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MDOC(7) |
FreeBSD Miscellaneous Information Manual |
MDOC(7) |
mdoc —
semantic markup language for formatting manual pages
The mdoc language supports authoring of manual pages for
the 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
mdoc , and to support hyperlinking if supported by the
output medium.
This reference document describes the structure of manual pages
and the syntax and usage of the mdoc language. The
reference implementation of a parsing and formatting tool is
mandoc(1);
the COMPATIBILITY section describes
compatibility with other implementations.
In an mdoc document, lines beginning with
the control character ‘.’ are called “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 MACRO
OVERVIEW. The words following the macro name are arguments to the macro,
optionally including the names of other, callable macros; see
MACRO SYNTAX for details.
Lines not beginning with the control character are called
“text lines”. They provide free-form text to be printed; the
formatting of the text depends on the respective processing context:
.Sh Macro lines change control state.
Text lines are interpreted within the current state.
Many aspects of the basic syntax of the
mdoc language are based on the
roff(7)
language; see the LANGUAGE SYNTAX and MACRO
SYNTAX sections in the
roff(7)
manual for details, in particular regarding comments, escape sequences,
whitespace, and quoting. However, using
roff(7)
requests in mdoc documents is discouraged;
mandoc(1)
supports some of them merely for backward compatibility.
A well-formed mdoc document consists of a document
prologue followed by one or more sections.
The prologue, which consists of the Dd ,
Dt , and Os macros in that
order, is required for every document.
The first section (sections are denoted by
Sh ) must be the NAME section, consisting of at least
one Nm followed by Nd .
Following that, convention dictates specifying at least the
SYNOPSIS and DESCRIPTION sections,
although this varies between manual sections.
The following is a well-formed skeleton
mdoc file for a utility
“progname”:
.Dd $Mdocdate$
.Dt PROGNAME section
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm progname
.Nd one line about what it does
.\" .Sh LIBRARY
.\" For sections 2, 3, and 9 only.
.\" Not used in OpenBSD.
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm progname
.Op Fl options
.Ar
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility processes files ...
.\" .Sh CONTEXT
.\" For section 9 functions only.
.\" .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
.\" Not used in OpenBSD.
.\" .Sh RETURN VALUES
.\" For sections 2, 3, and 9 function return values only.
.\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT
.\" For sections 1, 6, 7, and 8 only.
.\" .Sh FILES
.\" .Sh EXIT STATUS
.\" For sections 1, 6, and 8 only.
.\" .Sh EXAMPLES
.\" .Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.\" For sections 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 printf/stderr messages only.
.\" .Sh ERRORS
.\" For sections 2, 3, 4, and 9 errno settings only.
.\" .Sh SEE ALSO
.\" .Xr foobar 1
.\" .Sh STANDARDS
.\" .Sh HISTORY
.\" .Sh AUTHORS
.\" .Sh CAVEATS
.\" .Sh BUGS
.\" .Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
.\" Not used in OpenBSD.
The sections in an mdoc document are
conventionally ordered as they appear above. Sections should be composed as
follows:
- NAME
- The name(s) and a one line description of the documented material. The
syntax for this as follows:
.Nm name0 ,
.Nm name1 ,
.Nm name2
.Nd a one line description
Multiple ‘Nm’ names should be separated by
commas.
The Nm macro(s) must precede the
Nd macro.
See Nm and
Nd .
- 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:
See Lb .
- SYNOPSIS
- Documents the utility invocation syntax, function call syntax, or device
configuration.
For the first, utilities (sections 1, 6, and 8), this is
generally structured as follows:
.Nm bar
.Op Fl v
.Op Fl o Ar file
.Op Ar
.Nm foo
.Op Fl v
.Op Fl o Ar file
.Op Ar
Commands should be ordered alphabetically.
For the second, function calls (sections 2, 3, 9):
.In header.h
.Vt extern const char *global;
.Ft "char *"
.Fn foo "const char *src"
.Ft "char *"
.Fn bar "const char *src"
Ordering of In ,
Vt , Fn , and
Fo macros should follow C header-file
conventions.
And for the third, configurations (section 4):
.Cd "it* at isa? port 0x2e"
.Cd "it* at isa? port 0x4e"
Manuals not in these sections generally don't need a
SYNOPSIS.
Some macros are displayed differently in the
SYNOPSIS section, particularly
Nm , Cd ,
Fd , Fn ,
Fo , In ,
Vt , and Ft . All of these
macros are output on their own line. If two such dissimilar macros are
pairwise invoked (except for Ft before
Fo or Fn ), they are
separated by a vertical space, unless in the case of
Fo , Fn , and
Ft , which are always separated by vertical
space.
When text and macros following an 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 Nm macro, up to the next
Nm , Sh , or
Ss macro or the end of an enclosing block,
whichever comes first.
- DESCRIPTION
- This begins with an expansion of the brief, one line description in
NAME:
The
.Nm
utility does this, that, and the other.
It usually follows with a breakdown of the options (if
documenting a command), such as:
The arguments are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl v
Print verbose information.
.El
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.
Manuals not documenting a command won't include the above
fragment.
Since the DESCRIPTION section usually
contains most of the text of a manual, longer manuals often use the
Ss macro to form subsections. In very long
manuals, the DESCRIPTION may be split into multiple
sections, each started by an Sh macro followed
by a non-standard section name, and each having several subsections,
like in the present mdoc manual.
- CONTEXT
- This section lists the contexts in which functions can be called in
section 9. The contexts are autoconf, process, or interrupt.
- 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.
- RETURN VALUES
- This section documents the return values of functions in sections 2, 3,
and 9.
See Rv .
- ENVIRONMENT
- Lists the environment variables used by the utility, and explains the
syntax and semantics of their values. The
environ(7)
manual provides examples of typical content and formatting.
See Ev .
- 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.).
See Pa .
- EXIT STATUS
- This section documents the command exit status for section 1, 6, and 8
utilities. Historically, this information was described in
DIAGNOSTICS, a practise that is now discouraged.
See Ex .
- EXAMPLES
- Example usages. This often contains snippets of well-formed, well-tested
invocations. Make sure that examples work properly!
- 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.
Historically, this section was used in place of
EXIT STATUS for manuals in sections 1, 6, and 8;
however, this practise is discouraged.
See Bl
-diag .
- ERRORS
- Documents
errno(2)
settings in sections 2, 3, 4, and 9.
See Er .
- 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).
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.
See Rs and
Xr .
- STANDARDS
- References any standards implemented or used. If not adhering to any
standards, the HISTORY section should be used instead.
See St .
- 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.
- 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.
See An .
- CAVEATS
- Common misuses and misunderstandings should be explained in this
section.
