.\" $OpenBSD: mdoc.7,v 1.186 2024/09/22 10:32:28 schwarze Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, 2011 Kristaps Dzonsons .\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011, 2013-2020 Ingo Schwarze .\" .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. .\" .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: September 22 2024 $ .Dt MDOC 7 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm mdoc .Nd semantic markup language for formatting manual pages .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm mdoc language supports authoring of manual pages for the .Xr man 1 utility by allowing semantic annotations of words, phrases, page sections and complete manual pages. Such annotations are used by formatting tools to achieve a uniform presentation across all manuals written in .Nm , and to support hyperlinking if supported by the output medium. .Pp This reference document describes the structure of manual pages and the syntax and usage of the .Nm language. The reference implementation of a parsing and formatting tool is .Xr mandoc 1 ; the .Sx COMPATIBILITY section describes compatibility with other implementations. .Pp In an .Nm document, lines beginning with the control character .Sq \&. are called .Dq macro lines . The first word is the macro name. It consists of two or three letters. Most macro names begin with a capital letter. For a list of available macros, see .Sx MACRO OVERVIEW . The words following the macro name are arguments to the macro, optionally including the names of other, callable macros; see .Sx MACRO SYNTAX for details. .Pp Lines not beginning with the control character are called .Dq text lines . They provide free-form text to be printed; the formatting of the text depends on the respective processing context: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Sh Macro lines change control state. Text lines are interpreted within the current state. .Ed .Pp Many aspects of the basic syntax of the .Nm language are based on the .Xr roff 7 language; see the .Em LANGUAGE SYNTAX and .Em MACRO SYNTAX sections in the .Xr roff 7 manual for details, in particular regarding comments, escape sequences, whitespace, and quoting. However, using .Xr roff 7 requests in .Nm documents is discouraged; .Xr mandoc 1 supports some of them merely for backward compatibility. .Sh MANUAL STRUCTURE A well-formed .Nm document consists of a document prologue followed by one or more sections. .Pp The prologue, which consists of the .Ic \&Dd , .Ic \&Dt , and .Ic \&Os macros in that order, is required for every document. .Pp The first section (sections are denoted by .Ic \&Sh ) must be the NAME section, consisting of at least one .Ic \&Nm followed by .Ic \&Nd . .Pp Following that, convention dictates specifying at least the .Em SYNOPSIS and .Em DESCRIPTION sections, although this varies between manual sections. .Pp The following is a well-formed skeleton .Nm file for a utility .Qq progname : .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$ \&.Dt PROGNAME section \&.Os \&.Sh NAME \&.Nm progname \&.Nd one line about what it does \&.\e\(dq .Sh LIBRARY \&.\e\(dq For sections 2, 3, and 9 only. \&.\e\(dq Not used in OpenBSD. \&.Sh SYNOPSIS \&.Nm progname \&.Op Fl options \&.Ar \&.Sh DESCRIPTION The \&.Nm utility processes files ... \&.\e\(dq .Sh CONTEXT \&.\e\(dq For section 9 functions only. \&.\e\(dq .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES \&.\e\(dq Not used in OpenBSD. \&.\e\(dq .Sh RETURN VALUES \&.\e\(dq For sections 2, 3, and 9 function return values only. \&.\e\(dq .Sh ENVIRONMENT \&.\e\(dq For sections 1, 6, 7, and 8 only. \&.\e\(dq .Sh FILES \&.\e\(dq .Sh EXIT STATUS \&.\e\(dq For sections 1, 6, and 8 only. \&.\e\(dq .Sh EXAMPLES \&.\e\(dq .Sh DIAGNOSTICS \&.\e\(dq For sections 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 printf/stderr messages only. \&.\e\(dq .Sh ERRORS \&.\e\(dq For sections 2, 3, 4, and 9 errno settings only. \&.\e\(dq .Sh SEE ALSO \&.\e\(dq .Xr foobar 1 \&.\e\(dq .Sh STANDARDS \&.\e\(dq .Sh HISTORY \&.\e\(dq .Sh AUTHORS \&.\e\(dq .Sh CAVEATS \&.\e\(dq .Sh BUGS \&.\e\(dq .Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS \&.\e\(dq Not used in OpenBSD. .Ed .Pp The sections in an .Nm document are conventionally ordered as they appear above. Sections should be composed as follows: .Bl -ohang -offset Ds .It Em NAME The name(s) and a one line description of the documented material. The syntax for this as follows: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Nm name0 , \&.Nm name1 , \&.Nm name2 \&.Nd a one line description .Ed .Pp Multiple .Sq \&Nm names should be separated by commas. .Pp The .Ic \&Nm macro(s) must precede the .Ic \&Nd macro. .Pp See .Ic \&Nm and .Ic \&Nd . .It Em LIBRARY The name of the library containing the documented material, which is assumed to be a function in a section 2, 3, or 9 manual. The syntax for this is as follows: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Lb libarm .Ed .Pp See .Ic \&Lb . .It Em SYNOPSIS Documents the utility invocation syntax, function call syntax, or device configuration. .Pp For the first, utilities (sections 1, 6, and 8), this is generally structured as follows: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Nm bar \&.Op Fl v \&.Op Fl o Ar file \&.Op Ar \&.Nm foo \&.Op Fl v \&.Op Fl o Ar file \&.Op Ar .Ed .Pp Commands should be ordered alphabetically. .Pp For the second, function calls (sections 2, 3, 9): .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.In header.h \&.Vt extern const char *global; \&.Ft "char *" \&.Fn foo "const char *src" \&.Ft "char *" \&.Fn bar "const char *src" .Ed .Pp Ordering of .Ic \&In , .Ic \&Vt , .Ic \&Fn , and .Ic \&Fo macros should follow C header-file conventions. .Pp And for the third, configurations (section 4): .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Cd \(dqit* at isa? port 0x2e\(dq \&.Cd \(dqit* at isa? port 0x4e\(dq .Ed .Pp Manuals not in these sections generally don't need a .Em SYNOPSIS . .Pp Some macros are displayed differently in the .Em SYNOPSIS section, particularly .Ic \&Nm , .Ic \&Cd , .Ic \&Fd , .Ic \&Fn , .Ic \&Fo , .Ic \&In , .Ic \&Vt , and .Ic \&Ft . All of these macros are output on their own line. If two such dissimilar macros are pairwise invoked (except for .Ic \&Ft before .Ic \&Fo or .Ic \&Fn ) , they are separated by a vertical space, unless in the case of .Ic \&Fo , .Ic \&Fn , and .Ic \&Ft , which are always separated by vertical space. .Pp When text and macros following an .Ic \&Nm macro starting an input line span multiple output lines, all output lines but the first will be indented to align with the text immediately following the .Ic \&Nm macro, up to the next .Ic \&Nm , .Ic \&Sh , or .Ic \&Ss macro or the end of an enclosing block, whichever comes first. .It Em DESCRIPTION This begins with an expansion of the brief, one line description in .Em NAME : .Bd -literal -offset indent The \&.Nm utility does this, that, and the other. .Ed .Pp It usually follows with a breakdown of the options (if documenting a command), such as: .Bd -literal -offset indent The options are as follows: \&.Bl \-tag \-width Ds \&.It Fl v Print verbose information. \&.El .Ed .Pp List the options in alphabetical order, uppercase before lowercase for each letter and with no regard to whether an option takes an argument. Put digits in ascending order before all letter options. .Pp Manuals not documenting a command won't include the above fragment. .Pp Since the .Em DESCRIPTION section usually contains most of the text of a manual, longer manuals often use the .Ic \&Ss macro to form subsections. In very long manuals, the .Em DESCRIPTION may be split into multiple sections, each started by an .Ic \&Sh macro followed by a non-standard section name, and each having several subsections, like in the present .Nm manual. .It Em CONTEXT This section lists the contexts in which functions can be called in section 9. The contexts are autoconf, process, or interrupt. .It Em IMPLEMENTATION NOTES Implementation-specific notes should be kept here. This is useful when implementing standard functions that may have side effects or notable algorithmic implications. .It Em RETURN VALUES This section documents the return values of functions in sections 2, 3, and 9. .Pp See .Ic \&Rv . .It Em ENVIRONMENT Lists the environment variables used by the utility, and explains the syntax and semantics of their values. The .Xr environ 7 manual provides examples of typical content and formatting. .Pp See .Ic \&Ev . .It Em FILES Documents files used. It's helpful to document both the file name and a short description of how the file is used (created, modified, etc.). .Pp See .Ic \&Pa . .It Em EXIT STATUS This section documents the command exit status for section 1, 6, and 8 utilities. Historically, this information was described in .Em DIAGNOSTICS , a practise that is now discouraged. .Pp See .Ic \&Ex . .It Em EXAMPLES Example usages. This often contains snippets of well-formed, well-tested invocations. Make sure that examples work properly! .It Em DIAGNOSTICS Documents error messages. In section 4 and 9 manuals, these are usually messages printed by the kernel to the console and to the kernel log. In section 1, 6, 7, and 8, these are usually messages printed by userland programs to the standard error output. .Pp Historically, this section was used in place of .Em EXIT STATUS for manuals in sections 1, 6, and 8; however, this practise is discouraged. .Pp See .Ic \&Bl .Fl diag . .It Em ERRORS Documents .Xr errno 2 settings in sections 2, 3, 4, and 9. .Pp See .Ic \&Er . .It Em SEE ALSO References other manuals with related topics. This section should exist for most manuals. Cross-references should conventionally be ordered first by section, then alphabetically (ignoring case). .Pp References to other documentation concerning the topic of the manual page, for example authoritative books or journal articles, may also be provided in this section. .Pp See .Ic \&Rs and .Ic \&Xr . .It Em STANDARDS References any standards implemented or used. If not adhering to any standards, the .Em HISTORY section should be used instead. .Pp See .Ic \&St . .It Em HISTORY A brief history of the subject, including where it was first implemented, and when it was ported to or reimplemented for the operating system at hand. .It Em AUTHORS Credits to the person or persons who wrote the code and/or documentation. Authors should generally be noted by both name and email address. .Pp See .Ic \&An . .It Em CAVEATS Common misuses and misunderstandings should be explained in this section. .It Em BUGS Known bugs, limitations, and work-arounds should be described in this section. .It Em SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS Documents any security precautions that operators should consider. .El .Sh MACRO OVERVIEW This overview is sorted such that macros of similar purpose are listed together, to help find the best macro for any given purpose. Deprecated macros are not included in the overview, but can be found below in the alphabetical .Sx MACRO REFERENCE . .Ss Document preamble and NAME section macros .Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description .It Ic \&Dd Ta document date: Cm $\&Mdocdate$ | Ar month day , year .It Ic \&Dt Ta document title: Ar TITLE section Op Ar arch .It Ic \&Os Ta operating system footer: Op Ar footer text .It Ic \&Nm Ta document name (one argument) .It Ic \&Nd Ta document description (one line) .El .Ss Sections and cross references .Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description .It Ic \&Sh Ta section header (one line) .It Ic \&Ss Ta subsection header (one line) .It Ic \&Sx Ta internal cross reference to a section or subsection .It Ic \&Xr Ta cross reference to another manual page: Ar name section .It Ic \&Tg Ta tag the definition of a Ar term Pq <= 1 arguments .It Ic \&Pp Ta start a text paragraph (no arguments) .El .Ss Displays and lists .Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description .It Ic \&Bd , \&Ed Ta display block: .Fl Ar type .Op Fl offset Ar width .Op Fl compact .It Ic \&D1 Ta indented display (one line) .It Ic \&Dl Ta indented literal display (one line) .It Ic \&Ql Ta in-line literal display: Ql text .It Ic \&Bl , \&El Ta list block: .Fl Ar type .Op Fl width Ar val .Op Fl offset Ar val .Op Fl compact .It Ic \&It Ta list item (syntax depends on Fl Ar type ) .It Ic \&Ta Ta table cell separator in Ic \&Bl Fl column No lists .It Ic \&Rs , \&%* , \&Re Ta bibliographic block (references) .El .Ss Spacing control .Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description .It Ic \&Pf Ta prefix, no following horizontal space (one argument) .It Ic \&Ns Ta roman font, no preceding horizontal space (no arguments) .It Ic \&Ap Ta apostrophe without surrounding whitespace (no arguments) .It Ic \&Sm Ta switch horizontal spacing mode: Op Cm on | off .It Ic \&Bk , \&Ek Ta keep block: Fl words .El .Ss Semantic markup for command line utilities .Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description .It Ic \&Nm Ta start a SYNOPSIS block with the name of a utility .It Ic \&Fl Ta command line options (flags) (>=0 arguments) .It Ic \&Cm Ta command modifier (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Ar Ta command arguments (>=0 arguments) .It Ic \&Op , \&Oo , \&Oc Ta optional syntax elements (enclosure) .It Ic \&Ic Ta internal or interactive command (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Ev Ta environmental variable (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Pa Ta file system path (>=0 arguments) .El .Ss Semantic markup for function libraries .Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description .It Ic \&Lb Ta function library (one argument) .It Ic \&In Ta include file (one argument) .It Ic \&Fd Ta other preprocessor directive (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Ft Ta function type (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Fo , \&Fc Ta function block: Ar funcname .It Ic \&Fn Ta function name: Ar funcname Op Ar argument ... .It Ic \&Fa Ta function argument (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Vt Ta variable type (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Va Ta variable name (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Dv Ta defined variable or preprocessor constant (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Er Ta error constant (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Ev Ta environmental variable (>0 arguments) .El .Ss Various semantic markup .Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description .It Ic \&An Ta author name (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Lk Ta hyperlink: Ar uri Op Ar display_name .It Ic \&Mt Ta Do mailto Dc hyperlink: Ar localpart Ns @ Ns Ar domain .It Ic \&Cd Ta kernel configuration declaration (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Ad Ta memory address (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Ms Ta mathematical symbol (>0 arguments) .El .Ss Physical markup .Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description .It Ic \&Em Ta italic font or underline (emphasis) (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Sy Ta boldface font (symbolic) (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&No Ta return to roman font (normal) (>0 arguments) .It Ic \&Bf , \&Ef Ta font block: Fl Ar type | Cm \&Em | \&Li | \&Sy .El .Ss Physical enclosures .Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description .It Ic \&Dq , \&Do , \&Dc Ta enclose in typographic double quotes: Dq text .It Ic \&Qq , \&Qo , \&Qc Ta enclose in typewriter double quotes: Qq text .It Ic \&Sq , \&So , \&Sc Ta enclose in single quotes: Sq text .It Ic \&Pq , \&Po , \&Pc Ta enclose in parentheses: Pq text .It Ic \&Bq , \&Bo , \&Bc Ta enclose in square brackets: Bq text .It Ic \&Brq , \&Bro , \&Brc Ta enclose in curly braces: Brq text .It Ic \&Aq , \&Ao , \&Ac Ta enclose in angle brackets: Aq text .It Ic \&Eo , \&Ec Ta generic enclosure .El .Ss Text production .Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description .It Ic \&Ex Fl std Ta standard command exit values: Op Ar utility ... .It Ic \&Rv Fl std Ta standard function return values: Op Ar function ... .It Ic \&St Ta reference to a standards document (one argument) .It Ic \&At Ta At .It Ic \&Bx Ta Bx .It Ic \&Bsx Ta Bsx .It Ic \&Nx Ta Nx .It Ic \&Fx Ta Fx .It Ic \&Ox Ta Ox .It Ic \&Dx Ta Dx .El .Sh MACRO REFERENCE This section is a canonical reference of all macros, arranged alphabetically. For the scoping of individual macros, see .Sx MACRO SYNTAX . .Bl -tag -width 3n .It Ic \&%A Ar first_name ... last_name Author name of an .Ic \&Rs block. Multiple authors should each be accorded their own .Ic \%%A line. Author names should be ordered with full or abbreviated forename(s) first, then full surname. .It Ic \&%B Ar title Book title of an .Ic \&Rs block. This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographic context when referring to book titles. .It Ic \&%C Ar location Publication city or location of an .Ic \&Rs block. .It Ic \&%D Oo Ar month day , Oc Ar year Publication date of an .Ic \&Rs block. Provide the full English name of the .Ar month and all four digits of the .Ar year . .It Ic \&%I Ar name Publisher or issuer name of an .Ic \&Rs block. .It Ic \&%J Ar name Journal name of an .Ic \&Rs block. .It Ic \&%N Ar number Issue number (usually for journals) of an .Ic \&Rs block. .It Ic \&%O Ar line Optional information of an .Ic \&Rs block. .It Ic \&%P Ar number Book or journal page number of an .Ic \&Rs block. Conventionally, the argument starts with .Ql p.\& for a single page or .Ql pp.\& for a range of pages, for example: .Pp .Dl .%P pp. 42\e(en47 .It Ic \&%Q Ar name Institutional author (school, government, etc.) of an .Ic \&Rs block. Multiple institutional authors should each be accorded their own .Ic \&%Q line. .It Ic \&%R Ar name Technical report name of an .Ic \&Rs block. .It Ic \&%T Ar title Article title of an .Ic \&Rs block. This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographical context when referring to article titles. .It Ic \&%U Ar protocol Ns :// Ns Ar path URI of reference document. .It Ic \&%V Ar number Volume number of an .Ic \&Rs block. .It Ic \&Ac Close an .Ic \&Ao block. Does not have any tail arguments. .Tg Ad .It Ic \&Ad Ar address Memory address. Do not use this for postal addresses. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Ad [0,$] .Dl \&.Ad 0x00000000 .Tg An .It Ic \&An Fl split | nosplit | Ar first_name ... last_name Author name. Can be used both for the authors of the program, function, or driver documented in the manual, or for the authors of the manual itself. Requires either the name of an author or one of the following arguments: .Pp .Bl -tag -width "-nosplitX" -offset indent -compact .It Fl split Start a new output line before each subsequent invocation of .Ic \&An . .It Fl nosplit The opposite of .Fl split . .El .Pp The default is .Fl nosplit . The effect of selecting either of the .Fl split modes ends at the beginning of the .Em AUTHORS section. In the .Em AUTHORS section, the default is .Fl nosplit for the first author listing and .Fl split for all other author listings. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.An -nosplit .Dl \&.An Kristaps Dzonsons \&Aq \&Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .It Ic \&Ao Ar block Begin a block enclosed by angle brackets. Does not have any head arguments. This macro is almost never useful. See .Ic \&Aq for more details. .Tg Ap .It Ic \&Ap Inserts an apostrophe without any surrounding whitespace. This is generally used as a grammatical device when referring to the verb form of a function. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Fn execve \&Ap d .Tg Aq .It Ic \&Aq Ar line Enclose the rest of the input line in angle brackets. The only important use case is for email addresses. See .Ic \&Mt for an example. .Pp Occasionally, it is used for names of characters and keys, for example: .Bd -literal -offset indent Press the \&.Aq escape key to ... .Ed .Pp For URIs, use .Ic \&Lk instead, and .Ic \&In for .Dq #include directives. Never wrap .Ic \&Ar in .Ic \&Aq . .Pp Since .Ic \&Aq usually renders with non-ASCII characters in non-ASCII output modes, do not use it where the ASCII characters .Sq < and .Sq > are required as syntax elements. Instead, use these characters directly in such cases, combining them with the macros .Ic \&Pf , .Ic \&Ns , or .Ic \&Eo as needed. .Pp See also .Ic \&Ao . .Tg Ar .It Ic \&Ar Op Ar placeholder ... Command arguments. If an argument is not provided, the string .Dq file ...\& is used as a default. .Pp Examples: .Dl ".Fl o Ar file" .Dl ".Ar" .Dl ".Ar arg1 , arg2 ." .Pp The arguments to the .Ic \&Ar macro are names and placeholders for command arguments; for fixed strings to be passed verbatim as arguments, use .Ic \&Fl or .Ic \&Cm . .Tg At .It Ic \&At Op Ar version Formats an .At version. Accepts one optional argument: .Pp .Bl -tag -width "v[1-7] | 32vX" -offset indent -compact .It Cm v[1-7] | 32v A version of .At . .It Cm III .At III . .It Cm V | V.[1-4] A version of .At V . .El .Pp Note that these arguments do not begin with a hyphen. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.At .Dl \&.At III .Dl \&.At V.1 .Pp See also .Ic \&Bsx , .Ic \&Bx , .Ic \&Dx , .Ic \&Fx , .Ic \&Nx , and .Ic \&Ox . .It Ic \&Bc Close a .Ic \&Bo block. Does not have any tail arguments. .Tg Bd .It Ic \&Bd Fl Ns Ar type Oo Fl offset Ar width Oc Op Fl compact Begin a display block. Display blocks are used to select a different indentation and justification than the one used by the surrounding text. They may contain both macro lines and text lines. By default, a display block is preceded by a vertical space. .Pp The .Ar type must be one of the following: .Bl -tag -width 13n -offset indent .It Fl centered Produce one output line from each input line, and center-justify each line. Using this display type is not recommended; many .Nm implementations render it poorly. .It Fl filled Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left- and right-justify the resulting block. .It Fl literal Produce one output line from each input line, and do not justify the block at all. Preserve white space as it appears in the input. Always use a constant-width font. Use this for displaying source code. .It Fl ragged Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left-justify the resulting block. .It Fl unfilled The same as .Fl literal , but using the same font as for normal text, which is a variable width font if supported by the output device. .El .Pp The .Ar type must be provided first. Additional arguments may follow: .Bl -tag -width 13n -offset indent .It Fl offset Ar width Indent the display by the .Ar width , which may be one of the following: .Bl -item .It One of the pre-defined strings .Cm indent , the width of a standard indentation (six constant width characters); .Cm indent-two , twice .Cm indent ; .Cm left , which has no effect; .Cm right , which justifies to the right margin; or .Cm center , which aligns around an imagined center axis. .It A macro invocation, which selects a predefined width associated with that macro. The most popular is the imaginary macro .Ar \&Ds , which resolves to .Sy 6n . .It A scaling width as described in .Xr roff 7 . .It An arbitrary string, which indents by the length of this string. .El .Pp When the argument is missing, .Fl offset is ignored. .It Fl compact Do not assert vertical space before the display. .El .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Bd \-literal \-offset indent \-compact Hello world. \&.Ed .Ed .Pp See also .Ic \&D1 and .Ic \&Dl . .Tg Bf .It Ic \&Bf Fl emphasis | literal | symbolic | Cm \&Em | \&Li | \&Sy Change the font mode for a scoped block of text. The .Fl emphasis and .Cm \&Em argument are equivalent, as are .Fl symbolic and .Cm \&Sy , and .Fl literal and .Cm \&Li . Without an argument, this macro does nothing. The font mode continues until broken by a new font mode in a nested scope or .Ic \&Ef is encountered. .Pp See also .Ic \&Li , .Ic \&Ef , .Ic \&Em , and .Ic \&Sy . .Tg Bk .It Ic \&Bk Fl words For each macro, keep its output together on the same output line, until the end of the macro or the end of the input line is reached, whichever comes first. Line breaks in text lines are unaffected. .Pp The .Fl words argument is required; additional arguments are ignored. .Pp The following example will not break within each .Ic \&Op macro line: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Bk \-words \&.Op Fl f Ar flags \&.Op Fl o Ar output \&.Ek .Ed .Pp Be careful in using over-long lines within a keep block! Doing so will clobber the right margin. .Tg Bl .It Xo .Ic \&Bl .Fl Ns Ar type .Op Fl width Ar val .Op Fl offset Ar val .Op Fl compact .Op Ar col ... .Xc Begin a list. Lists consist of items specified using the .Ic \&It macro, containing a head or a body or both. .Pp The list .Ar type is mandatory and must be specified first. The .Fl width and .Fl offset arguments accept macro names as described for .Ic \&Bd .Fl offset , scaling widths as described in .Xr roff 7 , or use the length of the given string. The .Fl offset is a global indentation for the whole list, affecting both item heads and bodies. For those list types supporting it, the .Fl width argument requests an additional indentation of item bodies, to be added to the .Fl offset . Unless the .Fl compact argument is specified, list entries are separated by vertical space. .Pp A list must specify one of the following list types: .Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent .It Fl bullet No item heads can be specified, but a bullet will be printed at the head of each item. Item bodies start on the same output line as the bullet and are indented according to the .Fl width argument. .It Fl column A columnated list. The .Fl width argument has no effect; instead, the string length of each argument specifies the width of one column. If the first line of the body of a .Fl column list is not an .Ic \&It macro line, .Ic \&It contexts spanning one input line each are implied until an .Ic \&It macro line is encountered, at which point items start being interpreted as described in the .Ic \&It documentation. .It Fl dash Like .Fl bullet , except that dashes are used in place of bullets. .It Fl diag Like .Fl inset , except that item heads are not parsed for macro invocations. Most often used in the .Em DIAGNOSTICS section with error constants in the item heads. .It Fl enum A numbered list. No item heads can be specified. Formatted like .Fl bullet , except that ordinal numbers are used in place of bullets, starting at 1. .It Fl hang Like .Fl tag , except that the first lines of item bodies are not indented, but follow the item heads like in .Fl inset lists. .It Fl hyphen Synonym for .Fl dash . .It Fl inset Item bodies follow items heads on the same line, using normal inter-word spacing. Bodies are not indented, and the .Fl width argument is ignored. .It Fl item No item heads can be specified, and none are printed. Bodies are not indented, and the .Fl width argument is ignored. .It Fl ohang Item bodies start on the line following item heads and are not indented. The .Fl width argument is ignored. .It Fl tag Item bodies are indented according to the .Fl width argument. When an item head fits inside the indentation, the item body follows this head on the same output line. Otherwise, the body starts on the output line following the head. .El .Pp Lists may be nested within lists and displays. Nesting of .Fl column and .Fl enum lists may not be portable. .Pp See also .Ic \&El and .Ic \&It . .It Ic \&Bo Ar block Begin a block enclosed by square brackets. Does not have any head arguments. .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact \&.Bo 1 , \&.Dv BUFSIZ \&Bc .Ed .Pp See also .Ic \&Bq . .Tg Bq .It Ic \&Bq Ar line Encloses its arguments in square brackets. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Bq 1 , \&Dv BUFSIZ .Pp .Em Remarks : this macro is sometimes abused to emulate optional arguments for commands; the correct macros to use for this purpose are .Ic \&Op , .Ic \&Oo , and .Ic \&Oc . .Pp See also .Ic \&Bo . .It Ic \&Brc Close a .Ic \&Bro block. Does not have any tail arguments. .It Ic \&Bro Ar block Begin a block enclosed by curly braces. Does not have any head arguments. .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact \&.Bro 1 , ... , \&.Va n \&Brc .Ed .Pp See also .Ic \&Brq . .Tg Brq .It Ic \&Brq Ar line Encloses its arguments in curly braces. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Brq 1 , ... , \&Va n .Pp See also .Ic \&Bro . .Tg Bsx .It Ic \&Bsx Op Ar version Format the .Bsx version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Bsx 1.0 .Dl \&.Bsx .Pp See also .Ic \&At , .Ic \&Bx , .Ic \&Dx , .Ic \&Fx , .Ic \&Nx , and .Ic \&Ox . .It Ic \&Bt Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints .Dq is currently in beta test. .Tg Bx .It Ic \&Bx Op Ar version Op Ar variant Format the .Bx version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Bx 4.3 Tahoe .Dl \&.Bx 4.4 .Dl \&.Bx .Pp See also .Ic \&At , .Ic \&Bsx , .Ic \&Dx , .Ic \&Fx , .Ic \&Nx , and .Ic \&Ox . .Tg Cd .It Ic \&Cd Ar line Kernel configuration declaration. This denotes strings accepted by .Xr config 8 . It is most often used in section 4 manual pages. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Cd device le0 at scode? .Pp .Em Remarks : this macro is commonly abused by using quoted literals to retain whitespace and align consecutive .Ic \&Cd declarations. This practise is discouraged. .Tg Cm .It Ic \&Cm Ar keyword ... Command modifiers. Typically used for fixed strings passed as arguments to interactive commands, to commands in interpreted scripts, or to configuration file directives, unless .Ic \&Fl is more appropriate. .Pp Examples: .Dl ".Nm mt Fl f Ar device Cm rewind" .Dl ".Nm ps Fl o Cm pid , Ns Cm command" .Dl ".Nm dd Cm if= Ns Ar file1 Cm of= Ns Ar file2" .Dl ".Ic set Fl o Cm vi" .Dl ".Ic lookup Cm file bind" .Dl ".Ic permit Ar identity Op Cm as Ar target" .Tg D1 .It Ic \&D1 Ar line One-line indented display. This is formatted by the default rules and is useful for simple indented statements. It is followed by a newline. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.D1 \&Fl abcdefgh .Pp See also .Ic \&Bd and .Ic \&Dl . .It Ic \&Db This macro is obsolete. No replacement is needed. It is ignored by .Xr mandoc 1 and groff including its arguments. It was formerly used to toggle a debugging mode. .It Ic \&Dc Close a .Ic \&Do block. Does not have any tail arguments. .Tg Dd .It Ic \&Dd Cm $\&Mdocdate$ | Ar month day , year Document date for display in the page footer, by convention the date of the last change. This is the mandatory first macro of any .Nm manual. .Pp The .Ar month is the full English month name, the .Ar day is an integer number, and the .Ar year is the full four-digit year. .Pp Other arguments are not portable; the .Xr mandoc 1 utility handles them as follows: .Bl -dash -offset 3n -compact .It To have the date automatically filled in by the .Ox version of .Xr cvs 1 , the special string .Dq $\&Mdocdate$ can be given as an argument. .It The traditional, purely numeric .Xr man 7 format .Ar year Ns \(en Ns Ar month Ns \(en Ns Ar day is accepted, too. .It If a date string cannot be parsed, it is used verbatim. .It If no date string is given, the current date is used. .El .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$ .Dl \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate: July 2 2018$ .Dl \&.Dd July 2, 2018 .Pp See also .Ic \&Dt and .Ic \&Os . .Tg Dl .It Ic \&Dl Ar line One-line indented display. This is formatted as literal text and is useful for commands and invocations. It is followed by a newline. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Dl % mandoc mdoc.7 \e(ba less .Pp See also .Ic \&Ql , .Ic \&Bd Fl literal , and .Ic \&D1 . .It Ic \&Do Ar block Begin a block enclosed by double quotes. Does not have any head arguments. .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact \&.Do April is the cruellest month \&.Dc \e(em T.S. Eliot .Ed .Pp See also .Ic \&Dq . .Tg Dq .It Ic \&Dq Ar line Encloses its arguments in .Dq typographic double-quotes. .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact \&.Dq April is the cruellest month \e(em T.S. Eliot .Ed .Pp See also .Ic \&Qq , .Ic \&Sq , and .Ic \&Do . .Tg Dt .It Ic \&Dt Ar TITLE section Op Ar arch Document title for display in the page header. This is the mandatory second macro of any .Nm file. .Pp Its arguments are as follows: .Bl -tag -width section -offset 2n .It Ar TITLE The document's title (name), defaulting to .Dq UNTITLED if unspecified. To achieve a uniform appearance of page header lines, it should by convention be all caps. .It Ar section The manual section. This may be one of .Cm 1 .Pq General Commands , .Cm 2 .Pq System Calls , .Cm 3 .Pq Library Functions , .Cm 3p .Pq Perl Library , .Cm 4 .Pq Device Drivers , .Cm 5 .Pq File Formats , .Cm 6 .Pq Games , .Cm 7 .Pq Miscellaneous Information , .Cm 8 .Pq System Manager's Manual , or .Cm 9 .Pq Kernel Developer's Manual . It should correspond to the manual's filename suffix and defaults to the empty string if unspecified. .It Ar arch This specifies the machine architecture a manual page applies to, where relevant. For .Ox , the following are valid architectures: .Cm alpha , .Cm amd64 , .Cm armv7 , .Cm arm64 , .Cm hppa , .Cm i386 , .Cm landisk , .Cm loongson , .Cm luna88k , .Cm macppc , .Cm mips64 , .Cm octeon , .Cm powerpc64 , .Cm riscv64 , and .Cm sparc64 . .El .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Dt FOO 1 .Dl \&.Dt FOO 9 i386 .Pp See also .Ic \&Dd and .Ic \&Os . .Tg Dv .It Ic \&Dv Ar identifier ... Defined variables such as preprocessor constants, constant symbols, enumeration values, and so on. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Dv NULL .Dl \&.Dv BUFSIZ .Dl \&.Dv STDOUT_FILENO .Pp See also .Ic \&Er and .Ic \&Ev for special-purpose constants, .Ic \&Va for variable symbols, and .Ic \&Fd for listing preprocessor variable definitions in the .Em SYNOPSIS . .Tg Dx .It Ic \&Dx Op Ar version Format the .Dx version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Dx 2.4.1 .Dl \&.Dx .Pp See also .Ic \&At , .Ic \&Bsx , .Ic \&Bx , .Ic \&Fx , .Ic \&Nx , and .Ic \&Ox . .It Ic \&Ec Op Ar closing_delimiter Close a scope started by .Ic \&Eo . .Pp The .Ar closing_delimiter argument is used as the enclosure tail, for example, specifying \e(rq will emulate .Ic \&Dc . .It Ic \&Ed End a display context started by .Ic \&Bd . .It Ic \&Ef End a font mode context started by .Ic \&Bf . .It Ic \&Ek End a keep context started by .Ic \&Bk . .It Ic \&El End a list context started by .Ic \&Bl . See also .Ic \&It . .Tg Em .It Ic \&Em Ar word ... Request an italic font. If the output device does not provide that, underline. .Pp This is most often used for stress emphasis (not to be confused with importance, see .Ic \&Sy ) . In the rare cases where none of the semantic markup macros fit, it can also be used for technical terms and placeholders, except that for syntax elements, .Ic \&Sy and .Ic \&Ar are preferred, respectively. .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -compact -offset indent Selected lines are those \&.Em not matching any of the specified patterns. Some of the functions use a \&.Em hold space to save the pattern space for subsequent retrieval. .Ed .Pp See also .Ic \&No , .Ic \&Ql , and .Ic \&Sy . .It Ic \&En Ar word ... This macro is obsolete. Use .Ic \&Eo or any of the other enclosure macros. .Pp It encloses its argument in the delimiters specified by the last .Ic \&Es macro. .Tg Eo .It Ic \&Eo Op Ar opening_delimiter An arbitrary enclosure. The .Ar opening_delimiter argument is used as the enclosure head, for example, specifying \e(lq will emulate .Ic \&Do . .Tg Er .It Ic \&Er Ar identifier ... Error constants for definitions of the .Va errno libc global variable. This is most often used in section 2 and 3 manual pages. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Er EPERM .Dl \&.Er ENOENT .Pp See also .Ic \&Dv for general constants. .It Ic \&Es Ar opening_delimiter closing_delimiter This macro is obsolete. Use .Ic \&Eo or any of the other enclosure macros. .Pp It takes two arguments, defining the delimiters to be used by subsequent .Ic \&En macros. .Tg Ev .It Ic \&Ev Ar identifier ... Environmental variables such as those specified in .Xr environ 7 . .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Ev DISPLAY .Dl \&.Ev PATH .Pp See also .Ic \&Dv for general constants. .Tg Ex .It Ic \&Ex Fl std Op Ar utility ... Insert a standard sentence regarding command exit values of 0 on success and >0 on failure. This is most often used in section 1, 6, and 8 manual pages. .Pp If .Ar utility is not specified, the document's name set by .Ic \&Nm is used. Multiple .Ar utility arguments are treated as separate utilities. .Pp See also .Ic \&Rv . .Tg Fa .It Ic \&Fa Ar argument ... Function argument or parameter. Each argument may be a name and a type (recommended for the .Em SYNOPSIS section), a name alone (for function invocations), or a type alone (for function prototypes). If both a type and a name are given or if the type consists of multiple words, all words belonging to the same function argument have to be given in a single argument to the .Ic \&Fa macro. .Pp This macro is also used to specify the field name of a structure. .Pp Most often, the .Ic \&Fa macro is used in the .Em SYNOPSIS within .Ic \&Fo blocks when documenting multi-line function prototypes. If invoked with multiple arguments, the arguments are separated by a comma. Furthermore, if the following macro is another .Ic \&Fa , the last argument will also have a trailing comma. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Fa \(dqconst char *p\(dq .Dl \&.Fa \(dqint a\(dq \(dqint b\(dq \(dqint c\(dq .Dl \&.Fa \(dqchar *\(dq size_t .Pp See also .Ic \&Fo . .It Ic \&Fc End a function context started by .Ic \&Fo . .Tg Fd .It Ic \&Fd Pf # Ar directive Op Ar argument ... Preprocessor directive, in particular for listing it in the .Em SYNOPSIS . Historically, it was also used to document include files. The latter usage has been deprecated in favour of .Ic \&In . .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Fd #define sa_handler __sigaction_u.__sa_handler .Dl \&.Fd #define SIO_MAXNFDS .Dl \&.Fd #ifdef FS_DEBUG .Dl \&.Ft void .Dl \&.Fn dbg_open \(dqconst char *\(dq .Dl \&.Fd #endif .Pp See also .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE , .Ic \&In , and .Ic \&Dv . .Tg Fl .It Ic \&Fl Op Ar word ... Command-line flag or option. Used when listing arguments to command-line utilities. For each argument, prints an ASCII hyphen-minus character .Sq \- , immediately followed by the argument. If no arguments are provided, a hyphen-minus is printed followed by a space. If the argument is a macro, a hyphen-minus is prefixed to the subsequent macro output. .Pp Examples: .Dl ".Nm du Op Fl H | L | P" .Dl ".Nm ls Op Fl 1AaCcdFfgHhikLlmnopqRrSsTtux" .Dl ".Nm route Cm add Fl inet Ar destination gateway" .Dl ".Nm locate.updatedb Op Fl \e-fcodes Ns = Ns Ar dbfile" .Dl ".Nm aucat Fl o Fl" .Dl ".Nm kill Fl Ar signal_number" .Pp For GNU-style long options, escaping the additional hyphen-minus is not strictly required, but may be safer with future versions of GNU troff; see .Xr mandoc_char 7 for details. .Pp See also .Ic \&Cm . .Tg Fn .It Ic \&Fn Ar funcname Op Ar argument ... A function name. .Pp Function arguments are surrounded in parenthesis and are delimited by commas. If no arguments are specified, blank parenthesis are output. In the .Em SYNOPSIS section, this macro starts a new output line, and a blank line is automatically inserted between function definitions. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Fn \(dqint funcname\(dq \(dqint arg0\(dq \(dqint arg1\(dq .Dl \&.Fn funcname \(dqint arg0\(dq .Dl \&.Fn funcname arg0 .