.Bd’
1121            has the following syntax:
1122
1123                  .Bd display-type [-offset offset_value] [-compact]
1124
1125            The display-type must be one of the following four types and may
1126            have an offset specifier for indentation: ‘.Bd’.
1127
1128            -ragged           Display a block of text as typed, right (and
1129                              left) margin edges are left ragged.
1130            -filled           Display a filled (formatted) block.  The block
1131                              of text is formatted (the edges are filled - not
1132                              left unjustified).
1133            -literal          Display a literal block, useful for source code
1134                              or simple tabbed or spaced text.
1135            -file file_name   The filename following the -file flag is read
1136                              and displayed.  Literal mode is asserted and
1137                              tabs are set at 8 constant width character
1138                              intervals, however any troff/-mdoc commands in
1139                              file will be processed.
1140            -offset string    If -offset is specified with one of the follow‐
1141                              ing strings, the string is interpreted to indi‐
1142                              cate the level of indentation for the forthcom‐
1143                              ing block of text:
1144
1145                              left        Align block on the current left mar‐
1146                                          gin, this is the default mode of
1147                                          ‘.Bd’.
1148                              center      Supposedly center the block.  At
1149                                          this time unfortunately, the block
1150                                          merely gets left aligned about an
1151                                          imaginary center margin.
1152                              indent      Indents by one default indent value
1153                                          or tab.  The default indent value is
1154                                          also used for the ‘.D1’ display so
1155                                          one is guaranteed the two types of
1156                                          displays will line up.  This indent
1157                                          is normally set to 6n or about two
1158                                          thirds of an inch (six constant
1159                                          width characters).
1160                              indent-two  Indents two times the default indent
1161                                          value.
1162                              right       This left aligns the block about two
1163                                          inches from the right side of the
1164                                          page.  This macro needs work and
1165                                          perhaps may never do the right thing
1166                                          by troff.
1167
1168     .Ed    End-display.
1169
1170   Font Modes
1171     There are five macros for changing the appearance of the manual page
1172     text:
1173
1174     .Em    Text may be stressed or emphasized with the ‘.Em’ macro.  The
1175            usual font for emphasis is italic.
1176
1177                  Usage: .Em argument ...
1178                          .Em does not   does not
1179                          .Em exceed 1024 .
1180                                         exceed 1024.
1181                          .Em vide infra ) ) ,
1182                                         vide infra)),
1183
1184            The ‘.Em’ macro is parsed and is callable.  It is an error to call
1185            ‘.Em’ without arguments.
1186
1187     .Li    The ‘.Li’ literal macro may be used for special characters, vari‐
1188            able constants, anything which should be displayed as it would be
1189            typed.
1190
1191                  Usage: .Li argument ...
1192                          .Li \en    \n
1193                          .Li M1 M2 M3 ;
1194                                     M1 M2 M3;
1195                          .Li cntrl-D ) ,
1196                                     cntrl-D),
1197                          .Li 1024 ...
1198                                     1024 ...
1199
1200            The ‘.Li’ macro is parsed and is callable.
1201
1202     .Sy    The symbolic emphasis macro is generally a boldface macro in
1203            either the symbolic sense or the traditional English usage.
1204
1205                  Usage: .Sy symbol ...
1206                          .Sy Important Notice
1207                                             Important Notice
1208
1209            The ‘.Sy’ macro is parsed and is callable.  Arguments to ‘.Sy’ may
1210            be quoted.
1211
1212     .Bf    Begin font mode.  The ‘.Bf’ font mode must be ended with the ‘.Ef’
1213            macro.  Font modes may be nested within other font modes.  ‘.Bf’
1214            has the following syntax:
1215
1216                  .Bf font-mode
1217
1218            The font-mode must be one of the following three types: ‘.Bf’.
1219
1220            Em | -emphasis    Same as if the ‘.Em’ macro was used for the
1221                              entire block of text.
1222            Li | -literal     Same as if the ‘.Li’ macro was used for the
1223                              entire block of text.
1224            Sy | -symbolic    Same as if the ‘.Sy’ macro was used for the
1225                              entire block of text.
1226
1227     .Ef    End font mode.
1228
1229   Tagged Lists and Columns
1230     There are several types of lists which may be initiated with the ‘.Bl’
1231     begin-list macro.  Items within the list are specified with the ‘.It’
1232     item macro and each list must end with the ‘.El’ macro.  Lists may be
1233     nested within themselves and within displays.  Columns may be used inside
1234     of lists, but lists are unproven inside of columns.
1235
1236     In addition, several list attributes may be specified such as the width
1237     of a tag, the list offset, and compactness (blank lines between items
1238     allowed or disallowed).  Most of this document has been formatted with a
1239     tag style list (-tag).  For a change of pace, the list-type used to
1240     present the list-types is an over-hanging list (-ohang).  This type of
1241     list is quite popular with TeX users, but might look a bit funny after
