xref: /csrg-svn/share/man/man7/mdoc.samples.7 (revision 48888)

.\" Copyright (c) 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" %sccs.include.redist.mdoc%
.\"
.\"     @(#)mdoc.samples.7	5.4 (Berkeley) 05/01/91
.\"
.\"	This sampler invokes every macro in the package several
.\" 	times and is garanteed to give a worst case performance
.\"	for an already extremely slow package.
.Dd
.Os BSD 4.4
.Dt MDOC.SAMPLES 7
.Sh NAME
.Nm mdoc.sample
.Nd writing manual pages with
.Nm -mdoc
macro package
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm man mdoc.sample
.Sh DESCRIPTION
A tutorial sampler for writing
.Bx
manual pages with the
.Nm \-mdoc
macro package; a
.Em content Ns \-
based formatting
package for
.Xr troff 1 .
Its predecessor, the
.Xr \-man 7
package,
addressed page structure leaving the
manipulation of fonts and other
typesetting details to the individual author.
The
.Nm \-mdoc
package
allows the author to ignore font considerations by
using macros to label
pieces of text according to content.
In the context of manual pages, examples of content
are a command name, a file pathname or a cross
reference to another manual page; these
items have value
for both the author and the future user of the manual page.
It is hoped the consistency gained
across the manual set will provide easier
translation to future documentation tools.
.Pp
Through out the
.Ux
manual pages, a manual entry
is simply referred
to as a man page, regardless of actual length and without
sexist intention.
.Sh TROFF IDIOSYNCRASIES
The
.Nm \-mdoc
package attempts to simplify the process of writing a man page.
Theoretically, one should not have to learn the dirty details of
.Xr troff 1
to use
.Nm \-mdoc ;
however, there are a few
limitations which are unavoidable and best gotten out
of the way. And, too, be forewarned, this package is
.Em not
fast.
.Ss Macro Usage
As in
.Xr troff 1 ,
a macro is called by placing a
.Ql \&\.
(dot character)
at the beginning of
a line followed by the two character name for the macro.
Arguments may follow the macro separated by spaces.
It is the dot character at the beginning of the line which causes
.Xr troff 1
to interpret the next two characters as a macro name.
To place a
.Ql \&\.
(dot character)
at the beginning of a line in some context other than
a macro macro, precede the
.Ql \&\.
(dot) with a
.Ql \e& .
.Pp
In general,
.Xr troff 1
macros accept up to nine arguments, any
extra arguments are ignored.
Most macros in
.Nm \-mdoc
accept nine arguments and,
in limited cases, arguments may be continued or extended
on the
next line (See
.Sx Extensions
\-
macro
.Ql \&.Xo
and
.Ql \&.Xc ) .
A few macros handle quoted aguments (see
.Sx Passing Space Characters in an Argument
below).
Many
.Nm \-mdoc
macros may be given the
name of another macro as an argument. In this case
the argument, although the name of a macro,
is not preceded by a
.Ql \&\.
(dot),
and is
.Em called
when the argument is processed.
It is in this manner that some macros are nested; for
example
the option macro,
.Ql \&.Op ,
may
.Em call
the flag and argument macros,
.Ql \&.Fl
and
.Ql \&.Ar ,
to specify an optional flag with an argument:
.nr D 1
.Bl -tag -width "\&.Op \&Fl s \&Ar bytes" -offset indent
.It Op Fl s Ar bytes
is produced by
.Li \&.Op \&Fl s \&Ar bytes
.El
.Pp
To prevent a two character
string from being interpreted as a macro name, precede
the string with the
escape sequence
.Ql \e& :
.Bl -tag -width "[\&Fl s \&Ar bytes]" -offset indent
.It Op \&Fl s \&Ar bytes
is produced by
.Li \&.Op \e&Fl s \e&Ar bytes
.El
.Pp
.nr D 0
Here the strings
.Ql \&Fl
and
.Ql \&Ar
were not interpreted as macros.
Details on callable macros are presented in the
sections
.Sx CONTENT MACROS
and
.Sx PAGE LAYOUT MACROS.
.Ss Passing Space Characters in an Argument
Sometimes it is desirable to give as one argument a string
containing one or more blank space characters. This may be necessary
to defeat the nine argument limit or to specify arguments to macros
which expect particular arrangement of items in the argument list.
For example,
the function macro
.Ql \&.Fn
expects the first argument to be the name of a function and any
remaining arguments to be function parameters. As
.Tn "ANSI C"
stipulates the declaration of function parameters in the
parenthesized parameter list, each parameter is guaranteed
to be at minimum a two word string. For example,
.Fa int foo .
There are two possible ways to pass an argument which contains
an imbedded space. Unfortunately, the most convient way
of passing such a space between quotes was too expensive to implement for
all the macros. It is however, implemented for the following macros which need
it the most:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width 4n -offset indent -compact
.It Li \&Cd
Configuration declaration (section 4 SYNOPSIS)
.It Li \&Bl
Begin list (for the width specifier).
.It Li \&Em
Emphasized text.
.It Li \&Fn
Functions (sections two and four).
.It Li \&It
List items.
.It Li \&Li
Literal text.
.It Li \&Sy
Symbolic text.
.It Li \&%B
Book titles.
.It Li \&%J
Journal names.
.It Li \&%O
Optional notes for a reference.
.It Li \&%R
Report title (in a reference).
.It Li \&%T
Title of article in a book or journal.
.El
.Pp
One way of passing a string
containing blank spaces is to use the hard or unpaddable space character
.Ql \e\  ,
that is, a blank space preceeded by the escape character
.Ql \e .
This method may be used with any macro but has the side effect
of interfering with the adjustment of text
over the length of a line.
.Xr Troff
sees the hard space as if it were any other printable character and
cannot split the string into blank or newline separated pieces as one
would expect. The method is useful for strings which are not expected
to overlap a line boundary. For example:
.Bl -tag -width "fetch(char *str)" -offset indent
.It Fn fetch char\ *str
is created by
.Ql \&.Fn fetch char\e *str
.It Fn fetch "char *str"
can also be created by
.Ql \&.Fn fetch "\\*q*char *str\\*q"
.El
.Pp
If the
.Ql \e
or quotes
were omitted,
.Ql \&.Fn
would see three arguments and
the result would be:
.Pp
.Dl Fn fetch char *str
.Pp
Note what happens if the parameter list overlaps a newline
boundary. For example, the next two examples are repeated several times
to make sure a line boundary is crossed:
.Bd -literal
\&.Fn struct\e\ dtable\e\ *dlookup struct\e\ dtable\e\ *tab[]
.Ed
.Pp
produces, nudge nudge,
.Fn struct\ dtable\ *dlookup char\ *h struct\ dtable\ *tab[] ,
.Fn struct\ dtable\ *dlookup char\ *h struct\ dtable\ *tab[] ,
nudge
.Fn struct\ dtable\ *dlookup char\ *h struct\ dtable\ *tab[] .
.Pp
If double quotes are used, for example:
.Bd -literal
\&.Fn \*qstruct dtable *dlookup\*q \*qchar *h\*q \*qstruct dtable *tab[]\*q
.Ed
.Pp
produces, nudge nudge,
.Fn "struct dtable *dlookup" "char *h" "struct dtable *tab[]" ,
nudge
.Fn "struct dtable *dlookup" "char *h" "struct dtable *tab[]" ,
nudge
.Fn "struct dtable *dlookup" "char *h" "struct dtable *tab[]" .