- BUGS
- Known bugs, limitations, and work-arounds should be described in this
section.
- SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
- Documents any security precautions that operators should consider.
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
MACRO REFERENCE.
Dd |
document date: $Mdocdate$ |
month day, year |
Dt |
document title: TITLE section
[arch] |
Os |
operating system version: [system
[version]] |
Nm |
document name (one argument) |
Nd |
document description (one line) |
Sh |
section header (one line) |
Ss |
subsection header (one line) |
Sx |
internal cross reference to a section or subsection |
Xr |
cross reference to another manual page: name
section |
Pp |
start a text paragraph (no arguments) |
Bd ,
Ed |
display block: - type
[-offset width]
[-compact ] |
D1 |
indented display (one line) |
Dl |
indented literal display (one line) |
Ql |
in-line literal display:
‘text ’ |
Bl ,
El |
list block: - type
[-width val]
[-offset val]
[-compact ] |
It |
list item (syntax depends on
- type) |
Ta |
table cell separator in Bl
-column lists |
Rs ,
%* , Re |
bibliographic block (references) |
Pf |
prefix, no following horizontal space (one argument) |
Ns |
roman font, no preceding horizontal space (no arguments) |
Ap |
apostrophe without surrounding whitespace (no arguments) |
Sm |
switch horizontal spacing mode: [on |
off ] |
Bk ,
Ek |
keep block: -words |
Nm |
start a SYNOPSIS block with the name of a utility |
Fl |
command line options (flags) (>=0 arguments) |
Cm |
command modifier (>0 arguments) |
Ar |
command arguments (>=0 arguments) |
Op ,
Oo , Oc |
optional syntax elements (enclosure) |
Ic |
internal or interactive command (>0 arguments) |
Ev |
environmental variable (>0 arguments) |
Pa |
file system path (>=0 arguments) |
Lb |
function library (one argument) |
In |
include file (one argument) |
Fd |
other preprocessor directive (>0 arguments) |
Ft |
function type (>0 arguments) |
Fo ,
Fc |
function block: funcname |
Fn |
function name: funcname [argument
...] |
Fa |
function argument (>0 arguments) |
Vt |
variable type (>0 arguments) |
Va |
variable name (>0 arguments) |
Dv |
defined variable or preprocessor constant (>0 arguments) |
Er |
error constant (>0 arguments) |
Ev |
environmental variable (>0 arguments) |
An |
author name (>0 arguments) |
Lk |
hyperlink: uri
[display_name] |
Mt |
“mailto” hyperlink:
localpart@domain |
Cd |
kernel configuration declaration (>0 arguments) |
Ad |
memory address (>0 arguments) |
Ms |
mathematical symbol (>0 arguments) |
Em |
italic font or underline (emphasis) (>0 arguments) |
Sy |
boldface font (symbolic) (>0 arguments) |
No |
return to roman font (normal) (>0 arguments) |
Bf ,
Ef |
font block: - type |
Em
| Li |
Sy |
Dq ,
Do , Dc |
enclose in typographic double quotes: “text” |
Qq ,
Qo , Qc |
enclose in typewriter double quotes: “text” |
Sq ,
So , Sc |
enclose in single quotes: ‘text’ |
Pq ,
Po , Pc |
enclose in parentheses: (text) |
Bq ,
Bo , Bc |
enclose in square brackets: [text] |
Brq ,
Bro , Brc |
enclose in curly braces: {text} |
Aq ,
Ao , Ac |
enclose in angle brackets: ⟨text⟩ |
Eo ,
Ec |
generic enclosure |
Ex
-std |
standard command exit values: [utility ...] |
Rv
-std |
standard function return values: [function
...] |
St |
reference to a standards document (one argument) |
At |
AT&T UNIX |
Bx |
BSD |
Bsx |
BSD/OS |
Nx |
NetBSD |
Fx |
FreeBSD |
Ox |
OpenBSD |
Dx |
DragonFly |
This section is a canonical reference of all macros, arranged alphabetically.
For the scoping of individual macros, see
MACRO SYNTAX.
%A
first_name ... last_name
- Author name of an
Rs block. Multiple authors
should each be accorded their own %A line. Author
names should be ordered with full or abbreviated forename(s) first, then
full surname.
%B
title
- Book title of an
Rs block. This macro may also be
used in a non-bibliographic context when referring to book titles.
%C
location
- Publication city or location of an
Rs block.
%D
[month day,] year
- Publication date of an
Rs block. Provide the full
English name of the month and all four digits of the
year.
%I
name
- Publisher or issuer name of an
Rs block.
%J
name
- Journal name of an
Rs block.
%N
number
- Issue number (usually for journals) of an
Rs
block.
%O
line
- Optional information of an
Rs block.
%P
number
- Book or journal page number of an
Rs block.
Conventionally, the argument starts with
‘p. ’ for a single page or
‘pp. ’ for a range of pages, for
example:
.%P pp. 42\(en47
%Q
name
- Institutional author (school, government, etc.) of an
Rs block. Multiple institutional authors should
each be accorded their own %Q line.
%R
name
- Technical report name of an
Rs block.
%T
title
- Article title of an
Rs block. This macro may also
be used in a non-bibliographical context when referring to article
titles.
%U
protocol://path
- URI of reference document.
%V
number
- Volume number of an
Rs block.
Ac
- Close an
Ao block. Does not have any tail
arguments.
Ad
address
- Memory address. Do not use this for postal addresses.
Examples:
.Ad [0,$]
.Ad 0x00000000
An
-split |
-nosplit
| 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:
-split
- Start a new output line before each subsequent invocation of
An .
-nosplit
- The opposite of
-split .
The default is -nosplit . The effect of
selecting either of the -split modes ends at the
beginning of the AUTHORS section. In the
AUTHORS section, the default is
-nosplit for the first author listing and
-split for all other author listings.
Examples:
.An -nosplit
.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt
kristaps@bsd.lv
Ao
block
- Begin a block enclosed by angle brackets. Does not have any head
arguments. This macro is almost never useful. See
Aq for more details.
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.
Examples:
.Fn execve Ap d
Aq
line
- Enclose the rest of the input line in angle brackets. The only important
use case is for email addresses. See
Mt for an
example.
Occasionally, it is used for names of characters and keys, for
example:
Press the
.Aq escape
key to ...
For URIs, use Lk instead, and
In for “#include” directives.
Never wrap Ar in Aq .
Since Aq usually renders with
non-ASCII characters in non-ASCII output modes, do not use it where the
ASCII characters ‘<’ and ‘>’ are
required as syntax elements. Instead, use these characters directly in
such cases, combining them with the macros Pf ,
Ns , or Eo as needed.
