xref: /freebsd-src/contrib/mandoc/mdoc.7 (revision c1c95add8c80843ba15d784f95c361d795b1f593)

.\" $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.294 2024/09/22 10:34:58 schwarze Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, 2011 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
.\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011, 2013-2020 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
.\"
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
.\"
.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: September 22 2024 $
.Dt MDOC 7
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm mdoc
.Nd semantic markup language for formatting manual pages
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm mdoc
language supports authoring of manual pages for the
.Xr man 1
utility by allowing semantic annotations of words, phrases,
page sections and complete manual pages.
Such annotations are used by formatting tools to achieve a uniform
presentation across all manuals written in
.Nm ,
and to support hyperlinking if supported by the output medium.
.Pp
This reference document describes the structure of manual pages
and the syntax and usage of the
.Nm
language.
The reference implementation of a parsing and formatting tool is
.Xr mandoc 1 ;
the
.Sx COMPATIBILITY
section describes compatibility with other implementations.
.Pp
In an
.Nm
document, lines beginning with the control character
.Sq \&.
are called
.Dq macro lines .
The first word is the macro name.
It consists of two or three letters.
Most macro names begin with a capital letter.
For a list of available macros, see
.Sx MACRO OVERVIEW .
The words following the macro name are arguments to the macro, optionally
including the names of other, callable macros; see
.Sx MACRO SYNTAX
for details.
.Pp
Lines not beginning with the control character are called
.Dq text lines .
They provide free-form text to be printed; the formatting of the text
depends on the respective processing context:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Sh Macro lines change control state.
Text lines are interpreted within the current state.
.Ed
.Pp
Many aspects of the basic syntax of the
.Nm
language are based on the
.Xr roff 7
language; see the
.Em LANGUAGE SYNTAX
and
.Em MACRO SYNTAX
sections in the
.Xr roff 7
manual for details, in particular regarding
comments, escape sequences, whitespace, and quoting.
However, using
.Xr roff 7
requests in
.Nm
documents is discouraged;
.Xr mandoc 1
supports some of them merely for backward compatibility.
.Sh MANUAL STRUCTURE
A well-formed
.Nm
document consists of a document prologue followed by one or more
sections.
.Pp
The prologue, which consists of the
.Ic \&Dd ,
.Ic \&Dt ,
and
.Ic \&Os
macros in that order, is required for every document.
.Pp
The first section (sections are denoted by
.Ic \&Sh )
must be the NAME section, consisting of at least one
.Ic \&Nm
followed by
.Ic \&Nd .
.Pp
Following that, convention dictates specifying at least the
.Em SYNOPSIS
and
.Em DESCRIPTION
sections, although this varies between manual sections.
.Pp
The following is a well-formed skeleton
.Nm
file for a utility
.Qq progname :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$
\&.Dt PROGNAME section
\&.Os
\&.Sh NAME
\&.Nm progname
\&.Nd one line about what it does
\&.\e\(dq .Sh LIBRARY
\&.\e\(dq For sections 2, 3, and 9 only.
\&.\e\(dq Not used in OpenBSD.
\&.Sh SYNOPSIS
\&.Nm progname
\&.Op Fl options
\&.Ar
\&.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
\&.Nm
utility processes files ...
\&.\e\(dq .Sh CONTEXT
\&.\e\(dq For section 9 functions only.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
\&.\e\(dq Not used in OpenBSD.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh RETURN VALUES
\&.\e\(dq For sections 2, 3, and 9 function return values only.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh ENVIRONMENT
\&.\e\(dq For sections 1, 6, 7, and 8 only.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh FILES
\&.\e\(dq .Sh EXIT STATUS
\&.\e\(dq For sections 1, 6, and 8 only.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh EXAMPLES
\&.\e\(dq .Sh DIAGNOSTICS
\&.\e\(dq For sections 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 printf/stderr messages only.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh ERRORS
\&.\e\(dq For sections 2, 3, 4, and 9 errno settings only.
\&.\e\(dq .Sh SEE ALSO
\&.\e\(dq .Xr foobar 1
\&.\e\(dq .Sh STANDARDS
\&.\e\(dq .Sh HISTORY
\&.\e\(dq .Sh AUTHORS
\&.\e\(dq .Sh CAVEATS
\&.\e\(dq .Sh BUGS
\&.\e\(dq .Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
\&.\e\(dq Not used in OpenBSD.
.Ed
.Pp
The sections in an
.Nm
document are conventionally ordered as they appear above.
Sections should be composed as follows:
.Bl -ohang -offset Ds
.It Em NAME
The name(s) and a one line description of the documented material.
The syntax for this as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Nm name0 ,
\&.Nm name1 ,
\&.Nm name2
\&.Nd a one line description
.Ed
.Pp
Multiple
.Sq \&Nm
names should be separated by commas.
.Pp
The
.Ic \&Nm
macro(s) must precede the
.Ic \&Nd
macro.
.Pp
See
.Ic \&Nm
and
.Ic \&Nd .
.It Em LIBRARY
The name of the library containing the documented material, which is
assumed to be a function in a section 2, 3, or 9 manual.
The syntax for this is as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Lb libarm
.Ed
.Pp
See
.Ic \&Lb .
.It Em SYNOPSIS
Documents the utility invocation syntax, function call syntax, or device
configuration.
.Pp
For the first, utilities (sections 1, 6, and 8), this is
generally structured as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Nm bar
\&.Op Fl v
\&.Op Fl o Ar file
\&.Op Ar
\&.Nm foo
\&.Op Fl v
\&.Op Fl o Ar file
\&.Op Ar
.Ed
.Pp
Commands should be ordered alphabetically.
.Pp
For the second, function calls (sections 2, 3, 9):
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.In header.h
\&.Vt extern const char *global;
\&.Ft "char *"
\&.Fn foo "const char *src"
\&.Ft "char *"
\&.Fn bar "const char *src"
.Ed
.Pp
Ordering of
.Ic \&In ,
.Ic \&Vt ,
.Ic \&Fn ,
and
.Ic \&Fo
macros should follow C header-file conventions.
.Pp
And for the third, configurations (section 4):
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Cd \(dqit* at isa? port 0x2e\(dq
\&.Cd \(dqit* at isa? port 0x4e\(dq
.Ed
.Pp
Manuals not in these sections generally don't need a
.Em SYNOPSIS .
.Pp
Some macros are displayed differently in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, particularly
.Ic \&Nm ,
.Ic \&Cd ,
.Ic \&Fd ,
.Ic \&Fn ,
.Ic \&Fo ,
.Ic \&In ,
.Ic \&Vt ,
and
.Ic \&Ft .
All of these macros are output on their own line.
If two such dissimilar macros are pairwise invoked (except for
.Ic \&Ft
before
.Ic \&Fo
or
.Ic \&Fn ) ,
they are separated by a vertical space, unless in the case of
.Ic \&Fo ,
.Ic \&Fn ,
and
.Ic \&Ft ,
which are always separated by vertical space.
.Pp
When text and macros following an
.Ic \&Nm
macro starting an input line span multiple output lines,
all output lines but the first will be indented to align
with the text immediately following the
.Ic \&Nm
macro, up to the next
.Ic \&Nm ,
.Ic \&Sh ,
or
.Ic \&Ss
macro or the end of an enclosing block, whichever comes first.
.It Em DESCRIPTION
This begins with an expansion of the brief, one line description in
.Em NAME :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
The
\&.Nm
utility does this, that, and the other.
.Ed
.Pp
It usually follows with a breakdown of the options (if documenting a
command), such as:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
The options are as follows:
\&.Bl \-tag \-width Ds
\&.It Fl v
Print verbose information.
\&.El
.Ed
.Pp
List the options in alphabetical order,
uppercase before lowercase for each letter and
with no regard to whether an option takes an argument.
Put digits in ascending order before all letter options.
.Pp
Manuals not documenting a command won't include the above fragment.
.Pp
Since the
.Em DESCRIPTION
section usually contains most of the text of a manual, longer manuals
often use the
.Ic \&Ss
macro to form subsections.
In very long manuals, the
.Em DESCRIPTION
may be split into multiple sections, each started by an
.Ic \&Sh
macro followed by a non-standard section name, and each having
several subsections, like in the present
.Nm
manual.
.It Em CONTEXT
This section lists the contexts in which functions can be called in section 9.
The contexts are autoconf, process, or interrupt.
.It Em IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
Implementation-specific notes should be kept here.
This is useful when implementing standard functions that may have side
effects or notable algorithmic implications.
.It Em RETURN VALUES
This section documents the
return values of functions in sections 2, 3, and 9.
.Pp
See
.Ic \&Rv .
.It Em ENVIRONMENT
Lists the environment variables used by the utility,
and explains the syntax and semantics of their values.
The
.Xr environ 7
manual provides examples of typical content and formatting.
.Pp
See
.Ic \&Ev .
.It Em FILES
Documents files used.
It's helpful to document both the file name and a short description of how
the file is used (created, modified, etc.).
.Pp
See
.Ic \&Pa .
.It Em EXIT STATUS
This section documents the
command exit status for section 1, 6, and 8 utilities.
Historically, this information was described in
.Em DIAGNOSTICS ,
a practise that is now discouraged.
.Pp
See
.Ic \&Ex .
.It Em EXAMPLES
Example usages.
This often contains snippets of well-formed, well-tested invocations.
Make sure that examples work properly!
.It Em DIAGNOSTICS
Documents error messages.
In section 4 and 9 manuals, these are usually messages printed by the
kernel to the console and to the kernel log.
In section 1, 6, 7, and 8, these are usually messages printed by
userland programs to the standard error output.
.Pp
Historically, this section was used in place of
.Em EXIT STATUS
for manuals in sections 1, 6, and 8; however, this practise is
discouraged.
.Pp
See
.Ic \&Bl
.Fl diag .
.It Em ERRORS
Documents
.Xr errno 2
settings in sections 2, 3, 4, and 9.
.Pp
See
.Ic \&Er .
.It Em SEE ALSO
References other manuals with related topics.
This section should exist for most manuals.
Cross-references should conventionally be ordered first by section, then
alphabetically (ignoring case).
.Pp
References to other documentation concerning the topic of the manual page,
for example authoritative books or journal articles, may also be
provided in this section.
.Pp
See
.Ic \&Rs
and
.Ic \&Xr .
.It Em STANDARDS
References any standards implemented or used.
If not adhering to any standards, the
.Em HISTORY
section should be used instead.
.Pp
See
.Ic \&St .
.It Em HISTORY
A brief history of the subject, including where it was first implemented,
and when it was ported to or reimplemented for the operating system at hand.
.It Em AUTHORS
Credits to the person or persons who wrote the code and/or documentation.
Authors should generally be noted by both name and email address.
.Pp
See
.Ic \&An .
.It Em CAVEATS
Common misuses and misunderstandings should be explained
in this section.
.It Em BUGS
Known bugs, limitations, and work-arounds should be described
in this section.
.It Em SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
Documents any security precautions that operators should consider.
.El
.Sh MACRO OVERVIEW
This overview is sorted such that macros of similar purpose are listed
together, to help find the best macro for any given purpose.
Deprecated macros are not included in the overview, but can be found below
in the alphabetical
.Sx MACRO REFERENCE .
.Ss Document preamble and NAME section macros
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Ic \&Dd Ta document date: Cm $\&Mdocdate$ | Ar month day , year
.It Ic \&Dt Ta document title: Ar TITLE section Op Ar arch
.It Ic \&Os Ta operating system footer: Op Ar footer text
.It Ic \&Nm Ta document name (one argument)
.It Ic \&Nd Ta document description (one line)
.El
.Ss Sections and cross references
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Ic \&Sh Ta section header (one line)
.It Ic \&Ss Ta subsection header (one line)
.It Ic \&Sx Ta internal cross reference to a section or subsection
.It Ic \&Xr Ta cross reference to another manual page: Ar name section
.It Ic \&Tg Ta tag the definition of a Ar term Pq <= 1 arguments
.It Ic \&Pp Ta start a text paragraph (no arguments)
.El
.Ss Displays and lists
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Ic \&Bd , \&Ed Ta display block:
.Fl Ar type
.Op Fl offset Ar width
.Op Fl compact
.It Ic \&D1 Ta indented display (one line)
.It Ic \&Dl Ta indented literal display (one line)
.It Ic \&Ql Ta in-line literal display: Ql text
.It Ic \&Bl , \&El Ta list block:
.Fl Ar type
.Op Fl width Ar val
.Op Fl offset Ar val
.Op Fl compact
.It Ic \&It Ta list item (syntax depends on Fl Ar type )
.It Ic \&Ta Ta table cell separator in Ic \&Bl Fl column No lists
.It Ic \&Rs , \&%* , \&Re Ta bibliographic block (references)
.El
.Ss Spacing control
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Ic \&Pf Ta prefix, no following horizontal space (one argument)
.It Ic \&Ns Ta roman font, no preceding horizontal space (no arguments)
.It Ic \&Ap Ta apostrophe without surrounding whitespace (no arguments)
.It Ic \&Sm Ta switch horizontal spacing mode: Op Cm on | off
.It Ic \&Bk , \&Ek Ta keep block: Fl words
.El
.Ss Semantic markup for command line utilities
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Ic \&Nm Ta start a SYNOPSIS block with the name of a utility
.It Ic \&Fl Ta command line options (flags) (>=0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Cm Ta command modifier (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Ar Ta command arguments (>=0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Op , \&Oo , \&Oc Ta optional syntax elements (enclosure)
.It Ic \&Ic Ta internal or interactive command (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Ev Ta environmental variable (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Pa Ta file system path (>=0 arguments)
.El
.Ss Semantic markup for function libraries
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Ic \&Lb Ta function library (one argument)
.It Ic \&In Ta include file (one argument)
.It Ic \&Fd Ta other preprocessor directive (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Ft Ta function type (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Fo , \&Fc Ta function block: Ar funcname
.It Ic \&Fn Ta function name: Ar funcname Op Ar argument ...
.It Ic \&Fa Ta function argument (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Vt Ta variable type (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Va Ta variable name (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Dv Ta defined variable or preprocessor constant (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Er Ta error constant (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Ev Ta environmental variable (>0 arguments)
.El
.Ss Various semantic markup
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Ic \&An Ta author name (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Lk Ta hyperlink: Ar uri Op Ar display_name
.It Ic \&Mt Ta Do mailto Dc hyperlink: Ar localpart Ns @ Ns Ar domain
.It Ic \&Cd Ta kernel configuration declaration (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Ad Ta memory address (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Ms Ta mathematical symbol (>0 arguments)
.El
.Ss Physical markup
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Ic \&Em Ta italic font or underline (emphasis) (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Sy Ta boldface font (symbolic) (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&No Ta return to roman font (normal) (>0 arguments)
.It Ic \&Bf , \&Ef Ta font block: Fl Ar type | Cm \&Em | \&Li | \&Sy
.El
.Ss Physical enclosures
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Ic \&Dq , \&Do , \&Dc Ta enclose in typographic double quotes: Dq text
.It Ic \&Qq , \&Qo , \&Qc Ta enclose in typewriter double quotes: Qq text
.It Ic \&Sq , \&So , \&Sc Ta enclose in single quotes: Sq text
.It Ic \&Pq , \&Po , \&Pc Ta enclose in parentheses: Pq text
.It Ic \&Bq , \&Bo , \&Bc Ta enclose in square brackets: Bq text
.It Ic \&Brq , \&Bro , \&Brc Ta enclose in curly braces: Brq text
.It Ic \&Aq , \&Ao , \&Ac Ta enclose in angle brackets: Aq text
.It Ic \&Eo , \&Ec Ta generic enclosure
.El
.Ss Text production
.Bl -column "Brq, Bro, Brc" description
.It Ic \&Ex Fl std Ta standard command exit values: Op Ar utility ...
.It Ic \&Rv Fl std Ta standard function return values: Op Ar function ...
.It Ic \&St Ta reference to a standards document (one argument)
.It Ic \&At Ta At
.It Ic \&Bx Ta Bx
.It Ic \&Bsx Ta Bsx
.It Ic \&Nx Ta Nx
.It Ic \&Fx Ta Fx
.It Ic \&Ox Ta Ox
.It Ic \&Dx Ta Dx
.El
.Sh MACRO REFERENCE
This section is a canonical reference of all macros, arranged
alphabetically.
For the scoping of individual macros, see
.Sx MACRO SYNTAX .
.Bl -tag -width 3n
.It Ic \&%A Ar first_name ... last_name
Author name of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
Multiple authors should each be accorded their own
.Ic \%%A
line.
Author names should be ordered with full or abbreviated forename(s)
first, then full surname.
.It Ic \&%B Ar title
Book title of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographic context when
referring to book titles.
.It Ic \&%C Ar location
Publication city or location of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
.It Ic \&%D Oo Ar month day , Oc Ar year
Publication date of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
Provide the full English name of the
.Ar month
and all four digits of the
.Ar year .
.It Ic \&%I Ar name
Publisher or issuer name of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
.It Ic \&%J Ar name
Journal name of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
.It Ic \&%N Ar number
Issue number (usually for journals) of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
.It Ic \&%O Ar line
Optional information of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
.It Ic \&%P Ar number
Book or journal page number of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
Conventionally, the argument starts with
.Ql p.\&
for a single page or
.Ql pp.\&
for a range of pages, for example:
.Pp
.Dl .%P pp. 42\e(en47
.It Ic \&%Q Ar name
Institutional author (school, government, etc.) of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
Multiple institutional authors should each be accorded their own
.Ic \&%Q
line.
.It Ic \&%R Ar name
Technical report name of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
.It Ic \&%T Ar title
Article title of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographical context when
referring to article titles.
.It Ic \&%U Ar protocol Ns :// Ns Ar path
URI of reference document.
.It Ic \&%V Ar number
Volume number of an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
.It Ic \&Ac
Close an
.Ic \&Ao
block.
Does not have any tail arguments.
.Tg Ad
.It Ic \&Ad Ar address
Memory address.
Do not use this for postal addresses.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ad [0,$]
.Dl \&.Ad 0x00000000
.Tg An
.It Ic \&An Fl split | nosplit | Ar first_name ... last_name
Author name.
Can be used both for the authors of the program, function, or driver
documented in the manual, or for the authors of the manual itself.
Requires either the name of an author or one of the following arguments:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-nosplitX" -offset indent -compact
.It Fl split
Start a new output line before each subsequent invocation of
.Ic \&An .
.It Fl nosplit
The opposite of
.Fl split .
.El
.Pp
The default is
.Fl nosplit .
The effect of selecting either of the
.Fl split
modes ends at the beginning of the
.Em AUTHORS
section.
In the
.Em AUTHORS
section, the default is
.Fl nosplit
for the first author listing and
.Fl split
for all other author listings.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.An -nosplit
.Dl \&.An Kristaps Dzonsons \&Aq \&Mt kristaps@bsd.lv
.It Ic \&Ao Ar block
Begin a block enclosed by angle brackets.
Does not have any head arguments.
This macro is almost never useful.
See
.Ic \&Aq
for more details.
.Tg Ap
.It Ic \&Ap
Inserts an apostrophe without any surrounding whitespace.
This is generally used as a grammatical device when referring to the verb
form of a function.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Fn execve \&Ap d
.Tg Aq
.It Ic \&Aq Ar line
Enclose the rest of the input line in angle brackets.
The only important use case is for email addresses.
See
.Ic \&Mt
for an example.
.Pp
Occasionally, it is used for names of characters and keys, for example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
Press the
\&.Aq escape
key to ...
.Ed
.Pp
For URIs, use
.Ic \&Lk
instead, and
.Ic \&In
for
.Dq #include
directives.
Never wrap
.Ic \&Ar
in
.Ic \&Aq .
.Pp
Since
.Ic \&Aq
usually renders with non-ASCII characters in non-ASCII output modes,
do not use it where the ASCII characters
.Sq <
and
.Sq >
are required as syntax elements.
Instead, use these characters directly in such cases, combining them
with the macros
.Ic \&Pf ,
.Ic \&Ns ,
or
.Ic \&Eo
as needed.
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Ao .
.Tg Ar
.It Ic \&Ar Op Ar placeholder ...
Command arguments.
If an argument is not provided, the string
.Dq file ...\&
is used as a default.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl ".Fl o Ar file"
.Dl ".Ar"
.Dl ".Ar arg1 , arg2 ."
.Pp
The arguments to the
.Ic \&Ar
macro are names and placeholders for command arguments;
for fixed strings to be passed verbatim as arguments, use
.Ic \&Fl
or
.Ic \&Cm .
.Tg At
.It Ic \&At Op Ar version
Formats an
.At
version.
Accepts one optional argument:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "v[1-7] | 32vX" -offset indent -compact
.It Cm v[1-7] | 32v
A version of
.At .
.It Cm III
.At III .
.It Cm V | V.[1-4]
A version of
.At V .
.El
.Pp
Note that these arguments do not begin with a hyphen.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.At
.Dl \&.At III
.Dl \&.At V.1
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Bsx ,
.Ic \&Bx ,
.Ic \&Dx ,
.Ic \&Fx ,
.Ic \&Nx ,
and
.Ic \&Ox .
.It Ic \&Bc
Close a
.Ic \&Bo
block.
Does not have any tail arguments.
.Tg Bd
.It Ic \&Bd Fl Ns Ar type Oo Fl offset Ar width Oc Op Fl compact
Begin a display block.
Display blocks are used to select a different indentation and
justification than the one used by the surrounding text.
They may contain both macro lines and text lines.
By default, a display block is preceded by a vertical space.
.Pp
The
.Ar type
must be one of the following:
.Bl -tag -width 13n -offset indent
.It Fl centered
Produce one output line from each input line, and center-justify each line.
Using this display type is not recommended; many
.Nm
implementations render it poorly.
.It Fl filled
Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left- and
right-justify the resulting block.
.It Fl literal
Produce one output line from each input line,
and do not justify the block at all.
Preserve white space as it appears in the input.
Always use a constant-width font.
Use this for displaying source code.
.It Fl ragged
Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left-justify
the resulting block.
.It Fl unfilled
The same as
.Fl literal ,
but using the same font as for normal text, which is a variable width font
if supported by the output device.
.El
.Pp
The
.Ar type
must be provided first.
Additional arguments may follow:
.Bl -tag -width 13n -offset indent
.It Fl offset Ar width
Indent the display by the
.Ar width ,
which may be one of the following:
.Bl -item
.It
One of the pre-defined strings
.Cm indent ,
the width of a standard indentation (six constant width characters);
.Cm indent-two ,
twice
.Cm indent ;
.Cm left ,
which has no effect;
.Cm right ,
which justifies to the right margin; or
.Cm center ,
which aligns around an imagined center axis.
.It
A macro invocation, which selects a predefined width
associated with that macro.
The most popular is the imaginary macro
.Ar \&Ds ,
which resolves to
.Sy 6n .
.It
A scaling width as described in
.Xr roff 7 .
.It
An arbitrary string, which indents by the length of this string.
.El
.Pp
When the argument is missing,
.Fl offset
is ignored.
.It Fl compact
Do not assert vertical space before the display.
.El
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Bd \-literal \-offset indent \-compact
   Hello       world.
\&.Ed
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&D1
and
.Ic \&Dl .
.Tg Bf
.It Ic \&Bf Fl emphasis | literal | symbolic | Cm \&Em | \&Li | \&Sy
Change the font mode for a scoped block of text.
The
.Fl emphasis
and
.Cm \&Em
argument are equivalent, as are
.Fl symbolic
and
.Cm \&Sy ,
and
.Fl literal
and
.Cm \&Li .
Without an argument, this macro does nothing.
The font mode continues until broken by a new font mode in a nested
scope or
.Ic \&Ef
is encountered.
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Li ,
.Ic \&Ef ,
.Ic \&Em ,
and
.Ic \&Sy .
.Tg Bk
.It Ic \&Bk Fl words
For each macro, keep its output together on the same output line,
until the end of the macro or the end of the input line is reached,
whichever comes first.
Line breaks in text lines are unaffected.
.Pp
The
.Fl words
argument is required; additional arguments are ignored.
.Pp
The following example will not break within each
.Ic \&Op
macro line:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Bk \-words
\&.Op Fl f Ar flags
\&.Op Fl o Ar output
\&.Ek
.Ed
.Pp
Be careful in using over-long lines within a keep block!
Doing so will clobber the right margin.
.Tg Bl
.It Xo
.Ic \&Bl
.Fl Ns Ar type
.Op Fl width Ar val
.Op Fl offset Ar val
.Op Fl compact
.Op Ar col ...
.Xc
Begin a list.
Lists consist of items specified using the
.Ic \&It
macro, containing a head or a body or both.
.Pp
The list
.Ar type
is mandatory and must be specified first.
The
.Fl width
and
.Fl offset
arguments accept macro names as described for
.Ic \&Bd
.Fl offset ,
scaling widths as described in
.Xr roff 7 ,
or use the length of the given string.
The
.Fl offset
is a global indentation for the whole list, affecting both item heads
and bodies.
For those list types supporting it, the
.Fl width
argument requests an additional indentation of item bodies,
to be added to the
.Fl offset .
Unless the
.Fl compact
argument is specified, list entries are separated by vertical space.
.Pp
A list must specify one of the following list types:
.Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent
.It Fl bullet
No item heads can be specified, but a bullet will be printed at the head
of each item.
Item bodies start on the same output line as the bullet
and are indented according to the
.Fl width
argument.
.It Fl column
A columnated list.
The
.Fl width
argument has no effect; instead, the string length of each argument
specifies the width of one column.
If the first line of the body of a
.Fl column
list is not an
.Ic \&It
macro line,
.Ic \&It
contexts spanning one input line each are implied until an
.Ic \&It
macro line is encountered, at which point items start being interpreted as
described in the
.Ic \&It
documentation.
.It Fl dash
Like
.Fl bullet ,
except that dashes are used in place of bullets.
.It Fl diag
Like
.Fl inset ,
except that item heads are not parsed for macro invocations.
Most often used in the
.Em DIAGNOSTICS
section with error constants in the item heads.
.It Fl enum
A numbered list.
No item heads can be specified.
Formatted like
.Fl bullet ,
except that ordinal numbers are used in place of bullets,
starting at 1.
.It Fl hang
Like
.Fl tag ,
except that the first lines of item bodies are not indented, but follow
the item heads like in
.Fl inset
lists.
.It Fl hyphen
Synonym for
.Fl dash .
.It Fl inset
Item bodies follow items heads on the same line, using normal inter-word
spacing.
Bodies are not indented, and the
.Fl width
argument is ignored.
.It Fl item
No item heads can be specified, and none are printed.
Bodies are not indented, and the
.Fl width
argument is ignored.
.It Fl ohang
Item bodies start on the line following item heads and are not indented.
The
.Fl width
argument is ignored.
.It Fl tag
Item bodies are indented according to the
.Fl width
argument.
When an item head fits inside the indentation, the item body follows
this head on the same output line.
Otherwise, the body starts on the output line following the head.
.El
.Pp
Lists may be nested within lists and displays.
Nesting of
.Fl column
and
.Fl enum
lists may not be portable.
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&El
and
.Ic \&It .
.It Ic \&Bo Ar block
Begin a block enclosed by square brackets.
Does not have any head arguments.
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Bo 1 ,
\&.Dv BUFSIZ \&Bc
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Bq .
.Tg Bq
.It Ic \&Bq Ar line
Encloses its arguments in square brackets.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Bq 1 , \&Dv BUFSIZ
.Pp
.Em Remarks :
this macro is sometimes abused to emulate optional arguments for
commands; the correct macros to use for this purpose are
.Ic \&Op ,
.Ic \&Oo ,
and
.Ic \&Oc .
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Bo .
.It Ic \&Brc
Close a
.Ic \&Bro
block.
Does not have any tail arguments.
.It Ic \&Bro Ar block
Begin a block enclosed by curly braces.
Does not have any head arguments.
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Bro 1 , ... ,
\&.Va n \&Brc
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Brq .
.Tg Brq
.It Ic \&Brq Ar line
Encloses its arguments in curly braces.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Brq 1 , ... , \&Va n
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Bro .
.Tg Bsx
.It Ic \&Bsx Op Ar version
Format the
.Bsx
version provided as an argument, or a default value if
no argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Bsx 1.0
.Dl \&.Bsx
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&At ,
.Ic \&Bx ,
.Ic \&Dx ,
.Ic \&Fx ,
.Ic \&Nx ,
and
.Ic \&Ox .
.It Ic \&Bt
Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals.
Prints
.Dq is currently in beta test.
.Tg Bx
.It Ic \&Bx Op Ar version Op Ar variant
Format the
.Bx
version provided as an argument, or a default value if no
argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Bx 4.3 Tahoe
.Dl \&.Bx 4.4
.Dl \&.Bx
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&At ,
.Ic \&Bsx ,
.Ic \&Dx ,
.Ic \&Fx ,
.Ic \&Nx ,
and
.Ic \&Ox .
.Tg Cd
.It Ic \&Cd Ar line
Kernel configuration declaration.
This denotes strings accepted by
.Xr config 8 .
It is most often used in section 4 manual pages.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Cd device le0 at scode?
.Pp
.Em Remarks :
this macro is commonly abused by using quoted literals to retain
whitespace and align consecutive
.Ic \&Cd
declarations.
This practise is discouraged.
.Tg Cm
.It Ic \&Cm Ar keyword ...
Command modifiers.
Typically used for fixed strings passed as arguments to interactive
commands, to commands in interpreted scripts, or to configuration
file directives, unless
.Ic \&Fl
is more appropriate.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl ".Nm mt Fl f Ar device Cm rewind"
.Dl ".Nm ps Fl o Cm pid , Ns Cm command"
.Dl ".Nm dd Cm if= Ns Ar file1 Cm of= Ns Ar file2"
.Dl ".Ic set Fl o Cm vi"
.Dl ".Ic lookup Cm file bind"
.Dl ".Ic permit Ar identity Op Cm as Ar target"
.Tg D1
.It Ic \&D1 Ar line
One-line indented display.
This is formatted by the default rules and is useful for simple indented
statements.
It is followed by a newline.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.D1 \&Fl abcdefgh
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Bd
and
.Ic \&Dl .
.It Ic \&Db
This macro is obsolete.
No replacement is needed.
It is ignored by
.Xr mandoc 1
and groff including its arguments.
It was formerly used to toggle a debugging mode.
.It Ic \&Dc
Close a
.Ic \&Do
block.
Does not have any tail arguments.
.Tg Dd
.It Ic \&Dd Cm $\&Mdocdate$ | Ar month day , year
Document date for display in the page footer,
by convention the date of the last change.
This is the mandatory first macro of any
.Nm
manual.
.Pp
The
.Ar month
is the full English month name, the
.Ar day
is an integer number, and the
.Ar year
is the full four-digit year.
.Pp
Other arguments are not portable; the
.Xr mandoc 1
utility handles them as follows:
.Bl -dash -offset 3n -compact
.It
To have the date automatically filled in by the
.Ox
version of
.Xr cvs 1 ,
the special string
.Dq $\&Mdocdate$
can be given as an argument.
.It
The traditional, purely numeric
.Xr man 7
format
.Ar year Ns \(en Ns Ar month Ns \(en Ns Ar day
is accepted, too.
.It
If a date string cannot be parsed, it is used verbatim.
.It
If no date string is given, the current date is used.
.El
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$
.Dl \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate: July 2 2018$
.Dl \&.Dd July 2, 2018
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Dt
and
.Ic \&Os .
.Tg Dl
.It Ic \&Dl Ar line
One-line indented display.
This is formatted as literal text and is useful for commands and
invocations.
It is followed by a newline.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Dl % mandoc mdoc.7 \e(ba less
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Ql ,
.Ic \&Bd Fl literal ,
and
.Ic \&D1 .
.It Ic \&Do Ar block
Begin a block enclosed by double quotes.
Does not have any head arguments.
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Do
April is the cruellest month
\&.Dc
\e(em T.S. Eliot
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Dq .
.Tg Dq
.It Ic \&Dq Ar line
Encloses its arguments in
.Dq typographic
double-quotes.
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Dq April is the cruellest month
\e(em T.S. Eliot
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Qq ,
.Ic \&Sq ,
and
.Ic \&Do .
.Tg Dt
.It Ic \&Dt Ar TITLE section Op Ar arch
Document title for display in the page header.
This is the mandatory second macro of any
.Nm
file.
.Pp
Its arguments are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width section -offset 2n
.It Ar TITLE
The document's title (name), defaulting to
.Dq UNTITLED
if unspecified.
To achieve a uniform appearance of page header lines,
it should by convention be all caps.
.It Ar section
The manual section.
This may be one of
.Cm 1
.Pq General Commands ,
.Cm 2
.Pq System Calls ,
.Cm 3
.Pq Library Functions ,
.Cm 3p
.Pq Perl Library ,
.Cm 4
.Pq Device Drivers ,
.Cm 5
.Pq File Formats ,
.Cm 6
.Pq Games ,
.Cm 7
.Pq Miscellaneous Information ,
.Cm 8
.Pq System Manager's Manual ,
or
.Cm 9
.Pq Kernel Developer's Manual .
It should correspond to the manual's filename suffix and defaults to
the empty string if unspecified.
.It Ar arch
This specifies the machine architecture a manual page applies to,
where relevant, for example
.Cm alpha ,
.Cm amd64 ,
.Cm i386 ,
or
.Cm sparc64 .
The list of valid architectures varies by operating system.
.El
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Dt FOO 1
.Dl \&.Dt FOO 9 i386
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Dd
and
.Ic \&Os .
.Tg Dv
.It Ic \&Dv Ar identifier ...
Defined variables such as preprocessor constants, constant symbols,
enumeration values, and so on.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Dv NULL
.Dl \&.Dv BUFSIZ
.Dl \&.Dv STDOUT_FILENO
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Er
and
.Ic \&Ev
for special-purpose constants,
.Ic \&Va
for variable symbols, and
.Ic \&Fd
for listing preprocessor variable definitions in the
.Em SYNOPSIS .
.Tg Dx
.It Ic \&Dx Op Ar version
Format the
.Dx
version provided as an argument, or a default
value if no argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Dx 2.4.1
.Dl \&.Dx
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&At ,
.Ic \&Bsx ,
.Ic \&Bx ,
.Ic \&Fx ,
.Ic \&Nx ,
and
.Ic \&Ox .
.It Ic \&Ec Op Ar closing_delimiter
Close a scope started by
.Ic \&Eo .
.Pp
The
.Ar closing_delimiter
argument is used as the enclosure tail, for example, specifying \e(rq
will emulate
.Ic \&Dc .
.It Ic \&Ed
End a display context started by
.Ic \&Bd .
.It Ic \&Ef
End a font mode context started by
.Ic \&Bf .
.It Ic \&Ek
End a keep context started by
.Ic \&Bk .
.It Ic \&El
End a list context started by
.Ic \&Bl .
See also
.Ic \&It .
.Tg Em
.It Ic \&Em Ar word ...
Request an italic font.
If the output device does not provide that, underline.
.Pp
This is most often used for stress emphasis (not to be confused with
importance, see
.Ic \&Sy ) .
In the rare cases where none of the semantic markup macros fit,
it can also be used for technical terms and placeholders, except
that for syntax elements,
.Ic \&Sy
and
.Ic \&Ar
are preferred, respectively.
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
Selected lines are those
\&.Em not
matching any of the specified patterns.
Some of the functions use a
\&.Em hold space
to save the pattern space for subsequent retrieval.
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&No ,
.Ic \&Ql ,
and
.Ic \&Sy .
.It Ic \&En Ar word ...
This macro is obsolete.
Use
.Ic \&Eo
or any of the other enclosure macros.
.Pp
It encloses its argument in the delimiters specified by the last
.Ic \&Es
macro.
.Tg Eo
.It Ic \&Eo Op Ar opening_delimiter
An arbitrary enclosure.
The
.Ar opening_delimiter
argument is used as the enclosure head, for example, specifying \e(lq
will emulate
.Ic \&Do .
.Tg Er
.It Ic \&Er Ar identifier ...
Error constants for definitions of the
.Va errno
libc global variable.
This is most often used in section 2 and 3 manual pages.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Er EPERM
.Dl \&.Er ENOENT
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Dv
for general constants.
.It Ic \&Es Ar opening_delimiter closing_delimiter
This macro is obsolete.
Use
.Ic \&Eo
or any of the other enclosure macros.
.Pp
It takes two arguments, defining the delimiters to be used by subsequent
.Ic \&En
macros.
.Tg Ev
.It Ic \&Ev Ar identifier ...
Environmental variables such as those specified in
.Xr environ 7 .
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ev DISPLAY
.Dl \&.Ev PATH
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Dv
for general constants.
.Tg Ex
.It Ic \&Ex Fl std Op Ar utility ...
Insert a standard sentence regarding command exit values of 0 on success
and >0 on failure.
This is most often used in section 1, 6, and 8 manual pages.
.Pp
If
.Ar utility
is not specified, the document's name set by
.Ic \&Nm
is used.
Multiple
.Ar utility
arguments are treated as separate utilities.
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Rv .
.Tg Fa
.It Ic \&Fa Ar argument ...
Function argument or parameter.
Each argument may be a name and a type (recommended for the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section), a name alone (for function invocations),
or a type alone (for function prototypes).
If both a type and a name are given or if the type consists of multiple
words, all words belonging to the same function argument have to be
given in a single argument to the
.Ic \&Fa
macro.
.Pp
This macro is also used to specify the field name of a structure.
.Pp
Most often, the
.Ic \&Fa
macro is used in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
within
.Ic \&Fo
blocks when documenting multi-line function prototypes.
If invoked with multiple arguments, the arguments are separated by a
comma.
Furthermore, if the following macro is another
.Ic \&Fa ,
the last argument will also have a trailing comma.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Fa \(dqconst char *p\(dq
.Dl \&.Fa \(dqint a\(dq \(dqint b\(dq \(dqint c\(dq
.Dl \&.Fa \(dqchar *\(dq size_t
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Fo .
.It Ic \&Fc
End a function context started by
.Ic \&Fo .
.Tg Fd
.It Ic \&Fd Pf # Ar directive Op Ar argument ...
Preprocessor directive, in particular for listing it in the
.Em SYNOPSIS .
Historically, it was also used to document include files.
The latter usage has been deprecated in favour of
.Ic \&In .
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Fd #define sa_handler __sigaction_u.__sa_handler
.Dl \&.Fd #define SIO_MAXNFDS
.Dl \&.Fd #ifdef FS_DEBUG
.Dl \&.Ft void
.Dl \&.Fn dbg_open \(dqconst char *\(dq
.Dl \&.Fd #endif
.Pp
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,
.Ic \&In ,
and
.Ic \&Dv .
.Tg Fl
.It Ic \&Fl Op Ar word ...
Command-line flag or option.
Used when listing arguments to command-line utilities.
For each argument, prints an ASCII hyphen-minus character
.Sq \- ,
immediately followed by the argument.
If no arguments are provided, a hyphen-minus is printed followed by a space.
If the argument is a macro, a hyphen-minus is prefixed
to the subsequent macro output.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl ".Nm du Op Fl H | L | P"
.Dl ".Nm ls Op Fl 1AaCcdFfgHhikLlmnopqRrSsTtux"
.Dl ".Nm route Cm add Fl inet Ar destination gateway"
.Dl ".Nm locate.updatedb Op Fl \e-fcodes Ns = Ns Ar dbfile"
.Dl ".Nm aucat Fl o Fl"
.Dl ".Nm kill Fl Ar signal_number"
.Pp
For GNU-style long options, escaping the additional hyphen-minus is not
strictly required, but may be safer with future versions of GNU troff; see
.Xr mandoc_char 7
for details.
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Cm .
.Tg Fn
.It Ic \&Fn Ar funcname Op Ar argument ...
A function name.
.Pp
Function arguments are surrounded in parenthesis and
are delimited by commas.
If no arguments are specified, blank parenthesis are output.
In the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, this macro starts a new output line,
and a blank line is automatically inserted between function definitions.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Fn \(dqint funcname\(dq \(dqint arg0\(dq \(dqint arg1\(dq
.Dl \&.Fn funcname \(dqint arg0\(dq
.Dl \&.Fn funcname arg0
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Ft functype
\&.Fn funcname
.Ed
.Pp
When referring to a function documented in another manual page, use
.Ic \&Xr
instead.
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,
.Ic \&Fo ,
and
.Ic \&Ft .
.Tg Fo
.It Ic \&Fo Ar funcname
Begin a function block.
This is a multi-line version of
.Ic \&Fn .
.Pp
Invocations usually occur in the following context:
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Pf \. Ic \&Ft Ar functype
.br
.Pf \. Ic \&Fo Ar funcname
.br
.Pf \. Ic \&Fa Qq Ar argtype Ar argname
.br
\&.\.\.
.br
.Pf \. Ic \&Fc
.Ed
.Pp
A
.Ic \&Fo
scope is closed by
.Ic \&Fc .
.Pp
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,
.Ic \&Fa ,
.Ic \&Fc ,
and
.Ic \&Ft .
.It Ic \&Fr Ar number
This macro is obsolete.
No replacement markup is needed.
.Pp
It was used to show numerical function return values in an italic font.
.Tg Ft
.It Ic \&Ft Ar functype
A function type.
.Pp
In the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, a new output line is started after this macro.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ft int
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Ft functype
\&.Fn funcname
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE ,
.Ic \&Fn ,
and
.Ic \&Fo .
.Tg Fx
.It Ic \&Fx Op Ar version
Format the
.Fx
version provided as an argument, or a default value
if no argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Fx 7.1
.Dl \&.Fx
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&At ,
.Ic \&Bsx ,
.Ic \&Bx ,
.Ic \&Dx ,
.Ic \&Nx ,
and
.Ic \&Ox .
.It Ic \&Hf Ar filename
This macro is not implemented in
.Xr mandoc 1 .
It was used to include the contents of a (header) file literally.
.Tg Ic
.It Ic \&Ic Ar keyword ...
Internal or interactive command, or configuration instruction
in a configuration file.
See also
.Ic \&Cm .
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ic :wq
.Dl \&.Ic hash
.Dl \&.Ic alias
.Pp
Note that using
.Ic \&Ql ,
.Ic \&Dl ,
or
.Ic \&Bd Fl literal
is preferred for displaying code samples; the
.Ic \&Ic
macro is used when referring to an individual command name.
.Tg In
.It Ic \&In Ar filename
The name of an include file.
This macro is most often used in section 2, 3, and 9 manual pages.
.Pp
When invoked as the first macro on an input line in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, the argument is displayed in angle brackets
and preceded by
.Qq #include ,
and a blank line is inserted in front if there is a preceding
function declaration.
In other sections, it only encloses its argument in angle brackets
and causes no line break.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.In sys/types.h
.Pp
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .
.Tg It
.It Ic \&It Op Ar head
A list item.
The syntax of this macro depends on the list type.
.Pp
Lists
of type
.Fl hang ,
.Fl ohang ,
.Fl inset ,
and
.Fl diag
have the following syntax:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Ic \&It Ar args
.Pp
Lists of type
.Fl bullet ,
.Fl dash ,
.Fl enum ,
.Fl hyphen
and
.Fl item
have the following syntax:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Ic \&It
.Pp
with subsequent lines interpreted within the scope of the
.Ic \&It
until either a closing
.Ic \&El
or another
.Ic \&It .
.Pp
The
.Fl tag
list has the following syntax:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Ic \&It Op Cm args
.Pp
Subsequent lines are interpreted as with
.Fl bullet
and family.
The line arguments correspond to the list's left-hand side; body
arguments correspond to the list's contents.
.Pp
The
.Fl column
list is the most complicated.
Its syntax is as follows:
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. Ic \&It Ar cell Op Ic \&Ta Ar cell ...
.D1 Pf \. Ic \&It Ar cell Op <TAB> Ar cell ...
.Pp
The arguments consist of one or more lines of text and macros
representing a complete table line.
Cells within the line are delimited by the special
.Ic \&Ta
block macro or by literal tab characters.
.Pp
Using literal tabs is strongly discouraged because they are very
hard to use correctly and
.Nm
code using them is very hard to read.
In particular, a blank character is syntactically significant
before and after the literal tab character.
If a word precedes or follows the tab without an intervening blank,
that word is never interpreted as a macro call, but always output
literally.
.Pp
The tab cell delimiter may only be used within the
.Ic \&It
line itself; on following lines, only the
.Ic \&Ta
macro can be used to delimit cells, and portability requires that
.Ic \&Ta
is called by other macros: some parsers do not recognize it when
it appears as the first macro on a line.
.Pp
Note that quoted strings may span tab-delimited cells on an
.Ic \&It
line.
For example,
.Pp
.Dl .It \(dqcol1 ,\& <TAB> col2 ,\(dq \&;
.Pp
will preserve the whitespace before both commas,
but not the whitespace before the semicolon.
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Bl .
.Tg Lb
.It Ic \&Lb Cm lib Ns Ar name
Specify a library.
.Pp
The
.Ar name
parameter may be a system library, such as
.Cm z
or
.Cm pam ,
in which case a small library description is printed next to the linker
invocation; or a custom library, in which case the library name is
printed in quotes.
This is most commonly used in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section as described in
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Lb libz
.Dl \&.Lb libmandoc
.Tg Li
.It Ic \&Li Ar word ...
Request a typewriter (literal) font.
Deprecated because on terminal output devices, this is usually
indistinguishable from normal text.
For literal displays, use
.Ic \&Ql Pq in-line ,
.Ic \&Dl Pq single line ,
or
.Ic \&Bd Fl literal Pq multi-line
instead.
.Tg Lk
.It Ic \&Lk Ar uri Op Ar display_name
Format a hyperlink.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Lk https://bsd.lv \(dqThe BSD.lv Project\(dq
.Dl \&.Lk https://bsd.lv
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Mt .
.It Ic \&Lp
Deprecated synonym for
.Ic \&Pp .
.Tg Ms
.It Ic \&Ms Ar name
Display a mathematical symbol.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ms sigma
.Dl \&.Ms aleph
.Tg Mt
.It Ic \&Mt Ar localpart Ns @ Ns Ar domain
Format a
.Dq mailto:
hyperlink.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Mt discuss@manpages.bsd.lv
.Dl \&.An Kristaps Dzonsons \&Aq \&Mt kristaps@bsd.lv
.Tg Nd
.It Ic \&Nd Ar line
A one line description of the manual's content.
This is the mandatory last macro of the
.Em NAME
section and not appropriate for other sections.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl Pf . Ic \&Nd mdoc language reference
.Dl Pf . Ic \&Nd format and display UNIX manuals
.Pp
The
.Ic \&Nd
macro technically accepts child macros and terminates with a subsequent
.Ic \&Sh
invocation.
Do not assume this behaviour: some
.Xr whatis 1
database generators are not smart enough to parse more than the line
arguments and will display macros verbatim.
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Nm .
.Tg Nm
.It Ic \&Nm Op Ar name
The name of the manual page, or \(em in particular in section 1, 6,
and 8 pages \(em of an additional command or feature documented in
the manual page.
When first invoked, the
.Ic \&Nm
macro expects a single argument, the name of the manual page.
Usually, the first invocation happens in the
.Em NAME
section of the page.
The specified name will be remembered and used whenever the macro is
called again without arguments later in the page.
The
.Ic \&Nm
macro uses
.Sx Block full-implicit
semantics when invoked as the first macro on an input line in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section; otherwise, it uses ordinary
.Sx In-line
semantics.
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Sh SYNOPSIS
\&.Nm cat
\&.Op Fl benstuv
\&.Op Ar
.Ed
.Pp
In the
.Em SYNOPSIS
of section 2, 3 and 9 manual pages, use the
.Ic \&Fn
macro rather than
.Ic \&Nm
to mark up the name of the manual page.
.Tg No
.It Ic \&No Ar word ...
Normal text.
Closes the scope of any preceding in-line macro.
When used after physical formatting macros like
.Ic \&Em
or
.Ic \&Sy ,
switches back to the standard font face and weight.
Can also be used to embed plain text strings in macro lines
using semantic annotation macros.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl ".Em italic , Sy bold , No and roman"
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Sm off
\&.Cm :C No / Ar pattern No / Ar replacement No /
\&.Sm on
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Em ,
.Ic \&Ql ,
and
.Ic \&Sy .
.Tg Ns
.It Ic \&Ns
Suppress a space between the output of the preceding macro
and the following text or macro.
