Provided by: groff_1.23.0-6_amd64 
Name
groff_mdoc — compose BSD-style manual (man) pages with GNU roff
Synopsis
groff -mdoc file ...
Description
The GNU implementation of the mdoc macro package is part of the groff(1) document formatting
system. mdoc is a structurally- and semantically-oriented package for writing UNIX manual
pages with troff(1). Its predecessor, the man(7) package, primarily addressed page layout
and presentational concerns, leaving the selection of fonts and other typesetting details to
the individual author. This discretion has led to divergent styling practices among authors
using it.
mdoc organizes its macros into domains. The page structure domain lays out the page and
comprises titles, section headings, displays, and lists. The general text domain supplies
macros to quote or style text, or to interpolate common noun phrases. The manual domain
offers semantic macros corresponding to the terminology used by practitioners in discussion
of UNIX commands, routines, and files. Manual domain macros distinguish command-line
arguments and options, function names, function parameters, pathnames, variables, cross
references to other manual pages, and so on. These terms are meaningful both to the author
and the readers of a manual page. It is hoped that the resulting increased consistency of
the man page corpus will enable easier translation to future documentation tools.
Throughout UNIX documentation, a manual entry is referred to simply as a “man page”,
regardless of its length, without gendered implication, and irrespective of the macro
package selected for its composition.
Getting started
The mdoc package attempts to simplify man page authorship and maintenance without requiring
mastery of the roff language. This document presents only essential facts about roff. For
further background, including a discussion of basic typographical concepts like “breaking”,
“filling”, and “adjustment”, see roff(7). Specialized units of measurement also arise,
namely ens, vees, inches, and points, abbreviated “n”, “v”, “i”, and “p”, respectively; see
section Measurements of groff(7).
For brief examples, we employ an arrow notation illustrating a transformation of input on
the left to rendered output on the right. Consider the .Dq macro, which double-quotes its
arguments.
.Dq man page → “man page”
Usage
An mdoc macro is called by placing the roff control character, ‘.’ (dot) at the beginning of
a line followed by its name. In this document, we often discuss a macro name with this
leading dot to identify it clearly, but the dot is not part of its name. Space or tab
characters can separate the dot from the macro name. Arguments may follow, separated from
the macro name and each other by spaces, but not tabs. The dot at the beginning of the line
prepares the formatter to expect a macro name. A dot followed immediately by a newline is
ignored; this is called the empty request. To begin an input line with a dot (or a neutral
apostrophe ‘'’) in some context other than a macro call, precede it with the ‘\&’ escape
sequence; this is a dummy character, not formatted for output. The backslash is the roff
escape character; it can appear anywhere and it always followed by at least one more
character. If followed by a newline, the backslash escapes the input line break; you can
thus keep input lines to a reasonable length without affecting their interpretation.
Macros in GNU troff accept an unlimited number of arguments, in contrast to other troffs
that often can't handle more than nine. In limited cases, arguments may be continued or
extended on the next input line without resort to the ‘\newline’ escape sequence; see
subsection Extended arguments below. Neutral double quotes " can be used to group multiple
words into an argument; see subsection Passing space characters in an argument below.
Most of mdoc's general text and manual domain macros parse their argument lists for callable
macro names. This means that an argument in the list matching a general text or manual
domain macro name (and defined to be callable) will be called with the remaining arguments
when it is encountered. In such cases, the argument, although the name of a macro, is not
preceded by a dot. Macro calls can thus be nested. This approach to macro argument
processing is a unique characteristic of the mdoc package, not a general feature of roff
syntax.
For example, the option macro, .Op, may call the flag and argument macros, .Fl and .Ar, to
specify an optional flag with an argument.
.Op Fl s Ar bytes → [-s bytes]
To prevent a word from being interpreted as a macro name, precede it with the dummy
character.
.Op \&Fl s \&Ar bytes → [Fl s Ar bytes]
In this document, macros whose argument lists are parsed for callable arguments are referred
to as parsed, and those that may be called from an argument list are referred to as
callable. This usage is a technical faux pas, since all mdoc macros are in fact interpreted
(unless prevented with ‘\&’), but as it is cumbersome to constantly refer to macros as
“being able to call other macros”, we employ the term “parsed” instead. Except where
explicitly stated, all mdoc macros are parsed and callable.
In the following, we term an mdoc macro that starts a line (with a leading dot) a command if
a distinction from those appearing as arguments of other macros is necessary.
Passing space characters in an argument
Sometimes it is desirable to give a macro an argument containing one or more space
characters, for instance to specify a particular arrangement of arguments demanded by the
macro. Additionally, quoting multi-word arguments that are to be treated the same makes
mdoc work faster; macros that parse arguments do so once (at most) for each. For example,
the function command .Fn expects its first argument to be the name of a function and any
remaining arguments to be function parameters. Because C language standards mandate the
inclusion of types and identifiers in the parameter lists of function definitions, each ‘Fn’
parameter after the first will be at least two words in length, as in “int foo”.
There are a few ways to embed a space in a macro argument. One is to use the unadjustable
space escape sequence \space. The formatter treats this escape sequence as if it were any
other printable character, and will not break a line there as it would a word space when the
output line is full. This method is useful for macro arguments that are not expected to
straddle an output line boundary, but has a drawback: this space does not adjust as others
do when the output line is formatted. An alternative is to use the unbreakable space escape
sequence, ‘\~’, which cannot break but does adjust. This groff extension is widely but not
perfectly portable. Another method is to enclose the string in double quotes.
.Fn fetch char\ *str → fetch(char *str)
.Fn fetch char\~*str → fetch(char *str)
.Fn fetch "char *str" → fetch(char *str)
If the ‘\’ before the space in the first example or the double quotes in the third example
were omitted, ‘.Fn’ would see three arguments, and the result would contain an undesired
comma.
.Fn fetch char *str → fetch(char, *str)
Trailing space characters
It is wise to remove trailing spaces from the ends of input lines. Should the need arise to
put a formattable space at the end of a line, do so with the unadjustable or unbreakable
space escape sequences.
Formatting the backslash glyph
When you need the roff escape character ‘\’ to appear in the output, use ‘\e’ or ‘\(rs’
instead. Technically, ‘\e’ formats the current escape character; it works reliably as long
as no roff request is used to change it, which should never happen in man pages. ‘\(rs’ is
a groff special character escape sequence that explicitly formats the “reverse solidus”
(backslash) glyph.
Other possible pitfalls
groff mdoc warns when an empty input line is found outside of a display, a topic presented
in subsection Examples and displays below. Use empty requests to space the source document
for maintenance.
Leading spaces cause a break and are formatted. Avoid this behaviour if possible.
Similarly, do not put more than one space between words in an ordinary text line; they are
not “normalized” to a single space as other text formatters might do.
Don't try to use the neutral double quote character ‘"’ to represent itself in an argument.
Use the special character escape sequence ‘\(dq’ to format it. Further, this glyph should
not be used for conventional quotation; mdoc offers several quotation macros. See
subsection Enclosure and quoting macros below.
The formatter attempts to detect the ends of sentences and by default puts the equivalent of
two spaces between sentences on the same output line; see roff(7). To defeat this detection
in a parsed list of macro arguments, put ‘\&’ before the punctuation mark. Thus,
The
.Ql .
character.
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.
character.
.Pp
.No test .
test
.Pp
.No test.
test
gives
The ‘’. character
The ‘.’ character.
test. test
test. test
as output. As can be seen in the first and third output lines, mdoc handles punctuation
characters specially in macro arguments. This will be explained in section General syntax
below.
A comment in the source file of a man page can begin with ‘.\"’ at the start of an input
line, ‘\"’ after other input, or ‘\#’ anywhere (the last is a groff extension); the
remainder of any such line is ignored.
A man page template
Use mdoc to construct a man page from the following template.
.\" The following three macro calls are required.
.Dd date
.Dt topic [section-identifier [section-keyword-or-title]]
.Os [package-or-operating system [version-or-release]]
.Sh Name
.Nm topic
.Nd summary-description
.\" The next heading is used in sections 2 and 3.
.\" .Sh Library
.\" The next heading is used in sections 1-4, 6, 8, and 9.
.Sh Synopsis
.Sh Description
.\" Uncomment and populate the following sections as needed.
.\" .Sh "Implementation notes"
.\" The next heading is used in sections 2, 3, and 9.
.\" .Sh "Return values"
.\" The next heading is used in sections 1, 3, 6, and 8.
.\" .Sh Environment
.\" .Sh Files
.\" The next heading is used in sections 1, 6, and 8.
.\" .Sh "Exit status"
.\" .Sh Examples
.\" The next heading is used in sections 1, 4, 6, 8, and 9.
.\" .Sh Diagnostics
.\" .Sh Compatibility
.\" The next heading is used in sections 2, 3, 4, and 9.
.\" .Sh Errors
.\" .Sh "See also"
.\" .Sh Standards
.\" .Sh History
.\" .Sh Authors
.\" .Sh Caveats
.\" .Sh Bugs
The first items in the template are the commands .Dd, .Dt, and .Os. They identify the page
and are discussed below in section Title macros.
The remaining items in the template are section headings (.Sh); of which Name and
Description are mandatory. These headings are discussed in section Page structure domain,
which follows section Manual domain. Familiarize yourself with manual domain macros first;
we use them to illustrate the use of page structure domain macros.
Conventions
In the descriptions of macros below, square brackets surround optional arguments. An
ellipsis (‘...’) represents repetition of the preceding argument zero or more times.
Alternative values of a parameter are separated with ‘|’. If a mandatory parameter can take
one of several alternative values, use braces to enclose the set, with spaces and ‘|’
separating the items.
ztar {c | x} [-w [-y | -z]] [-f archive] member ...
An alternative to using braces is to separately synopsize distinct operation modes,
particularly if the list of valid optional arguments is dependent on the user's choice of a
mandatory parameter.
ztar c [-w [-y | -z]] [-f archive] member ...
ztar x [-w [-y | -z]] [-f archive] member ...
Most macros affect subsequent arguments until another macro or a newline is encountered.
For example, ‘.Li ls Bq Ar file’ doesn't produce ‘ls [file]’, but ‘ls [file]’.
Consequently, a warning message is emitted for many commands if the first argument is itself
a macro, since it cancels the effect of the preceding one. On rare occasions, you might
want to format a word along with surrounding brackets as a literal.
.Li "ls [file]" → ls [file] # list any files named e, f, i, or l
Many macros possess an implicit width, used when they are contained in lists and displays.
If you avoid relying on these default measurements, you escape potential conflicts with
site-local modifications of the mdoc package. Explicit -width and -offset arguments to the
.Bl and .Bd macros are preferable.
Title macros
We present the mandatory title macros first due to their importance even though they
formally belong to the page structure domain macros. They designate the topic, date of last
revision, and the operating system or software project associated with the page. Call each
once at the beginning of the document. They populate the page headers and footers, which
are in roff parlance termed “titles”.
.Dd date
This first macro of any mdoc manual records the last modification date of the
document source. Arguments are concatenated and separated with space characters.
Historically, date was written in U.S. traditional format, “Month day , year” where
Month is the full month name in English, day an integer without a leading zero, and
year the four-digit year. This localism is not enforced, however. You may prefer
ISO 8601 format, YYYY-MM-DD. A date of the form ‘$Mdocdate: Month day year $’ is
also recognized. It is used in OpenBSD manuals to automatically insert the current
date when committing.
This macro is neither callable nor parsed.
.Dt topic [section-identifier [section-keyword-or-title]]
topic is the subject of the man page. A section-identifier that begins with an
integer in the range 1–9 or is one of the words ‘unass’, ‘draft’, or ‘paper’ selects
a predefined section title. This use of “section” has nothing to do with the
section headings otherwise discussed in this page; it arises from the organizational
scheme of printed and bound Unix manuals.
In this implementation, the following titles are defined for integral section
numbers.
1 General Commands Manual
2 System Calls Manual
3 Library Functions Manual
4 Kernel Interfaces Manual
5 File Formats Manual
6 Games Manual
7 Miscellaneous Information Manual
8 System Manager's Manual
9 Kernel Developer's Manual
A section title may be arbitrary or one of the following abbreviations.
USD User's Supplementary Documents
PS1 Programmer's Supplementary Documents
AMD Ancestral Manual Documents
SMM System Manager's Manual
URM User's Reference Manual
PRM Programmer's Manual
KM Kernel Manual
IND Manual Master Index
LOCAL Local Manual
CON Contributed Software Manual
For compatibility, ‘MMI’ can be used for ‘IND’, and ‘LOC’ for ‘LOCAL’. Values from
the previous table will specify a new section title. If section-keyword-or-title
designates a computer architecture recognized by groff mdoc, its value is prepended
to the default section title as specified by the second parameter. By default, the
following architecture keywords are defined.
acorn26, acorn32, algor, alpha, amd64, amiga, amigappc, arc, arm, arm26, arm32,
armish, atari, aviion, beagle, bebox, cats, cesfic, cobalt, dreamcast, emips,
evbarm, evbmips, evbppc, evbsh3, ews4800mips, hp300, hp700, hpcarm, hpcmips,
hpcsh, hppa, hppa64, i386, ia64, ibmnws, iyonix, landisk, loongson, luna68k,
luna88k, m68k, mac68k, macppc, mips, mips64, mipsco, mmeye, mvme68k, mvme88k,
mvmeppc, netwinder, news68k, newsmips, next68k, ofppc, palm, pc532,
playstation2, pmax, pmppc, powerpc, prep, rs6000, sandpoint, sbmips, sgi,
sgimips, sh3, shark, socppc, solbourne, sparc, sparc64, sun2, sun3, tahoe, vax,
x68k, x86_64, xen, zaurus
If a section title is not determined after the above matches have been attempted,
section-keyword-or-title is used.
The effects of varying ‘.Dt’ arguments on the page header content are shown below.
Observe how ‘\&’ prevents the numeral 2 from being used to look up a predefined
section title.
.Dt foo 2 → foo(2) System Calls Manual foo(2)
.Dt foo 2 m68k → foo(2) m68k System Calls Manual foo(2)
.Dt foo 2 baz → foo(2) System Calls Manual foo(2)
.Dt foo \&2 baz → foo(2) baz foo(2)
.Dt foo "" baz → foo baz foo
.Dt foo M Z80 → foo(M) Z80 foo(M)
roff strings define section titles and architecture identifiers. Site-specific
additions might be found in the file mdoc.local; see section Files below.
This macro is neither callable nor parsed.
.Os [operating-system-or-package-name [version-or-release]]
This macro associates the document with a software distribution. When composing a
man page to be included in the base installation of an operating system, do not
provide an argument; mdoc will supply it. In this implementation, that default is
“BSD”. It may be overridden in the site configuration file, mdoc.local; see section
Files below. A portable software package maintaining its own man pages can supply
its name and version number or release identifier as optional arguments. A
version-or-release argument should use the standard nomenclature for the software
specified. In the following table, recognized version-or-release arguments for some
predefined operating systems are listed. As with .Dt, site additions might be
defined in mdoc.local.
ATT 7th, 7, III, 3, V, V.2, V.3, V.4
BSD 3, 4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.3t, 4.3T, 4.3r, 4.3R, 4.4
NetBSD 0.8, 0.8a, 0.9, 0.9a, 1.0, 1.0a, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2a, 1.2b, 1.2c, 1.2d,
1.2e, 1.3, 1.3a, 1.4, 1.4.1, 1.4.2, 1.4.3, 1.5, 1.5.1, 1.5.2,
1.5.3, 1.6, 1.6.1, 1.6.2, 1.6.3, 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3, 2.1,
3.0, 3.0.1, 3.0.2, 3.0.3, 3.1, 3.1.1, 4.0, 4.0.1, 5.0, 5.0.1,
5.0.2, 5.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 5.1.4, 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 6.0, 6.0.1,
6.0.2, 6.0.3, 6.0.4, 6.0.5, 6.0.6, 6.1, 6.1.1, 6.1.2, 6.1.3, 6.1.4,
6.1.5, 7.0, 7.0.1, 7.0.2, 7.1, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 7.2, 8.0, 8.1
FreeBSD 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.5, 1.1.5.1, 2.0, 2.0.5, 2.1, 2.1.5, 2.1.6, 2.1.7,
2.2, 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.5, 2.2.6, 2.2.7, 2.2.8, 2.2.9, 3.0, 3.1,
3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 4.0, 4.1, 4.1.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6,
4.6.2, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10, 4.11, 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.3, 5.4,
5.5, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 8.0, 8.1,
8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4,
11.0, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 12.0, 12.1
OpenBSD 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2,
3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5,
4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8,
5.9, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6
DragonFly 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.8.1, 1.9, 1.10,
1.11, 1.12, 1.12.2, 1.13, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7,
2.8, 2.9, 2.9.1, 2.10, 2.10.1, 2.11, 2.12, 2.13, 3.0, 3.0.1, 3.0.2,
3.1, 3.2, 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.4.1, 3.4.2, 3.4.3, 3.5, 3.6,
3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.7, 3.8, 3.8.1, 3.8.2, 4.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2, 4.0.3,
4.0.4, 4.0.5, 4.0.6, 4.1, 4.2, 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.2.3, 4.2.4, 4.3,
4.4, 4.4.1, 4.4.2, 4.4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.8, 4.8.1,
4.9, 5.0, 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.4.1,
5.4.2, 5.4.3, 5.5, 5.6, 5.6.1, 5.6.2
Darwin 8.0.0, 8.1.0, 8.2.0, 8.3.0, 8.4.0, 8.5.0, 8.6.0, 8.7.0, 8.8.0,
8.9.0, 8.10.0, 8.11.0, 9.0.0, 9.1.0, 9.2.0, 9.3.0, 9.4.0, 9.5.0,
9.6.0, 9.7.0, 9.8.0, 10.0.0, 10.1.0, 10.2.0, 10.3.0, 10.4.0,
10.5.0, 10.6.0, 10.7.0, 10.8.0, 11.0.0, 11.1.0, 11.2.0, 11.3.0,
11.4.0, 11.5.0, 12.0.0, 12.1.0, 12.2.0, 13.0.0, 13.1.0, 13.2.0,
13.3.0, 13.4.0, 14.0.0, 14.1.0, 14.2.0, 14.3.0, 14.4.0, 14.5.0,
15.0.0, 15.1.0, 15.2.0, 15.3.0, 15.4.0, 15.5.0, 15.6.0, 16.0.0,
16.1.0, 16.2.0, 16.3.0, 16.4.0, 16.5.0, 16.6.0, 17.0.0, 17.1.0,
17.2.0, 17.3.0, 17.4.0, 17.5.0, 17.6.0, 17.7.0, 18.0.0, 18.1.0,
18.2.0, 18.3.0, 18.4.0, 18.5.0, 18.6.0, 18.7.0, 19.0.0, 19.1.0,
19.2.0
Historically, the first argument used with .Dt was BSD or ATT. An unrecognized
version argument after ATT is replaced with “UNIX”; for other predefined
abbreviations, it is ignored and a warning diagnostic emitted. Otherwise,
unrecognized arguments are displayed verbatim in the page footer. For instance,
this page uses “.Os groff 1.23.0” whereas a locally produced page might employ “.Os
"UXYZ CS Department"”, omitting versioning.
This macro is neither callable nor parsed.
Introduction to manual and general text domains
What's in a Name...
The manual domain macro names are derived from the day to day informal language used to
describe commands, subroutines and related files. Slightly different variations of this
language are used to describe the three different aspects of writing a man page. First,
there is the description of mdoc macro command usage. Second is the description of a UNIX
command with mdoc macros, and third, the description of a command to a user in the verbal
sense; that is, discussion of a command in the text of a man page.
In the first case, troff macros are themselves a type of command; the general syntax for a
troff command is:
.Xx argument1 argument2 ...
‘.Xx’ is a macro command, and anything following it are arguments to be processed. In the
second case, the description of a UNIX command using the manual domain macros is a bit more
involved; a typical Synopsis command line might be displayed as:
filter [-flag] ⟨infile⟩ ⟨outfile⟩
Here, filter is the command name and the bracketed string -flag is a flag argument
designated as optional by the option brackets. In mdoc terms, ⟨infile⟩ and ⟨outfile⟩ are
called meta arguments; in this example, the user has to replace the meta expressions given
in angle brackets with real file names. Note that in this document meta arguments are used
to describe mdoc commands; in most man pages, meta variables are not specifically written
with angle brackets. The macros that formatted the above example:
.Nm filter
.Op Fl flag
.Ao Ar infile Ac Ao Ar outfile Ac
In the third case, discussion of commands and command syntax includes both examples above,
but may add more detail. The arguments ⟨infile⟩ and ⟨outfile⟩ from the example above might
be referred to as operands or file arguments. Some command-line argument lists are quite
long:
make [-eiknqrstv] [-D variable] [-d flags] [-f makefile] [-I directory] [-j max_jobs]
[variable=value] [target ...]
Here one might talk about the command make and qualify the argument, makefile, as an
argument to the flag, -f, or discuss the optional file operand target. In the verbal
context, such detail can prevent confusion, however the mdoc package does not have a macro
for an argument to a flag. Instead the ‘Ar’ argument macro is used for an operand or file
argument like target as well as an argument to a flag like variable. The make command line
was produced from:
.Nm make
.Op Fl eiknqrstv
.Op Fl D Ar variable
.Op Fl d Ar flags
.Op Fl f Ar makefile
.Op Fl I Ar directory
.Op Fl j Ar max_jobs
.Op Ar variable Ns = Ns Ar value
.Bk
.Op Ar target ...
.Ek
The ‘.Bk’ and ‘.Ek’ macros are explained in Keeps.
General Syntax
The manual domain and general text domain macros share a similar syntax with a few minor
deviations; most notably, ‘.Ar’, ‘.Fl’, ‘.Nm’, and ‘.Pa’ differ only when called without
arguments; and ‘.Fn’ and ‘.Xr’ impose an order on their argument lists. All manual domain
macros are capable of recognizing and properly handling punctuation, provided each
punctuation character is separated by a leading space. If a command is given:
.Ar sptr, ptr),
The result is:
sptr, ptr),
The punctuation is not recognized and all is output in the font used by ‘.Ar’. If the
punctuation is separated by a leading white space:
.Ar sptr , ptr ) ,
The result is:
sptr, ptr),
The punctuation is now recognized and output in the default font distinguishing it from the
argument strings. To remove the special meaning from a punctuation character, escape it
with ‘\&’.
The following punctuation characters are recognized by mdoc:
. , : ; (
) [ ] ? !
troff is limited as a macro language, and has difficulty when presented with a string
containing certain mathematical, logical, or quotation character sequences:
{+,-,/,*,%,<,>,<=,>=,=,==,&,`,',"}
The problem is that troff may assume it is supposed to actually perform the operation or
evaluation suggested by the characters. To prevent the accidental evaluation of these
characters, escape them with ‘\&’. Typical syntax is shown in the first manual domain macro
displayed below, ‘.Ad’.
Manual domain
Addresses
The address macro identifies an address construct.
Usage: .Ad ⟨address⟩ ...
.Ad addr1 addr1
.Ad addr1 . addr1.
.Ad addr1 , file2 addr1, file2
.Ad f1 , f2 , f3 : f1, f2, f3:
.Ad addr ) ) , addr)),
The default width is 12n.
Author Name
The ‘.An’ macro is used to specify the name of the author of the item being documented, or
the name of the author of the actual manual page.
Usage: .An ⟨author name⟩ ...
.An "Joe Author" Joe Author
.An "Joe Author" , Joe Author,
.An "Joe Author" Aq nobody@FreeBSD.org
Joe Author <nobody@FreeBSD.org>
.An "Joe Author" ) ) , Joe Author)),
The default width is 12n.
In a section titled “Authors”, ‘An’ causes a break, allowing each new name to appear on its
own line. If this is not desirable,
.An -nosplit
call will turn this off. To turn splitting back on, write
.An -split
Arguments
The .Ar argument macro may be used whenever an argument is referenced. If called without
arguments, ‘file ...’ is output. This places the ellipsis in italics, which is ugly and
incorrect, and will be noticed on terminals that underline text instead of using an oblique
typeface. We recommend using ‘.Ar file No ...’ instead.
Usage: .Ar [⟨argument⟩] ...
.Ar file ...
.Ar file No ... file ...
.Ar file1 file1
.Ar file1 . file1.
.Ar file1 file2 file1 file2
.Ar f1 f2 f3 : f1 f2 f3:
.Ar file ) ) , file)),
The default width is 12n.
Configuration Declaration (Section Four Only)
The ‘.Cd’ macro is used to demonstrate a config(8) declaration for a device interface in a
section four manual.
Usage: .Cd ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Cd "device le0 at scode?" device le0 at scode?
In a section titled “Synopsis”, ‘Cd’ causes a break before and after its arguments.
The default width is 12n.
Command Modifiers
The command modifier is identical to the ‘.Fl’ (flag) command with the exception that the
‘.Cm’ macro does not assert a dash in front of every argument. Traditionally flags are
marked by the preceding dash, however, some commands or subsets of commands do not use them.
Command modifiers may also be specified in conjunction with interactive commands such as
editor commands. See Flags.
The default width is 10n.
Defined Variables
A variable (or constant) that is defined in an include file is specified by the macro ‘.Dv’.
Usage: .Dv ⟨defined-variable⟩ ...
.Dv MAXHOSTNAMELEN MAXHOSTNAMELEN
.Dv TIOCGPGRP ) TIOCGPGRP)
The default width is 12n.
Errnos
The ‘.Er’ errno macro specifies the error return value for section 2, 3, and 9 library
routines. The second example below shows ‘.Er’ used with the ‘.Bq’ general text domain
macro, as it would be used in a section two manual page.
Usage: .Er ⟨errno type⟩ ...
.Er ENOENT ENOENT
.Er ENOENT ) ; ENOENT);
.Bq Er ENOTDIR [ENOTDIR]
The default width is 17n.
Environment Variables
The ‘.Ev’ macro specifies an environment variable.
Usage: .Ev ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Ev DISPLAY DISPLAY
.Ev PATH . PATH.
.Ev PRINTER ) ) , PRINTER)),
The default width is 15n.
Flags
The ‘.Fl’ macro handles command-line flags. It prepends a dash, ‘-’, to the flag. For
interactive command flags that are not prepended with a dash, the ‘.Cm’ (command modifier)
macro is identical, but without the dash.
Usage: .Fl ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Fl -
.Fl cfv -cfv
.Fl cfv . -cfv.
.Cm cfv . cfv.
.Fl s v t -s -v -t
.Fl - , --,
.Fl xyz ) , -xyz),
.Fl | - |
The ‘.Fl’ macro without any arguments results in a dash representing stdin/stdout. Note
that giving ‘.Fl’ a single dash will result in two dashes.
The default width is 12n.
Function Declarations
The ‘.Fd’ macro is used in the Synopsis section with section two or three functions. It is
neither callable nor parsed.
Usage: .Fd ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Fd "#include <sys/types.h>" #include <sys/types.h>
In a section titled “Synopsis”, ‘Fd’ causes a break if a function has already been presented
and a break has not occurred, leaving vertical space between one function declaration and
the next.
In a section titled “Synopsis”, the ‘In’ macro represents the #include statement, and is the
short form of the above example. It specifies the C header file as being included in a
C program. It also causes a break.
While not in the “Synopsis” section, it represents the header file enclosed in angle
brackets.
Usage: .In ⟨header file⟩
.In stdio.h <stdio.h>
.In stdio.h <stdio.h>
Function Types
This macro is intended for the “Synopsis” section. It may be used anywhere else in the man
page without problems, but its main purpose is to present the function type (in BSD kernel
normal form) for the “Synopsis” of sections two and three. (It causes a break, allowing the
function name to appear on the next line.)
Usage: .Ft ⟨type⟩ ...
.Ft struct stat struct stat
Functions (Library Routines)
The ‘.Fn’ macro is modeled on ANSI C conventions.
Usage: .Fn ⟨function⟩ [⟨parameter⟩] ...
.Fn getchar getchar()
.Fn strlen ) , strlen()),
.Fn align "char *ptr" , align(char *ptr),
Note that any call to another macro signals the end of the ‘.Fn’ call (it will insert a
closing parenthesis at that point).
For functions with many parameters (which is rare), the macros ‘.Fo’ (function open) and
‘.Fc’ (function close) may be used with ‘.Fa’ (function argument).
Example:
.Ft int
.Fo res_mkquery
.Fa "int op"
.Fa "char *dname"
.Fa "int class"
.Fa "int type"
.Fa "char *data"
.Fa "int datalen"
.Fa "struct rrec *newrr"
.Fa "char *buf"
.Fa "int buflen"
.Fc
Produces:
int res_mkquery(int op, char *dname, int class, int type, char *data, int datalen,
struct rrec *newrr, char *buf, int buflen)
Typically, in a “Synopsis” section, the function delcaration will begin the line. If more
than one function is presented in the “Synopsis” section and a function type has not been
given, a break will occur, leaving vertical space between the current and prior function
names.
The default width values of ‘.Fn’ and ‘.Fo’ are 12n and 16n, respectively.
Function Arguments
The ‘.Fa’ macro is used to refer to function arguments (parameters) outside of the Synopsis
section of the manual or inside the Synopsis section if the enclosure macros ‘.Fo’ and ‘.Fc’
instead of ‘.Fn’ are used. ‘.Fa’ may also be used to refer to structure members.
Usage: .Fa ⟨function argument⟩ ...
.Fa d_namlen ) ) , d_namlen)),
.Fa iov_len iov_len
The default width is 12n.
Return Values
The ‘.Rv’ macro generates text for use in the Return values section.
Usage: .Rv [-std] [⟨function⟩ ...]
For example, ‘.Rv -std atexit’ produces:
The atexit() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is
returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.
The -std option is valid only for manual page sections 2 and 3. Currently, this macro does
nothing if used without the -std flag.
Exit Status
The ‘.Ex’ macro generates text for use in the Diagnostics section.
Usage: .Ex [-std] [⟨utility⟩ ...]
For example, ‘.Ex -std cat’ produces:
The cat utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
The -std option is valid only for manual page sections 1, 6 and 8. Currently, this macro
does nothing if used without the -std flag.
Interactive Commands
The ‘.Ic’ macro designates an interactive or internal command.
Usage: .Ic ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Ic :wq :wq
.Ic "do while {...}" do while {...}
.Ic setenv , unsetenv setenv, unsetenv
The default width is 12n.
Library Names
The ‘.Lb’ macro is used to specify the library where a particular function is compiled in.
Usage: .Lb ⟨argument⟩ ...
Available arguments to ‘.Lb’ and their results are:
libarchive Reading and Writing Streaming Archives Library (libarchive, -larchive)
libarm ARM Architecture Library (libarm, -larm)
libarm32 ARM32 Architecture Library (libarm32, -larm32)
libbluetooth Bluetooth Library (libbluetooth, -lbluetooth)
libbsm Basic Security Module Library (libbsm, -lbsm)
libc Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
libc_r Reentrant C Library (libc_r, -lc_r)
libcalendar Calendar Arithmetic Library (libcalendar, -lcalendar)
libcam Common Access Method User Library (libcam, -lcam)
libcdk Curses Development Kit Library (libcdk, -lcdk)
libcipher FreeSec Crypt Library (libcipher, -lcipher)
libcompat Compatibility Library (libcompat, -lcompat)
libcrypt Crypt Library (libcrypt, -lcrypt)
libcurses Curses Library (libcurses, -lcurses)
libdevinfo Device and Resource Information Utility Library (libdevinfo, -ldevinfo)
libdevstat Device Statistics Library (libdevstat, -ldevstat)
libdisk Interface to Slice and Partition Labels Library (libdisk, -ldisk)
libdwarf DWARF Access Library (libdwarf, -ldwarf)
libedit Command Line Editor Library (libedit, -ledit)
libelf ELF Access Library (libelf, -lelf)
libevent Event Notification Library (libevent, -levent)
libfetch File Transfer Library for URLs (libfetch, -lfetch)
libform Curses Form Library (libform, -lform)
libgeom Userland API Library for kernel GEOM subsystem (libgeom, -lgeom)
libgpib General-Purpose Instrument Bus (GPIB) library (libgpib, -lgpib)
libi386 i386 Architecture Library (libi386, -li386)
libintl Internationalized Message Handling Library (libintl, -lintl)
libipsec IPsec Policy Control Library (libipsec, -lipsec)
libipx IPX Address Conversion Support Library (libipx, -lipx)
libiscsi iSCSI protocol library (libiscsi, -liscsi)
libjail Jail Library (libjail, -ljail)
libkiconv Kernel side iconv library (libkiconv, -lkiconv)
libkse N:M Threading Library (libkse, -lkse)
libkvm Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm, -lkvm)
libm Math Library (libm, -lm)
libm68k m68k Architecture Library (libm68k, -lm68k)
libmagic Magic Number Recognition Library (libmagic, -lmagic)
libmd Message Digest (MD4, MD5, etc.) Support Library (libmd, -lmd)
libmemstat Kernel Memory Allocator Statistics Library (libmemstat, -lmemstat)
libmenu Curses Menu Library (libmenu, -lmenu)
libnetgraph Netgraph User Library (libnetgraph, -lnetgraph)
libnetpgp Netpgp signing, verification, encryption and decryption (libnetpgp,
-lnetpgp)
libossaudio OSS Audio Emulation Library (libossaudio, -lossaudio)
libpam Pluggable Authentication Module Library (libpam, -lpam)
libpcap Packet Capture Library (libpcap, -lpcap)
libpci PCI Bus Access Library (libpci, -lpci)
libpmc Performance Counters Library (libpmc, -lpmc)
libposix POSIX Compatibility Library (libposix, -lposix)
libprop Property Container Object Library (libprop, -lprop)
libpthread POSIX Threads Library (libpthread, -lpthread)
libpuffs puffs Convenience Library (libpuffs, -lpuffs)
librefuse File System in Userspace Convenience Library (librefuse, -lrefuse)
libresolv DNS Resolver Library (libresolv, -lresolv)
librpcsec_gss RPC GSS-API Authentication Library (librpcsec_gss, -lrpcsec_gss)
librpcsvc RPC Service Library (librpcsvc, -lrpcsvc)
librt POSIX Real-time Library (librt, -lrt)
libsdp Bluetooth Service Discovery Protocol User Library (libsdp, -lsdp)
libssp Buffer Overflow Protection Library (libssp, -lssp)
libSystem System Library (libSystem, -lSystem)
libtermcap Termcap Access Library (libtermcap, -ltermcap)
libterminfo Terminal Information Library (libterminfo, -lterminfo)
libthr 1:1 Threading Library (libthr, -lthr)
libufs UFS File System Access Library (libufs, -lufs)
libugidfw File System Firewall Interface Library (libugidfw, -lugidfw)
libulog User Login Record Library (libulog, -lulog)
libusbhid USB Human Interface Devices Library (libusbhid, -lusbhid)
libutil System Utilities Library (libutil, -lutil)
libvgl Video Graphics Library (libvgl, -lvgl)
libx86_64 x86_64 Architecture Library (libx86_64, -lx86_64)
libz Compression Library (libz, -lz)
Site-specific additions might be found in the file mdoc.local; see section Files below.
In a section titled “Library”, ‘Lb’ causes a break before and after its arguments.
Literals
The ‘Li’ literal macro may be used for special characters, symbolic constants, and other
syntactical items that should be typed exactly as displayed.
Usage: .Li ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Li \en \n
.Li M1 M2 M3 ; M1 M2 M3;
.Li cntrl-D ) , cntrl-D),
.Li 1024 ... 1024 ...
The default width is 16n.
Names
The ‘Nm’ macro is used for the document title or page topic. Upon its first call, it has
the peculiarity of remembering its argument, which should always be the topic of the man
page. When subsequently called without arguments, ‘Nm’ regurgitates this initial name for
the sole purpose of making less work for the author. Use of ‘Nm’ is also appropriate when
presenting a command synopsis for the topic of a man page in section 1, 6, or 8. Its
behavior changes when presented with arguments of various forms.
.Nm groff_mdoc groff_mdoc
.Nm groff_mdoc
.Nm \-mdoc -mdoc
.Nm foo ) ) , foo)),
.Nm : groff_mdoc:
By default, the topic is set in boldface to reflect its prime importance in the discussion.
Cross references to other man page topics should use ‘Xr’; including a second argument for
the section number enables them to be hyperlinked. By default, cross-referenced topics are
set in italics to avoid cluttering the page with boldface.
The default width is 10n.
Options
The ‘.Op’ macro places option brackets around any remaining arguments on the command line,
and places any trailing punctuation outside the brackets. The macros ‘.Oo’ and ‘.Oc’ (which
produce an opening and a closing option bracket, respectively) may be used across one or
more lines or to specify the exact position of the closing parenthesis.
Usage: .Op [⟨option⟩] ...
.Op []
.Op Fl k [-k]
.Op Fl k ) . [-k]).
.Op Fl k Ar kookfile [-k kookfile]
.Op Fl k Ar kookfile , [-k kookfile],
.Op Ar objfil Op Ar corfil [objfil [corfil]]
.Op Fl c Ar objfil Op Ar corfil , [-c objfil [corfil]],
.Op word1 word2 [word1 word2]
.Li .Op Oo Ao option Ac Oc ... .Op [⟨option⟩] ...
Here a typical example of the ‘.Oo’ and ‘.Oc’ macros:
.Oo
.Op Fl k Ar kilobytes
.Op Fl i Ar interval
.Op Fl c Ar count
.Oc
Produces:
[[-k kilobytes] [-i interval] [-c count]]
The default width values of ‘.Op’ and ‘.Oo’ are 14n and 10n, respectively.
Pathnames
The ‘.Pa’ macro formats file specifications. If called without arguments, ‘~’ (recognized
by many shells) is output, representing the user's home directory.
Usage: .Pa [⟨pathname⟩] ...
.Pa ~
.Pa /usr/share /usr/share
.Pa /tmp/fooXXXXX ) . /tmp/fooXXXXX).
The default width is 32n.
Standards
The ‘.St’ macro replaces standard abbreviations with their formal names.
Usage: .St ⟨abbreviation⟩ ...
Available pairs for “Abbreviation/Formal Name” are:
ANSI/ISO C
-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”)
-isoC-99 ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (“ISO C99”)
-isoC-2011 ISO/IEC 9899:2011 (“ISO C11”)
POSIX Part 1: System API
-iso9945-1-90 ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (“POSIX.1”)
-iso9945-1-96 ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1 IEEE Std 1003.1 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-88 IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-90 ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-96 ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1b-93 IEEE Std 1003.1b-1993 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1c-95 IEEE Std 1003.1c-1995 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1g-2000 IEEE Std 1003.1g-2000 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1i-95 IEEE Std 1003.1i-1995 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-2001 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-2004 IEEE Std 1003.1-2004 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-2008 IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”)
POSIX Part 2: Shell and Utilities
-iso9945-2-93 ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993 (“POSIX.2”)
-p1003.2 IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”)
-p1003.2-92 IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (“POSIX.2”)
-p1003.2a-92 IEEE Std 1003.2a-1992 (“POSIX.2”)
X/Open
-susv1
-susv2 Version 2 of the Single UNIX Specification (“SUSv2”)
-susv3 Version 3 of the Single UNIX Specification (“SUSv3”)
-susv4
-svid4 System V Interface Definition, Fourth Edition (“SVID4”)
-xbd5 X/Open Base Definitions Issue 5 (“XBD5”)
-xcu5 X/Open Commands and Utilities Issue 5 (“XCU5”)
-xcurses4.2 X/Open Curses Issue 4, Version 2 (“XCURSES4.2”)
-xns5 X/Open Networking Services Issue 5 (“XNS5”)
-xns5.2 X/Open Networking Services Issue 5.2 (“XNS5.2”)
-xpg3 X/Open Portability Guide Issue 3 (“XPG3”)
-xpg4 X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4 (“XPG4”)
-xpg4.2 X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4, Version 2 (“XPG4.2”)
-xsh5 X/Open System Interfaces and Headers Issue 5 (“XSH5”)
Miscellaneous
-ieee754 IEEE Std 754-1985
-iso8601 ISO 8601
-iso8802-3 ISO/IEC 8802-3:1989
Variable Types
The ‘.Vt’ macro may be used whenever a type is referenced. In a section titled “Synopsis”,
‘Vt’ causes a break (useful for old-style C variable declarations).
Usage: .Vt ⟨type⟩ ...
.Vt extern char *optarg ; extern char *optarg;
.Vt FILE * FILE *
Variables
Generic variable reference.
Usage: .Va ⟨variable⟩ ...
.Va count count
.Va settimer , settimer,
.Va "int *prt" ) : int *prt):
.Va "char s" ] ) ) , char s])),
The default width is 12n.
Manual Page Cross References
The ‘.Xr’ macro expects the first argument to be a manual page name. The optional second
argument, if a string (defining the manual section), is put into parentheses.
Usage: .Xr ⟨man page name⟩ [⟨section⟩] ...
.Xr mdoc mdoc
.Xr mdoc , mdoc,
.Xr mdoc 7 mdoc(7)
.Xr xinit 1x ; xinit(1x);
The default width is 10n.
General text domain
AT&T Macro
Usage: .At [⟨version⟩] ...
.At AT&T UNIX
.At v6 . Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
The following values for ⟨version⟩ are possible:
32v, v1, v2, v3, v4, v5, v6, v7, III, V, V.1, V.2, V.3, V.4
BSD Macro
Usage: .Bx {-alpha | -beta | -devel} ...
.Bx [⟨version⟩ [⟨release⟩]] ...
.Bx BSD
.Bx 4.3 . 4.3BSD.
.Bx -devel BSD (currently under development)
⟨version⟩ will be prepended to the string ‘BSD’. The following values for ⟨release⟩ are
possible:
Reno, reno, Tahoe, tahoe, Lite, lite, Lite2, lite2
NetBSD Macro
Usage: .Nx [⟨version⟩] ...
.Nx NetBSD
.Nx 1.4 . NetBSD 1.4.
For possible values of ⟨version⟩ see the description of the ‘.Os’ command above in section
Title macros.
FreeBSD Macro
Usage: .Fx [⟨version⟩] ...
.Fx FreeBSD
.Fx 2.2 . FreeBSD 2.2.
For possible values of ⟨version⟩ see the description of the ‘.Os’ command above in section
Title macros.
DragonFly Macro
Usage: .Dx [⟨version⟩] ...
.Dx DragonFly
.Dx 1.4 . DragonFly 1.4.
For possible values of ⟨version⟩ see the description of the ‘.Os’ command above in section
Title macros.
OpenBSD Macro
Usage: .Ox [⟨version⟩] ...
.Ox 1.0 OpenBSD 1.0
BSD/OS Macro
Usage: .Bsx [⟨version⟩] ...
.Bsx 1.0 BSD/OS 1.0
Unix Macro
Usage: .Ux ...
.Ux UNIX
Emphasis Macro
Text may be stressed or emphasized with the ‘.Em’ macro. The usual font for emphasis is
italic.
Usage: .Em ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Em does not does not
.Em exceed 1024 . exceed 1024.
.Em vide infra ) ) , vide infra)),
The default width is 10n.
Font Mode
The ‘.Bf’ font mode must be ended with the ‘.Ef’ macro (the latter takes no arguments).
Font modes may be nested within other font modes.
‘.Bf’ has the following syntax:
.Bf ⟨font mode⟩
⟨font mode⟩ must be one of the following three types:
Em | -emphasis Same as if the ‘.Em’ macro was used for the entire block of text.
Li | -literal Same as if the ‘.Li’ macro was used for the entire block of text.
Sy | -symbolic Same as if the ‘.Sy’ macro was used for the entire block of text.
Both macros are neither callable nor parsed.
Enclosure and Quoting Macros
The concept of enclosure is similar to quoting. The object being to enclose one or more
strings between a pair of characters like quotes or parentheses. The terms quoting and
enclosure are used interchangeably throughout this document. Most of the one-line enclosure
macros end in small letter ‘q’ to give a hint of quoting, but there are a few
irregularities. For each enclosure macro, there is a pair of opening and closing macros
that end with the lowercase letters ‘o’ and ‘c’ respectively.
Quote Open Close Function Result
.Aq .Ao .Ac Angle Bracket Enclosure <string>
.Bq .Bo .Bc Bracket Enclosure [string]
.Brq .Bro .Brc Brace Enclosure {string}
.Dq .Do .Dc Double Quote “string”
.Eq .Eo .Ec Enclose String (in XY) XstringY
.Pq .Po .Pc Parenthesis Enclosure (string)
.Ql Quoted Literal “string” or string
.Qq .Qo .Qc Straight Double Quote "string"
.Sq .So .Sc Single Quote ‘string’
All macros ending with ‘q’ and ‘o’ have a default width value of 12n.
.Eo, .Ec These macros expect the first argument to be the opening and closing strings,
respectively.
.Es, .En To work around the nine-argument limit in the original troff program, mdoc
supports two other macros that are now obsolete. ‘.Es’ uses its first and second
parameters as opening and closing marks which are then used to enclose the
arguments of ‘.En’. The default width value is 12n for both macros.
.Eq The first and second arguments of this macro are the opening and closing strings
respectively, followed by the arguments to be enclosed.
.Ql The quoted literal macro behaves differently in troff and nroff modes. If
formatted with nroff(1), a quoted literal is always quoted. If formatted with
troff, an item is only quoted if the width of the item is less than three
constant-width characters. This is to make short strings more visible where the
font change to literal (constant-width) is less noticeable.
The default width is 16n.
.Pf The prefix macro suppresses the whitespace between its first and second argument:
.Pf ( Fa name2 (name2
The default width is 12n.
The ‘.Ns’ macro (see below) performs the analogous suffix function.
.Ap The ‘.Ap’ macro inserts an apostrophe and exits any special text modes, continuing
in ‘.No’ mode.
Examples of quoting:
.Aq ⟨⟩
.Aq Pa ctype.h ) , ⟨ctype.h⟩),
.Bq []
.Bq Em Greek , French . [Greek, French].
.Dq “”
.Dq string abc . “string abc”.
.Dq '\[ha][A-Z]' “'^[A-Z]'”
.Ql man mdoc ‘man mdoc’
.Qq ""
.Qq string ) , "string"),
.Qq string Ns ), "string),"
.Sq ‘’
.Sq string ‘string’
.Em or Ap ing or'ing
For a good example of nested enclosure macros, see the ‘.Op’ option macro. It was created
from the same underlying enclosure macros as those presented in the list above. The ‘.Xo’
and ‘.Xc’ extended argument list macros are discussed below.
Normal text macro
‘No’ formats subsequent argument(s) normally, ending the effect of ‘Em’ and similar.
Parsing is not suppressed, so you must prefix words like ‘No’ with ‘\&’ to avoid their
interpretation as mdoc macros.
Usage: .No argument ...
.Em Use caution No here . → Use caution here.
.Em No dogs allowed . → No dogs allowed.
.Em \&No dogs allowed . → No dogs allowed.
The default width is 12n.
No-Space Macro
The ‘.Ns’ macro suppresses insertion of a space between the current position and its first
parameter. For example, it is useful for old style argument lists where there is no space
between the flag and argument:
Usage: ... ⟨argument⟩ Ns [⟨argument⟩] ...
.Ns ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Op Fl I Ns Ar directory [-Idirectory]
Note: The ‘.Ns’ macro always invokes the ‘.No’ macro after eliminating the space unless
another macro name follows it. If used as a command (i.e., the second form above in the
‘Usage’ line), ‘.Ns’ is identical to ‘.No’.
(Sub)section cross references
Use the ‘.Sx’ macro to cite a (sub)section heading within the given document.
Usage: .Sx ⟨section-reference⟩ ...
.Sx Files → Files
The default width is 16n.
Symbolics
The symbolic emphasis macro is generally a boldface macro in either the symbolic sense or
the traditional English usage.
Usage: .Sy ⟨symbol⟩ ...
.Sy Important Notice → Important Notice
The default width is 6n.
Mathematical Symbols
Use this macro for mathematical symbols and similar things.
Usage: .Ms ⟨math symbol⟩ ...
.Ms sigma → sigma
The default width is 6n.
References and Citations
The following macros make a modest attempt to handle references. At best, the macros make
it convenient to manually drop in a subset of refer(1) style references.
.Rs Reference start (does not take arguments). In a section titled “See also”, it
causes a break and begins collection of reference information until the
reference end macro is read.
.Re Reference end (does not take arguments). The reference is printed.
.%A Reference author name; one name per invocation.
.%B Book title.
.%C City/place.
.%D Date.
.%I Issuer/publisher name.
.%J Journal name.
.%N Issue number.
.%O Optional information.
.%P Page number.
.%Q Corporate or foreign author.
.%R Report name.
.%T Title of article.
.%U Optional hypertext reference.
.%V Volume.
Macros beginning with ‘%’ are not callable but accept multiple arguments in the usual way.
Only the ‘.Tn’ macro is handled properly as a parameter; other macros will cause strange
output. ‘.%B’ and ‘.%T’ can be used outside of the ‘.Rs/.Re’ environment.
Example:
.Rs
.%A "Matthew Bar"
.%A "John Foo"
.%T "Implementation Notes on foobar(1)"
.%R "Technical Report ABC-DE-12-345"
.%Q "Drofnats College"
.%C "Nowhere"
.%D "April 1991"
.Re
produces
Matthew Bar and John Foo, Implementation Notes on foobar(1), Technical Report ABC-
DE-12-345, Drofnats College, Nowhere, April 1991.
Trade Names or Acronyms
The trade name macro prints its arguments at a smaller type size. It is intended to imitate
a small caps fonts for fully capitalized acronyms.
Usage: .Tn ⟨symbol⟩ ...
.Tn DEC DEC
.Tn ASCII ASCII
The default width is 10n.
Extended Arguments
The .Xo and .Xc macros allow one to extend an argument list on a macro boundary for the
‘.It’ macro (see below). Note that .Xo and .Xc are implemented similarly to all other
macros opening and closing an enclosure (without inserting characters, of course). This
means that the following is true for those macros also.
Here is an example of ‘.Xo’ using the space mode macro to turn spacing off:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.Sm off
.It Xo Sy I Ar operation
.No \en Ar count No \en
.Xc
.Sm on
.Ed
produces
Ioperation\ncount\n
Another one:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.Sm off
.It Cm S No / Ar old_pattern Xo
.No / Ar new_pattern
.No / Op Cm g
.Xc
.Sm on
.Ed
produces
S/old_pattern/new_pattern/[g]
Another example of ‘.Xo’ and enclosure macros: Test the value of a variable.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.It Xo
.Ic .ifndef
.Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar variable Oo
.Ar operator variable No ...
.Oc Xc
.Ed
produces
.ifndef [!]variable [operator variable ...]
Page structure domain
Section headings
The following ‘.Sh’ section heading macros are required in every man page. The remaining
section headings are recommended at the discretion of the author writing the manual page.
The ‘.Sh’ macro is parsed but not generally callable. It can be used as an argument in a
call to ‘.Sh’ only; it then reactivates the default font for ‘.Sh’.
The default width is 8n.
.Sh Name The ‘.Sh Name’ macro is mandatory. If not specified, headers, footers,
and page layout defaults will not be set and things will be rather
unpleasant. The Name section consists of at least three items. The
first is the ‘.Nm’ name macro naming the subject of the man page. The
second is the name description macro, ‘.Nd’, which separates the subject
name from the third item, which is the description. The description
should be the most terse and lucid possible, as the space available is
small.
‘.Nd’ first prints ‘-’, then all its arguments.
.Sh Library This section is for section two and three function calls. It should
consist of a single ‘.Lb’ macro call; see Library Names.
.Sh Synopsis The Synopsis section describes the typical usage of the subject of a man
page. The macros required are either ‘.Nm’, ‘.Cd’, or ‘.Fn’ (and
possibly ‘.Fo’, ‘.Fc’, ‘.Fd’, and ‘.Ft’). The function name macro ‘.Fn’
is required for manual page sections 2 and 3; the command and general
name macro ‘.Nm’ is required for sections 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Section 4
manuals require a ‘.Nm’, ‘.Fd’ or a ‘.Cd’ configuration device usage
macro. Several other macros may be necessary to produce the synopsis
line as shown below:
cat [-benstuv] [-] file ...
The following macros were used:
.Nm cat
.Op Fl benstuv
.Op Fl
.Ar file No ...
.Sh Description In most cases the first text in the Description section is a brief
paragraph on the command, function or file, followed by a lexical list of
options and respective explanations. To create such a list, the ‘.Bl’
(begin list), ‘.It’ (list item) and ‘.El’ (end list) macros are used (see
Lists and Columns below).
.Sh Implementation notes
Implementation specific information should be placed here.
.Sh Return values Sections 2, 3 and 9 function return values should go here. The ‘.Rv’
macro may be used to generate text for use in the Return values section
for most section 2 and 3 library functions; see Return Values.
The following ‘.Sh’ section headings are part of the preferred manual page layout and must
be used appropriately to maintain consistency. They are listed in the order in which they
would be used.
.Sh Environment The Environment section should reveal any related environment variables
and clues to their behavior and/or usage.
.Sh Files Files which are used or created by the man page subject should be listed
via the ‘.Pa’ macro in the Files section.
.Sh Examples There are several ways to create examples. See subsection Examples and
Displays below for details.
.Sh Diagnostics Diagnostic messages from a command should be placed in this section. The
‘.Ex’ macro may be used to generate text for use in the Diagnostics
section for most section 1, 6 and 8 commands; see Exit Status.
.Sh Compatibility Known compatibility issues (e.g. deprecated options or parameters) should
be listed here.
.Sh Errors Specific error handling, especially from library functions (man page
sections 2, 3, and 9) should go here. The ‘.Er’ macro is used to specify
an error (errno).
.Sh See also References to other material on the man page topic and cross references
to other relevant man pages should be placed in the See also section.
Cross references are specified using the ‘.Xr’ macro. Currently refer(1)
style references are not accommodated.
It is recommended that the cross references be sorted by section number,
then alphabetically by name within each section, then separated by
commas. Example:
ls(1), ps(1), group(5), passwd(5)
.Sh Standards If the command, library function, or file adheres to a specific
implementation such as IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) or ANSI X3.159-1989
(“ANSI C89”) this should be noted here. If the command does not adhere
to any standard, its history should be noted in the History section.
.Sh History Any command which does not adhere to any specific standards should be
outlined historically in this section.
.Sh Authors Credits should be placed here. Use the ‘.An’ macro for names and the
‘.Aq’ macro for email addresses within optional contact information.
Explicitly indicate whether the person authored the initial manual page
or the software or whatever the person is being credited for.
.Sh Bugs Blatant problems with the topic go here.
User-specified ‘.Sh’ sections may be added; for example, this section was set with:
.Sh "Page structure domain"
Subsection headings
Subsection headings have exactly the same syntax as section headings: ‘.Ss’ is parsed but
not generally callable. It can be used as an argument in a call to ‘.Ss’ only; it then
reactivates the default font for ‘.Ss’.
The default width is 8n.
Paragraphs and Line Spacing
.Pp The ‘.Pp’ paragraph command may be used to specify a line space where necessary. The
macro is not necessary after a ‘.Sh’ or ‘.Ss’ macro or before a ‘.Bl’ or ‘.Bd’ macro
(which both assert a vertical distance unless the -compact flag is given).
The macro is neither callable nor parsed and takes no arguments; an alternative name is
‘.Lp’.
Keeps
The only keep that is implemented at this time is for words. The macros are ‘.Bk’ (begin
keep) and ‘.Ek’ (end keep). The only option that ‘.Bk’ currently accepts is -words (also
the default); this prevents breaks in the middle of options. In the example for make
command-line arguments (see What's in a Name), the keep prevents nroff from placing the flag
and the argument on separate lines.
Neither macro is callable or parsed.
More work needs to be done on the keep macros; specifically, a -line option should be added.
Examples and Displays
There are seven types of displays.
.D1 (This is D-one.) Display one line of indented text. This macro is parsed but not
callable.
-ldghfstru
The above was produced by: .D1 Fl ldghfstru.
.Dl (This is D-ell.) Display one line of indented literal text. The ‘.Dl’ example macro
has been used throughout this file. It allows the indentation (display) of one line of
text. Its default font is set to constant width (literal). ‘.Dl’ is parsed but not
callable.
% ls -ldg /usr/local/bin
The above was produced by: .Dl % ls \-ldg /usr/local/bin.
.Bd Begin display. The ‘.Bd’ display must be ended with the ‘.Ed’ macro. It has the
following syntax:
.Bd {-literal | -filled | -unfilled | -ragged | -centered} [-offset ⟨string⟩]
[-file ⟨file name⟩] [-compact]
-ragged Fill, but do not adjust the right margin (only left-justify).
-centered Center lines between the current left and right margin. Note that
each single line is centered.
-unfilled Do not fill; break lines where their input lines are broken. This
can produce overlong lines without warning messages.
-filled Display a filled block. The block of text is formatted (i.e., the
text is justified on both the left and right side).
-literal Display block with literal font (usually fixed-width). Useful for
source code or simple tabbed or spaced text.
-file ⟨file name⟩ The file whose name follows the -file flag is read and displayed
before any data enclosed with ‘.Bd’ and ‘.Ed’, using the selected
display type. Any troff/mdoc commands in the file will be
processed.
-offset ⟨string⟩ If -offset is specified with one of the following strings, the
string is interpreted to indicate the level of indentation for the
forthcoming block of text:
left Align block on the current left margin; this is the
default mode of ‘.Bd’.
center Supposedly center the block. At this time
unfortunately, the block merely gets left aligned about
an imaginary center margin.
indent Indent by one default indent value or tab. The default
indent value is also used for the ‘.D1’ and ‘.Dl’
macros, so one is guaranteed the two types of displays
will line up. The indentation value is normally set
to 6n or about two thirds of an inch (six constant width
characters).
indent-two Indent two times the default indent value.
right This left aligns the block about two inches from the
right side of the page. This macro needs work and
perhaps may never do the right thing within troff.
If ⟨string⟩ is a valid numeric expression instead (with a scaling
indicator other than ‘u’), use that value for indentation. The most
useful scaling indicators are ‘m’ and ‘n’, specifying the so-called
Em and En square. This is approximately the width of the letters
‘m’ and ‘n’ respectively of the current font (for nroff output, both
scaling indicators give the same values). If ⟨string⟩ isn't a
numeric expression, it is tested whether it is an mdoc macro name,
and the default offset value associated with this macro is used.
Finally, if all tests fail, the width of ⟨string⟩ (typeset with a
fixed-width font) is taken as the offset.
-compact Suppress insertion of vertical space before begin of display.
.Ed End display (takes no arguments).
Lists and Columns
There are several types of lists which may be initiated with the ‘.Bl’ begin-list macro.
Items within the list are specified with the ‘.It’ item macro, and each list must end with
the ‘.El’ macro. Lists may be nested within themselves and within displays. The use of
columns inside of lists or lists inside of columns is untested.
In addition, several list attributes may be specified such as the width of a tag, the list
offset, and compactness (blank lines between items allowed or disallowed). Most of this
document has been formatted with a tag style list (-tag).
It has the following syntax forms:
.Bl {-hang | -ohang | -tag | -diag | -inset} [-width ⟨string⟩] [-offset ⟨string⟩]
[-compact]
.Bl -column [-offset ⟨string⟩] ⟨string1⟩ ⟨string2⟩ ...
.Bl {-item | -enum [-nested] | -bullet | -hyphen | -dash} [-offset ⟨string⟩]
[-compact]
And now a detailed description of the list types.
-bullet A bullet list.
.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact
.It
Bullet one goes here.
.It
Bullet two here.
.El
Produces:
• Bullet one goes here.
• Bullet two here.
-dash (or -hyphen)
A dash list.
.Bl -dash -offset indent -compact
.It
Dash one goes here.
.It
Dash two here.
.El
Produces:
- Dash one goes here.
- Dash two here.
-enum An enumerated list.
.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact
.It
Item one goes here.
.It
And item two here.
.El
The result:
1. Item one goes here.
2. And item two here.
If you want to nest enumerated lists, use the -nested flag (starting with the
second-level list):
.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact
.It
Item one goes here
.Bl -enum -nested -compact
.It
Item two goes here.
.It
And item three here.
.El
.It
And item four here.
.El
Result:
1. Item one goes here.
1.1. Item two goes here.
1.2. And item three here.
2. And item four here.
-item A list of type -item without list markers.
.Bl -item -offset indent
.It
Item one goes here.
Item one goes here.
Item one goes here.
.It
Item two here.
Item two here.
Item two here.
.El
Produces:
Item one goes here. Item one goes here. Item one goes here.
Item two here. Item two here. Item two here.
-tag A list with tags. Use -width to specify the tag width.
SL sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
PAGEIN
number of disk I/O operations resulting from references by the process
to pages not loaded in core.
UID numerical user-id of process owner
PPID numerical id of parent of process priority (non-positive when in non-
interruptible wait)
The raw text:
.Bl -tag -width "PPID" -compact -offset indent
.It SL
sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
.It PAGEIN
number of disk I/O operations resulting from references
by the process to pages not loaded in core.
.It UID
numerical user-id of process owner
.It PPID
numerical id of parent of process priority
(non-positive when in non-interruptible wait)
.El
-diag Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists and are similar to inset lists
except callable macros are ignored. The -width flag is not meaningful in this
context.
Example:
.Bl -diag
.It You can't use Sy here.
The message says all.
.El
produces
You can't use Sy here. The message says all.
-hang A list with hanging tags.
Hanged labels appear similar to tagged lists when the label is smaller than
the label width.
Longer hanged list labels blend into the paragraph unlike tagged paragraph
labels.
And the unformatted text which created it:
.Bl -hang -offset indent
.It Em Hanged
labels appear similar to tagged lists when the
label is smaller than the label width.
.It Em Longer hanged list labels
blend into the paragraph unlike
tagged paragraph labels.
.El
-ohang Lists with overhanging tags do not use indentation for the items; tags are written
to a separate line.
SL
sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
PAGEIN
number of disk I/O operations resulting from references by the process to
pages not loaded in core.
UID
numerical user-id of process owner
PPID
numerical id of parent of process priority (non-positive when in non-
interruptible wait)
The raw text:
.Bl -ohang -offset indent
.It Sy SL
sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
.It Sy PAGEIN
number of disk I/O operations resulting from references
by the process to pages not loaded in core.
.It Sy UID
numerical user-id of process owner
.It Sy PPID
numerical id of parent of process priority
(non-positive when in non-interruptible wait)
.El
-inset Here is an example of inset labels:
Tag The tagged list (also called a tagged paragraph) is the most common type
of list used in the Berkeley manuals. Use a -width attribute as described
below.
Diag Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists and are similar to inset
lists except callable macros are ignored.
Hang Hanged labels are a matter of taste.
Ohang Overhanging labels are nice when space is constrained.
Inset Inset labels are useful for controlling blocks of paragraphs and are
valuable for converting mdoc manuals to other formats.
Here is the source text which produced the above example:
.Bl -inset -offset indent
.It Em Tag
The tagged list (also called a tagged paragraph)
is the most common type of list used in the
Berkeley manuals.
.It Em Diag
Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists
and are similar to inset lists except callable
macros are ignored.
.It Em Hang
Hanged labels are a matter of taste.
.It Em Ohang
Overhanging labels are nice when space is constrained.
.It Em Inset
Inset labels are useful for controlling blocks of
paragraphs and are valuable for converting
.Xr mdoc
manuals to other formats.
.El
-column This list type generates multiple columns. The number of columns and the width of
each column is determined by the arguments to the -column list, ⟨string1⟩,
⟨string2⟩, etc. If ⟨stringN⟩ starts with a ‘.’ (dot) immediately followed by a
valid mdoc macro name, interpret ⟨stringN⟩ and use the width of the result.
Otherwise, the width of ⟨stringN⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width font) is taken as the
Nth column width.
Each ‘.It’ argument is parsed to make a row, each column within the row is a
separate argument separated by a tab or the ‘.Ta’ macro.
The table:
String Nroff Troff
<= <= ≤
>= >= ≥
was produced by:
.Bl -column -offset indent ".Sy String" ".Sy Nroff" ".Sy Troff"
.It Sy String Ta Sy Nroff Ta Sy Troff
.It Li <= Ta <= Ta \*(<=
.It Li >= Ta >= Ta \*(>=
.El
Don't abuse this list type! For more complicated cases it might be far better and
easier to use tbl(1), the table preprocessor.
Other keywords:
-width ⟨string⟩ If ⟨string⟩ starts with a ‘.’ (dot) immediately followed by a valid mdoc
macro name, interpret ⟨string⟩ and use the width of the result. Almost
all lists in this document use this option.
Example:
.Bl -tag -width ".Fl test Ao Ar string Ac"
.It Fl test Ao Ar string Ac
This is a longer sentence to show how the
.Fl width
flag works in combination with a tag list.
.El
gives:
-test ⟨string⟩ This is a longer sentence to show how the -width flag
works in combination with a tag list.
(Note that the current state of mdoc is saved before ⟨string⟩ is
interpreted; afterwards, all variables are restored again. However, boxes
(used for enclosures) can't be saved in GNU troff(1); as a consequence,
arguments must always be balanced to avoid nasty errors. For example, do
not write ‘.Ao Ar string’ but ‘.Ao Ar string Xc’ instead if you really
need only an opening angle bracket.)
Otherwise, if ⟨string⟩ is a valid numeric expression (with a scaling
indicator other than ‘u’), use that value for indentation. The most
useful scaling indicators are ‘m’ and ‘n’, specifying the so-called Em and
En square. This is approximately the width of the letters ‘m’ and ‘n’
respectively of the current font (for nroff output, both scaling
indicators give the same values). If ⟨string⟩ isn't a numeric expression,
it is tested whether it is an mdoc macro name, and the default width value
associated with this macro is used. Finally, if all tests fail, the width
of ⟨string⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width font) is taken as the width.
If a width is not specified for the tag list type, ‘6n’ is used.
-offset ⟨string⟩ If ⟨string⟩ is indent, a default indent value (normally set to 6n, similar
to the value used in ‘.Dl’ or ‘.Bd’) is used. If ⟨string⟩ is a valid
numeric expression instead (with a scaling indicator other than ‘u’), use
that value for indentation. The most useful scaling indicators are ‘m’
and ‘n’, specifying the so-called Em and En square. This is approximately
the width of the letters ‘m’ and ‘n’ respectively of the current font (for
nroff output, both scaling indicators give the same values). If ⟨string⟩
isn't a numeric expression, it is tested whether it is an mdoc macro name,
and the default offset value associated with this macro is used. Finally,
if all tests fail, the width of ⟨string⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width font)
is taken as the offset.
-compact Suppress insertion of vertical space before the list and between list
items.
Miscellaneous macros
A double handful of macros fit only uncomfortably into one of the above sections. Of these,
we couldn't find attested examples for ‘Me’ or ‘Ot’. They are documented here for
completeness—if you know their proper usage, please send a mail to groff@gnu.org and include
a specimen with its provenance.
.Bt formats boilerplate text.
.Bt → is currently in beta test.
It is neither callable nor parsed and takes no arguments. Its default width is 6n.
.Fr is an obsolete means of specifying a function return value.
Usage: .Fr return-value ...
‘Fr’ allows a break right before the return value (usually a single digit) which is bad
typographical behaviour. Instead, set the return value with the rest of the code,
using ‘\~’ to tie the return value to the previous word.
Its default width is 12n.
.Hf Inlines the contents of a (header) file into the document.
Usage: .Hf file
It first prints ‘File:’ followed by the file name, then the contents of file. It is
neither callable nor parsed.
.Lk Embed hyperlink.
Usage: .Lk uri [link-text]
Its default width is 6n.
.Me Usage unknown. The mdoc sources describe it as a macro for “menu entries”.
Its default width is 6n.
.Mt Embed email address.
Usage: .Mt email-address
Its default width is 6n.
.Ot Usage unknown. The mdoc sources describe it as “old function type (fortran)”.
.Sm Manipulate or toggle argument-spacing mode.
Usage: .Sm [on | off] ...
If argument-spacing mode is off, no spaces between macro arguments are inserted. If
called without a parameter (or if the next parameter is neither ‘on’ nor ‘off’), ‘Sm’
toggles argument-spacing mode.
Its default width is 8n.
.Ud formats boilerplate text.
.Ud → currently under development.
It is neither callable nor parsed and takes no arguments. Its default width is 8n.
Predefined strings
The following strings are predefined for compatibility with legacy mdoc documents.
Contemporary ones should use the alternatives shown in the “Prefer” column below. See
groff_char(7) for a full discussion of these special character escape sequences.
String 7-bit 8-bit UCS Prefer Meaning
\*(<= <= <= ≤ \(<= less than or equal to
\*(>= >= >= ≥ \(>= greater than or equal to
\*(Rq " " ” \(rq right double quote
\*(Lq " " “ \(lq left double quote
\*(ua ^ ^ ↑ \(ua vertical arrow up
\*(aa ' ´ ´ \(aa acute accent
\*(ga ` ` ` \(ga grave accent
\*(q " " " \(dq neutral double quote
\*(Pi pi pi π \(*p lowercase pi
\*(Ne != != ≠ \(!= not equals
\*(Le <= <= ≤ \(<= less than or equal to
\*(Ge >= >= ≥ \(>= greater than or equal to
\*(Lt < < < < less than
\*(Gt > > > > greater than
\*(Pm +- ± ± \(+- plus or minus
\*(If infinity infinity ∞ \(if infinity
\*(Am & & & & ampersand
\*(Na NaN NaN NaN NaN not a number
\*(Ba | | | | bar
Some column headings are shorthand for standardized character encodings; “7-bit” for ISO
646:1991 IRV (US-ASCII), “8-bit” for ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) and IBM code page 1047, and “UCS”
for ISO 10646 (Unicode character set). Historically, mdoc configured the string definitions
to fit the capabilities expected of the output device. Old typesetters lacked directional
double quotes, producing repeated directional single quotes ‘‘like this’’; early versions of
mdoc in fact defined the ‘Lq’ and ‘Rq’ strings this way. Nowadays, output drivers take on
the responsibility of glyph substitution, as they possess relevant knowledge of their
available repertoires.
Diagnostics
The debugging macro ‘.Db’ offered by previous versions of mdoc is unavailable in GNU
troff(1) since the latter provides better facilities to check parameters; additionally,
groff mdoc implements many error and warning messages, making the package more robust and
more verbose.
The remaining debugging macro is ‘.Rd’, which dumps the package's global register and string
contents to the standard error stream. A normal user will never need it.
Options
The following groff options set registers (with -r) and strings (with -d) recognized and
used by the mdoc macro package. To ensure rendering consistent with output device
capabilities and reader preferences, man pages should never manipulate them.
Setting string ‘AD’ configures the adjustment mode for most formatted text. Typical values
are ‘b’ for adjustment to both margins (the default), or ‘l’ for left alignment (ragged
right margin). Any valid argument to groff's ‘ad’ request may be used. See groff(7) for
less-common choices.
groff -Tutf8 -dAD=l -mdoc groff_mdoc.7 | less -R
Setting register ‘C’ to 1 numbers output pages consecutively, rather than resetting the page
number to 1 (or the value of register ‘P’) with each new mdoc document.
By default, the package inhibits page breaks, headers, and footers in the midst of the
document text if it is being displayed with a terminal device such as ‘latin1’ or ‘utf8’, to
enable more efficient viewing of the page. This behavior can be changed to format the page
as if for 66-line Teletype output by setting the continuous rendering register ‘cR’ to zero
while calling groff(1).
groff -Tlatin1 -rcR=0 -mdoc foo.man > foo.txt
On HTML devices, it cannot be disabled.
Section headings (defined with ‘.Sh’) and page titles in headers (defined with ‘.Dt’) can be
presented in full capitals by setting the registers ‘CS’ and ‘CT’, respectively, to 1.
These transformations are off by default because they discard case distinction information.
Setting register ‘D’ to 1 enables double-sided page layout, which is only distinct when not
continuously rendering. It places the page number at the bottom right on odd-numbered
(recto) pages, and at the bottom left on even-numbered (verso) pages, swapping places with
the arguments to ‘.Os’.
groff -Tps -rD1 -mdoc foo.man > foo.ps
The value of the ‘FT’ register determines the footer's distance from the page bottom; this
amount is always negative and should specify a scaling unit. At one half-inch above this
location, the page text is broken before writing the footer. It is ignored if continuous
rendering is enabled. The default is -0.5i.
The ‘HF’ string sets the font used for section and subsection headings; the default is ‘B’
(bold style of the default family). Any valid argument to groff's ‘ft’ request may be used.
Normally, automatic hyphenation is enabled using a mode appropriate to the groff locale; see
section “Localization“ of groff(7). It can be disabled by setting the ‘HY’ register to
zero.
groff -Tutf8 -rHY=0 -mdoc foo.man | less -R
The paragraph and subsection heading indentation amounts can be changed by setting the
registers ‘IN’ and ‘SN’.
groff -Tutf8 -rIN=5n -rSN=2n -mdoc foo.man | less -R
The default paragraph indentation is 7.2n on typesetters and 7n on terminals. The default
subsection heading indentation amount is 3n; section headings are set with an indentation of
zero.
The line and title lengths can be changed by setting the registers ‘LL’ and ‘LT’,
respectively:
groff -Tutf8 -rLL=100n -rLT=100n -mdoc foo.man | less -R
If not set, both registers default to 78n for terminal devices and 6.5i otherwise.
Setting the ‘P’ register starts enumeration of pages at its value. The default is 1.
To change the document font size to 11p or 12p, set register ‘S’ accordingly:
groff -Tdvi -rS11 -mdoc foo.man > foo.dvi
Register ‘S’ is ignored when formatting for terminal devices.
Setting the ‘X’ register to a page number p numbers its successors as pa, pb, pc, and so
forth. The register tracking the suffixed page letter uses format ‘a’ (see the ‘af’ request
in groff(7)).
Files
/usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/andoc.tmac
This brief groff program detects whether the man or mdoc macro package is being used
by a document and loads the correct macro definitions, taking advantage of the fact
that pages using them must call TH or Dd, respectively, before any other macros. A
user typing, for example,
groff -mandoc page.1
need not know which package the file page.1 uses. Multiple man pages, in either
format, can be handled; andoc.tmac reloads each macro package as necessary.
/usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/doc.tmac
implements the bulk of the groff mdoc package and loads further components as needed
from the mdoc subdirectory.
/usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mdoc.tmac
is a wrapper that loads doc.tmac.
/usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mdoc/doc-common
defines macros, registers, and strings concerned with the production of formatted
output. It includes strings of the form ‘doc-volume-ds-X’ and ‘doc-volume-as-X’ for
manual section titles and architecture identifiers, respectively, where X is an
argument recognized by .Dt.
/usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mdoc/doc-nroff
defines parameters appropriate for rendering to terminal devices.
/usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mdoc/doc-ditroff
defines parameters appropriate for rendering to typesetter devices.
/usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mdoc/doc-syms
defines many strings and macros that interpolate formatted text, such as names of
operating system releases, *BSD libraries, and standards documents. The string
names are of the form ‘doc-str-O-V’, ‘doc-str-St--S-I’ (observe the double dashes),
or ‘doc-str-Lb-L’, where O is one of the operating system macros from section
General text domain above, V is an encoding of an operating system release
(sometimes omitted along with the ‘-’ preceding it), S an identifier for a standards
body or committee, I one for an issue of a standard promulgated by S, and L a
keyword identifying a *BSD library.
/usr/share/groff/site-tmac/mdoc.local
This file houses local additions and customizations to the package. It can be
empty.
See also
The mandoc: https://mandoc.bsd.lv/ project maintains an independent implementation of the
mdoc language and a renderer that directly parses its markup as well as that of man.
groff(1), man(1), troff(1), groff_man(7), mdoc(7)
Bugs
Section 3f has not been added to the header routines.
‘.Fn’ needs to have a check to prevent splitting up the line if its length is too short.
Occasionally it separates the last parenthesis, and sometimes looks ridiculous if output
lines are being filled.
The list and display macros do not do any keeps and certainly should be able to.
As of groff 1.23, ‘Tn’ no longer changes the type size; this functionality may return in the
next release.