See also Ao .
Ar
[placeholder ...]
- Command arguments. If an argument is not provided, the string “file
...” is used as a default.
Examples:
.Fl o Ar file
.Ar
.Ar arg1 , arg2 .
The arguments to the Ar macro are
names and placeholders for command arguments; for fixed strings to be
passed verbatim as arguments, use Fl or
Cm .
At
[version]
- Formats an AT&T UNIX version. Accepts one
optional argument:
v[1-7]
|
32v
- A version of AT&T UNIX.
III
- AT&T System III UNIX.
V |
V.[1-4]
- A version of AT&T System V
UNIX.
Note that these arguments do not begin with a hyphen.
Examples:
.At
.At III
.At V.1
See also Bsx ,
Bx , Dx ,
Fx , Nx , and
Ox .
Bc
- Close a
Bo block. Does not have any tail
arguments.
Bd
- type
[-offset width]
[-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.
The type must be one of the
following:
-centered
- Produce one output line from each input line, and center-justify each
line. Using this display type is not recommended; many
mdoc implementations render it poorly.
-filled
- Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left- and
right-justify the resulting block.
-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.
-ragged
- Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and
left-justify the resulting block.
-unfilled
- The same as
-literal , but using the same font
as for normal text, which is a variable width font if supported by the
output device.
The type must be provided first.
Additional arguments may follow:
-offset
width
- Indent the display by the width, which may be
one of the following:
- One of the pre-defined strings
indent , the
width of a standard indentation (six constant width characters);
indent-two , twice
indent ; left ,
which has no effect; right , which
justifies to the right margin; or center ,
which aligns around an imagined center axis.
- A macro invocation, which selects a predefined width associated
with that macro. The most popular is the imaginary macro
Ds, which resolves to
6n.
- A scaling width as described in
roff(7).
- An arbitrary string, which indents by the length of this
string.
When the argument is missing,
-offset is ignored.
-compact
- Do not assert vertical space before the display.
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
Hello world.
.Ed
See also D1 and
Dl .
Bf
-emphasis |
-literal
|
-symbolic
| Em
| Li
|
Sy
- Change the font mode for a scoped block of text. The
-emphasis and Em argument
are equivalent, as are -symbolic and
Sy , and -literal and
Li . Without an argument, this macro does nothing.
The font mode continues until broken by a new font mode in a nested scope
or Ef is encountered.
See also Li ,
Ef , Em , and
Sy .
Bk
-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.
The -words argument is required;
additional arguments are ignored.
The following example will not break within each
Op macro line:
.Bk -words
.Op Fl f Ar flags
.Op Fl o Ar output
.Ek
Be careful in using over-long lines within a keep block! Doing
so will clobber the right margin.
Bl
- type
[-width val]
[-offset val]
[-compact ] [col ...]
- Begin a list. Lists consist of items specified using the
It macro, containing a head or a body or both.
The list type is mandatory and must be
specified first. The -width and
-offset arguments accept macro names as
described for Bd
-offset , scaling widths as described in
roff(7),
or use the length of the given string. The
-offset is a global indentation for the whole
list, affecting both item heads and bodies. For those list types
supporting it, the -width argument requests an
additional indentation of item bodies, to be added to the
-offset . Unless the
-compact argument is specified, list entries are
separated by vertical space.
A list must specify one of the following list types:
-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
-width argument.
-column
- A columnated list. The
-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
-column list is not an
It macro line, It
contexts spanning one input line each are implied until an
It macro line is encountered, at which point
items start being interpreted as described in the
It documentation.
-dash
- Like
-bullet , except that dashes are used in
place of bullets.
-diag
- Like
-inset , except that item heads are not
parsed for macro invocations. Most often used in the
DIAGNOSTICS section with error constants in the item
heads.
-enum
- A numbered list. No item heads can be specified. Formatted like
-bullet , except that cardinal numbers are used
in place of bullets, starting at 1.
-hang
- Like
-tag , except that the first lines of item
bodies are not indented, but follow the item heads like in
-inset lists.
-hyphen
- Synonym for
-dash .
-inset
- Item bodies follow items heads on the same line, using normal
inter-word spacing. Bodies are not indented, and the
-width argument is ignored.
-item
- No item heads can be specified, and none are printed. Bodies are not
indented, and the
-width argument is
ignored.
-ohang
- Item bodies start on the line following item heads and are not
indented. The
-width argument is ignored.
-tag
- Item bodies are indented according to the
-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.
Lists may be nested within lists and displays. Nesting of
-column and -enum lists
may not be portable.
See also El and
It .
Bo
block
- Begin a block enclosed by square brackets. Does not have any head
arguments.
Examples:
See also Bq .
Bq
line
- Encloses its arguments in square brackets.
Examples:
.Bq 1, Dv BUFSIZ
Remarks: this macro is sometimes abused to
emulate optional arguments for commands; the correct macros to use for
this purpose are Op , Oo ,
and Oc .
See also Bo .
Brc
- Close a
Bro block. Does not have any tail
arguments.
Bro
block
- Begin a block enclosed by curly braces. Does not have any head arguments.
Examples:
See also Brq .
Brq
line
- Encloses its arguments in curly braces.
Examples:
.Brq 1, ..., Va n
See also Bro .
Bsx
[version]
- Format the BSD/OS version provided as an argument,
or a default value if no argument is provided.
Examples:
.Bsx 1.0
.Bsx
See also At ,
Bx , Dx ,
Fx , Nx , and
Ox .
Bt
- Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints
“is currently in beta test.”
Bx
[version [variant]]
- Format the BSD version provided as an argument, or
a default value if no argument is provided.
Examples:
.Bx 4.3 Tahoe
.Bx 4.4
.Bx
See also At ,
Bsx , Dx ,
Fx , Nx , and
Ox .
Cd
line
- Kernel configuration declaration. This denotes strings accepted by
config(8).
It is most often used in section 4 manual pages.
Examples:
.Cd device le0 at
scode?
Remarks: this macro is commonly abused by
using quoted literals to retain whitespace and align consecutive
Cd declarations. This practise is
discouraged.
Cm
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
Fl is more
appropriate.
Examples:
.Nm mt Fl f Ar device Cm
rewind
.Nm ps Fl o Cm pid , Ns Cm
command
.Nm dd Cm if= Ns Ar file1 Cm of=
Ns Ar file2
.Ic set Fl o Cm vi
.Ic lookup Cm file
bind
.Ic permit Ar identity Op Cm as
Ar target
D1
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.
Examples:
.D1 Fl abcdefgh
See also Bd and
Dl .