Following invocation, input is interpreted as normal text
just like after an
.Ic \&No
macro.
.Pp
This has no effect when invoked at the start of a macro line.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl ".Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value"
.Dl ".Cm :M Ns Ar pattern"
.Dl ".Fl o Ns Ar output"
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&No
and
.Ic \&Sm .
.Tg Nx
.It Ic \&Nx Op Ar version
Format the
.Nx
version provided as an argument, or a default value if
no argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Nx 5.01
.Dl \&.Nx
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&At ,
.Ic \&Bsx ,
.Ic \&Bx ,
.Ic \&Dx ,
.Ic \&Fx ,
and
.Ic \&Ox .
.It Ic \&Oc
Close multi-line
.Ic \&Oo
context.
.It Ic \&Oo Ar block
Multi-line version of
.Ic \&Op .
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Oo
\&.Op Fl flag Ns Ar value
\&.Oc
.Ed
.Tg Op
.It Ic \&Op Ar line
Optional part of a command line.
Prints the argument(s) in brackets.
This is most often used in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section of section 1 and 8 manual pages.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Op \&Fl a \&Ar b
.Dl \&.Op \&Ar a | b
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Oo .
.Tg Os
.It Ic \&Os Op Ar footer text
The mandatory third macro of every
.Nm
file.
Usually, do not specify any arguments,
in particular not the operating system name and/or version.
.Pp
If no argument is given,
.Xr mandoc 1
prints its
.Fl Ios
argument in the page footer, or
.Fa sysname
and
.Fa release
as returned by
.Xr uname 3
by default.
.Pp
Manual pages that are part of a portable software project can override
the default by giving the project name and version number as arguments,
but leaving it blank is never a bad choice.
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Dd
and
.Ic \&Dt .
.It Ic \&Ot Ar functype
This macro is obsolete.
Use
.Ic \&Ft
instead; with
.Xr mandoc 1 ,
both have the same effect.
.Pp
Historical
.Nm
packages described it as
.Dq "old function type (FORTRAN)" .
.Tg Ox
.It Ic \&Ox Op Ar version
Format the
.Ox
version provided as an argument, or a default value
if no argument is provided.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Ox 4.5
.Dl \&.Ox
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&At ,
.Ic \&Bsx ,
.Ic \&Bx ,
.Ic \&Dx ,
.Ic \&Fx ,
and
.Ic \&Nx .
.Tg Pa
.It Ic \&Pa Ar name ...
An absolute or relative file system path, or a file or directory name.
If an argument is not provided, the character
.Sq \(ti
is used as a default.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Pa /usr/bin/mandoc
.Dl \&.Pa /usr/share/man/man7/mdoc.7
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Lk .
.It Ic \&Pc
Close parenthesised context opened by
.Ic \&Po .
.Tg Pf
.It Ic \&Pf Ar prefix macro Op Ar argument ...
Removes the space between its argument and the following macro.
It is equivalent to:
.Pp
.D1 Ic \&No Pf \e& Ar prefix Ic \&Ns Ar macro Op Ar argument ...
.Pp
The
.Ar prefix
argument is not parsed for macro names or delimiters,
but used verbatim as if it were escaped.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl ".Pf $ Ar variable_name"
.Dl ".Pf . Ar macro_name"
.Dl ".Pf 0x Ar hex_digits"
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Ns
and
.Ic \&Sm .
.It Ic \&Po Ar block
Multi-line version of
.Ic \&Pq .
.Tg Pp
.It Ic \&Pp
Break a paragraph.
This will assert vertical space between prior and subsequent macros
and/or text.
.Pp
Paragraph breaks are not needed before or after
.Ic \&Sh
or
.Ic \&Ss
macros or before displays
.Pq Ic \&Bd Ar line
or lists
.Pq Ic \&Bl
unless the
.Fl compact
flag is given.
.Tg Pq
.It Ic \&Pq Ar line
Parenthesised enclosure.
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Po .
.It Ic \&Qc
Close quoted context opened by
.Ic \&Qo .
.Tg Ql
.It Ic \&Ql Ar line
In-line literal display.
This can be used for complete command invocations and for multi-word
code examples when an indented display is not desired.
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Dl
and
.Ic \&Bd
.Fl literal .
.It Ic \&Qo Ar block
Multi-line version of
.Ic \&Qq .
.Tg Qq
.It Ic \&Qq Ar line
Encloses its arguments in
.Qq typewriter
double-quotes.
Consider using
.Ic \&Dq .
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Dq ,
.Ic \&Sq ,
and
.Ic \&Qo .
.It Ic \&Re
Close an
.Ic \&Rs
block.
Does not have any tail arguments.
.Tg Rs
.It Ic \&Rs
Begin a bibliographic
.Pq Dq reference
block.
Does not have any head arguments.
The block macro may only contain
.Ic \&%A ,
.Ic \&%B ,
.Ic \&%C ,
.Ic \&%D ,
.Ic \&%I ,
.Ic \&%J ,
.Ic \&%N ,
.Ic \&%O ,
.Ic \&%P ,
.Ic \&%Q ,
.Ic \&%R ,
.Ic \&%T ,
.Ic \&%U ,
and
.Ic \&%V
child macros (at least one must be specified).
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
\&.Rs
\&.%A J. E. Hopcroft
\&.%A J. D. Ullman
\&.%B Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation
\&.%I Addison-Wesley
\&.%C Reading, Massachusetts
\&.%D 1979
\&.Re
.Ed
.Pp
If an
.Ic \&Rs
block is used within a SEE ALSO section, a vertical space is asserted
before the rendered output, else the block continues on the current
line.
.Tg Rv
.It Ic \&Rv Fl std Op Ar function ...
Insert a standard sentence regarding a function call's return value of 0
on success and \-1 on error, with the
.Va errno
libc global variable set on error.
.Pp
If
.Ar function
is not specified, the document's name set by
.Ic \&Nm
is used.
Multiple
.Ar function
arguments are treated as separate functions.
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Ex .
.It Ic \&Sc
Close single-quoted context opened by
.Ic \&So .
.Tg Sh
.It Ic \&Sh Ar TITLE LINE
Begin a new section.
For a list of conventional manual sections, see
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .
These sections should be used unless it's absolutely necessary that
custom sections be used.
.Pp
Section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by
.Ic \&Sx .
Although this macro is parsed, it should not consist of child node or it
may not be linked with
.Ic \&Sx .
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Pp ,
.Ic \&Ss ,
and
.Ic \&Sx .
.Tg Sm
.It Ic \&Sm Op Cm on | off
Switches the spacing mode for output generated from macros.
.Pp
By default, spacing is
.Cm on .
When switched
.Cm off ,
no white space is inserted between macro arguments and between the
output generated from adjacent macros, but text lines
still get normal spacing between words and sentences.
.Pp
When called without an argument, the
.Ic \&Sm
macro toggles the spacing mode.
Using this is not recommended because it makes the code harder to read.
.It Ic \&So Ar block
Multi-line version of
.Ic \&Sq .
.Tg Sq
.It Ic \&Sq Ar line
Encloses its arguments in
.Sq typewriter
single-quotes.
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Dq ,
.Ic \&Qq ,
and
.Ic \&So .
.Tg Ss
.It Ic \&Ss Ar Title line
Begin a new subsection.
Unlike with
.Ic \&Sh ,
there is no convention for the naming of subsections.
Except
.Em DESCRIPTION ,
the conventional sections described in
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
rarely have subsections.
.Pp
Sub-section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by
.Ic \&Sx .
Although this macro is parsed, it should not consist of child node or it
may not be linked with
.Ic \&Sx .
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Pp ,
.Ic \&Sh ,
and
.Ic \&Sx .
.Tg St
.It Ic \&St Fl Ns Ar abbreviation
Replace an abbreviation for a standard with the full form.
The following standards are recognised.
Where multiple lines are given without a blank line in between,
they all refer to the same standard, and using the first form
is recommended.
.Bl -tag -width 1n
.It C language standards
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact
.It \-ansiC
.St -ansiC
.It \-ansiC-89
.St -ansiC-89
.It \-isoC
.St -isoC
.It \-isoC-90
.St -isoC-90
.br
The original C standard.
.Pp
.It \-isoC-amd1
.St -isoC-amd1
.Pp
.It \-isoC-tcor1
.St -isoC-tcor1
.Pp
.It \-isoC-tcor2
.St -isoC-tcor2
.Pp
.It \-isoC-99
.St -isoC-99
.br
The second major version of the C language standard.
.Pp
.It \-isoC-2011
.St -isoC-2011
.br
The third major version of the C language standard.
.El
.It POSIX.1 before XPG4.2
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact
.It \-p1003.1-88
.St -p1003.1-88
.It \-p1003.1
.St -p1003.1
.br
The original POSIX standard, based on ANSI C.
.Pp
.It \-p1003.1-90
.St -p1003.1-90
.It \-iso9945-1-90
.St -iso9945-1-90
.br
The first update of POSIX.1.
.Pp
.It \-p1003.1b-93
.St -p1003.1b-93
.It \-p1003.1b
.St -p1003.1b
.br
Real-time extensions.
.Pp
.It \-p1003.1c-95
.St -p1003.1c-95
.br
POSIX thread interfaces.
.Pp
.It \-p1003.1i-95
.St -p1003.1i-95
.br
Technical Corrigendum.
.Pp
.It \-p1003.1-96
.St -p1003.1-96
.It \-iso9945-1-96
.St -iso9945-1-96
.br
Includes POSIX.1-1990, 1b, 1c, and 1i.
.El
.It X/Open Portability Guide before XPG4.2
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact
.It \-xpg3
.St -xpg3
.br
An XPG4 precursor, published in 1989.
.Pp
.It \-p1003.2
.St -p1003.2
.It \-p1003.2-92
.St -p1003.2-92
.It \-iso9945-2-93
.St -iso9945-2-93
.br
An XCU4 precursor.