1242     having read many pages of tagged lists.  The following list types are
1243     accepted by ‘.Bl’:
1244
1245     -bullet
1246     -item
1247     -enum
1248     These three are the simplest types of lists.  Once the ‘.Bl’ macro has
1249     been given, items in the list are merely indicated by a line consisting
1250     solely of the ‘.It’ macro.  For example, the source text for a simple
1251     enumerated list would look like:
1252
1253                 .Bl -enum -compact
1254                 .It
1255                 Item one goes here.
1256                 .It
1257                 And item two here.
1258                 .It
1259                 Lastly item three goes here.
1260                 .El
1261
1262     The results:
1263
1264               1.   Item one goes here.
1265               2.   And item two here.
1266               3.   Lastly item three goes here.
1267
1268     A simple bullet list construction:
1269
1270                 .Bl -bullet -compact
1271                 .It
1272                 Bullet one goes here.
1273                 .It
1274                 Bullet two here.
1275                 .El
1276
1277     Produces:
1278               ·   Bullet one goes here.
1279               ·   Bullet two here.
1280
1281     -tag
1282     -diag
1283     -hang
1284     -ohang
1285     -inset
1286     These list-types collect arguments specified with the ‘.It’ macro and
1287     create a label which may be inset into the forthcoming text, hanged from
1288     the forthcoming text, overhanged from above and not indented or tagged.
1289     This list was constructed with the ‘-ohang’ list-type.  The ‘.It’ macro
1290     is parsed only for the inset, hang and tag list-types and is not
1291     callable.  Here is an example of inset labels:
1292
1293           Tag The tagged list (also called a tagged paragraph) is the most
1294           common type of list used in the Berkeley manuals.
1295
1296           Diag Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists and are simi‐
1297           lar to inset lists except callable macros are ignored.
1298
1299           Hang Hanged labels are a matter of taste.
1300
1301           Ohang Overhanging labels are nice when space is constrained.
1302
1303           Inset Inset labels are useful for controlling blocks of paragraphs
1304           and are valuable for converting -mdoc manuals to other formats.
1305
1306     Here is the source text which produced the above example:
1307
1308           .Bl -inset -offset indent
1309           .It Em Tag
1310           The tagged list (also called a tagged paragraph) is the
1311           most common type of list used in the Berkeley manuals.
1312           .It Em Diag
1313           Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists
1314           and are similar to inset lists except callable
1315           macros are ignored.
1316           .It Em Hang
1317           Hanged labels are a matter of taste.
1318           .It Em Ohang
1319           Overhanging labels are nice when space is constrained.
1320           .It Em Inset
1321           Inset labels are useful for controlling blocks of
1322           paragraphs and are valuable for converting
1323           .Nm -mdoc
1324           manuals to other formats.
1325           .El
1326
1327     Here is a hanged list with two items:
1328
1329           Hanged  labels appear similar to tagged lists when the label is
1330                   smaller than the label width.
1331
1332           Longer hanged list labels blend in to the paragraph unlike tagged
1333                   paragraph labels.
1334
1335     And the unformatted text which created it:
1336
1337           .Bl -hang -offset indent
1338           .It Em Hanged
1339           labels appear similar to tagged lists when the
1340           label is smaller than the label width.
1341           .It Em Longer hanged list labels
1342           blend in to the paragraph unlike
1343           tagged paragraph labels.
1344           .El
1345
1346     The tagged list which follows uses an optional width specifier to control
1347     the width of the tag.
1348
1349           SL      sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
1350           PAGEIN  number of disk I/O's resulting from references by the
1351                   process to pages not loaded in core.
1352           UID     numerical user-id of process owner
1353           PPID    numerical ID of parent of process process priority (non-
1354                   positive when in non-interruptible wait)
1355
1356     The raw text:
1357
1358           .Bl -tag -width "PAGEIN" -compact -offset indent
1359           .It SL
1360           sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
1361           .It PAGEIN
1362           number of disk
1363           .Tn I/O Ns 's
1364           resulting from references
1365           by the process to pages not loaded in core.
1366           .It UID
1367           numerical user ID of process owner
1368           .It PPID
1369           numerical ID of parent of process process priority
1370           (non-positive when in non-interruptible wait)
1371           .El
1372
1373     Acceptable width specifiers:
1374
1375           -width Fl     sets the width to the default width for a flag.  All
1376                         callable macros have a default width value.  The
1377                         ‘.Fl’, value is presently set to ten constant width
1378                         characters or about five sixth of an inch.
1379
1380           -width 24n    sets the width to 24 constant width characters or
1381                         about two inches.  The ‘n’ is absolutely necessary
1382                         for the scaling to work correctly.
1383
1384           -width ENAMETOOLONG
1385                         sets width to the constant width length of the string
1386                         given.
1387
1388           -width "int mkfifo"
1389                         again, the width is set to the constant width of the
1390                         string given.
1391
1392     If a width is not specified for the tag list type, the first time ‘.It’
1393     is invoked, an attempt is made to determine an appropriate width.  If the
1394     first argument to ‘.It’ is a callable macro, the default width for that
1395     macro will be used as if the macro name had been supplied as the width.
1396     However, if another item in the list is given with a different callable
1397     macro name, a new and nested list is assumed.
1398