Db
- This macro is obsolete. No replacement is needed. It is ignored by
mandoc(1)
and groff including its arguments. It was formerly used to toggle a
debugging mode.
Dc
- Close a
Do block. Does not have any tail
arguments.
Dd
$Mdocdate$ | month day,
year
- Document date for display in the page footer. This is the mandatory first
macro of any
mdoc manual.
The month is the full English month
name, the day is an integer number, and the
year is the full four-digit year.
Other arguments are not portable; the
mandoc(1)
utility handles them as follows:
- To have the date automatically filled in by the
OpenBSD version of
cvs(1),
the special string “$Mdocdate$” can be given as an
argument.
- The traditional, purely numeric
man(7)
format
year–month–day
is accepted, too.
- If a date string cannot be parsed, it is used verbatim.
- If no date string is given, the current date is used.
Examples:
.Dd $Mdocdate$
.Dd $Mdocdate: July 2
2018$
.Dd July 2, 2018
See also Dt and
Os .
Dl
line
- One-line indented display. This is formatted as literal text and is useful
for commands and invocations. It is followed by a newline.
Examples:
.Dl % mandoc mdoc.7 \(ba
less
See also Ql ,
Bd -literal , and
D1 .
Do
block
- Begin a block enclosed by double quotes. Does not have any head arguments.
Examples:
.Do
April is the cruellest month
.Dc
\(em T.S. Eliot
See also Dq .
Dq
line
- Encloses its arguments in “typographic” double-quotes.
Examples:
.Dq April is the cruellest month
\(em T.S. Eliot
See also Qq ,
Sq , and Do .
Dt
TITLE section [arch]
- Document title for display in the page header. This is the mandatory
second macro of any
mdoc file.
Its arguments are as follows:
- TITLE
- The document's title (name), defaulting to “UNTITLED” if
unspecified. To achieve a uniform appearance of page header lines, it
should by convention be all caps.
- section
- The manual section. This may be one of
1
(General Commands), 2 (System Calls),
3 (Library Functions),
3p (Perl Library), 4
(Device Drivers), 5 (File Formats),
6 (Games), 7
(Miscellaneous Information), 8 (System
Manager's Manual), or 9 (Kernel Developer's
Manual). It should correspond to the manual's filename suffix and
defaults to the empty string if unspecified.
- arch
- This specifies the machine architecture a manual page applies to,
where relevant, for example
alpha ,
amd64 , i386 , or
sparc64 . The list of valid architectures
varies by operating system.
Examples:
.Dt FOO 1
.Dt FOO 9 i386
See also Dd and
Os .
Dv
identifier ...
- Defined variables such as preprocessor constants, constant symbols,
enumeration values, and so on.
Examples:
.Dv NULL
.Dv BUFSIZ
.Dv STDOUT_FILENO
See also Er and
Ev for special-purpose constants,
Va for variable symbols, and
Fd for listing preprocessor variable definitions
in the SYNOPSIS.
Dx
[version]
- Format the DragonFly version provided as an
argument, or a default value if no argument is provided.
Examples:
.Dx 2.4.1
.Dx
See also At ,
Bsx , Bx ,
Fx , Nx , and
Ox .
Ec
[closing_delimiter]
- Close a scope started by
Eo .
The closing_delimiter argument is used
as the enclosure tail, for example, specifying \(rq will emulate
Dc .
Ed
- End a display context started by
Bd .
Ef
- End a font mode context started by
Bf .
Ek
- End a keep context started by
Bk .
El
- End a list context started by
Bl . See also
It .
Em
word ...
- Request an italic font. If the output device does not provide that,
underline.
This is most often used for stress emphasis (not to be
confused with importance, see 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,
Sy and Ar are preferred,
respectively.
Examples:
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.
See also No ,
Ql , and Sy .
En
word ...
- This macro is obsolete. Use
Eo or any of the other
enclosure macros.
It encloses its argument in the delimiters specified by the
last Es macro.
Eo
[opening_delimiter]
- An arbitrary enclosure. The opening_delimiter
argument is used as the enclosure head, for example, specifying \(lq will
emulate
Do .
Er
identifier ...
- Error constants for definitions of the errno libc
global variable. This is most often used in section 2 and 3 manual pages.
Examples:
.Er EPERM
.Er ENOENT
See also Dv for general constants.
Es
opening_delimiter closing_delimiter
- This macro is obsolete. Use
Eo or any of the other
enclosure macros.
It takes two arguments, defining the delimiters to be used by
subsequent En macros.
Ev
identifier ...
- Environmental variables such as those specified in
environ(7).
Examples:
.Ev DISPLAY
.Ev PATH
See also Dv for general constants.
Ex
-std [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.
If utility is not specified, the
document's name set by Nm is used. Multiple
utility arguments are treated as separate
utilities.
See also Rv .
Fa
argument ...
- Function argument or parameter. Each argument may be a name and a type
(recommended for the 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
Fa macro.
This macro is also used to specify the field name of a
structure.
Most often, the Fa macro is used in
the SYNOPSIS within 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 Fa , the last
argument will also have a trailing comma.
Examples:
.Fa "const char
*p"
.Fa "int a" "int
b" "int c"
.Fa "char *"
size_t
See also Fo .
Fc
- End a function context started by
Fo .
Fd
#directive [argument ...]
- Preprocessor directive, in particular for listing it in the
SYNOPSIS. Historically, it was also used to document
include files. The latter usage has been deprecated in favour of
In .
Examples:
.Fd #define sa_handler
__sigaction_u.__sa_handler
.Fd #define
SIO_MAXNFDS
.Fd #ifdef FS_DEBUG
.Ft void
.Fn dbg_open "const char
*"
.Fd #endif
See also MANUAL
STRUCTURE, In , and
Dv .
Fl
[word ...]
- Command-line flag or option. Used when listing arguments to command-line
utilities. Prints a fixed-width hyphen ‘-’ directly followed
by each argument. If no arguments are provided, a hyphen is printed
followed by a space. If the argument is a macro, a hyphen is prefixed to
the subsequent macro output.
Examples:
.Fl R Op Fl H | L |
P
.Op Fl
1AaCcdFfgHhikLlmnopqRrSsTtux
.Fl type Cm d Fl name Pa
CVS
.Fl Ar signal_number
.Fl o Fl
See also Cm .
Fn
funcname [argument ...]
- A function name.
Function arguments are surrounded in parenthesis and are
delimited by commas. If no arguments are specified, blank parenthesis
are output. In the SYNOPSIS section, this macro starts
a new output line, and a blank line is automatically inserted between
function definitions.