.Pp
Not a pretty sight...
In a paragraph, a long parameter containing unpaddable spaces as
in the former example will cause
.Xr troff
to break the line and spread
the remaining words out.  The latter example will adjust nicely to
justified margins, but may break in between an argument and its
declaration. In
.Xr nroff
the right margin adjustment is normally ragged and the problem is
not as severe.
.Ss Trailing Blank Space Characters
.Xr Troff
can be confused by blank space characters at the end of a line. It
is wise preventative measure to globally remove all blank spaces
from <blank-space><end-of-line> character sequences. Should the need
arise to force a blank character at the end of a line,
it may be forced with an unpaddable space and the
.Ql \e&
escape character.
For example,
.Ql string\e\ \e& .
.Ss Escaping Special Characters
Special characters
like the newline character
.Ql \en ,
are handled by replacing the
.Ql \e
with
.Ql \ee
(e.g.
.Ql \een )
to preserve
the backslash.
.Sh THE ANATOMY OF A MAN PAGE (Getting Started)
There are three basic groups of macros: specific header macros
called only once at the very beginning of
each manual page, page layout or structure macros
which may be called many times, and content macros which also
may be called many times.
The body of a man page is easily constructed from a basic
template found in the file:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.\e" /usr/share/misc/man.tempate :
\&.\e" The following six lines are required.
\&.Dt DOCUMENT_TITLE [section number] [volume]
\&.Os OPERATING_SYSTEM [version/release]
\&.Dd Month day, year
\&.Sh NAME
\&.Sh SYNOPSIS
\&.Sh DESCRIPTION
\&.\e" The following requests should be uncommented and
\&.\e" used where appropriate.  This next request is
\&.\e" for sections 2 and 3 function return values only.
\&.\e" .Sh RETURN VALUES
\&.\e" This next request is for sections 1, 6, 7 & 8 only
\&.\e" .Sh ENVIRONMENT
\&.\e" .Sh FILES
\&.\e" .Sh EXAMPLES
\&.\e" This next request is for sections 1, 6, 7 & 8 only
\&.\e"     (command return values (to shell) and
\&.\e"	  fprintf/stderr type diagnostics)
\&.\e" .Sh DIAGNOSTICS
\&.\e" The next request is for sections 2 and 3 error
\&.\e" and signal handling only.
\&.\e" .Sh ERRORS
\&.\e" .Sh SEE ALSO
\&.\e" .Sh STANDARDS
\&.\e" .Sh HISTORY
\&.\e" .Sh AUTHORS
\&.\e" .Sh BUGS
.Ed
.Pp
The first items in the template are the macros
.Pq Li \&.Dt , \&.Dd , \&.Os ;
the document or man page title
.Pq Em in upper case ,
the section of the manual the page
belongs to, the (document) date,
and the operating system the man page is derived
from. These macros identify the page,
and are discussed below in
.Sx TITLE MACROS .
.Pp
The remaining items in the template are section headers
.Pq Li \&.Sh ;
of which NAME, SYNOPSIS and DESCRIPTION
are mandatory. The
headers are
discussed in
.Sx PAGE LAYOUT MACROS,
after
presentation of
.Sx CONTENT MACROS .
Several content macros are used to demonstrate page layout macros;
reading about content macros before page layout macros is
recommended.
.Sh TITLE MACROS
Three header macros designate the document title or manual page title,
the operating system,
and the date of authorship.
These macros are one called once at the very beginning of the document
and are used to construct the headers and footers only.
.Bl -tag -width 6n
.It Li \&.Dt DOCUMENT_TITLE section# [volume]
The document title is the
subject of the man page and must be in CAPITALS due to troff
limitations.
The section number may be 1,\ ...,\ 8,
and if it is specified,
the volume title may be omitted.
A volume title may be arbitrary or one of the following:
.\" .Cl
.\" USD	UNIX User's Supplementary Documents
.\" .Cl
.\" PS1	UNIX Programmers's Supplementary Documents
.Pp
.Bl -column SMM -offset indent -compact
.It AMD	UNIX Ancestral Manual Documents
.It SMM	UNIX System Manager's Manual
.It URM	UNIX Reference Manual
.It PRM	UNIX Programmers's Manual
.El
.Pp
.\" .Cl
.\" MMI	UNIX Manual Master Index
.\" .Cl
.\" CON	UNIX Contributed Software Manual
.\" .Cl
.\" LOC	UNIX Local Manual
.It Li \&.Os operating_system release#
The name of the operating system
should be the common acronym, e.g. BSD
or ATT.  The release should be the standard release
nomenclature for the system specified, e.g. 4.3, 4.3+Tahoe, V.3,
V.4. Unrecognized arguments are displayed as given in the page footer.
For instance, for the footer on this page, the 4.4 Berkeley Distribution
was produced by:
.Pp
.Dl \&.Os BSD 4.4
.It Li \&.Dd month day, year
The date should be written formally:
.Pp
.Dl January 25, 1989
.El
.Sh CONTENT MACROS
.Ss What's in a name...
Content 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
.Nm \-mdoc
macro request usage.
Second is the description of a
.Ux
command
.Em with
.Nm \-mdoc
macros and third,
the
description a command to a user in the verbal sense;
that is, discussion of a command in the text of a man page.
.Pp
In the first case,
.Xr troff 1
macros are themselves a type of command;
the general syntax for a troff command is:
.Bd -filled -offset indent
\&.Va argument1 argument2 ... argument9
.Ed
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.Va
is a macro command or request, and anything following it is an argument to
be processed.
In the second case,
the description of a
.Ux
command using the content macros is a
bit more involved;
a typical SYNOPSIS command line might be displayed as:
.Pp
.Bd -filled -offset indent
.Nm filter
.Op Fl flag
.Ar infile outfile
.Ed
.Pp
Here,
.Nm filter
is the command name and the
bracketed string
.Fl flag
is a
.Em flag
argument designated as optional by the option brackets.
In
.Nm \-mdoc
terms,
.Ar infile
and
.Ar outfile
are
called
.Em arguments .
The macros which formatted the above example:
.Pp
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Li \&.Nm filter
.Li \&.Op \&Fl flag
.Li \&.Ar infile outfile
.Ed
.Pp
In the third case, discussion of commands and command syntax
includes both examples above, but may add more detail. The
arguments
.Ar infile
and
.Ar outfile
from the example above might be refered to as
.Em operands
or
.Em file arguments .
Some command line argument lists are quite long:
.\" .Bl -tag -width make -offset indent
.Bl -tag -width make -offset indent
.It 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=value
.br
.Op Ar "target\ ..."
.El
.Pp
Here one might talk about the command
.Nm make
and qualify the argument
.Ar makefile ,
as an argument to the flag,
.Fl f ,
or discuss the optional
file
operand
.Ar target .
In the verbal context, such detail can prevent confusion,
however the
.Nm \-mdoc
package
does not have a macro for an argument
.Em to
a flag.
Instead the
.Ql \&Ar
argument macro is used for an operand or file argument like
.Ar target
as well as an argument to a flag like
.Ar variable :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.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=value
\&.Op Ar target ...
.Ed
.Ss General Syntax
All content macros share a similar
syntax with a few minor deviations:
.Ql \&.Ar ,
.Ql \&.Fl ,
.Ql \&.Nm ,
and
.Ql \&.Pa
differ only when called without arguments;
.Ql \&.Fn
and
.Ql \&.Xr
impose an order on their argument lists
and the
.Em enclosure
and
.Em quoting
macros
have nesting limitations. All content macros
are capable of handling punctuation.
Any argument which may be tested for punctuation
and contains a member of the mathematical, logical or
quotation set:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
{+,\-,/,*,%,<,>,<=,>=,=,==,&,`,',"}
.Ed
should have
the character escaped with
.Ql \e& .
Typical syntax is shown in the first content macro displayed
below,
.Ql \&.Ad ,
and the syntax for enclosure/quoting macros is shown in
.Sx Enclosure and Quoting Macros .
.Ss Address Macro
The address macro constructs an address
of the form addr1[,addr2[,addr3]].
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Ad address ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Ad f1 , f2 , f3 :" -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Ad addr1
.Ad addr1
.It Li \&.Ad addr1\ .
.Ad addr1 .
.It Li \&.Ad addr1\ , file2
.Ad addr1 , file2
.It Li \&.Ad f1\ , f2\ , f3\ :
.Ad f1 , f2 , f3 :
.It Li \&.Ad addr\ )\ )\ ,
.Ad addr ) ) ,
.El
.Pp
It is an error to call
.Li \&.Ad
without arguments.
.Li \&.Ad
is callable by other macros and may call other macros.
.Ss Argument Macro
The
.Li \&.Ar
argument macro may be used whenever
a command line argument is referenced.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Ar argument ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Ar file1 file2" -compact -offset 15n
.It Li \&.Ar
.Ar
.It Li \&.Ar file1
.Ar file1
.It Li \&.Ar file1\ .
.Ar file1 .
.It Li \&.Ar file1 file2
.Ar file1 file2
.It Li \&.Ar f1 f2 f3\ :
.Ar f1 f2 f3 :
.It Li \&.Ar file\ )\ )\ ,
.Ar file ) ) ,
.El
.Pp
If
.Li \&.Ar
is called without arguments
.Ql Ar
is assumed. The
.Li \&.Ar
macro may call other macros, and may be
called by other macros.
.Ss Angle Bracket Quote/Enclosure
Encloses a string or strings in between angle brackets. The macro
.Ql \&.Aq
encloses the remaining arguments on the macro command line, and the
.Ql \&.Ao
(angle open) and
.Ql \&.Ac
(angle close) macros may be used across one or more lines.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Aq string ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Aq Pa ctype.h ) ," -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Aq
.Aq
.It Li \&.Aq string.
.Aq string.
.It Li \&.Aq string\ .
.Aq string .
.It Li \&.Aq stdio.h
.Aq stdio.h
.It Li \&.Aq \&Ar ctype.h\ )\ ,
.Aq Ar ctype.h ) ,
.El
.Pp
See
.Sx Enclosure Macros
for discussion and
.Sx Options
for examples of the open and close
macros
.Ql \&.Ac
and
.Ql \&.Ao .
.Ql \&.Aq
is callable by other macros and may call other macros.
.Ss Apostrophes
The simple act of appending an apostrophe to the end of a word
is quite painful with out the apostrophe macro. All arguments
in
.Nm \-mdoc
are measured for width and the apostrophe character is misinterpreted
as a width delimiter.  To get around this, the aprostrophe macro
appends the apostrophe character to the word after is has been measured.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .(macro_name) string Ap appended string \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Aq Pa ctype.h ) ," -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Em execve \&Ap ing
.Em execve Ap ing
.El
.Pp
The
.Ql \&Ap
macro may be called by other macros and may call other macros, it cannot
however, be the first macro on a request line.
.Ss Bracket Quotes/Enclosure
Bracket quotes should be used when the string being bracketed is
.Em not
an option string.  The brackets for an option may be different
than the default brackets. The macro
.Ql \&.Bq
encloses the remaining arguments on a macro command line and the
macros
.Ql \&.Bo
and
.Ql \&.Bc
may be used across one or more lines.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Bq string ... \*(Pu
.Pp
The
.Li \&.Bq
macro exists for statements which use other macros:
.Bq Em Greek , French .
This was done with:
.Pp
.Dl Li \&.Bq \&Em Greek \&, French \&.
.Pp
It also could have been done using the prefix macro:
.Pp
.Dl Li ".Pf [ Em Greek , French ] ."
.Pp
See
.Sx Enclosure Macros
for discussion and
.Sx Options
for examples of the open and close
macros
.Ql \&.Bc
and
.Ql \&.Bo .
The
.Ql \&.Bq
macro
is callable and may call other macros.
.Ss Configuration Declaration (section four only)
The
.Ql \&.Cd
macro is used to demonstrate a
.Xr config 8
declaration for a device interface in a section four manual.
This macro accepts quoted arguments (double quotes only).
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "device le0 at scode?" -offset indent
.It Cd "device le0 at scode?"
produced by:
.Ql ".Cd device le0 at scode?" .
.El
.Ss Command Modifier
The command modifier is identical to the
.Ql \&.Fl
(flag) command with the exception
the
.Ql \&.Cm
macro does not assert a dash
in front of every argument. Traditionally flags are marked by the
preceding dash, 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
.Sx Flags .
.Ss Double Quote macro/Enclosure
The
.Ql \&.Dq
double quote encloses
any remaining strings on the command line with double quotes.
Punctuation is
placed after the end quote.
The macros
.Ql \&.Do
and
.Ql \&.Dc
may be used across one or more lines.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Dq string ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Dq Ar patternx ) ) ," -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Dq
.Dq
.It Li ".Dq string."
.Dq string.
.It Li ".Dq string abc ."
.Dq string abc .
.It Li ".Dq \'^[A-Z]\'"
.Dq \'^[A-Z]\'
.It Li \&.Dq \&Ar pattern\ )\ )\ ,
.Dq Ar pattern ) ) ,
.El
.Pp
If
.Ql \&.Dq
is called with no arguments
.Dq
is assumed. The
.Ql \&.Dq
macro may call or be called by
other macros.
See
.Sx Enclosure Macros
for discussion of
.Ql \&.Dc
and
.Ql \&.Do
macro types.
.Ss Defined Variables
A variable which is defined in an include file is specified
by the macro
.Ql \&.Dv .
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Dv defined_variable ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Dv MAXHOSTNAMELEN" -compact -offset 14n
.It Li ".Dv MAXHOSTNAMELEN"
.Dv MAXHOSTNAMELEN
.It Li ".Dv TIOCGPGRP )"
.Dv TIOCGPGRP )
.El
.Pp
It is an error to call
.Ql \&.Dv
without arguments.
.Ql \&.Dv
may call other macros and
may be called by other macros.
.Ss Emphasis Macro
Text may be stressed or emphasized with the
.Ql \&.Em
macro.  The usual font for emphasis is italic.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Em argument ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Em vide infra ) ) ," -compact -offset 14n
.It Li ".Em does not"
.Em does not
.It Li ".Em exceed 1024 ."
.Em exceed 1024 .
.It Li ".Em vide infra ) ) ,"
.Em vide infra ) ) ,
.El
.Pp
The emphasis can be forced across several lines of text by using
the
.Ql \&.Bf
macro discussed in
.Sx Modes
under
.Sx PAGE LAYOUT .
.\" .Pp
.\" .Em
.\" I'm certain the reason so many people desire an MBA from Harvard
.\" is because they want to be successful philanthropists.
.\" .Em
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.Em
macro
is callable and may call other macros.
It is an error to call
.Ql \&.Em
without arguments.
.Ss Enclosure and Quoting Macros
The concept of enclosure is similar to quoting.
The object is to enclose a string or more between
a pair of characters like quotes or parentheses.
The terms quoting and enclosure are used
interchangeably throughout this document.  Many of the
one line enclosure macros end
end in small letter
.Ql q
to give a hint of quoting, but there are a few exceptions
(the macros
.Ql \&.En ,
.Ql \&.Fn
and
.Ql \&.Op
are also enclosure macros).
For each enclosure macro
there is also a pair of open and close macros which end
in small letters
.Ql o
and
.Ql c
respectively. These can be used across one or more lines of text
and while they cannot be nested, the one line quote macros
can be used inside
of them.
For a good example of one these macros, see
.Sx Options .
.Pp
.Bd -filled -offset indent
.Bl -column "quote" "close" "open" "Enclose Stringx(in XX)" XXstringXX
.Em " quote	 close	 open	function	result"
\&.Aq,	.Ac,	.Ao	Angle Bracket Enclosure	<string>
\&.Bq,	.Bc,	.Bo	Bracket Enclosure	[string]
\&.Dq,	.Dc,	.Do	Double Quote	``string''
	.Ec,	.Eo	Enclose String (in XX)	XXstringXX
\&.Fn,	.Fc,	.Fo	Function Enclosure	function(string)
\&.Op,	.Oc,	.Oo	Option Enclosure	[string]
\&.Pq,	.Pc,	.Po	Parenthesis Enclosure	(string)
\&.Qq,	.Qc,	.Qo	Straight Double Quote	"string"
\&.Sq,	.Sc,	.So	Single Quote	`string'
\&	.Xc,	.Xo	Extend Argument	\ \-\-
.El
.Ed
.Pp
The macros
.Ql \&.Eo
and
.Ql \&.Ec
allow a user to specify an open and close with the first argument as the
opening or closing string respectively.
.Ss Errno's (Section two only)
The
.Ql \&.Er
errno macro specifies the error return value
for section two library routines. The second example
below shows
.Ql \&.Er
used with the
.Ql \&.Bq
macro, as it would be used in
a section two manual page.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Er ERRNOTYPE ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Bq Er ENOTDIR" -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Er ENOENT
.Er ENOENT
.It Li \&.Er ENOENT\ )\ ;
.Er ENOENT ) ;
.It Li \&.Bq \&Er ENOTDIR
.Bq Er ENOTDIR
.El
.Pp
It is an error to call
.Ql \&.Er
without arguments.
The
.Ql \&.Er
macro
is callable and may call other macros.
.Ss Environment Variables
The
.Ql \&.Ev
macro specifies a environment variable.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Ev argument ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Ev PRINTER ) ) ," -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Ev DISPLAY
.Ev  DISPLAY
.It Li \&.Ev PATH\ .
.Ev PATH .
.It Li \&.Ev PRINTER\ )\ )\ ,
.Ev PRINTER ) ) ,
.El
.Pp
It is an error to call
.Ql \&.Ev
without arguments.
The
.Ql \&.Ev
macro
is callable by other macros and may call other macros.
.Ss Function Argument
The
.Ql \&.Fa
macro is used to refer to function arguments (parameters)
outside of the SYNOPSIS section of the manual or inside
the SYNOPSIS section should a parameter list be too
long for the
.Ql \&.Fn
macro and the enclosure macros
.Ql \&.Fo
and
.Ql \&.Fc
must be used.
.Ql \&.Fa
may also be used to refer to structure members.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Fa function_argument ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Fa d_namlen\ )\ )\ ," -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Fa d_namlen\ )\ )\ ,
.Fa d_namlen ) ) ,
.It Li \&.Fa iov_len
.Fa iov_len
.El
.Pp
It is an error to call
.Ql \&.Fa
without arguments.
.Ql \&.Fa
is callable by other macros and may call other macros.
.Ss Function Declaration
The
.Ql \&.Fd
macro is used in the SYNOPSIS section with section two or three
functions. The
.Ql \&.Fd
macro does not call other macros and is not callable by other
macros.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Fd include_file (or defined variable)
.Pp
In the SYNOPSIS section a
.Ql \&.Fd
request causes a line break if a function has already been presented
and a break has not occurred. This leaves a nice vertical space
in between the previous function call and the declaration for the
next function.
.Ss Flags
The
.Ql \&.Fl
macro handles command line flags. It prepends
a dash,
.Ql \- ,
to the flag. For interactive command flags, which
are not prepended with a dash, the
.Ql \&.Cm
(command modifier)
macro is identical, but with out the dash.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Fl argument ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Fl \-s \-t \-v" -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Fl
.Fl
.It Li \&.Fl cfv
.Fl cfv
.It Li \&.Fl cfv\ .
.Fl cfv .
.It Li \&.Fl s v t
.Fl s v t
.It Li \&.Fl -\ ,
.Fl - ,
.It Li \&.Fl xyz\ )\ ,
.Fl xyz ) ,
.El
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.Fl
macro without any arguments results
in a dash representing stdin/stdout.
Note that giving
.Ql \&.Fl
a single dash, will result in two dashes.
The
.Ql \&.Fl
macro
is callable and may call other macros.
.Ss Functions (library routines)
The .Fn macro is modeled on ANSI C conventions.
.Bd -literal
Usage: .Fn [type] function [[type] params ... \*(Pu]
.Ed
.Bl -tag -width ".Fn .int align. .const * char *sptrs" -compact
.It Li "\&.Fn getchar"
.Fn getchar
.It Li "\&.Fn strlen ) ,"
.Fn strlen ) ,
.It Li \&.Fn "\\*qint align\\*q" "\\*qconst * char *sptrs\\*q" ,
.Fn "int align" "const * char *sptrs" ,
.El
.Pp
It is an error to call
.Ql \&.Fn
without any arguments.
The
.Ql \&.Fn
macro
is callable by other macros and may call other macros, but
note that any call to another macro signals the end of
the
.Ql \&.Fn
call (it will close-paren at that point).
.Pp
In the SYNOPSIS section, the function will always begin at
the beginning of line. If there is more than one function
presented in the SYNOPSIS section and a function type has not been
given, a line break will occur, leaving a nice vertical space
between the current function name and the one prior.
At the moment,
.Ql \&.Fn
does not check its word boundaries
against troff line lengths and may split across a newline
ungracefully. This will be fixed in the near future.
.Ss Function Type
This macro is intended for the SYNOPSIS section. It may be used
anywhere else in the manpage without problems, but its main purpose
is to present the function type in kernel normal form for the SYNOPSIS
of sections two and three
(it causes a page break allowing the function name to appear
on the next line).
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Ft type ... \*(Pu
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "\&.Ft struct stat" -offset 14n -compact
.It Li \&.Ft struct stat
.Ft struct stat
.El
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.Ft
request is not callable by other macros.
.Ss Interactive Commands
The
.Ql \&.Ic
macro designates an interactive or internal command.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Li argument ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Ic setenv , unsetenv" -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Ic :wq
.Ic :wq
.It Li \&.Ic do while {...}
.Ic do while {...}
.It Li \&.Ic setenv\ , unsetenv
.Ic setenv , unsetenv
.El
.Pp
It is an error to call
.Ql \&.Ic
without arguments.
The
.Ql \&.Ic
macro may call other macros and is callable.
.Ss Literals
The
.Ql \&.Li
literal macro may be used for special characters,
variable constants, anything which should be displayed as it
would be typed.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Li argument ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Li cntrl-D ) ,"  -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Li \een
.Li \en
.It Li \&.Li M1 M2 M3\ ;
.Li M1 M2 M3 ;
.It Li \&.Li cntrl-D\ )\ ,
.Li cntrl-D ) ,
.It Li \&.Li 1024\ ...
.Li 1024 ...
.El
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.Li
macro
is callable by other macros and may call other macros.
.Ss Name Macro
The
.Ql \&.Nm
macro is used for the document title or subject name.
It has the peculiarity of remembering the first
argument it was called with, which should
always be the subject name of the page.  When called without
arguments,
.Ql \&.Nm
regurgitates this initial name for the sole purpose
of making less work for the author.
Note:
a section two
or three document function name is addressed with the
.Ql \&.Nm
in the NAME section, and with
.Ql \&.Fn
in the SYNOPSIS
and remaining sections.
For interactive commands, such as the
.Ql while
command keyword in
.Xr csh 1 ,
the
.Ql \&.Ic
macro should be used.
While the
.Ql \&.Ic
is nearly identical
to
.Ql \&.Nm ,
it can not recall the first argument it was invoked with.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Nm argument ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Nm mdoc.sample" -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Nm mdoc.sample
.Nm  mdoc.sample
.It Li \&.Nm \-mdoc
.Nm \-mdoc .
.It Li \&.Nm foo\ )\ )\ ,
.Nm foo ) ) ,
.It Li \&.Nm
.Nm
.El
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.Nm
macro
is callable by other macros and may call other macros.
.Ss No\-Op or Normal Text Macro
The macro
.Li \&.No
is
a hack for words in a macro command line which should
.Em not
be formatted and follows the conventional syntax
for content macros.
.Ss No Space Macro
The
.Ql \&.Ns
macro eliminates unwanted spaces in between macro requests.
It is useful for old style argument lists where there is no space
between the flag and argument:
.Bl -tag -width ".Op Fl I Ns Ar directory" -offset indent
.It Li ".Op Fl I Ns Ar directory"
produces
.Op Fl I Ns Ar directory
.El
.Pp
Note: the
.Ql \&.Ns
macro always invokes the
.Ql \&.No
macro after eliminating the space unless another macro name
follows it.
The macro
.Ql \&.Ns
is callable and may call other macros.
For the special case of appending an apostrophe to a string, see
.Ql \&Ap .
.Sx Apostrophes .
For prefixes see
.Sx Prefixes.
.Ss Options
The
.Ql \&.Op
macro
places option brackets around the any remaining arguments on the command
line, and places any
trailing punctuation outside the brackets. The macros
.Ql \&.Oc
and
.Ql \&.Oo
may be used across one or more lines.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Op options ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Op Fl c Ar objfil Op Ar corfil ," -compact -offset indent
.It Li \&.Op
.Op
.It Li ".Op Fl k"
.Op Fl k
.It Li ".Op Fl k ) ."
.Op Fl k ) .
.It Li ".Op Fl k Ar kookfile"
.Op Fl k Ar kookfile
.It Li ".Op Fl k Ar kookfile ,"
.Op Fl k Ar kookfile ,
.It Li ".Op Ar objfil Op Ar corfil"
.Op Ar objfil Op Ar corfil
.It Li ".Op Fl c Ar objfil Op Ar corfil ,"
.Op Fl c Ar objfil Op Ar corfil ,
.It Li \&.Op word1 word2
.Op word1 word2
.El
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.Oc
and
.Ql \&.Oo
macros:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Oo
\&.Op \&Fl k \&Ar kilobytes
\&.Op \&Fl i \&Ar interval
\&.Op \&Fl c \&Ar count
\&.Oc
.Ed
.Pp
Produce:
.Oo
.Op Fl k Ar kilobytes
.Op Fl i Ar interval
.Op Fl c Ar count
.Oc
.Pp
The macros
.Ql \&.Op ,
.Ql \&.Oc
and
.Ql \&.Oo
are callable and may call other macros.
.Ss Parenthesis Quote/Enclosure
Macros
.Li \&.Pq , \&.Pc
and
.Li \&.Po
follow the conventions for a typical quoting macros,
see
.Sx Enclosure Macros
and
.Sx Options
above.
.Ss Pathnames
The
.Ql \&.Pa
macro formats path or file names.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Pa pathname \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /tmp/fooXXXXX ) ." -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Pa /usr/share
.Pa /usr/share
.It Li \&.Pa /tmp/fooXXXXX\ )\ .
.Pa /tmp/fooXXXXX ) .
.El
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.Pa
macro
is callable by other macros and may call other macros.
.Ss Single Quotes/Enclosure
See
.Sx Enclosure Macros .
See
.Sx Double Quote/Enclosure
above.
The single quoting macro
.Ql \&.Sq
works in the identical manner as
.Ql \&.Dq.
.Ss Prefix Macro
The
.Ql \&.Pf is a short cut for combining
two strings together, the first of which is
in the default font, and the second is a content
specified string.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width ".Pf ( Fa name2 " -offset 14n -compact
.It Li ".Pf ( Fa name2"
becomes
.Pf ( Fa name2
.El
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.Pf
macro is not callable, but may call other macros.  The
.Ql \&.Ns
macro performs the analogus suffix function.
.Ss Section Cross References
The
.Ql \&.Sx
macro designates a reference to a section header
within the same document. It is callable by other macros and may
call other macros.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "Li \&.Sx FILES" -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Sx FILES
.Sx FILES
.El
.Ss References and Citations
The following macros make a modest attempt to handle references.
At best, the macros make it convientent to manually drop in a subset of
refer style references.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width 6n -offset indent -compact
.It Li ".Rs"
Reference Start. Causes a line break and begins collection
of reference information until the
reference end macro is read.
.It Li ".Re"
Reference End. The reference is printed.
.It Li ".%A"
Reference author name, one name per invocation.
.It Li ".%B"
Book title.
.It Li ".%J"
Journal title.
.It Li ".%N"
Issue number.
.It Li ".%O"
Optional information.
.It Li ".%R"
Report name.
.It Li ".%T"
Title of article.
.It Li ".%V"
Volume(s).
.El
.Pp
The macros begining with
.Ql %
are not callable, but may call only the trade name macro which
returns to its caller. The purpose is to allow trade names
to be pretty printed in troff/ditroff output. WARNING: this
has very few trade names defined at the moment and will print unknown
trade names in the default font.
.Ss Symbolic
The symbolic emphasis macro is generally a boldface macro in
either the symbolic sense or the traditional English usage.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Sy symbol ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Sy Important Notice" -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Sy Important Notice
.Sy Important Notice
.El
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.Sy
macro
is callable by other macros and may call other macros, except
in the second form.  Arguments to
.Ql \&.Sy
may be quoted.
.Ss Variables
Generic variable reference:
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Va variable ... \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Va char s ] ) ) ," -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Va count
.Va count
.It Li \&.Va settimer ,
.Va settimer ,
.It Li \&.Va int\ *prt\ )\ :
.Va int\ *prt ) :
.It Li \&.Va char\ s\ ]\ )\ )\ ,
.Va char\ s ] ) ) ,
.El
.Pp
It is an error to call
.Ql \&.Va
without any arguments.
The
.Ql \&.Va
macro
is callable by other macros and may call other macros.
.Ss Cross References
The
.Ql \&.Xr
macro expects the first argument to be
a manual page name, and the second argument, if it exists,
to be either a section page number or punctuation.  Any
remaining arguments are assumed to be punctuation.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: .Xr manpage [1,...,8] \*(Pu
.Bl -tag -width ".Xr mdoc 7 ) ) ," -compact -offset 14n
.It Li \&.Xr mdoc
.Xr mdoc
.It Li \&.Xr mdoc\ ,
.Xr mdoc ,
.It Li \&.Xr mdoc 7
.Xr mdoc 7
.It Li \&.Xr mdoc 7\ )\ )\ ,
.Xr mdoc 7 ) ) ,
.El
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.Xr
macro
is callable by other macros and may call other macros.
It is an error to call
.Ql \&.Xr
without
any arguments.
.Ss Extended  Arguments
The
.Li \&.Xo
and
.Li \&.Xc
maxros allow one to extend an argument list
on a macro boundary.  Argument lists cannot
be extended within a macro
which expects all of its arguments on one line such
as
.Ql \&.Op .
.\" ---
.Sh PAGE LAYOUT MACROS
.Ss Section Headers
The first three
.Ql \&.Sh
section header macros
list below are required in every
man page. The remaining section headers
are recommended at the disgression of the author
writing the manual page. The
.Ql \&.Sh
macro can take up to nine arguments. It may call
other macros, but it may not be called by other macros.
.Bl -tag -width ".Sh SYNOPSIS"
.It \&.Sh NAME
The
.Ql \&.Sh NAME
macro is mandatory. If not specified,
the 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
.Ql \&.Nm
name macro naming the subject of the man page.
The second is the Name Description macro,
.Ql \&.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.
.It \&.Sh SYNOPSIS
The SYNOPSIS section describes the typical usage of the
subject of a man page. The  macros required
are either
.Ql ".Nm" ,
.Ql ".Cd" ,
or
.Ql ".Fn"
(and possibly
.Ql ".Fd" ,
.Ql ".Ft"
macros).
The function name
macro
.Ql ".Fn"
is required
for manual page sections 2 and 3, the command and general
name macro
.Ql \&.Nm
is required for sections 1, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Section 4 manuals require a
.Ql ".Nm" , ".Fd"
or a
.Ql ".Cd"
configuration device usage macro.
Several other macros may be necessary to produce
the synopsis line as shown below:
.Pp
.Bd -filled -offset indent
.Nm cat
.Op Fl benstuv
.Op Fl
.Ar
.Ed
.Pp
The following macros were used:
.Pp
.Dl \&.Nm cat
.Dl \&.Op \&Fl benstuv
.Dl \&.Op \&Fl
.Dl \&.Ar
.It \&.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
.Ql \&.Bl
begin-list,
.Ql \&.It
list-item and
.Ql \&.El
end-list
macros are used (see
.Sx Lists and Columns
below).
.El
.Pp
The following
.Ql \&.Sh
section headers 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.
.Bl -tag -width SYNOPSIS
.It \&.Sh ENVIRONMENT
The ENVIRONMENT section should reveal any related
environment
variables and clues to their behaviour and/or usage.
.It \&.Sh EXAMPLES
There are several ways to create examples. See
the EXAMPLES section below
for details.
.It \&.Sh FILES
Files which are used or created by the man page subject
should be listed via the
.Ql \&.Pa
macro in the FILES section.
.It \&.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
.Ql \&.Xr
macro.  At this time
.Xr refer 1
style references are not accommodated.
.It \&.Sh STANDARDS
If the command, library function or file adheres to a
specific implementation such as POSIX 1003.1 or
ANSI C X3.159-1989 this should be noted here.  If the
command does not adhere to any standard, its history
should be noted in the HISTORY section.
.It \&.Sh HISTORY
Any command which does not adhere to any specific standards
should be outlined historically in this section.
.It \&.Sh AUTHORS
Credits, if need be, should be placed here.
.It \&.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
Diagnostics from a command should be placed in this section.
.It \&.Sh ERRORS
Specific error handling, especially from library functions
(man page sections 2 and 3) should go here.  The
.Ql \&.Er
macro is used to specify an errno.
.It \&.Sh BUGS
Blatant problems with the topic go here...
.El
.Pp
User specified
.Ql \&.Sh
sections may be added,
for example, this section was set with:
.Bd -literal -offset 14n
\&.Sh PAGE LAYOUT MACROS
.Ed
.Ss Paragraphs and Line Spacing.
.Bl -tag -width 6n
.It \&.Pp
The \&.Pp paragraph command may
be used to specify a line space where necessary.
The macro is not necessary after a
.Ql \&.Sh
or
.Ql \&.Ss
macro or before
a
.Ql \&.Bl
macro.
(The
.Ql \&.Bl
macro asserts a vertical distance unless the -compact flag is given).
.El
.\" .Pp
.\" .Ds I
.\" .Cw (ax+bx+c) \ is\ produced\ by\ \&
.\" .\".Cw (ax+bx+c) \&.Va_by_) \&_and_\& \&[?/]m_b1_e1_f1[?/]\&
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Cx\ (
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Va ax
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Sy \+
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \&(\&
.\" .Va ax
.\" .Cx +
.\" .Va by
.\" .Cx +
.\" .Va c )
.\" .Cx \t
.\" .Em is produced by
.\" .Cx \t
.\" .Li \&.Va by
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Sy \+
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Va c )
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Cx
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cw
.\" .De
.\" .Pp
.\" This example shows the same equation in a different format. The spaces
.\" around the
.\" .Li \&+
.\" signs were forced with
.\" .Li \e :
.\" .Pp
.\" .Ds I
.\" .Cw (ax\ +\ bx\ +\ c) \ is\ produced\ by\ \&
.\" .\".Cw (ax+bx+c) \&.Va_by_) \&_and_\& \&[?/]m_b1_e1_f1[?/]\&
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Cx\ (
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Va a
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Sy x
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Cx \e\ +\e\ \e&
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \&(\&
.\" .Va a
.\" .Sy x
.\" .Cx \ +\ \&
.\" .Va b
.\" .Sy y
.\" .Cx \ +\ \&
.\" .Va c )
.\" .Cx \t
.\" .Em is produced by
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Va b
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Sy y
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Cx \e\ +\e\ \e&
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Va c )
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Cx
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cw
.\" .De
.\" .Pp
.\" The incantation below was
.\" lifted from the
.\" .Xr adb 1
.\" manual page:
.\" .Pp
.\" .Ds I
.\" .Cw \&[?/]m_b1_e1_f1[?/]\& is\ produced\ by
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Cx Op Sy ?/
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Nm m
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx Op Sy ?/
.\" .Nm m
.\" .Ad \ b1 e1 f1
.\" .Op Sy ?/
.\" .Cx \t
.\" .Em is produced by
.\" .Cx \t
.\" .Li \&.Ar \e\ b1 e1 f1
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Op Sy ?/
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cl Cx \t\t
.\" .Li \&.Cx
.\" .Cx
.\" .Cw
.\" .De
.\" .Pp
.Ss Examples and Displays
There are five types of displays, a quickie one line indented display
.Ql \&.D1 ,
a quickie one line literal display
.Ql \&.Dl ,
a block literal, block filled and block ragged which use
the
.Ql \&.Bd
begin-display
and
.Ql \&.Ed
end-display macros.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width \&.D1
.It Li \&.D1
(D-one) Display one line of indented text.
Arguments are checked to see if they are callable.
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Li \&.D1 \&Fl ldghfstru
.Ed
.Pp
produces:
.Pp
.Dl Fl ldghfstru
.It Li \&.Dl
(D-ell)
Display one line of indented
.Em literal
text.  The
.Ql \&.Dl
example macro has been used throughout this
file.  It allows
the indent (display) of one line of text.
Its default font is set to
constant width (literal) however
.Ql \&.Dl
does check arguments to see it they are callable.
Macros called from
.Li \&.Dl
should be content macros; calling macros from
the page layout section
is redundant and may cause unpredictable errors.
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Li \&.Dl % ls -ldg /usr/local/bin
.Ed
.Pp
produces:
.Pp
.Dl % ls -ldg /usr/local/bin
.It Li \&.Bd
Begin-display. The
.Ql \&.Bd
display must be ended with the
.Ql \&.Ed
macro. Displays may be nested within displays and
lists.
.Ql \&.Bd
has the following syntax:
.Pp
.Dl ".Bd display-type [offset offset_value]"
.Pp
The display-type must be one of the following four types and
may have an offset specifier for indentation:
.Ql \&.Bd .
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "literalxx" -compact
.It Fl ragged
Display a block of text as typed,
right (and left) margin edges are left ragged.
.It Fl filled
Display a filled (formatted) block.
The block of text is formatted (the edges are filled \-
not left ragged).
.It Fl literal
Display a literal block, useful for source code or
simple tabbed or spaced text.
.It Fl file Ar file_name
The file name following the
.Fl file
flag is read and displayed. Literal mode is
asserted and tabs are set at 8 constant width character
intervals, however any
.Xr troff/ Ns Nm \-mdoc
commands in file will be processed.
.It Fl offset Ar string
If
.Fl 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:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "indent" -compact
.It Ar left
Align block on the current left margin,
this is the default mode of
.Ql \&.Bd .
.It Ar center
Supposedly center the block. At this time
unfortunately, the block merely gets
left aligned about an imaginary center margin.
.It Ar indent
Indents by one default indent value or tab. The default
indent value is also used for the
.Ql \&.D1
display so one can be garanteed of the two types of displays
lining up. This indent is nornally set to 6n or about two
thirds of an inch (six constant width characters).
.It Ar indent-two
Indents two times the default indent value.
.It Ar right
This
.Em left
aligns the block about two inches from
the right side of the page. This macro also needs
work and perhaps may never be right in
.Xr troff .
.El
.El
.It ".Ed"
End-display.
.El
.Ss Tagged Lists and Columns
There are several types of lists which may be initiated with the
.Ql ".Bl"
begin-list macro.  Items within the list
are specified with the
.Ql ".It"
item macro and
each list must end with the
.Ql ".El"
macro. Lists may be nested within themselves and within displays.
Columns may be used inside of lists, but lists are unproven
inside of columns.
.Pp
In addition, several list attributes may be specified such as
the width of a tag, the list offset, and compactness specified
(blank lines between items allowed or disallowed).
The following list types are accepted by
.Ql ".Bl":
.Pp
.Bl -ohang -compact
.It Fl bullet
.It Fl item
.It Fl enum
These three are the simplest types of lists. Once the
.Ql ".Bl"
macro has been given, items in the list are merely
indicated by a line consisting solely of the
.Ql ".It"
macro. For example, the source text for a simple enumerated list
would look like:
.Bd -literal -offset indent-two
\&.Bl -enum -compact
\&.It
\&Item one goes here.
\&.It
\&And item two here.
\&.It
\&Lastly item three goes here.
\&.El
.Ed
.Pp
The results:
.Pp
.Bl -enum -offset indent-two -compact
.It
Item one goes here.
.It
And item two here.
.It
Lastly item three goes here.
.El
.Pp
A simple bullet list construction:
.Bd -literal -offset indent-two
\&.Bl -bullet -compact
\&.It
\&Bullet one goes here.
\&.It
\&Bullet two here.
\&.El
.Ed
.Pp
Produces:
.Bl -bullet -offset indent-two -compact
.It
Bullet one goes here.
.It
Bullet two here.
.El
.Pp
.It Fl tag
.It Fl diag
.It Fl hang
.It Fl ohang
.It Fl inset
These list-types collect arguments specified with the
.Ql \&.It
macro and create a label which may be
.Em inset
into the forth coming text,
.Em hanged
(exdented) from the forth coming text,
.Em overhanged
set above the forth coming paragraph or
.Em tagged
(exdented and offset). This
list was constructed with the
.Ql Fl ohang
list-type.  The
.Ql \&.It
macro may call any callable macros for the inset, hang
and tag list-types, but will not call macros for the
diag type.
Here is an example of inset labels:
.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
Over hanging labels are nice when space is constrained.
.It Em Inset
Inset labels are useful for controlling blocks of
paragraphs and are valuable for converting
.Nm \-mdoc
manuals to other formats.
.El
.Pp
Here is the source text which produced the above example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.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
\&Over hanging labels are nice when space is constrained.
\&.It Em Inset
\&Inset labels are useful for controlling blocks of
\&paragraphs and are valuable for converting
\&.Nm \-mdoc
\&manuals to other formats.
\&.El
.Ed
.Pp
Here is a hanged list with just one item:
.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 in to the paragraph unlike
tagged paragraph labels.
.El
.Pp
And the unfomatted text which created it:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.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 in to the paragraph unlike
\&tagged paragraph labels.
\&.El
.Ed
.Pp
The tagged list which follows uses an optional width specifier to controll
the width of the tag.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "PAGEIN 10" -compact -offset indent
.It SL 10
sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
.It PAGEIN 10
number of disk i/o's resulting from references
by the process to pages not loaded in core.
.It UID 10
numerical user-id of process owner
.It PPID 10
numerical id of parent of process process priority
(non-positive when in non-interruptible wait)
.El
.Pp
The raw text:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Bl -tag -width "PAGEIN 10" -compact -offset indent
\&.It SL 10
\&sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
\&.It PAGEIN 10
\&number of disk i/o's resulting from references
\&by the process to pages not loaded in core.
\&.It UID 10
\&numerical user-id of process owner
\&.It PPID 10
\&numerical id of parent of process process priority
\&(non-positive when in non-interruptible wait)
\&.El
.Ed
.Pp
Acceptable width specifiers:
.Bl -tag -width Ar -offset indent
.It Fl width Ar "\&Fl"
sets the width to the default width for a flag. All callable
macros have a default width value. The
.Ql \&.Fl ,
value is presently
set to ten constant width characters or about five sixth of
an inch.
.It Fl width Ar "24n"
sets the width to 24 constant width characters or about two
inches.  The
.Ql n
is absolutely necessary for the scaling to work correctly.
.It Fl width Ar "ENAMETOOLONG"
sets width to the constant width length of the
string given.
.It Fl width  Ar "\\*qint mkfifo\\*q"
again, the width is set to the constant width of the string
given.
.El
.Pp
If a width is not specified for the tag list type, the first
time
.Ql \&.It
is invoked, an attempt is made to determine an appropriate
width.  If the first argument to
.Ql ".It"
is a callable macro, the default width for that macro will be used
as if the macro name had been supplied as the width.  However,
if another item in the list is given with a different callable
macro name, a new and nested list is assumed. Here is an involved
example of a self nesting list:
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
The debugging facilities for
.Nm \-mdoc
are limited, but can help detect subtle errors such
as the collision of an argument name with an internal
register or macro name. (A what?)
A register is an arithmetic storage class for
.Xr troff
with a one or two character name.
All registers internal to
.Nm \-mdoc
for
.Xr troff
and
.Xr ditroff
are two characters and
of the form <uppercase><lowercase> such as
.Ql \&Ar ,
<lowercase><uppercase> as
.Ql \&aR
or
<upper or lower letter><digit> as
.Ql \&C\&1 .
And adding to the muddle,
.Xr troff
has its own internal registers all of which are either
two lowercase characters or a dot plus a letter or meta-character
character.
In one of the introduction examples, it was shown how to
prevent the interpretation of a macro name with the escape sequence
.Ql \e& .
This is sufficient for the internal register names also.
.Pp
.\" Every callable macro name has a corresponding register
.\" of the same name (<Uppercase><lowercase>).
.\" There are also specific registers which have
.\" been used for stacks and arrays and are listed in the
.\" .Sx Appendix .
.\" .Bd -ragged -offset 4n
.\" [A-Z][a-z]	registers corresponding to macro names (example ``Ar'')
.\" [a-z][A-Z]	registers corresponding to macro names (example ``aR'')
.\" C[0-9]		argument types (example C1)
.\" O[0-9]		offset stack (displays)
.\" h[0-9]		horizontal spacing stack (lists)
.\" o[0-9]		offset (stack) (lists)
.\" t[0-9]		tag stack (lists)
.\" v[0-9]		vertical spacing stack (lists)
.\" w[0-9]		width tag/label stack
.\" .Ed
.\" .Pp
If a non-escaped register name is given in the argument list of a request
unpredictable behaviour will occur. In general, anytime huge portions
of text do not appear where expected in the output, or small strings
such as list tags disappear, chances are there is a misunderstanding
about an argument type in the argument list.
Your mother never intended for you to remember this evil stuff - so here
is a way to find out whether or not your arguments are valid: The
.Ql \&.Db
(debug)
macro displays the interpretation of the argument list for most
macros.  Macros such as the
.Ql \&.Pp
(paragraph)
macro do not contain debugging information. All of the callable macros do,
and it is strongly advised whenever in doubt,
turn on the
.Ql \&.Db
macro.
.Pp
.Dl Usage: \&.Db [on | off]
.Pp
An example of a portion of text with
the debug macro placed above and below an
artificially created problem (a flag argument
.Ql \&aC
which should be
.Ql \e&aC
in order to work):
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Db on
\&.Op Fl aC Ar file )
\&.Db off
.Ed
.Pp
The resulting output:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
DEBUGGING ON
DEBUG(argv) MACRO: `.Op'  Line #: 2
	Argc: 1  Argv: `Fl'  Length: 2
	Space: `'  Class: Executable
	Argc: 2  Argv: `aC'  Length: 2
	Space: `'  Class: Executable
	Argc: 3  Argv: `Ar'  Length: 2
	Space: `'  Class: Executable
	Argc: 4  Argv: `file'  Length: 4
	Space: ` '  Class: String
	Argc: 5  Argv: `)'  Length: 1
	Space: ` '  Class: Closing Punctuation or suffix
	MACRO REQUEST: .Op Fl aC Ar file )
DEBUGGING OFF
.Ed
.Pp
The first line of information tells the name of the calling
macro, here
.Ql \&.Op ,
and the line number it appears on. If one or more files are involved
(especially if text from another file is included) the line number
may be bogus.  If there is only one file, it should be accurate.
The second line gives the argument count, the argument
.Pq Ql \&Fl
and its length. If the length of an argument is two characters, the
argument is tested to see if it is executable (unfortunately, any
register which contains a non-zero value appears executable).
The third line gives the space allotted for a class, and the
class type. The problem here is the argument aC should not be
executable. The four types of classes are string, executable, closing
punctuation and opening punctuation.  The last line shows the entire
argument list as it was read. In this next example, the offending
.Ql \&aC
is escaped:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.Db on
\&.Em An escaped \e&aC
\&.Db off
.Ed
.Bd -literal -offset indent
DEBUGGING ON
DEBUG(fargv) MACRO: `.Em'  Line #: 2
	Argc: 1  Argv: `An'  Length: 2
	Space: ` '  Class: String
	Argc: 2  Argv: `escaped'  Length: 7
	Space: ` '  Class: String
	Argc: 3  Argv: `aC'  Length: 2
	Space: ` '  Class: String
	MACRO REQUEST: .Em An escaped &aC
DEBUGGING OFF
.Ed
.Pp
The argument
.Ql \e&aC
shows up with the same length of 2 as the
.Ql \e&
sequence produces a zero width, but a register
named
.Ql \e&aC
was not found and the type classified as string.
.Pp
Other diagnostics consist of usage statements and are self explanatory.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/man0/template.doc -compact
.It Pa /usr/share/tmac/tmac.doc
manual macro package
.It Pa /usr/share/man0/template.doc
template for writing a man page
.El
.Sh HISTORY
4.4 BSD
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr mdoc 7 ,
.Xr man 1 ,
.Xr troff 1
.Sh BUGS
Undesirable hyphenation on the dash of a flag
argument is not yet resolved, and causes
occasional mishaps in the DESCRIPTION section.
(line break on the hyphen).
.Pp
Predefined strings are not declared in documentation.
.Pp
Section 3f has not been added to the header routines.
.Pp
.Ql \&.Nm
font should be changed in NAME section.
.Pp
.Ql \&.Fn
needs to have a check to prevent splitting up
if the line length is too short. Right now it
separates the last parenthesis, and sometimes
looks ridiculous if a line is in fill mode.
.Pp
The method used to prevent header and footer page
breaks (other than the initial header and footer) when using
nroff seems to be putting out a partially filled line
at the bottom of the page leaving an unsightly blank space.
.Pp
The list and display macros to not do any keeps
and certainly should be able to.