PREDEFINED STRINGS

1400     The following strings are predefined as may be used by preceding with the
1401     troff string interpreting sequence ‘\*(xx’ where xx is the name of the
1402     defined string or as ‘\*x’ where x is the name of the string.  The inter‐
1403     preting sequence may be used any where in the text.
1404
1405           String     Nroff     Troff
1406           <=         <=        ≤
1407           >=         >=        ≥
1408           Rq         ''        ”
1409           Lq         ``        “
1410           ua         ^         ↑
1411           aa         '         ´
1412           ga         `         `
1413           q          "         "
1414           Pi         pi        π
1415           Ne         !=        ≠
1416           Le         <=        ≤
1417           Ge         >=        ≥
1418           Lt         <         >
1419           Gt         >         <
1420           Pm         +-        ±
1421           If         infinity  ∞
1422           Na         NaN       NaN
1423           Ba         |         |
1424
1425     Note: The string named ‘q’ should be written as ‘\*q’ since it is only
1426     one char.
1427

DIAGNOSTICS

1429     The debugging facilities for -mdoc are limited, but can help detect sub‐
1430     tle errors such as the collision of an argument name with an internal
1431     register or macro name.  (A what?)  A register is an arithmetic storage
1432     class for troff with a one or two character name.  All registers internal
1433     to -mdoc for troff and ditroff are two characters and of the form
1434     <upper_case><lower_case> such as ‘Ar’, <lower_case><upper_case> as ‘aR’
1435     or <upper or lower letter><digit> as ‘C1’.  And adding to the muddle,
1436     troff has its own internal registers all of which are either two lower
1437     case characters or a dot plus a letter or meta-character character.  In
1438     one of the introduction examples, it was shown how to prevent the inter‐
1439     pretation of a macro name with the escape sequence ‘\&’.  This is suffi‐
1440     cient for the internal register names also.
1441
1442     If a non-escaped register name is given in the argument list of a request
1443     unpredictable behavior will occur.  In general, any time huge portions of
1444     text do not appear where expected in the output, or small strings such as
1445     list tags disappear, chances are there is a misunderstanding about an
1446     argument type in the argument list.  Your mother never intended for you
1447     to remember this evil stuff - so here is a way to find out whether or not
1448     your arguments are valid: The ‘.Db’ (debug) macro displays the interpre‐
1449     tation of the argument list for most macros.  Macros such as the ‘.Pp’
1450     (paragraph) macro do not contain debugging information.  All of the
1451     callable macros do, and it is strongly advised whenever in doubt, turn on
1452     the ‘.Db’ macro.
1453
1454           Usage: .Db [on | off]
1455
1456     An example of a portion of text with the debug macro placed above and
1457     below an artificially created problem (a flag argument ‘aC’ which should
1458     be ‘\&aC’ in order to work):
1459
1460           .Db on
1461           .Op Fl aC Ar file )
1462           .Db off
1463
1464     The resulting output:
1465
1466           DEBUGGING ON
1467           DEBUG(argv) MACRO: `.Op'  Line #: 2
1468                   Argc: 1  Argv: `Fl'  Length: 2
1469                   Space: `'  Class: Executable
1470                   Argc: 2  Argv: `aC'  Length: 2
1471                   Space: `'  Class: Executable
1472                   Argc: 3  Argv: `Ar'  Length: 2
1473                   Space: `'  Class: Executable
1474                   Argc: 4  Argv: `file'  Length: 4
1475                   Space: ` '  Class: String
1476                   Argc: 5  Argv: `)'  Length: 1
1477                   Space: ` '  Class: Closing Punctuation or suffix
1478                   MACRO REQUEST: .Op Fl aC Ar file )
1479           DEBUGGING OFF
1480
1481     The first line of information tells the name of the calling macro, here
1482     ‘.Op’, and the line number it appears on.  If one or more files are
1483     involved (especially if text from another file is included) the line num‐
1484     ber may be bogus.  If there is only one file, it should be accurate.  The
1485     second line gives the argument count, the argument (‘Fl’) and its length.
1486     If the length of an argument is two characters, the argument is tested to
1487     see if it is executable (unfortunately, any register which contains a
1488     non-zero value appears executable).  The third line gives the space
1489     allotted for a class, and the class type.  The problem here is the argu‐
1490     ment aC should not be executable.  The four types of classes are string,
1491     executable, closing punctuation and opening punctuation.  The last line
1492     shows the entire argument list as it was read.  In this next example, the
1493     offending ‘aC’ is escaped:
1494
1495           .Db on
1496           .Em An escaped \&aC
1497           .Db off
1498
1499           DEBUGGING ON
1500           DEBUG(fargv) MACRO: `.Em'  Line #: 2
1501                   Argc: 1  Argv: `An'  Length: 2
1502                   Space: ` '  Class: String
1503                   Argc: 2  Argv: `escaped'  Length: 7
1504                   Space: ` '  Class: String
1505                   Argc: 3  Argv: `aC'  Length: 2
1506                   Space: ` '  Class: String
1507                   MACRO REQUEST: .Em An escaped &aC
1508           DEBUGGING OFF
1509
1510     The argument ‘\&aC’ shows up with the same length of 2 as the ‘\&’
1511     sequence produces a zero width, but a register named ‘\&aC’ was not found
1512     and the type classified as string.
1513
1514     Other diagnostics consist of usage statements and are self explanatory.
1515

GROFF, TROFF AND NROFF

1517     The -mdoc package does not need compatibility mode with groff.
1518
1519     The package inhibits page breaks, and the headers and footers which nor‐
1520     mally occur at those breaks with nroff, to make the manual more efficient
1521     for viewing on-line.  At the moment, groff with -Tascii does eject the
1522     imaginary remainder of the page at end of file.  The inhibiting of the
1523     page breaks makes nroff'd files unsuitable for hardcopy.  There is a reg‐
1524     ister named ‘cR’ which can be set to zero in the site dependent style
1525     file /usr/src/share/tmac/doc-nroff to restore the old style behavior.
1526

FILES

1528     /usr/share/tmac/tmac.doc      manual macro package
1529     /usr/share/misc/mdoc.template
1530                                   template for writing a man page
1531     /usr/share/examples/mdoc/*    several example man pages
1532

SEE ALSO

1534     man(1), troff(1), mdoc(7)
1535

BUGS

1537     Undesirable hyphenation on the dash of a flag argument is not yet
1538     resolved, and causes occasional mishaps in the DESCRIPTION section.
1539     (line break on the hyphen).
1540
1541     Predefined strings are not declared in documentation.
1542
1543     Section 3f has not been added to the header routines.
1544
1545     ‘.Nm’ font should be changed in NAME section.
1546
1547     ‘.Fn’ needs to have a check to prevent splitting up if the line length is
1548     too short.  Occasionally it separates the last parenthesis, and sometimes
1549     looks ridiculous if a line is in fill mode.
1550
1551     The method used to prevent header and footer page breaks (other than the
1552     initial header and footer) when using nroff occasionally places an
1553     unsightly partially filled line (blank) at the would be bottom of the
1554     page.
1555
1556     The list and display macros to not do any keeps and certainly should be
1557     able to.
1558
1559BSD                            December 30, 1993                           BSD
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