Examples:
.Fn "int funcname"
"int arg0" "int arg1"
.Fn funcname "int
arg0"
.Fn funcname arg0
.Ft functype
.Fn funcname
When referring to a function documented in another manual
page, use Xr instead. See also
MANUAL STRUCTURE,
Fo , and Ft .
Fo
funcname
- Begin a function block. This is a multi-line version of
Fn .
Invocations usually occur in the following context:
.Ft
functype
.Fo funcname
.Fa “argtype
argname”
...
.Fc
A Fo scope is closed by
Fc .
See also MANUAL
STRUCTURE, Fa , Fc ,
and Ft .
Fr
number
- This macro is obsolete. No replacement markup is needed.
It was used to show numerical function return values in an
italic font.
Ft
functype
- A function type.
In the SYNOPSIS section, a new output line
is started after this macro.
Examples:
.Ft int
.Ft functype
.Fn funcname
See also MANUAL
STRUCTURE, Fn , and
Fo .
Fx
[version]
- Format the FreeBSD version provided as an
argument, or a default value if no argument is provided.
Examples:
.Fx 7.1
.Fx
See also At ,
Bsx , Bx ,
Dx , Nx , and
Ox .
Hf
filename
- This macro is not implemented in
mandoc(1).
It was used to include the contents of a (header) file literally.
Ic
keyword ...
- Internal or interactive command, or configuration instruction in a
configuration file. See also
Cm .
Examples:
.Ic :wq
.Ic hash
.Ic alias
Note that using Ql ,
Dl , or Bd
-literal is preferred for displaying code
samples; the Ic macro is used when referring to
an individual command name.
In
filename
- The name of an include file. This macro is most often used in section 2,
3, and 9 manual pages.
When invoked as the first macro on an input line in the
SYNOPSIS section, the argument is displayed in angle
brackets and preceded by “#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.
Examples:
.In sys/types.h
See also MANUAL
STRUCTURE.
It
[head]
- A list item. The syntax of this macro depends on the list type.
Lists of type -hang ,
-ohang , -inset , and
-diag have the following syntax:
.It
args
Lists of type -bullet ,
-dash , -enum ,
-hyphen and -item have
the following syntax:
.It
with subsequent lines interpreted within the scope of the
It until either a closing
El or another It .
The -tag list has the following
syntax:
.It
[args ]
Subsequent lines are interpreted as with
-bullet and family. The line arguments
correspond to the list's left-hand side; body arguments correspond to
the list's contents.
The -column list is the most
complicated. Its syntax is as follows:
.It
cell [Ta
cell ...]
.It
cell [<TAB> cell
...]
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 Ta block macro or by literal tab
characters.
Using literal tabs is strongly discouraged because they are
very hard to use correctly and mdoc 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.
The tab cell delimiter may only be used within the
It line itself; on following lines, only the
Ta macro can be used to delimit cells, and
portability requires that Ta is called by other
macros: some parsers do not recognize it when it appears as the first
macro on a line.
Note that quoted strings may span tab-delimited cells on an
It line. For example,
.It "col1 , <TAB> col2
," ;
will preserve the whitespace before both commas, but not the
whitespace before the semicolon.
See also Bl .
Lb
lib name
- Specify a library.
The name parameter may be a system
library, such as z or
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 SYNOPSIS section as described in
MANUAL STRUCTURE.
Examples:
.Lb libz
.Lb libmandoc
Li
word ...
- Request a typewriter (literal) font. Deprecated because on terminal output
devices, this is usually indistinguishable from normal text. For literal
displays, use
Ql (in-line),
Dl (single line), or Bd
-literal (multi-line) instead.
Lk
uri [display_name]
- Format a hyperlink.
Examples:
.Lk http://bsd.lv "The
BSD.lv Project"
.Lk http://bsd.lv
See also Mt .
Lp
- Deprecated synonym for
Pp .
Ms
name
- Display a mathematical symbol.
Examples:
.Ms sigma
.Ms aleph
Mt
localpart@domain
- Format a “mailto:” hyperlink.
Examples:
.Mt
discuss@manpages.bsd.lv
.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt
kristaps@bsd.lv
Nd
line
- A one line description of the manual's content. This is the mandatory last
macro of the NAME section and not appropriate for other
sections.
Examples:
.Nd mdoc
language reference
.Nd format and
display UNIX manuals
The Nd macro technically accepts child
macros and terminates with a subsequent Sh
invocation. Do not assume this behaviour: some
whatis(1)
database generators are not smart enough to parse more than the line
arguments and will display macros verbatim.
See also Nm .
Nm
[name]
- The name of the manual page, or — in particular in section 1, 6,
and 8 pages — of an additional command or feature documented in the
manual page. When first invoked, the
Nm macro
expects a single argument, the name of the manual page. Usually, the first
invocation happens in the 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 Nm
macro uses Block
full-implicit semantics when invoked as the first macro on an input
line in the SYNOPSIS section; otherwise, it uses
ordinary In-line semantics.
Examples:
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm cat
.Op Fl benstuv
.Op Ar
In the SYNOPSIS of section 2, 3 and 9 manual
pages, use the Fn macro rather than
Nm to mark up the name of the manual page.
No
word ...
- Normal text. Closes the scope of any preceding in-line macro. When used
after physical formatting macros like
Em or
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.
Examples:
.Em italic , Sy bold , No and
roman
.Sm off
.Cm :C No / Ar pattern No / Ar replacement No /
.Sm on
See also Em ,
Ql , and Sy .
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
No macro.
This has no effect when invoked at the start of a macro
line.
Examples:
.Ar name Ns = Ns Ar
value
.Cm :M Ns Ar pattern
.Fl o Ns Ar output
See also No and
Sm .
Nx
[version]
- Format the NetBSD version provided as an argument,
or a default value if no argument is provided.
Examples:
.Nx 5.01
.Nx
See also At ,
Bsx , Bx ,
Dx , Fx , and
Ox .
Oc
- Close multi-line
Oo context.
Oo
block
- Multi-line version of
Op .
Examples:
.Oo
.Op Fl flag Ns Ar value
.Oc
Op
line
- Optional part of a command line. Prints the argument(s) in brackets. This
is most often used in the SYNOPSIS section of section 1
and 8 manual pages.
Examples:
.Op Fl a Ar b
.Op Ar a | b
See also Oo .
Os
[system [version]]
- Operating system version for display in the page footer. This is the
mandatory third macro of any
mdoc file.
The optional system parameter specifies
the relevant operating system or environment. It is suggested to leave
it unspecified, in which case
mandoc(1)
uses its -Ios argument or, if that isn't
specified either, sysname and
release as returned by
uname(3).
Examples:
.Os
.Os KTH/CSC/TCS
.Os BSD 4.3
See also Dd and
Dt .
Ot
functype
- This macro is obsolete. Use
Ft instead; with
mandoc(1),
both have the same effect.
Historical mdoc packages described it
as “old function type (FORTRAN)”.
Ox
[version]
- Format the OpenBSD version provided as an
argument, or a default value if no argument is provided.
Examples:
.Ox 4.5
.Ox
See also At ,
Bsx , Bx ,
Dx , Fx , and
Nx .
Pa
name ...
- An absolute or relative file system path, or a file or directory name. If
an argument is not provided, the character ‘~’ is used as a
default.
Examples:
.Pa /usr/bin/mandoc
.Pa
/usr/share/man/man7/mdoc.7
See also Lk .
Pc
- Close parenthesised context opened by
Po .
Pf
prefix macro [argument ...]
- Removes the space between its argument and the following macro. It is
equivalent to:
No
\&prefix Ns
macro [argument ...]
The prefix argument is not parsed for
macro names or delimiters, but used verbatim as if it were escaped.
Examples:
.Pf $ Ar
variable_name
.Pf . Ar macro_name
.Pf 0x Ar hex_digits
See also Ns and
Sm .
Po
block
- Multi-line version of
Pq .
Pp
- Break a paragraph. This will assert vertical space between prior and
subsequent macros and/or text.
Paragraph breaks are not needed before or after
Sh or Ss macros or
before displays (Bd line)
or lists (Bl ) unless the
-compact flag is given.
Pq
line
- Parenthesised enclosure.
See also Po .
Qc
- Close quoted context opened by
Qo .
Ql
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.
See also Dl and
Bd -literal .
Qo
block
- Multi-line version of
Qq .
Qq
line
- Encloses its arguments in “typewriter” double-quotes.
Consider using
Dq .
See also Dq ,
Sq , and Qo .
Re
- Close an
Rs block. Does not have any tail
arguments.
Rs
- Begin a bibliographic (“reference”) block. Does not have any
head arguments. The block macro may only contain
%A , %B ,
%C , %D ,
%I , %J ,
%N , %O ,
%P , %Q ,
%R , %T ,
%U , and %V child macros
(at least one must be specified).
Examples:
.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
If an 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.
Rv
-std [function ...]
- Insert a standard sentence regarding a function call's return value of 0
on success and -1 on error, with the errno libc
global variable set on error.
If function is not specified, the
document's name set by Nm is used. Multiple
function arguments are treated as separate
functions.
See also Ex .
Sc
- Close single-quoted context opened by
So .
Sh
TITLE LINE
- Begin a new section. For a list of conventional manual sections, see
MANUAL STRUCTURE. These
sections should be used unless it's absolutely necessary that custom
sections be used.
Section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by
Sx . Although this macro is parsed, it should not
consist of child node or it may not be linked with
Sx .
See also Pp ,
Ss , and Sx .
Sm
[on | off ]
- Switches the spacing mode for output generated from macros.
By default, spacing is on . When
switched 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.
When called without an argument, the
Sm macro toggles the spacing mode. Using this is
not recommended because it makes the code harder to read.
So
block
- Multi-line version of
Sq .
Sq
line
- Encloses its arguments in ‘typewriter’ single-quotes.
See also Dq ,
Qq , and So .
Ss
Title line
- Begin a new subsection. Unlike with
Sh , there is
no convention for the naming of subsections. Except
DESCRIPTION, the conventional sections described in
MANUAL STRUCTURE rarely have
subsections.
Sub-section names should be unique so that they may be keyed
by Sx . Although this macro is parsed, it should
not consist of child node or it may not be linked with
Sx .
See also Pp ,
Sh , and Sx .
St
- 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.
- C language standards
-
- -ansiC
- ANSI X3.159-1989
(“ANSI C89”)
- -ansiC-89
- ANSI X3.159-1989
(“ANSI C89”)
- -isoC
- ISO/IEC 9899:1990
(“ISO C90”)
- -isoC-90
- ISO/IEC 9899:1990
(“ISO C90”)
The original C standard.
- -isoC-amd1
- ISO/IEC 9899/AMD1:1995 (“ISO C90,
Amendment 1”)
- -isoC-tcor1
- ISO/IEC 9899/TCOR1:1994 (“ISO C90,
Technical Corrigendum 1”)
- -isoC-tcor2
- ISO/IEC 9899/TCOR2:1995 (“ISO C90,
Technical Corrigendum 2”)
- -isoC-99
- ISO/IEC 9899:1999
(“ISO C99”)
The second major version of the C language standard.
- -isoC-2011
- ISO/IEC 9899:2011
(“ISO C11”)
The third major version of the C language standard.
- POSIX.1 before the Single UNIX Specification
-
- -p1003.1-88
- IEEE Std 1003.1-1988
(“POSIX.1”)
- -p1003.1
- IEEE Std 1003.1 (“POSIX.1”)
The original POSIX standard, based on ANSI C.
- -p1003.1-90
- IEEE Std 1003.1-1990
(“POSIX.1”)
- -iso9945-1-90
- ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990
(“POSIX.1”)
The first update of POSIX.1.
- -p1003.1b-93
- IEEE Std 1003.1b-1993
(“POSIX.1b”)
- -p1003.1b
- IEEE Std 1003.1b
(“POSIX.1b”)
Real-time extensions.
- -p1003.1c-95
- IEEE Std 1003.1c-1995
(“POSIX.1c”)
POSIX thread interfaces.
- -p1003.1i-95
- IEEE Std 1003.1i-1995
(“POSIX.1i”)
Technical Corrigendum.
- -p1003.1-96
- ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996
(“POSIX.1”)
- -iso9945-1-96
- ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996
(“POSIX.1”)
Includes POSIX.1-1990, 1b, 1c, and 1i.
- X/Open Portability Guide version 4 and related standards
-
- -xpg3
- X/Open Portability Guide Issue 3
(“XPG3”)
An XPG4 precursor, published in 1989.
- -p1003.2
- IEEE Std 1003.2
(“POSIX.2”)
- -p1003.2-92
- IEEE Std 1003.2-1992
(“POSIX.2”)
- -iso9945-2-93
- ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993
(“POSIX.2”)
An XCU4 precursor.
- -p1003.2a-92
- IEEE Std 1003.2a-1992
(“POSIX.2”)
Updates to POSIX.2.
- -xpg4
- X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4
(“XPG4”)
Based on POSIX.1 and POSIX.2, published in 1992.
- Single UNIX Specification version 1 and related standards
-
- -susv1
- Version 1 of the Single UNIX Specification
(“SUSv1”)
- -xpg4.2
- X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4,
Version 2 (“XPG4.2”)
This standard was published in 1994. It was used as the basis for
UNIX 95 certification. The following three refer to parts of it.
- -xsh4.2
- X/Open System Interfaces and Headers
Issue 4, Version 2 (“XSH4.2”)
- -xcurses4.2
- X/Open Curses Issue 4, Version 2
(“XCURSES4.2”)
- -p1003.1g-2000
- IEEE Std 1003.1g-2000
(“POSIX.1g”)
Networking APIs, including sockets.
- -svid4
- System V Interface Definition, Fourth
Edition (“SVID4”),
Published in 1995.
- Single UNIX Specification version 2 and related standards
-
- -susv2
- Version 2 of the Single UNIX Specification
(“SUSv2”) This Standard was published in 1997
and is also called X/Open Portability Guide version 5. It was used
as the basis for UNIX 98 certification. The following refer to
parts of it.
- -xbd5
- X/Open Base Definitions Issue 5
(“XBD5”)
- -xsh5
- X/Open System Interfaces and Headers
Issue 5 (“XSH5”)
- -xcu5
- X/Open Commands and Utilities Issue 5
(“XCU5”)
- -xns5
- X/Open Networking Services Issue 5
(“XNS5”)
- -xns5.2
- X/Open Networking Services Issue 5.2
(“XNS5.2”)
- Single UNIX Specification version 3
-
- -p1003.1-2001
- IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
(“POSIX.1”)
- -susv3
- Version 3 of the Single UNIX Specification
(“SUSv3”)
This standard is based on C99, SUSv2, POSIX.1-1996, 1d, and 1j. It
is also called X/Open Portability Guide version 6. It is used as
the basis for UNIX 03 certification.
- -p1003.1-2004
- IEEE Std 1003.1-2004
(“POSIX.1”)
The second and last Technical Corrigendum.
- Single UNIX Specification version 4
-
- -p1003.1-2008
- IEEE Std 1003.1-2008
(“POSIX.1”)
- -susv4
- Version 4 of the Single UNIX Specification
(“SUSv4”)
This standard is also called X/Open Portability Guide version
7.
- Other standards
-
- -ieee754
- IEEE Std 754-1985
Floating-point arithmetic.
- -iso8601
- ISO 8601
Representation of dates and times, published in 1988.
- -iso8802-3
- ISO 8802-3: 1989
Ethernet local area networks.
- -ieee1275-94
- IEEE Std 1275-1994 (“Open
Firmware”)
Sx
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.
Examples:
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
See also Sh and
Ss .
Sy
word ...
- Request a boldface font.
This is most often used to indicate importance or seriousness
(not to be confused with stress emphasis, see
Em ). When none of the semantic macros fit, it is
also adequate for syntax elements that have to be given or that appear
verbatim.
Examples:
.Sy Warning :
If
.Sy s
appears in the owner permissions, set-user-ID mode is set.
This utility replaces the former
.Sy dumpdir
program.
See also Em ,
No , and Ql .
Ta
- Table cell separator in
Bl
-column lists; can only be used below
It .
Tn
word ...
- Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Even
though the macro name (“tradename”) suggests a semantic
function, historic usage is inconsistent, mostly using it as a
presentation-level macro to request a small caps font.
Ud
- Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints
out “currently under development.”
Ux
- Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints
out “UNIX”.
Va
[type] identifier ...
- A variable name.
Examples:
.Va foo
.Va const char *bar;
For function arguments and parameters, use
Fa instead. For declarations of global variables
in the SYNOPSIS section, use
Vt .
Vt
type [identifier]
- A variable type.
This is also used for indicating global variables in the
SYNOPSIS section, in which case a variable name is
also specified. Note that it accepts
Block partial-implicit
syntax when invoked as the first macro on an input line in the
SYNOPSIS section, else it accepts ordinary
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.
Examples:
.Vt unsigned char
.Vt extern const char * const
sys_signame[] ;
For parameters in function prototypes, use
Fa instead, for function return types
Ft , and for variable names outside the
SYNOPSIS section Va , even when
including a type with the name. See also
MANUAL STRUCTURE.
Xc
- Close a scope opened by
Xo .
Xo
block
- Extend the header of an
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
roff(7).
Xr
name section
- Link to another manual (“cross-reference”).
Cross reference the name and
section number of another man page.
Examples:
.Xr mandoc 1
.Xr mandoc 1 ;
.Xr mandoc 1 Ns s
behaviour
The syntax of a macro depends on its classification. In this section,
‘-arg’ refers to macro arguments, which may be followed by zero
or more ‘parm’ parameters; ‘Yo’ opens the scope of
a macro; and if specified, ‘Yc’ closes it out.
The Callable column indicates that the macro may
also be called by passing its name as an argument to another macro. For
example, ‘.Op Fl O Ar file’ produces
‘[-O file]’. To
prevent a macro call and render the macro name literally, escape it by
prepending a zero-width space, ‘\&’. For example,
‘Op \&Fl O’ produces ‘[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, ‘.Fl Sh’ produces
‘-Sh ’.
The 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.
The Scope column, if applicable, describes
closure rules.
Multi-line scope closed by an explicit closing macro. All macros contains
bodies; only Bf and (optionally)
Bl contain a head.
.Yo [-arg [parm...]] [head...]
[body...]
.Yc
Macro |
Callable |
Parsed |
Scope |
Bd |
No |
No |
closed by Ed |
Bf |
No |
No |
closed by Ef |
Bk |
No |
No |
closed by Ek |
Bl |
No |
No |
closed by El |
Ed |
No |
No |
opened by Bd |
Ef |
No |
No |
opened by Bf |
Ek |
No |
No |
opened by Bk |
El |
No |
No |
opened by Bl |
Multi-line scope closed by end-of-file or implicitly by another macro. All
macros have bodies; some (It
-bullet , -hyphen ,
-dash , -enum ,
-item ) don't have heads; only one
(It in Bl
-column ) has multiple heads.
.Yo [-arg [parm...]] [head... [Ta head...]]
[body...]
Macro |
Callable |
Parsed |
Scope |
It |
No |
Yes |
closed by It , El |
Nd |
No |
No |
closed by Sh |
Nm |
No |
Yes |
closed by Nm , Sh ,
Ss |
Sh |
No |
Yes |
closed by Sh |
Ss |
No |
Yes |
closed by Sh , Ss |
Note that the Nm macro is a
Block full-implicit macro only
when invoked as the first macro in a SYNOPSIS section
line, else it is In-line.
Like block full-explicit, but also with single-line scope. Each has at least a
body and, in limited circumstances, a head (Fo ,
Eo ) and/or tail (Ec ).
.Yo [-arg [parm...]] [head...]
[body...]
.Yc [tail...]
.Yo [-arg [parm...]] [head...] [body...] Yc [tail...]
Macro |
Callable |
Parsed |
Scope |
Ac |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Ao |
Ao |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Ac |
Bc |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Bo |
Bo |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Bc |
Brc |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Bro |
Bro |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Brc |
Dc |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Do |
Do |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Dc |
Ec |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Eo |
Eo |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Ec |
Fc |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Fo |
Fo |
No |
No |
closed by Fc |
Oc |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Oo |
Oo |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Oc |
Pc |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Po |
Po |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Pc |
Qc |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Oo |
Qo |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Oc |
Re |
No |
No |
opened by Rs |
Rs |
No |
No |
closed by Re |
Sc |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by So |
So |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Sc |
Xc |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Xo |
Xo |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Xc |
Like block full-implicit, but with single-line scope closed by the end of the
line.
.Yo [-arg [val...]] [body...] [res...]
Macro |
Callable |
Parsed |
Aq |
Yes |
Yes |
Bq |
Yes |
Yes |
Brq |
Yes |
Yes |
D1 |
No |
Yes |
Dl |
No |
Yes |
Dq |
Yes |
Yes |
En |
Yes |
Yes |
Op |
Yes |
Yes |
Pq |
Yes |
Yes |
Ql |
Yes |
Yes |
Qq |
Yes |
Yes |
Sq |
Yes |
Yes |
Vt |
Yes |
Yes |
Note that the Vt macro is a
Block partial-implicit only
when invoked as the first macro in a SYNOPSIS section
line, else it is In-line.
The Ta macro can only be used below
It in Bl
-column lists. It delimits blocks representing table
cells; these blocks have bodies, but no heads.
Macro |
Callable |
Parsed |
Scope |
Ta |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Ta , It |
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 (n), then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of arguments.
.Yo [-arg [val...]] [args...] [res...]
.Yo [-arg [val...]] [args...] Yc...
.Yo [-arg [val...]] arg0 arg1 argN
Macro |
Callable |
Parsed |
Arguments |
%A |
No |
No |
>0 |
%B |
No |
No |
>0 |
%C |
No |
No |
>0 |
%D |
No |
No |
>0 |
%I |
No |
No |
>0 |
%J |
No |
No |
>0 |
%N |
No |
No |
>0 |
%O |
No |
No |
>0 |
%P |
No |
No |
>0 |
%Q |
No |
No |
>0 |
%R |
No |
No |
>0 |
%T |
No |
No |
>0 |
%U |
No |
No |
>0 |
%V |
No |
No |
>0 |
Ad |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
An |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Ap |
Yes |
Yes |
0 |
Ar |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
At |
Yes |
Yes |
1 |
Bsx |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Bt |
No |
No |
0 |
Bx |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Cd |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Cm |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Db |
No |
No |
1 |
Dd |
No |
No |
n |
Dt |
No |
No |
n |
Dv |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Dx |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Em |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Er |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Es |
Yes |
Yes |
2 |
Ev |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Ex |
No |
No |
n |
Fa |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Fd |
No |
No |
>0 |
Fl |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Fn |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Fr |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Ft |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Fx |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Hf |
No |
No |
n |
Ic |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
In |
No |
No |
1 |
Lb |
No |
No |
1 |
Li |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Lk |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Lp |
No |
No |
0 |
Ms |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Mt |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Nm |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Ns |
Yes |
Yes |
0 |
Nx |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Os |
No |
No |
n |
Ot |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Ox |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Pa |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Pf |
Yes |
Yes |
1 |
Pp |
No |
No |
0 |
Rv |
No |
No |
n |
Sm |
No |
No |
<2 |
St |
No |
Yes |
1 |
Sx |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Sy |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Tn |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Ud |
No |
No |
0 |
Ux |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Va |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Vt |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Xr |
Yes |
Yes |
2 |
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
(‘\&’). In text lines, delimiters never need escaping, but
may be used as normal punctuation.
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,
.Aq ( [ word ] ) .
renders as:
([⟨word⟩]).
Opening delimiters are:
- (
- left parenthesis
- [
- left bracket
Closing delimiters are:
- .
- period
- ,
- comma
- :
- colon
- ;
- semicolon
- )
- right parenthesis
- ]
- right bracket
- ?
- question mark
- !
- exclamation mark
Note that even a period preceded by a backslash
(‘\.’) gets this special handling; use ‘\&.’
to prevent that.
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,
.Fl a ( b | c \*(Ba d ) e
renders as:
-a (-b
| -c | -d )
-e
This applies to both opening and closing delimiters, and also to
the middle delimiter, which does not suppress spacing:
As a special case, the predefined string \*(Ba is handled and
rendered in the same way as a plain ‘|’ character. Using this
predefined string is not recommended in new manuals.
Appending a zero-width space (‘\&’) 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.
In mdoc 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
Physical markup macros. Whenever any
mdoc macro switches the
roff(7)
font mode, it will automatically restore the previous font when exiting its
scope. Manually switching the font using the
roff(7)
‘\f ’ font escape sequences is never
required.
This section provides an incomplete list of compatibility issues between mandoc
and GNU troff (“groff”).
The following problematic behaviour is found in groff:
Dd
with non-standard arguments behaves very strangely. When there are three
arguments, they are printed verbatim. Any other number of arguments is
replaced by the current date, but without any arguments the string
“Epoch” is printed.
Lk
only accepts a single link-name argument; the remainder is
misformatted.
Pa
does not format its arguments when used in the FILES section under certain
list types.
Ta
can only be called by other macros, but not at the beginning of a
line.
%C
is not implemented (up to and including groff-1.22.2).
- ‘\f’ (font face) and ‘\F’ (font family face)
Text Decoration escapes behave
irregularly when specified within line-macro scopes.
- Negative scaling units return to prior lines. Instead, mandoc truncates
them to zero.
The following features are unimplemented in mandoc:
Bd
-file file is unsupported
for security reasons.
Bd
-filled does not adjust the right margin, but is
an alias for Bd
-ragged .
Bd
-literal does not use a literal font, but is an
alias for Bd
-unfilled .
Bd
-offset center and
-offset right don't work.
Groff does not implement centered and flush-right rendering either, but
produces large indentations.
The mdoc language first appeared as a troff macro
package in 4.4BSD. It was later significantly updated
by Werner Lemberg and Ruslan Ermilov in groff-1.17. The standalone
implementation that is part of the
mandoc(1)
utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in OpenBSD
4.6.
Visit the GSP FreeBSD Man Page Interface. Output converted with ManDoc. |