.Pp
.It \-p1003.2a-92
.St -p1003.2a-92
.br
Updates to POSIX.2.
.Pp
.It \-xpg4
.St -xpg4
.br
Based on POSIX.1 and POSIX.2, published in 1992.
.El
.It X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4 Version 2 and related standards
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact
.It \-susv1
.St -susv1
.It \-xpg4.2
.St -xpg4.2
.br
This standard was published in 1994.
It was used as the basis for UNIX 95 certification.
The following two refer to parts of it.
.Pp
.It \-xcurses4.2
.St -xcurses4.2
.Pp
.It \-p1003.1g-2000
.St -p1003.1g-2000
.br
Networking APIs, including sockets.
.Pp
.It \-svid4
.St -svid4 ,
.br
Published in 1995.
.El
.It X/Open Portability Guide Issue 5 and related standards
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact
.It \-susv2
.St -susv2
.br
This Standard was published in 1997
and is also called X/Open Portability Guide Issue 5.
It was used as the basis for UNIX 98 certification.
The following refer to parts of it.
.Pp
.It \-xbd5
.St -xbd5
.Pp
.It \-xsh5
.St -xsh5
.Pp
.It \-xcu5
.St -xcu5
.Pp
.It \-xns5
.St -xns5
.It \-xns5.2
.St -xns5.2
.El
.It POSIX Issue 6
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1-2001" -compact
.It \-p1003.1-2001
.St -p1003.1-2001
.It \-susv3
.St -susv3
.br
This standard is based on C99, SUSv2, POSIX.1-1996, 1d, and 1j.
It is also called X/Open Portability Guide Issue 6.
It is used as the basis for UNIX 03 certification.
.Pp
.It \-p1003.1-2004
.St -p1003.1-2004
.br
The second and last Technical Corrigendum.
.El
.It POSIX Issues 7 and 8
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact
.It \-p1003.1-2008
.St -p1003.1-2008
.It \-susv4
.St -susv4
.br
This standard is based on C99.
It is also called the
Open Group Standard Base Specifications, Issue 7.
.El
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact
.It \-p1003.1-2024
.St -p1003.1-2024
.br
This standard is based on C17.
It is also called the
Open Group Standard Base Specifications, Issue 8.
.El
.It Other standards
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "-p1003.1g-2000" -compact
.It \-ieee754
.St -ieee754
.br
Floating-point arithmetic.
.Pp
.It \-iso8601
.St -iso8601
.br
Representation of dates and times, published in 1988.
.Pp
.It \-iso8802-3
.St -iso8802-3
.br
Ethernet local area networks.
.Pp
.It \-ieee1275-94
.St -ieee1275-94
.El
.El
.Tg Sx
.It Ic \&Sx Ar Title line
Reference a section or subsection in the same manual page.
The referenced section or subsection name must be identical to the
enclosed argument, including whitespace.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Sh
and
.Ic \&Ss .
.Tg Sy
.It Ic \&Sy Ar word ...
Request a boldface font.
.Pp
This is most often used to indicate importance or seriousness (not to be
confused with stress emphasis, see
.Ic \&Em ) .
When none of the semantic macros fit, it is also adequate for syntax
elements that have to be given or that appear verbatim.
.Pp
Examples:
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
\&.Sy Warning :
If
\&.Sy s
appears in the owner permissions, set-user-ID mode is set.
This utility replaces the former
\&.Sy dumpdir
program.
.Ed
.Pp
See also
.Ic \&Em ,
.Ic \&No ,
and
.Ic \&Ql .
.Tg Ta
.It Ic \&Ta
Table cell separator in
.Ic \&Bl Fl column
lists; can only be used below
.Ic \&It .
.Tg Tg
.It Ic \&Tg Op Ar term
Announce that the next input line starts a definition of the
.Ar term .
This macro must appear alone on its own input line.
The argument defaults to the first argument of the first macro
on the next line.
The argument may not contain whitespace characters, not even when it is quoted.
This macro is a
.Xr mandoc 1
extension and is typically ignored by other formatters.
.Pp
When viewing terminal output with
.Xr less 1 ,
the interactive
.Ic :t
command can be used to go to the definition of the
.Ar term
as described for the
.Ev MANPAGER
variable in
.Xr man 1 ;
when producing HTML output, a fragment identifier
.Pq Ic id No attribute
is generated, to be used for deep linking to this place of the document.
.Pp
In most cases, adding a
.Ic \&Tg
macro would be redundant because
.Xr mandoc 1
is able to automatically tag most definitions.
This macro is intended for cases where automatic tagging of a
.Ar term
is unsatisfactory, for example if a definition is not tagged
automatically (false negative) or if places are tagged that do
not define the
.Ar term
(false positives).
When there is at least one
.Ic \&Tg
macro for a
.Ar term ,
no other places are automatically marked as definitions of that
.Ar term .
.It Ic \&Tn Ar word ...
Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals.
Even though the macro name
.Pq Dq tradename
suggests a semantic function, historic usage is inconsistent, mostly
using it as a presentation-level macro to request a small caps font.
.It Ic \&Ud
Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals.
Prints out
.Dq currently under development.
.It Ic \&Ux
Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals.
Prints out
.Dq Ux .
.Tg Va
.It Ic \&Va Oo Ar type Oc Ar identifier ...
A variable name.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Va foo
.Dl \&.Va const char *bar ;
.Pp
For function arguments and parameters, use
.Ic \&Fa
instead.
For declarations of global variables in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, use
.Ic \&Vt .
.Tg Vt
.It Ic \&Vt Ar type Op Ar identifier
A variable type.
.Pp
This is also used for indicating global variables in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, in which case a variable name is also specified.
Note that it accepts
.Sx Block partial-implicit
syntax when invoked as the first macro on an input line in the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section, else it accepts ordinary
.Sx In-line
syntax.
In the former case, this macro starts a new output line,
and a blank line is inserted in front if there is a preceding
function definition or include directive.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Vt unsigned char
.Dl \&.Vt extern const char * const sys_signame[] \&;
.Pp
For parameters in function prototypes, use
.Ic \&Fa
instead, for function return types
.Ic \&Ft ,
and for variable names outside the
.Em SYNOPSIS
section
.Ic \&Va ,
even when including a type with the name.
See also
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE .
.It Ic \&Xc
Close a scope opened by
.Ic \&Xo .
.It Ic \&Xo Ar block
Extend the header of an
.Ic \&It
macro or the body of a partial-implicit block macro
beyond the end of the input line.
This macro originally existed to work around the 9-argument limit
of historic
.Xr roff 7 .
.Tg Xr
.It Ic \&Xr Ar name section
Link to another manual
.Pq Qq cross-reference .
.Pp
Cross reference the
.Ar name
and
.Ar section
number of another man page.
.Pp
Examples:
.Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1
.Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&;
.Dl \&.Xr mandoc 1 \&Ns s behaviour
.El
.Sh MACRO SYNTAX
The syntax of a macro depends on its classification.
In this section,
.Sq \-arg
refers to macro arguments, which may be followed by zero or more
.Sq parm
parameters;
.Sq \&Yo
opens the scope of a macro; and if specified,
.Sq \&Yc
closes it out.
.Pp
The
.Em Callable
column indicates that the macro may also be called by passing its name
as an argument to another macro.
For example,
.Sq \&.Op \&Fl O \&Ar file
produces
.Sq Op Fl O Ar file .
To prevent a macro call and render the macro name literally,
escape it by prepending a zero-width space,
.Sq \e& .
For example,
.Sq \&Op \e&Fl O
produces
.Sq Op \&Fl O .
If a macro is not callable but its name appears as an argument
to another macro, it is interpreted as opaque text.
For example,
.Sq \&.Fl \&Sh
produces
.Sq Fl \&Sh .
.Pp
The
.Em Parsed
column indicates whether the macro may call other macros by receiving
their names as arguments.
If a macro is not parsed but the name of another macro appears
as an argument, it is interpreted as opaque text.
.Pp
The
.Em Scope
column, if applicable, describes closure rules.
.Ss Block full-explicit
Multi-line scope closed by an explicit closing macro.
All macros contains bodies; only
.Ic \&Bf
and
.Pq optionally
.Ic \&Bl
contain a head.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB
\(lBbody...\(rB
\&.Yc
.Ed
.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXX" -offset indent
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope
.It Ic \&Bd  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    closed by Ic \&Ed
.It Ic \&Bf  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    closed by Ic \&Ef
.It Ic \&Bk  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    closed by Ic \&Ek
.It Ic \&Bl  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    closed by Ic \&El
.It Ic \&Ed  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    opened by Ic \&Bd
.It Ic \&Ef  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    opened by Ic \&Bf
.It Ic \&Ek  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    opened by Ic \&Bk
.It Ic \&El  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    opened by Ic \&Bl
.El
.Ss Block full-implicit
Multi-line scope closed by end-of-file or implicitly by another macro.
All macros have bodies; some
.Po
.Ic \&It Fl bullet ,
.Fl hyphen ,
.Fl dash ,
.Fl enum ,
.Fl item
.Pc
don't have heads; only one
.Po
.Ic \&It
in
.Ic \&Bl Fl column
.Pc
has multiple heads.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead... \(lBTa head...\(rB\(rB
\(lBbody...\(rB
.Ed
.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXXXXXXXXXX" -offset indent
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope
.It Ic \&It Ta \&No Ta Yes  Ta closed by Ic \&It , Ic \&El
.It Ic \&Nd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by Ic \&Sh
.It Ic \&Nm Ta \&No Ta Yes  Ta closed by Ic \&Nm , Ic \&Sh , Ic \&Ss
.It Ic \&Sh Ta \&No Ta Yes  Ta closed by Ic \&Sh
.It Ic \&Ss Ta \&No Ta Yes  Ta closed by Ic \&Sh , Ic \&Ss
.El
.Pp
Note that the
.Ic \&Nm
macro is a
.Sx Block full-implicit
macro only when invoked as the first macro
in a
.Em SYNOPSIS
section line, else it is
.Sx In-line .