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Ft functype \&.Fn funcname .Ed .Pp When referring to a function documented in another manual page, use .Ic \&Xr instead. See also .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE , .Ic \&Fo , and .Ic \&Ft . .Tg Fo .It Ic \&Fo Ar funcname Begin a function block. This is a multi-line version of .Ic \&Fn . .Pp Invocations usually occur in the following context: .Bd -ragged -offset indent .Pf \. Ic \&Ft Ar functype .br .Pf \. Ic \&Fo Ar funcname .br .Pf \. Ic \&Fa Qq Ar argtype Ar argname .br \&.\.\. .br .Pf \. Ic \&Fc .Ed .Pp A .Ic \&Fo scope is closed by .Ic \&Fc . .Pp See also .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE , .Ic \&Fa , .Ic \&Fc , and .Ic \&Ft . .It Ic \&Fr Ar number This macro is obsolete. No replacement markup is needed. .Pp It was used to show numerical function return values in an italic font. .Tg Ft .It Ic \&Ft Ar functype A function type. .Pp In the .Em SYNOPSIS section, a new output line is started after this macro. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Ft int .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact \&.Ft functype \&.Fn funcname .Ed .Pp See also .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE , .Ic \&Fn , and .Ic \&Fo . .Tg Fx .It Ic \&Fx Op Ar version Format the .Fx version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Fx 7.1 .Dl \&.Fx .Pp See also .Ic \&At , .Ic \&Bsx , .Ic \&Bx , .Ic \&Dx , .Ic \&Nx , and .Ic \&Ox . .It Ic \&Hf Ar filename This macro is not implemented in .Xr mandoc 1 . It was used to include the contents of a (header) file literally. .Tg Ic .It Ic \&Ic Ar keyword ... Internal or interactive command, or configuration instruction in a configuration file. See also .Ic \&Cm . .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Ic :wq .Dl \&.Ic hash .Dl \&.Ic alias .Pp Note that using .Ic \&Ql , .Ic \&Dl , or .Ic \&Bd Fl literal is preferred for displaying code samples; the .Ic \&Ic macro is used when referring to an individual command name. .Tg In .It Ic \&In Ar filename The name of an include file. This macro is most often used in section 2, 3, and 9 manual pages. .Pp When invoked as the first macro on an input line in the .Em SYNOPSIS section, the argument is displayed in angle brackets and preceded by .Qq #include , and a blank line is inserted in front if there is a preceding function declaration. In other sections, it only encloses its argument in angle brackets and causes no line break. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.In sys/types.h .Pp See also .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE . .Tg It .It Ic \&It Op Ar head A list item. The syntax of this macro depends on the list type. .Pp Lists of type .Fl hang , .Fl ohang , .Fl inset , and .Fl diag have the following syntax: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Ic \&It Ar args .Pp Lists of type .Fl bullet , .Fl dash , .Fl enum , .Fl hyphen and .Fl item have the following syntax: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Ic \&It .Pp with subsequent lines interpreted within the scope of the .Ic \&It until either a closing .Ic \&El or another .Ic \&It . .Pp The .Fl tag list has the following syntax: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Ic \&It Op Cm args .Pp Subsequent lines are interpreted as with .Fl bullet and family. The line arguments correspond to the list's left-hand side; body arguments correspond to the list's contents. .Pp The .Fl column list is the most complicated. Its syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf \. Ic \&It Ar cell Op Ic \&Ta Ar cell ... .D1 Pf \. Ic \&It Ar cell Op Ar cell ... .Pp The arguments consist of one or more lines of text and macros representing a complete table line. Cells within the line are delimited by the special .Ic \&Ta block macro or by literal tab characters. .Pp Using literal tabs is strongly discouraged because they are very hard to use correctly and .Nm code using them is very hard to read. In particular, a blank character is syntactically significant before and after the literal tab character. If a word precedes or follows the tab without an intervening blank, that word is never interpreted as a macro call, but always output literally. .Pp The tab cell delimiter may only be used within the .Ic \&It line itself; on following lines, only the .Ic \&Ta macro can be used to delimit cells, and portability requires that .Ic \&Ta is called by other macros: some parsers do not recognize it when it appears as the first macro on a line. .Pp Note that quoted strings may span tab-delimited cells on an .Ic \&It line. For example, .Pp .Dl .It \(dqcol1 ,\& col2 ,\(dq \&; .Pp will preserve the whitespace before both commas, but not the whitespace before the semicolon. .Pp See also .Ic \&Bl . .Tg Lb .It Ic \&Lb Cm lib Ns Ar name Specify a library. .Pp The .Ar name parameter may be a system library, such as .Cm z or .Cm pam , in which case a small library description is printed next to the linker invocation; or a custom library, in which case the library name is printed in quotes. This is most commonly used in the .Em SYNOPSIS section as described in .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE . .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Lb libz .Dl \&.Lb libmandoc .Tg Li .It Ic \&Li Ar word ... Request a typewriter (literal) font. Deprecated because on terminal output devices, this is usually indistinguishable from normal text. For literal displays, use .Ic \&Ql Pq in-line , .Ic \&Dl Pq single line , or .Ic \&Bd Fl literal Pq multi-line instead. .Tg Lk .It Ic \&Lk Ar uri Op Ar display_name Format a hyperlink. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Lk https://bsd.lv \(dqThe BSD.lv Project\(dq .Dl \&.Lk https://bsd.lv .Pp See also .Ic \&Mt . .It Ic \&Lp Deprecated synonym for .Ic \&Pp . .Tg Ms .It Ic \&Ms Ar name Display a mathematical symbol. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Ms sigma .Dl \&.Ms aleph .Tg Mt .It Ic \&Mt Ar localpart Ns @ Ns Ar domain Format a .Dq mailto: hyperlink. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Mt discuss@manpages.bsd.lv .Dl \&.An Kristaps Dzonsons \&Aq \&Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .Tg Nd .It Ic \&Nd Ar line A one line description of the manual's content. This is the mandatory last macro of the .Em NAME section and not appropriate for other sections. .Pp Examples: .Dl Pf . Ic \&Nd mdoc language reference .Dl Pf . Ic \&Nd format and display UNIX manuals .Pp The .Ic \&Nd macro technically accepts child macros and terminates with a subsequent .Ic \&Sh invocation. Do not assume this behaviour: some .Xr whatis 1 database generators are not smart enough to parse more than the line arguments and will display macros verbatim. .Pp See also .Ic \&Nm . .Tg Nm .It Ic \&Nm Op Ar name The name of the manual page, or \(em in particular in section 1, 6, and 8 pages \(em of an additional command or feature documented in the manual page. When first invoked, the .Ic \&Nm macro expects a single argument, the name of the manual page. Usually, the first invocation happens in the .Em NAME section of the page. The specified name will be remembered and used whenever the macro is called again without arguments later in the page. The .Ic \&Nm macro uses .Sx Block full-implicit semantics when invoked as the first macro on an input line in the .Em SYNOPSIS section; otherwise, it uses ordinary .Sx In-line semantics. .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Sh SYNOPSIS \&.Nm cat \&.Op Fl benstuv \&.Op Ar .Ed .Pp In the .Em SYNOPSIS of section 2, 3 and 9 manual pages, use the .Ic \&Fn macro rather than .Ic \&Nm to mark up the name of the manual page. .Tg No .It Ic \&No Ar word ... Normal text. Closes the scope of any preceding in-line macro. When used after physical formatting macros like .Ic \&Em or .Ic \&Sy , switches back to the standard font face and weight. Can also be used to embed plain text strings in macro lines using semantic annotation macros. .Pp Examples: .Dl ".Em italic , Sy bold , No and roman" .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Sm off \&.Cm :C No / Ar pattern No / Ar replacement No / \&.Sm on .Ed .Pp See also .Ic \&Em , .Ic \&Ql , and .Ic \&Sy . .Tg Ns .It Ic \&Ns Suppress a space between the output of the preceding macro and the following text or macro. Following invocation, input is interpreted as normal text just like after an .Ic \&No macro. .Pp This has no effect when invoked at the start of a macro line. .Pp Examples: .Dl ".Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value" .Dl ".Cm :M Ns Ar pattern" .Dl ".Fl o Ns Ar output" .Pp See also .Ic \&No and .Ic \&Sm . .Tg Nx .It Ic \&Nx Op Ar version Format the .Nx version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Nx 5.01 .Dl \&.Nx .Pp See also .Ic \&At , .Ic \&Bsx , .Ic \&Bx , .Ic \&Dx , .Ic \&Fx , and .Ic \&Ox . .It Ic \&Oc Close multi-line .Ic \&Oo context. .It Ic \&Oo Ar block Multi-line version of .Ic \&Op . .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact \&.Oo \&.Op Fl flag Ns Ar value \&.Oc .Ed .Tg Op .It Ic \&Op Ar line Optional part of a command line. Prints the argument(s) in brackets. This is most often used in the .Em SYNOPSIS section of section 1 and 8 manual pages. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Op \&Fl a \&Ar b .Dl \&.Op \&Ar a | b .Pp See also .Ic \&Oo . .Tg Os .It Ic \&Os Op Ar footer text The mandatory third macro of every .Nm file. Usually, do not specify any arguments, in particular not the operating system name and/or version. .Pp If no argument is given, .Xr mandoc 1 prints its .Fl Ios argument in the page footer, or .Fa sysname and .Fa release as returned by .Xr uname 3 by default. .Pp Manual pages that are part of a portable software project can override the default by giving the project name and version number as arguments, but leaving it blank is never a bad choice. .Pp See also .Ic \&Dd and .Ic \&Dt . .It Ic \&Ot Ar functype This macro is obsolete. Use .Ic \&Ft instead; with .Xr mandoc 1 , both have the same effect. .Pp Historical .Nm packages described it as .Dq "old function type (FORTRAN)" . .Tg Ox .It Ic \&Ox Op Ar version Format the .Ox version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Ox 4.5 .Dl \&.Ox .Pp See also .Ic \&At , .Ic \&Bsx , .Ic \&Bx , .Ic \&Dx , .Ic \&Fx , and .Ic \&Nx . .Tg Pa .It Ic \&Pa Ar name ... An absolute or relative file system path, or a file or directory name. If an argument is not provided, the character .Sq \(ti is used as a default. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Pa /usr/bin/mandoc .Dl \&.Pa /usr/share/man/man7/mdoc.7 .Pp See also .Ic \&Lk . .It Ic \&Pc Close parenthesised context opened by .Ic \&Po . .Tg Pf .It Ic \&Pf Ar prefix macro Op Ar argument ... Removes the space between its argument and the following macro. It is equivalent to: .Pp .D1 Ic \&No Pf \e& Ar prefix Ic \&Ns Ar macro Op Ar argument ... .Pp The .Ar prefix argument is not parsed for macro names or delimiters, but used verbatim as if it were escaped. .Pp Examples: .Dl ".Pf $ Ar variable_name" .Dl ".Pf . Ar macro_name" .Dl ".Pf 0x Ar hex_digits" .Pp See also .Ic \&Ns and .Ic \&Sm . .It Ic \&Po Ar block Multi-line version of .Ic \&Pq . .Tg Pp .It Ic \&Pp Break a paragraph. This will assert vertical space between prior and subsequent macros and/or text. .Pp Paragraph breaks are not needed before or after .Ic \&Sh or .Ic \&Ss macros or before displays .Pq Ic \&Bd Ar line or lists .Pq Ic \&Bl unless the .Fl compact flag is given. .Tg Pq .It Ic \&Pq Ar line Parenthesised enclosure. .Pp See also .Ic \&Po . .It Ic \&Qc Close quoted context opened by .Ic \&Qo . .Tg Ql .It Ic \&Ql Ar line In-line literal display. This can be used for complete command invocations and for multi-word code examples when an indented display is not desired. .Pp See also .Ic \&Dl and .Ic \&Bd .Fl literal . .It Ic \&Qo Ar block Multi-line version of .Ic \&Qq . .Tg Qq .It Ic \&Qq Ar line Encloses its arguments in .Qq typewriter double-quotes. Consider using .Ic \&Dq . .Pp See also .Ic \&Dq , .Ic \&Sq , and .Ic \&Qo . .It Ic \&Re Close an .Ic \&Rs block. Does not have any tail arguments. .Tg Rs .It Ic \&Rs Begin a bibliographic .Pq Dq reference block. Does not have any head arguments. The block macro may only contain .Ic \&%A , .Ic \&%B , .Ic \&%C , .Ic \&%D , .Ic \&%I , .Ic \&%J , .Ic \&%N , .Ic \&%O , .Ic \&%P , .Ic \&%Q , .Ic \&%R , .Ic \&%T , .Ic \&%U , and .Ic \&%V child macros (at least one must be specified). .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact \&.Rs \&.%A J. E. Hopcroft \&.%A J. D. Ullman \&.%B Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation \&.%I Addison-Wesley \&.%C Reading, Massachusetts \&.%D 1979 \&.Re .Ed .Pp If an .Ic \&Rs block is used within a SEE ALSO section, a vertical space is asserted before the rendered output, else the block continues on the current line. .Tg Rv .It Ic \&Rv Fl std Op Ar function ... Insert a standard sentence regarding a function call's return value of 0 on success and \-1 on error, with the .Va errno libc global variable set on error. .Pp If .Ar function is not specified, the document's name set by .Ic \&Nm is used. Multiple .Ar function arguments are treated as separate functions. .Pp See also .Ic \&Ex . .It Ic \&Sc Close single-quoted context opened by .Ic \&So . .Tg Sh .It Ic \&Sh Ar TITLE LINE Begin a new section. For a list of conventional manual sections, see .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE . These sections should be used unless it's absolutely necessary that custom sections be used. .Pp Section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by .Ic \&Sx . Although this macro is parsed, it should not consist of child node or it may not be linked with .Ic \&Sx . .Pp See also .Ic \&Pp , .Ic \&Ss , and .Ic \&Sx . .Tg Sm .It Ic \&Sm Op Cm on | off Switches the spacing mode for output generated from macros. .Pp By default, spacing is .Cm on . When switched .Cm off , no white space is inserted between macro arguments and between the output generated from adjacent macros, but text lines still get normal spacing between words and sentences. .Pp When called without an argument, the .Ic \&Sm macro toggles the spacing mode. Using this is not recommended because it makes the code harder to read. .It Ic \&So Ar block Multi-line version of .Ic \&Sq . .Tg Sq .It Ic \&Sq Ar line Encloses its arguments in .Sq typewriter single-quotes. .Pp See also .Ic \&Dq , .Ic \&Qq , and .Ic \&So . .Tg Ss .It Ic \&Ss Ar Title line Begin a new subsection. Unlike with .Ic \&Sh , there is no convention for the naming of subsections. Except .Em DESCRIPTION , the conventional sections described in .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE rarely have subsections. .Pp Sub-section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by .Ic \&Sx . Although this macro is parsed, it should not consist of child node or it may not be linked with .Ic \&Sx . .Pp See also .Ic \&Pp , .Ic \&Sh , and .Ic \&Sx . .Tg St .It Ic \&St Fl Ns Ar abbreviation Replace an abbreviation for a standard with the full form. The following standards are recognised. Where multiple lines are given without a blank line in between, they all refer to the same standard, and using the first form is recommended. .Bl -tag -width 1n .It C language standards .Pp .Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact .It \-ansiC .St -ansiC .It \-ansiC-89 .St -ansiC-89 .It \-isoC .St -isoC .It \-isoC-90 .St -isoC-90 .br The original C standard. .Pp .It \-isoC-amd1 .St -isoC-amd1 .Pp .It \-isoC-tcor1 .St -isoC-tcor1 .Pp .It \-isoC-tcor2 .St -isoC-tcor2 .Pp .It \-isoC-99 .St -isoC-99 .br The second major version of the C language standard. .Pp .It \-isoC-2011 .St -isoC-2011 .br The third major version of the C language standard. .El .It POSIX.1 before XPG4.2 .Pp .Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact .It \-p1003.1-88 .St -p1003.1-88 .It \-p1003.1 .St -p1003.1 .br The original POSIX standard, based on ANSI C. .Pp .It \-p1003.1-90 .St -p1003.1-90 .It \-iso9945-1-90 .St -iso9945-1-90 .br The first update of POSIX.1. .Pp .It \-p1003.1b-93 .St -p1003.1b-93 .It \-p1003.1b .St -p1003.1b .br Real-time extensions. .Pp .It \-p1003.1c-95 .St -p1003.1c-95 .br POSIX thread interfaces. .Pp .It \-p1003.1i-95 .St -p1003.1i-95 .br Technical Corrigendum. .Pp .It \-p1003.1-96 .St -p1003.1-96 .It \-iso9945-1-96 .St -iso9945-1-96 .br Includes POSIX.1-1990, 1b, 1c, and 1i. .El .It X/Open Portability Guide before XPG4.2 .Pp .Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact .It \-xpg3 .St -xpg3 .br An XPG4 precursor, published in 1989. .Pp .It \-p1003.2 .St -p1003.2 .It \-p1003.2-92 .St -p1003.2-92 .It \-iso9945-2-93 .St -iso9945-2-93 .br An XCU4 precursor. .Pp .It \-p1003.2a-92 .St -p1003.2a-92 .br Updates to POSIX.2. .Pp .It \-xpg4 .St -xpg4 .br Based on POSIX.1 and POSIX.2, published in 1992. .El .It X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4 Version 2 and related standards .Pp .Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact .It \-susv1 .St -susv1 .It \-xpg4.2 .St -xpg4.2 .br This standard was published in 1994. It was used as the basis for UNIX 95 certification. The following two refer to parts of it. .Pp .It \-xcurses4.2 .St -xcurses4.2 .Pp .It \-p1003.1g-2000 .St -p1003.1g-2000 .br Networking APIs, including sockets. .Pp .It \-svid4 .St -svid4 , .br Published in 1995. .El .It X/Open Portability Guide Issue 5 and related standards .Pp .Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact .It \-susv2 .St -susv2 .br This Standard was published in 1997 and is also called X/Open Portability Guide Issue 5. It was used as the basis for UNIX 98 certification. The following refer to parts of it. .Pp .It \-xbd5 .St -xbd5 .Pp .It \-xsh5 .St -xsh5 .Pp .It \-xcu5 .St -xcu5 .Pp .It \-xns5 .St -xns5 .It \-xns5.2 .St -xns5.2 .El .It POSIX Issue 6 .Pp .Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1-2001" -compact .It \-p1003.1-2001 .St -p1003.1-2001 .It \-susv3 .St -susv3 .br This standard is based on C99, SUSv2, POSIX.1-1996, 1d, and 1j. It is also called X/Open Portability Guide Issue 6. It is used as the basis for UNIX 03 certification. .Pp .It \-p1003.1-2004 .St -p1003.1-2004 .br The second and last Technical Corrigendum. .El .It POSIX Issues 7 and 8 .Pp .Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact .It \-p1003.1-2008 .St -p1003.1-2008 .It \-susv4 .St -susv4 .br This standard is based on C99. It is also called the Open Group Standard Base Specifications, Issue 7. .El .Pp .Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact .It \-p1003.1-2024 .St -p1003.1-2024 .br This standard is based on C17. It is also called the Open Group Standard Base Specifications, Issue 8. .El .It Other standards .Pp .Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact .It \-ieee754 .St -ieee754 .br Floating-point arithmetic. .Pp .It \-iso8601 .St -iso8601 .br Representation of dates and times, published in 1988. .Pp .It \-iso8802-3 .St -iso8802-3 .br Ethernet local area networks. .Pp .It \-ieee1275-94 .St -ieee1275-94 .El .El .Tg Sx .It Ic \&Sx Ar Title line Reference a section or subsection in the same manual page. The referenced section or subsection name must be identical to the enclosed argument, including whitespace. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .Pp See also .Ic \&Sh and .Ic \&Ss . .Tg Sy .It Ic \&Sy Ar word ... Request a boldface font. .Pp This is most often used to indicate importance or seriousness (not to be confused with stress emphasis, see .Ic \&Em ) . When none of the semantic macros fit, it is also adequate for syntax elements that have to be given or that appear verbatim. .Pp Examples: .Bd -literal -compact -offset indent \&.Sy Warning : If \&.Sy s appears in the owner permissions, set-user-ID mode is set. This utility replaces the former \&.Sy dumpdir program. .Ed .Pp See also .Ic \&Em , .Ic \&No , and .Ic \&Ql . .Tg Ta .It Ic \&Ta Table cell separator in .Ic \&Bl Fl column lists; can only be used below .Ic \&It . .Tg Tg .It Ic \&Tg Op Ar term Announce that the next input line starts a definition of the .Ar term . This macro must appear alone on its own input line. The argument defaults to the first argument of the first macro on the next line. The argument may not contain whitespace characters, not even when it is quoted. This macro is a .Xr mandoc 1 extension and is typically ignored by other formatters. .Pp When viewing terminal output with .Xr less 1 , the interactive .Ic :t command can be used to go to the definition of the .Ar term as described for the .Ev MANPAGER variable in .Xr man 1 ; when producing HTML output, a fragment identifier .Pq Ic id No attribute is generated, to be used for deep linking to this place of the document. .Pp In most cases, adding a .Ic \&Tg macro would be redundant because .Xr mandoc 1 is able to automatically tag most definitions. This macro is intended for cases where automatic tagging of a .Ar term is unsatisfactory, for example if a definition is not tagged automatically (false negative) or if places are tagged that do not define the .Ar term (false positives). When there is at least one .Ic \&Tg macro for a .Ar term , no other places are automatically marked as definitions of that .Ar term . .It Ic \&Tn Ar word ... Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Even though the macro name .Pq Dq tradename suggests a semantic function, historic usage is inconsistent, mostly using it as a presentation-level macro to request a small caps font. .It Ic \&Ud Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints out .Dq currently under development. .It Ic \&Ux Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints out .Dq Ux . .Tg Va .It Ic \&Va Oo Ar type Oc Ar identifier ... A variable name. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Va foo .Dl \&.Va const char *bar ; .Pp For function arguments and parameters, use .Ic \&Fa instead. For declarations of global variables in the .Em SYNOPSIS section, use .Ic \&Vt . .Tg Vt .It Ic \&Vt Ar type Op Ar identifier A variable type. .Pp This is also used for indicating global variables in the .Em SYNOPSIS section, in which case a variable name is also specified. Note that it accepts .Sx Block partial-implicit syntax when invoked as the first macro on an input line in the .Em SYNOPSIS section, else it accepts ordinary .Sx In-line syntax. In the former case, this macro starts a new output line, and a blank line is inserted in front if there is a preceding function definition or include directive. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Vt unsigned char .Dl \&.Vt extern const char * const sys_signame[] \&; .Pp For parameters in function prototypes, use .Ic \&Fa instead, for function return types .Ic \&Ft , and for variable names outside the .Em SYNOPSIS section .Ic \&Va , even when including a type with the name. See also .Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE . .It Ic \&Xc Close a scope opened by .Ic \&Xo . .It Ic \&Xo Ar block Extend the header of an .Ic \&It macro or the body of a partial-implicit block macro beyond the end of the input line. This macro originally existed to work around the 9-argument limit of historic .Xr roff 7 . .Tg Xr .It Ic \&Xr Ar name section Link to another manual .Pq Qq cross-reference . .Pp Cross reference the .Ar name and .Ar section number of another man page. .Pp Examples: .Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1 .Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&; .Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&Ns s behaviour .El .Sh MACRO SYNTAX The syntax of a macro depends on its classification. In this section, .Sq \-arg refers to macro arguments, which may be followed by zero or more .Sq parm parameters; .Sq \&Yo opens the scope of a macro; and if specified, .Sq \&Yc closes it out. .Pp The .Em Callable column indicates that the macro may also be called by passing its name as an argument to another macro. For example, .Sq \&.Op \&Fl O \&Ar file produces .Sq Op Fl O Ar file . To prevent a macro call and render the macro name literally, escape it by prepending a zero-width space, .Sq \e& . For example, .Sq \&Op \e&Fl O produces .Sq Op \&Fl O . If a macro is not callable but its name appears as an argument to another macro, it is interpreted as opaque text. For example, .Sq \&.Fl \&Sh produces .Sq Fl \&Sh . .Pp The .Em Parsed column indicates whether the macro may call other macros by receiving their names as arguments. If a macro is not parsed but the name of another macro appears as an argument, it is interpreted as opaque text. .Pp The .Em Scope column, if applicable, describes closure rules. .Ss Block full-explicit Multi-line scope closed by an explicit closing macro. All macros contains bodies; only .Ic \&Bf and .Pq optionally .Ic \&Bl contain a head. .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \&.Yc .Ed .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXX" -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope .It Ic \&Bd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Ic \&Ed .It Ic \&Bf Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Ic \&Ef .It Ic \&Bk Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Ic \&Ek .It Ic \&Bl Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Ic \&El .It Ic \&Ed Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Ic \&Bd .It Ic \&Ef Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Ic \&Bf .It Ic \&Ek Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Ic \&Bk .It Ic \&El Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Ic \&Bl .El .Ss Block full-implicit Multi-line scope closed by end-of-file or implicitly by another macro. All macros have bodies; some .Po .Ic \&It Fl bullet , .Fl hyphen , .Fl dash , .Fl enum , .Fl item .Pc don't have heads; only one .Po .Ic \&It in .Ic \&Bl Fl column .Pc has multiple heads. .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead... \(lBTa head...\(rB\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB .Ed .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXXXXXXXXXX" -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope .It Ic \&It Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&It , Ic \&El .It Ic \&Nd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Ic \&Sh .It Ic \&Nm Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Nm , Ic \&Sh , Ic \&Ss .It Ic \&Sh Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Sh .It Ic \&Ss Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Sh , Ic \&Ss .El .Pp Note that the .Ic \&Nm macro is a .Sx Block full-implicit macro only when invoked as the first macro in a .Em SYNOPSIS section line, else it is .Sx In-line . .Ss Block partial-explicit Like block full-explicit, but also with single-line scope. Each has at least a body and, in limited circumstances, a head .Po .Ic \&Fo , .Ic \&Eo .Pc and/or tail .Pq Ic \&Ec . .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \&.Yc \(lBtail...\(rB \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \ \(lBbody...\(rB \&Yc \(lBtail...\(rB .Ed .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXXX" -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope .It Ic \&Ac Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Ic \&Ao .It Ic \&Ao Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Ac .It Ic \&Bc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Bo .It Ic \&Bo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Ic \&Bc .It Ic \&Brc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Ic \&Bro .It Ic \&Bro Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Brc .It Ic \&Dc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Ic \&Do .It Ic \&Do Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Dc .It Ic \&Ec Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Ic \&Eo .It Ic \&Eo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Ec .It Ic \&Fc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Ic \&Fo .It Ic \&Fo Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Ic \&Fc .It Ic \&Oc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Oo .It Ic \&Oo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Ic \&Oc .It Ic \&Pc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Po .It Ic \&Po Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Ic \&Pc .It Ic \&Qc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Ic \&Oo .It Ic \&Qo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Oc .It Ic \&Re Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by Ic \&Rs .It Ic \&Rs Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Ic \&Re .It Ic \&Sc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Ic \&So .It Ic \&So Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Sc .It Ic \&Xc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by Ic \&Xo .It Ic \&Xo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Xc .El .Ss Block partial-implicit Like block full-implicit, but with single-line scope closed by the end of the line. .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \(lBres...\(rB .Ed .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed .It Ic \&Aq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Ic \&Bq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Ic \&Brq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Ic \&D1 Ta \&No Ta \&Yes .It Ic \&Dl Ta \&No Ta Yes .It Ic \&Dq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Ic \&En Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Ic \&Op Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Ic \&Pq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Ic \&Ql Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Ic \&Qq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Ic \&Sq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It Ic \&Vt Ta Yes Ta Yes .El .Pp Note that the .Ic \&Vt macro is a .Sx Block partial-implicit only when invoked as the first macro in a .Em SYNOPSIS section line, else it is .Sx In-line . .Ss Special block macro The .Ic \&Ta macro can only be used below .Ic \&It in .Ic \&Bl Fl column lists. It delimits blocks representing table cells; these blocks have bodies, but no heads. .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXXX" -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope .It Ic \&Ta Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by Ic \&Ta , Ic \&It .El .Ss In-line Closed by the end of the line, fixed argument lengths, and/or subsequent macros. In-line macros have only text children. If a number (or inequality) of arguments is .Pq n , then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of arguments. .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB \(lBres...\(rB \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB Yc... \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB arg0 arg1 argN .Ed .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "Arguments" -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Arguments .It Ic \&%A Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%B Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%C Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%D Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%I Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%J Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%N Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%O Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%P Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%Q Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%R Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%T Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%U Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&%V Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&Ad Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&An Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Ap Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0 .It Ic \&Ar Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Ic \&At Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 1 .It Ic \&Bsx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Ic \&Bt Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It Ic \&Bx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Ic \&Cd Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Cm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Db Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1 .It Ic \&Dd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Ic \&Dt Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Ic \&Dv Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Dx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Ic \&Em Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Er Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Es Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 2 .It Ic \&Ev Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Ex Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Ic \&Fa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Fd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It Ic \&Fl Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Ic \&Fn Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Fr Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Ft Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Fx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Ic \&Hf Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Ic \&Ic Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&In Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 1 .It Ic \&Lb Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1 .It Ic \&Li Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Lk Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Lp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It Ic \&Ms Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Mt Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Nm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Ic \&No Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Ns Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0 .It Ic \&Nx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Ic \&Os Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Ic \&Ot Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Ox Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Ic \&Pa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Ic \&Pf Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 1 .It Ic \&Pp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It Ic \&Rv Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It Ic \&Sm Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta <2 .It Ic \&St Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta 1 .It Ic \&Sx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Sy Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Tg Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta <2 .It Ic \&Tn Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Ud Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It Ic \&Ux Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Ic \&Va Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It Ic \&Vt Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It Ic \&Xr Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 2 .El .Ss Delimiters When a macro argument consists of one single input character considered as a delimiter, the argument gets special handling. This does not apply when delimiters appear in arguments containing more than one character. Consequently, to prevent special handling and just handle it like any other argument, a delimiter can be escaped by prepending a zero-width space .Pq Sq \e& . In text lines, delimiters never need escaping, but may be used as normal punctuation. .Pp For many macros, when the leading arguments are opening delimiters, these delimiters are put before the macro scope, and when the trailing arguments are closing delimiters, these delimiters are put after the macro scope. Spacing is suppressed after opening delimiters and before closing delimiters. For example, .Pp .D1 Pf \. \&Aq "( [ word ] ) ." .Pp renders as: .Pp .D1 Aq ( [ word ] ) . .Pp Opening delimiters are: .Pp .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact .It \&( left parenthesis .It \&[ left bracket .El .Pp Closing delimiters are: .Pp .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact .It \&. period .It \&, comma .It \&: colon .It \&; semicolon .It \&) right parenthesis .It \&] right bracket .It \&? question mark .It \&! exclamation mark .El .Pp Note that even a period preceded by a backslash .Pq Sq \e.\& gets this special handling; use .Sq \e&.\& to prevent that. .Pp Many in-line macros interrupt their scope when they encounter delimiters, and resume their scope when more arguments follow that are not delimiters. For example, .Pp .D1 Pf \. \&Fl "a ( b | c \e*(Ba d ) e" .Pp renders as: .Pp .D1 Fl a ( b | c \*(Ba d ) e .Pp This applies to both opening and closing delimiters, and also to the middle delimiter, which does not suppress spacing: .Pp .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact .It \&| vertical bar .El .Pp As a special case, the predefined string \e*(Ba is handled and rendered in the same way as a plain .Sq \&| character. Using this predefined string is not recommended in new manuals. .Pp Appending a zero-width space .Pq Sq \e& to the end of an input line is also useful to prevent the interpretation of a trailing period, exclamation or question mark as the end of a sentence, for example when an abbreviation happens to occur at the end of a text or macro input line. .Ss Font handling In .Nm documents, usage of semantic markup is recommended in order to have proper fonts automatically selected; only when no fitting semantic markup is available, consider falling back to .Sx Physical markup macros. Whenever any .Nm macro switches the .Xr roff 7 font mode, it will automatically restore the previous font when exiting its scope. Manually switching the font using the .Xr roff 7 .Ql \ef font escape sequences is never required. .Sh COMPATIBILITY This section provides an incomplete list of compatibility issues between mandoc and GNU troff .Pq Qq groff . .Pp The following problematic behaviour is found in groff: .Pp .Bl -dash -compact .It .Ic \&Pa does not format its arguments when used in the FILES section under certain list types. .It .Ic \&Ta can only be called by other macros, but not at the beginning of a line. .It .Sq \ef .Pq font face and .Sq \eF .Pq font family face .Sx Text Decoration escapes behave irregularly when specified within line-macro scopes. .It Negative scaling units return to prior lines. Instead, mandoc truncates them to zero. .El .Pp The following features are unimplemented in mandoc: .Pp .Bl -dash -compact .It .Ic \&Bd Fl file Ar file is unsupported for security reasons. .It .Ic \&Bd .Fl filled does not adjust the right margin, but is an alias for .Ic \&Bd .Fl ragged . .It .Ic \&Bd .Fl literal does not use a literal font, but is an alias for .Ic \&Bd .Fl unfilled . .It .Ic \&Bd .Fl offset Cm center and .Fl offset Cm right don't work. Groff does not implement centered and flush-right rendering either, but produces large indentations. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr man 1 , .Xr mandoc 1 , .Xr eqn 7 , .Xr man 7 , .Xr mandoc_char 7 , .Xr roff 7 , .Xr tbl 7 .Pp The web page .Lk https://mandoc.bsd.lv/mdoc/ "extended documentation for the mdoc language" provides a few tutorial-style pages for beginners, an extensive style guide for advanced authors, and an alphabetic index helping to choose the best macros for various kinds of content. .Pp The manual page .Lk https://man.voidlinux.org/groff_mdoc "groff_mdoc(7)" contained in the .Dq groff package documents exactly the same language in a somewhat different style. .Sh HISTORY The .Nm language first appeared as a troff macro package in .Bx 4.4 . It was later significantly updated by Werner Lemberg and Ruslan Ermilov in groff-1.17. The standalone implementation that is part of the .Xr mandoc 1 utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in .Ox 4.6 . .Sh AUTHORS The .Nm reference was written by .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .