1.\" $OpenBSD: roff.7,v 1.18 2011/12/11 00:38:08 schwarze Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv> 4.\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org> 5.\" 6.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any 7.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above 8.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. 9.\" 10.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES 11.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF 12.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR 13.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES 14.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN 15.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF 16.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. 17.\" 18.Dd $Mdocdate: December 11 2011 $ 19.Dt ROFF 7 20.Os 21.Sh NAME 22.Nm roff 23.Nd roff language reference for mandoc 24.Sh DESCRIPTION 25The 26.Nm roff 27language is a general purpose text formatting language. 28Since traditional implementations of the 29.Xr mdoc 7 30and 31.Xr man 7 32manual formatting languages are based on it, 33many real-world manuals use small numbers of 34.Nm 35requests intermixed with their 36.Xr mdoc 7 37or 38.Xr man 7 39code. 40To properly format such manuals, the 41.Xr mandoc 1 42utility supports a tiny subset of 43.Nm 44requests. 45Only these requests supported by 46.Xr mandoc 1 47are documented in the present manual, 48together with the basic language syntax shared by 49.Nm , 50.Xr mdoc 7 , 51and 52.Xr man 7 . 53For complete 54.Nm 55manuals, consult the 56.Sx SEE ALSO 57section. 58.Pp 59Input lines beginning with the control character 60.Sq \&. 61are parsed for requests and macros. 62Such lines are called 63.Dq request lines 64or 65.Dq macro lines , 66respectively. 67Requests change the processing state and manipulate the formatting; 68some macros also define the document structure and produce formatted 69output. 70The single quote 71.Pq Qq \(aq 72is accepted as an alternative control character, 73treated by 74.Xr mandoc 1 75just like 76.Ql \&. 77.Pp 78Lines not beginning with control characters are called 79.Dq text lines . 80They provide free-form text to be printed; the formatting of the text 81depends on the respective processing context. 82.Sh LANGUAGE SYNTAX 83.Nm 84documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the space 85character, and, in certain circumstances, the tab character. 86The back-space character 87.Sq \e 88indicates the start of an escape sequence for 89.Sx Comments , 90.Sx Special Characters , 91.Sx Predefined Strings , 92and 93user-defined strings defined using the 94.Sx ds 95request. 96.Ss Comments 97Text following an escaped double-quote 98.Sq \e\(dq , 99whether in a request, macro, or text line, is ignored to the end of the line. 100A request line beginning with a control character and comment escape 101.Sq \&.\e\(dq 102is also ignored. 103Furthermore, request lines with only a control character and optional 104trailing whitespace are stripped from input. 105.Pp 106Examples: 107.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 108\&.\e\(dq This is a comment line. 109\&.\e\(dq The next line is ignored: 110\&. 111\&.Sh EXAMPLES \e\(dq This is a comment, too. 112\&example text \e\(dq And so is this. 113.Ed 114.Ss Special Characters 115Special characters are used to encode special glyphs and are rendered 116differently across output media. 117They may occur in request, macro, and text lines. 118Sequences begin with the escape character 119.Sq \e 120followed by either an open-parenthesis 121.Sq \&( 122for two-character sequences; an open-bracket 123.Sq \&[ 124for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket 125.Sq \&] ) ; 126or a single one character sequence. 127.Pp 128Examples: 129.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact 130.It Li \e(em 131Two-letter em dash escape. 132.It Li \ee 133One-letter backslash escape. 134.El 135.Pp 136See 137.Xr mandoc_char 7 138for a complete list. 139.Ss Text Decoration 140Terms may be text-decorated using the 141.Sq \ef 142escape followed by an indicator: B (bold), I (italic), R (regular), or P 143(revert to previous mode). 144A numerical representation 3, 2, or 1 (bold, italic, and regular, 145respectively) may be used instead. 146.Pp 147Examples: 148.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact 149.It Li \efBbold\efR 150Write in bold, then switch to regular font mode. 151.It Li \efIitalic\efP 152Write in italic, then return to previous font mode. 153.El 154.Pp 155Text decoration is 156.Em not 157recommended for 158.Xr mdoc 7 , 159which encourages semantic annotation. 160.Ss Predefined Strings 161Predefined strings, like 162.Sx Special Characters , 163mark special output glyphs. 164Predefined strings are escaped with the slash-asterisk, 165.Sq \e* : 166single-character 167.Sq \e*X , 168two-character 169.Sq \e*(XX , 170and N-character 171.Sq \e*[N] . 172.Pp 173Examples: 174.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact 175.It Li \e*(Am 176Two-letter ampersand predefined string. 177.It Li \e*q 178One-letter double-quote predefined string. 179.El 180.Pp 181Predefined strings are not recommended for use, 182as they differ across implementations. 183Those supported by 184.Xr mandoc 1 185are listed in 186.Xr mandoc_char 7 . 187Manuals using these predefined strings are almost certainly not portable. 188.Ss Whitespace 189Whitespace consists of the space character. 190In text lines, whitespace is preserved within a line. 191In request and macro lines, whitespace delimits arguments and is discarded. 192.Pp 193Unescaped trailing spaces are stripped from text line input unless in a 194literal context. 195In general, trailing whitespace on any input line is discouraged for 196reasons of portability. 197In the rare case that a blank character is needed at the end of an 198input line, it may be forced by 199.Sq \e\ \e& . 200.Pp 201Literal space characters can be produced in the output 202using escape sequences. 203In macro lines, they can also be included in arguments using quotation; see 204.Sx MACRO SYNTAX 205for details. 206.Pp 207Blank text lines, which may include whitespace, are only permitted 208within literal contexts. 209If the first character of a text line is a space, that line is printed 210with a leading newline. 211.Ss Scaling Widths 212Many requests and macros support scaled widths for their arguments. 213The syntax for a scaled width is 214.Sq Li [+-]?[0-9]*.[0-9]*[:unit:] , 215where a decimal must be preceded or followed by at least one digit. 216Negative numbers, while accepted, are truncated to zero. 217.Pp 218The following scaling units are accepted: 219.Pp 220.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact 221.It c 222centimetre 223.It i 224inch 225.It P 226pica (~1/6 inch) 227.It p 228point (~1/72 inch) 229.It f 230synonym for 231.Sq u 232.It v 233default vertical span 234.It m 235width of rendered 236.Sq m 237.Pq em 238character 239.It n 240width of rendered 241.Sq n 242.Pq en 243character 244.It u 245default horizontal span 246.It M 247mini-em (~1/100 em) 248.El 249.Pp 250Using anything other than 251.Sq m , 252.Sq n , 253.Sq u , 254or 255.Sq v 256is necessarily non-portable across output media. 257See 258.Sx COMPATIBILITY . 259.Pp 260If a scaling unit is not provided, the numerical value is interpreted 261under the default rules of 262.Sq v 263for vertical spaces and 264.Sq u 265for horizontal ones. 266.Pp 267Examples: 268.Bl -tag -width ".Bl -tag -width 2i" -offset indent -compact 269.It Li \&.Bl -tag -width 2i 270two-inch tagged list indentation in 271.Xr mdoc 7 272.It Li \&.HP 2i 273two-inch tagged list indentation in 274.Xr man 7 275.It Li \&.sp 2v 276two vertical spaces 277.El 278.Ss Sentence Spacing 279Each sentence should terminate at the end of an input line. 280By doing this, a formatter will be able to apply the proper amount of 281spacing after the end of sentence (unescaped) period, exclamation mark, 282or question mark followed by zero or more non-sentence closing 283delimiters 284.Po 285.Sq \&) , 286.Sq \&] , 287.Sq \&' , 288.Sq \&" 289.Pc . 290.Pp 291The proper spacing is also intelligently preserved if a sentence ends at 292the boundary of a macro line. 293.Pp 294Examples: 295.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 296Do not end sentences mid-line like this. Instead, 297end a sentence like this. 298A macro would end like this: 299\&.Xr mandoc 1 \&. 300.Ed 301.Sh REQUEST SYNTAX 302A request or macro line consists of: 303.Pp 304.Bl -enum -compact 305.It 306the control character 307.Sq \&. 308or 309.Sq \(aq 310at the beginning of the line, 311.It 312optionally an arbitrary amount of whitespace, 313.It 314the name of the request or the macro, which is one word of arbitrary 315length, terminated by whitespace, 316.It 317and zero or more arguments delimited by whitespace. 318.El 319.Pp 320Thus, the following request lines are all equivalent: 321.Bd -literal -offset indent 322\&.ig end 323\&.ig end 324\&. ig end 325.Ed 326.Sh MACRO SYNTAX 327Macros are provided by the 328.Xr mdoc 7 329and 330.Xr man 7 331languages and can be defined by the 332.Sx \&de 333request. 334When called, they follow the same syntax as requests, except that 335macro arguments may optionally be quoted by enclosing them 336in double quote characters 337.Pq Sq \(dq . 338Quoted text, even if it contains whitespace or would cause 339a macro invocation when unquoted, is always considered literal text. 340Inside quoted text, pairs of double quote characters 341.Pq Sq Qq 342resolve to single double quote characters. 343.Pp 344To be recognised as the beginning of a quoted argument, the opening 345quote character must be preceded by a space character. 346A quoted argument extends to the next double quote character that is not 347part of a pair, or to the end of the input line, whichever comes earlier. 348Leaving out the terminating double quote character at the end of the line 349is discouraged. 350For clarity, if more arguments follow on the same input line, 351it is recommended to follow the terminating double quote character 352by a space character; in case the next character after the terminating 353double quote character is anything else, it is regarded as the beginning 354of the next, unquoted argument. 355.Pp 356Both in quoted and unquoted arguments, pairs of backslashes 357.Pq Sq \e\e 358resolve to single backslashes. 359In unquoted arguments, space characters can alternatively be included 360by preceding them with a backslash 361.Pq Sq \e\~ , 362but quoting is usually better for clarity. 363.Pp 364Examples: 365.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact 366.It Li .Fn strlen \(dqconst char *s\(dq 367Group arguments 368.Qq const char *s 369into one function argument. 370If unspecified, 371.Qq const , 372.Qq char , 373and 374.Qq *s 375would be considered separate arguments. 376.It Li .Op \(dqFl a\(dq 377Consider 378.Qq \&Fl a 379as literal text instead of a flag macro. 380.El 381.Sh REQUEST REFERENCE 382The 383.Xr mandoc 1 384.Nm 385parser recognises the following requests. 386Note that the 387.Nm 388language defines many more requests not implemented in 389.Xr mandoc 1 . 390.Ss \&ad 391Set line adjustment mode. 392This line-scoped request is intended to have one argument to select 393normal, left, right, or centre adjustment for subsequent text. 394Currently, it is ignored including its arguments, 395and the number of arguments is not checked. 396.Ss \&am 397Append to a macro definition. 398The syntax of this request is the same as that of 399.Sx \&de . 400It is currently ignored by 401.Xr mandoc 1 , 402as are its children. 403.Ss \&ami 404Append to a macro definition, specifying the macro name indirectly. 405The syntax of this request is the same as that of 406.Sx \&dei . 407It is currently ignored by 408.Xr mandoc 1 , 409as are its children. 410.Ss \&am1 411Append to a macro definition, switching roff compatibility mode off 412during macro execution. 413The syntax of this request is the same as that of 414.Sx \&de1 . 415It is currently ignored by 416.Xr mandoc 1 , 417as are its children. 418.Ss \&de 419Define a 420.Nm 421macro. 422Its syntax can be either 423.Bd -literal -offset indent 424.Pf . Cm \&de Ar name 425.Ar macro definition 426\&.. 427.Ed 428.Pp 429or 430.Bd -literal -offset indent 431.Pf . Cm \&de Ar name Ar end 432.Ar macro definition 433.Pf . Ar end 434.Ed 435.Pp 436Both forms define or redefine the macro 437.Ar name 438to represent the 439.Ar macro definition , 440which may consist of one or more input lines, including the newline 441characters terminating each line, optionally containing calls to 442.Nm 443requests, 444.Nm 445macros or high-level macros like 446.Xr man 7 447or 448.Xr mdoc 7 449macros, whichever applies to the document in question. 450.Pp 451Specifying a custom 452.Ar end 453macro works in the same way as for 454.Sx \&ig ; 455namely, the call to 456.Sq Pf . Ar end 457first ends the 458.Ar macro definition , 459and after that, it is also evaluated as a 460.Nm 461request or 462.Nm 463macro, but not as a high-level macro. 464.Pp 465The macro can be invoked later using the syntax 466.Pp 467.D1 Pf . Ar name Op Ar argument Op Ar argument ... 468.Pp 469Regarding argument parsing, see 470.Sx MACRO SYNTAX 471above. 472.Pp 473The line invoking the macro will be replaced 474in the input stream by the 475.Ar macro definition , 476replacing all occurrences of 477.No \e\e$ Ns Ar N , 478where 479.Ar N 480is a digit, by the 481.Ar N Ns th Ar argument . 482For example, 483.Bd -literal -offset indent 484\&.de ZN 485\efI\e^\e\e$1\e^\efP\e\e$2 486\&.. 487\&.ZN XtFree . 488.Ed 489.Pp 490produces 491.Pp 492.D1 \efI\e^XtFree\e^\efP. 493.Pp 494in the input stream, and thus in the output: \fI\^XtFree\^\fP. 495.Pp 496Since macros and user-defined strings share a common string table, 497defining a macro 498.Ar name 499clobbers the user-defined string 500.Ar name , 501and the 502.Ar macro definition 503can also be printed using the 504.Sq \e* 505string interpolation syntax described below 506.Sx ds , 507but this is rarely useful because every macro definition contains at least 508one explicit newline character. 509.Pp 510In order to prevent endless recursion, both groff and 511.Xr mandoc 1 512limit the stack depth for expanding macros and strings 513to a large, but finite number. 514Do not rely on the exact value of this limit. 515.Ss \&dei 516Define a 517.Nm 518macro, specifying the macro name indirectly. 519The syntax of this request is the same as that of 520.Sx \&de . 521It is currently ignored by 522.Xr mandoc 1 , 523as are its children. 524.Ss \&de1 525Define a 526.Nm 527macro that will be executed with 528.Nm 529compatibility mode switched off during macro execution. 530This is a GNU extension not available in traditional 531.Nm 532implementations and not even in older versions of groff. 533Since 534.Xr mandoc 1 535does not implement 536.Nm 537compatibility mode at all, it handles this request as an alias for 538.Sx \&de . 539.Ss \&ds 540Define a user-defined string. 541Its syntax is as follows: 542.Pp 543.D1 Pf . Cm \&ds Ar name Oo \(dq Oc Ns Ar string 544.Pp 545The 546.Ar name 547and 548.Ar string 549arguments are space-separated. 550If the 551.Ar string 552begins with a double-quote character, that character will not be part 553of the string. 554All remaining characters on the input line form the 555.Ar string , 556including whitespace and double-quote characters, even trailing ones. 557.Pp 558The 559.Ar string 560can be interpolated into subsequent text by using 561.No \e* Ns Bq Ar name 562for a 563.Ar name 564of arbitrary length, or \e*(NN or \e*N if the length of 565.Ar name 566is two or one characters, respectively. 567Interpolation can be prevented by escaping the leading backslash; 568that is, an asterisk preceded by an even number of backslashes 569does not trigger string interpolation. 570.Pp 571Since user-defined strings and macros share a common string table, 572defining a string 573.Ar name 574clobbers the macro 575.Ar name , 576and the 577.Ar name 578used for defining a string can also be invoked as a macro, 579in which case the following input line will be appended to the 580.Ar string , 581forming a new input line passed to the 582.Nm 583parser. 584For example, 585.Bd -literal -offset indent 586\&.ds badidea .S 587\&.badidea 588H SYNOPSIS 589.Ed 590.Pp 591invokes the 592.Cm SH 593macro when used in a 594.Xr man 7 595document. 596Such abuse is of course strongly discouraged. 597.Ss \&el 598The 599.Qq else 600half of an if/else conditional. 601Pops a result off the stack of conditional evaluations pushed by 602.Sx \&ie 603and uses it as its conditional. 604If no stack entries are present (e.g., due to no prior 605.Sx \&ie 606calls) 607then false is assumed. 608The syntax of this request is similar to 609.Sx \&if 610except that the conditional is missing. 611.Ss \&EN 612End an equation block. 613See 614.Sx \&EQ . 615.Ss \&EQ 616Begin an equation block. 617See 618.Xr eqn 7 619for a description of the equation language. 620.Ss \&ft 621Change the font. 622Its syntax is as follows: 623.Pp 624.D1 Pf . Cm \&ft Op Ar font 625.Pp 626The following 627.Ar font 628arguments are supported: 629.Bl -tag -width 4n -offset indent 630.It Cm B , BI , 3 , 4 631switches to 632.Sy bold 633font 634.It Cm I , 2 635switches to 636.Em underlined 637font 638.It Cm R , CW , 1 639switches to normal font 640.It Cm P No "or no argument" 641switches back to the previous font 642.El 643.Pp 644This request takes effect only locally, may be overridden by macros 645and escape sequences, and is only supported in 646.Xr man 7 647for now. 648.Ss \&hy 649Set automatic hyphenation mode. 650This line-scoped request is currently ignored. 651.Ss \&ie 652The 653.Qq if 654half of an if/else conditional. 655The result of the conditional is pushed into a stack used by subsequent 656invocations of 657.Sx \&el , 658which may be separated by any intervening input (or not exist at all). 659Its syntax is equivalent to 660.Sx \&if . 661.Ss \&if 662Begins a conditional. 663Right now, the conditional evaluates to true 664if and only if it starts with the letter 665.Sy n , 666indicating processing in nroff style as opposed to troff style. 667If a conditional is false, its children are not processed, but are 668syntactically interpreted to preserve the integrity of the input 669document. 670Thus, 671.Pp 672.D1 \&.if t .ig 673.Pp 674will discard the 675.Sq \&.ig , 676which may lead to interesting results, but 677.Pp 678.D1 \&.if t .if t \e{\e 679.Pp 680will continue to syntactically interpret to the block close of the final 681conditional. 682Sub-conditionals, in this case, obviously inherit the truth value of 683the parent. 684This request has the following syntax: 685.Bd -literal -offset indent 686\&.if COND \e{\e 687BODY... 688\&.\e} 689.Ed 690.Bd -literal -offset indent 691\&.if COND \e{ BODY 692BODY... \e} 693.Ed 694.Bd -literal -offset indent 695\&.if COND \e{ BODY 696BODY... 697\&.\e} 698.Ed 699.Bd -literal -offset indent 700\&.if COND \e 701BODY 702.Ed 703.Pp 704COND is a conditional statement. 705roff allows for complicated conditionals; mandoc is much simpler. 706At this time, mandoc supports only 707.Sq n , 708evaluating to true; 709and 710.Sq t , 711.Sq e , 712and 713.Sq o , 714evaluating to false. 715All other invocations are read up to the next end of line or space and 716evaluate as false. 717.Pp 718If the BODY section is begun by an escaped brace 719.Sq \e{ , 720scope continues until a closing-brace escape sequence 721.Sq \.\e} . 722If the BODY is not enclosed in braces, scope continues until 723the end of the line. 724If the COND is followed by a BODY on the same line, whether after a 725brace or not, then requests and macros 726.Em must 727begin with a control character. 728It is generally more intuitive, in this case, to write 729.Bd -literal -offset indent 730\&.if COND \e{\e 731\&.foo 732bar 733\&.\e} 734.Ed 735.Pp 736than having the request or macro follow as 737.Pp 738.D1 \&.if COND \e{ .foo 739.Pp 740The scope of a conditional is always parsed, but only executed if the 741conditional evaluates to true. 742.Pp 743Note that the 744.Sq \e} 745is converted into a zero-width escape sequence if not passed as a 746standalone macro 747.Sq \&.\e} . 748For example, 749.Pp 750.D1 \&.Fl a \e} b 751.Pp 752will result in 753.Sq \e} 754being considered an argument of the 755.Sq \&Fl 756macro. 757.Ss \&ig 758Ignore input. 759Its syntax can be either 760.Bd -literal -offset indent 761.Pf . Cm \&ig 762.Ar ignored text 763\&.. 764.Ed 765.Pp 766or 767.Bd -literal -offset indent 768.Pf . Cm \&ig Ar end 769.Ar ignored text 770.Pf . Ar end 771.Ed 772.Pp 773In the first case, input is ignored until a 774.Sq \&.. 775request is encountered on its own line. 776In the second case, input is ignored until the specified 777.Sq Pf . Ar end 778macro is encountered. 779Do not use the escape character 780.Sq \e 781anywhere in the definition of 782.Ar end ; 783it would cause very strange behaviour. 784.Pp 785When the 786.Ar end 787macro is a roff request or a roff macro, like in 788.Pp 789.D1 \&.ig if 790.Pp 791the subsequent invocation of 792.Sx \&if 793will first terminate the 794.Ar ignored text , 795then be invoked as usual. 796Otherwise, it only terminates the 797.Ar ignored text , 798and arguments following it or the 799.Sq \&.. 800request are discarded. 801.Ss \&ne 802Declare the need for the specified minimum vertical space 803before the next trap or the bottom of the page. 804This line-scoped request is currently ignored. 805.Ss \&nh 806Turn off automatic hyphenation mode. 807This line-scoped request is currently ignored. 808.Ss \&rm 809Remove a request, macro or string. 810This request is intended to have one argument, 811the name of the request, macro or string to be undefined. 812Currently, it is ignored including its arguments, 813and the number of arguments is not checked. 814.Ss \&nr 815Define a register. 816A register is an arbitrary string value that defines some sort of state, 817which influences parsing and/or formatting. 818Its syntax is as follows: 819.Pp 820.D1 Pf \. Cm \&nr Ar name Ar value 821.Pp 822The 823.Ar value 824may, at the moment, only be an integer. 825So far, only the following register 826.Ar name 827is recognised: 828.Bl -tag -width Ds 829.It Cm nS 830If set to a positive integer value, certain 831.Xr mdoc 7 832macros will behave in the same way as in the 833.Em SYNOPSIS 834section. 835If set to 0, these macros will behave in the same way as outside the 836.Em SYNOPSIS 837section, even when called within the 838.Em SYNOPSIS 839section itself. 840Note that starting a new 841.Xr mdoc 7 842section with the 843.Cm \&Sh 844macro will reset this register. 845.El 846.Ss \&ns 847Turn on no-space mode. 848This line-scoped request is intended to take no arguments. 849Currently, it is ignored including its arguments, 850and the number of arguments is not checked. 851.Ss \&ps 852Change point size. 853This line-scoped request is intended to take one numerical argument. 854Currently, it is ignored including its arguments, 855and the number of arguments is not checked. 856.Ss \&so 857Include a source file. 858Its syntax is as follows: 859.Pp 860.D1 Pf \. Cm \&so Ar file 861.Pp 862The 863.Ar file 864will be read and its contents processed as input in place of the 865.Sq \&.so 866request line. 867To avoid inadvertent inclusion of unrelated files, 868.Xr mandoc 1 869only accepts relative paths not containing the strings 870.Qq ../ 871and 872.Qq /.. . 873.Pp 874This request requires 875.Xr man 1 876to change to the right directory before calling 877.Xr mandoc 1 , 878per convention to the root of the manual tree. 879Typical usage looks like: 880.Pp 881.Dl \&.so man3/Xcursor.3 882.Pp 883As the whole concept is rather fragile, the use of 884.Sx \&so 885is discouraged. 886Use 887.Xr ln 1 888instead. 889.Ss \&ta 890Set tab stops. 891This line-scoped request can take an arbitrary number of arguments. 892Currently, it is ignored including its arguments. 893.Ss \&tr 894Output character translation. 895Its syntax is as follows: 896.Pp 897.D1 Pf \. Cm \&tr Ar [ab]+ 898.Pp 899Pairs of 900.Ar ab 901characters are replaced 902.Ar ( a 903for 904.Ar b ) . 905Replacement (or origin) characters may also be character escapes; thus, 906.Pp 907.Dl tr \e(xx\e(yy 908.Pp 909replaces all invocations of \e(xx with \e(yy. 910.Ss \&T& 911Re-start a table layout, retaining the options of the prior table 912invocation. 913See 914.Sx \&TS . 915.Ss \&TE 916End a table context. 917See 918.Sx \&TS . 919.Ss \&TS 920Begin a table, which formats input in aligned rows and columns. 921See 922.Xr tbl 7 923for a description of the tbl language. 924.Sh COMPATIBILITY 925This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other other 926.Nm 927implementations, at this time limited to GNU troff 928.Pq Qq groff . 929The term 930.Qq historic groff 931refers to groff version 1.15. 932.Pp 933.Bl -dash -compact 934.It 935In mandoc, the 936.Sx \&EQ , 937.Sx \&TE , 938.Sx \&TS , 939and 940.Sx \&T& , 941macros are considered regular macros. 942In all other 943.Nm 944implementations, these are special macros that must be specified without 945spacing between the control character (which must be a period) and the 946macro name. 947.It 948The 949.Cm nS 950register is only compatible with OpenBSD's groff-1.15. 951.It 952Historic groff did not accept white-space before a custom 953.Ar end 954macro for the 955.Sx \&ig 956request. 957.It 958The 959.Sx \&if 960and family would print funny white-spaces with historic groff when 961using the next-line syntax. 962.El 963.Sh SEE ALSO 964.Xr mandoc 1 , 965.Xr eqn 7 , 966.Xr man 7 , 967.Xr mandoc_char 7 , 968.Xr mdoc 7 , 969.Xr tbl 7 970.Rs 971.%A Joseph F. Ossanna 972.%A Brian W. Kernighan 973.%I AT&T Bell Laboratories 974.%T Troff User's Manual 975.%R Computing Science Technical Report 976.%N 54 977.%C Murray Hill, New Jersey 978.%D 1976 and 1992 979.%U http://www.kohala.com/start/troff/cstr54.ps 980.Re 981.Rs 982.%A Joseph F. Ossanna 983.%A Brian W. Kernighan 984.%A Gunnar Ritter 985.%T Heirloom Documentation Tools Nroff/Troff User's Manual 986.%D September 17, 2007 987.%U http://heirloom.sourceforge.net/doctools/troff.pdf 988.Re 989.Sh HISTORY 990The RUNOFF typesetting system, whose input forms the basis for 991.Nm , 992was written in MAD and FAP for the CTSS operating system by Jerome E. 993Saltzer in 1964. 994Doug McIlroy rewrote it in BCPL in 1969, renaming it 995.Nm . 996Dennis M. Ritchie rewrote McIlroy's 997.Nm 998in PDP-11 assembly for 999.At v1 , 1000Joseph F. Ossanna improved roff and renamed it nroff 1001for 1002.At v2 , 1003then ported nroff to C as troff, which Brian W. Kernighan released with 1004.At v7 . 1005In 1989, James Clarke re-implemented troff in C++, naming it groff. 1006.Sh AUTHORS 1007.An -nosplit 1008This 1009.Nm 1010reference was written by 1011.An Kristaps Dzonsons , 1012.Mt kristaps@bsd.lv ; 1013and 1014.An Ingo Schwarze , 1015.Mt schwarze@openbsd.org . 1016