.Ss Block partial-explicit
Like block full-explicit, but also with single-line scope.
Each has at least a body and, in limited circumstances, a head
.Po
.Ic \&Fo ,
.Ic \&Eo
.Pc
and/or tail
.Pq Ic \&Ec .
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB
\(lBbody...\(rB
\&.Yc \(lBtail...\(rB

\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \
\(lBbody...\(rB \&Yc \(lBtail...\(rB
.Ed
.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXXX" -offset indent
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope
.It Ic \&Ac  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Ic \&Ao
.It Ic \&Ao  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Ic \&Ac
.It Ic \&Bc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Ic \&Bo
.It Ic \&Bo  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Ic \&Bc
.It Ic \&Brc Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Ic \&Bro
.It Ic \&Bro Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Ic \&Brc
.It Ic \&Dc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Ic \&Do
.It Ic \&Do  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Ic \&Dc
.It Ic \&Ec  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Ic \&Eo
.It Ic \&Eo  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Ic \&Ec
.It Ic \&Fc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Ic \&Fo
.It Ic \&Fo  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    closed by Ic \&Fc
.It Ic \&Oc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Ic \&Oo
.It Ic \&Oo  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Ic \&Oc
.It Ic \&Pc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Ic \&Po
.It Ic \&Po  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Ic \&Pc
.It Ic \&Qc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Ic \&Oo
.It Ic \&Qo  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Ic \&Oc
.It Ic \&Re  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    opened by Ic \&Rs
.It Ic \&Rs  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    closed by Ic \&Re
.It Ic \&Sc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Ic \&So
.It Ic \&So  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Ic \&Sc
.It Ic \&Xc  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    opened by Ic \&Xo
.It Ic \&Xo  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    closed by Ic \&Xc
.El
.Ss Block partial-implicit
Like block full-implicit, but with single-line scope closed by the
end of the line.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \(lBres...\(rB
.Ed
.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" -offset indent
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed
.It Ic \&Aq  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Ic \&Bq  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Ic \&Brq Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Ic \&D1  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&Yes
.It Ic \&Dl  Ta    \&No     Ta    Yes
.It Ic \&Dq  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Ic \&En  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Ic \&Op  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Ic \&Pq  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Ic \&Ql  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Ic \&Qq  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Ic \&Sq  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.It Ic \&Vt  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes
.El
.Pp
Note that the
.Ic \&Vt
macro is a
.Sx Block partial-implicit
only when invoked as the first macro
in a
.Em SYNOPSIS
section line, else it is
.Sx In-line .
.Ss Special block macro
The
.Ic \&Ta
macro can only be used below
.Ic \&It
in
.Ic \&Bl Fl column
lists.
It delimits blocks representing table cells;
these blocks have bodies, but no heads.
.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "closed by XXXX" -offset indent
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Scope
.It Ic \&Ta  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes    Ta closed by Ic \&Ta , Ic \&It
.El
.Ss In-line
Closed by the end of the line, fixed argument lengths,
and/or subsequent macros.
In-line macros have only text children.
If a number (or inequality) of arguments is
.Pq n ,
then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of arguments.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB \(lBres...\(rB

\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB Yc...

\&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB arg0 arg1 argN
.Ed
.Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsedX" "Arguments" -offset indent
.It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsed Ta Em Arguments
.It Ic \&%A  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%B  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%C  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%D  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%I  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%J  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%N  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%O  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%P  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%Q  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%R  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%T  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%U  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&%V  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Ad  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&An  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Ap  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    0
.It Ic \&Ar  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Ic \&At  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    1
.It Ic \&Bsx Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Ic \&Bt  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    0
.It Ic \&Bx  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Ic \&Cd  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Cm  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Db  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    1
.It Ic \&Dd  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Ic \&Dt  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Ic \&Dv  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Dx  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Ic \&Em  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Er  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Es  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    2
.It Ic \&Ev  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Ex  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Ic \&Fa  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Fd  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Fl  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Ic \&Fn  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Fr  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Ft  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Fx  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Ic \&Hf  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Ic \&Ic  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&In  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    1
.It Ic \&Lb  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    1
.It Ic \&Li  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Lk  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Lp  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    0
.It Ic \&Ms  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Mt  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Nm  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Ic \&No  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Ns  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    0
.It Ic \&Nx  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Ic \&Os  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Ic \&Ot  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Ox  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Ic \&Pa  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Ic \&Pf  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    1
.It Ic \&Pp  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    0
.It Ic \&Rv  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    n
.It Ic \&Sm  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    <2
.It Ic \&St  Ta    \&No     Ta    Yes      Ta    1
.It Ic \&Sx  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Sy  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Tg  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    <2
.It Ic \&Tn  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Ud  Ta    \&No     Ta    \&No     Ta    0
.It Ic \&Ux  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Ic \&Va  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    n
.It Ic \&Vt  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    >0
.It Ic \&Xr  Ta    Yes      Ta    Yes      Ta    2
.El
.Ss Delimiters
When a macro argument consists of one single input character
considered as a delimiter, the argument gets special handling.
This does not apply when delimiters appear in arguments containing
more than one character.
Consequently, to prevent special handling and just handle it
like any other argument, a delimiter can be escaped by prepending
a zero-width space
.Pq Sq \e& .
In text lines, delimiters never need escaping, but may be used
as normal punctuation.
.Pp
For many macros, when the leading arguments are opening delimiters,
these delimiters are put before the macro scope,
and when the trailing arguments are closing delimiters,
these delimiters are put after the macro scope.
Spacing is suppressed after opening delimiters
and before closing delimiters.
For example,
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. \&Aq "( [ word ] ) ."
.Pp
renders as:
.Pp
.D1 Aq ( [ word ] ) .
.Pp
Opening delimiters are:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It \&(
left parenthesis
.It \&[
left bracket
.El
.Pp
Closing delimiters are:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It \&.
period
.It \&,
comma
.It \&:
colon
.It \&;
semicolon
.It \&)
right parenthesis
.It \&]
right bracket
.It \&?
question mark
.It \&!
exclamation mark
.El
.Pp
Note that even a period preceded by a backslash
.Pq Sq \e.\&
gets this special handling; use
.Sq \e&.\&
to prevent that.
.Pp
Many in-line macros interrupt their scope when they encounter
delimiters, and resume their scope when more arguments follow that
are not delimiters.
For example,
.Pp
.D1 Pf \. \&Fl "a ( b | c \e*(Ba d ) e"
.Pp
renders as:
.Pp
.D1 Fl a ( b | c \*(Ba d ) e
.Pp
This applies to both opening and closing delimiters,
and also to the middle delimiter, which does not suppress spacing:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It \&|
vertical bar
.El
.Pp
As a special case, the predefined string \e*(Ba is handled and rendered
in the same way as a plain
.Sq \&|
character.
Using this predefined string is not recommended in new manuals.
.Pp
Appending a zero-width space
.Pq Sq \e&
to the end of an input line is also useful to prevent the interpretation
of a trailing period, exclamation or question mark as the end of a
sentence, for example when an abbreviation happens to occur
at the end of a text or macro input line.
.Ss Font handling
In
.Nm
documents, usage of semantic markup is recommended in order to have
proper fonts automatically selected; only when no fitting semantic markup
is available, consider falling back to
.Sx Physical markup
macros.
Whenever any
.Nm
macro switches the
.Xr roff 7
font mode, it will automatically restore the previous font when exiting
its scope.
Manually switching the font using the
.Xr roff 7
.Ql \ef
font escape sequences is never required.
.Sh COMPATIBILITY
This section provides an incomplete list of compatibility issues
between mandoc and GNU troff
.Pq Qq groff .
.Pp
The following problematic behaviour is found in groff:
.Pp
.Bl -dash -compact
.It
.Ic \&Pa
does not format its arguments when used in the FILES section under
certain list types.
.It
.Ic \&Ta
can only be called by other macros, but not at the beginning of a line.
.It
.Sq \ef
.Pq font face
and
.Sq \eF
.Pq font family face
.Sx Text Decoration
escapes behave irregularly when specified within line-macro scopes.
.It
Negative scaling units return to prior lines.
Instead, mandoc truncates them to zero.
.El
.Pp
The following features are unimplemented in mandoc:
.Pp
.Bl -dash -compact
.It
.Ic \&Bd Fl file Ar file
is unsupported for security reasons.
.It
.Ic \&Bd
.Fl filled
does not adjust the right margin, but is an alias for
.Ic \&Bd
.Fl ragged .
.It
.Ic \&Bd
.Fl literal
does not use a literal font, but is an alias for
.Ic \&Bd
.Fl unfilled .
.It
.Ic \&Bd
.Fl offset Cm center
and
.Fl offset Cm right
don't work.
Groff does not implement centered and flush-right rendering either,
but produces large indentations.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr man 1 ,
.Xr mandoc 1 ,
.Xr eqn 7 ,
.Xr man 7 ,
.Xr mandoc_char 7 ,
.Xr roff 7 ,
.Xr tbl 7
.Pp
The web page
.Lk https://mandoc.bsd.lv/mdoc/ "extended documentation for the mdoc language"
provides a few tutorial-style pages for beginners, an extensive style
guide for advanced authors, and an alphabetic index helping to choose
the best macros for various kinds of content.
.Pp
The manual page
.Lk https://man.voidlinux.org/groff_mdoc "groff_mdoc(7)"
contained in the
.Dq groff
package documents exactly the same language in a somewhat different style.
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
language first appeared as a troff macro package in
.Bx 4.4 .
It was later significantly updated by Werner Lemberg and Ruslan Ermilov
in groff-1.17.
The standalone implementation that is part of the
.Xr mandoc 1
utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in
.Ox 4.6 .
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
reference was written by
.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .