.\" Copyright (c) 1990 The Regents of the University of California. .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)mdoc.samples.7 5.7 (Berkeley) 7/1/91 .\" .\" 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 July 1, 1991 .Os BSD 4.4 .Dt MDOC.SAMPLES 7 .Sh NAME .Nm mdoc.samples .Nd writing manual pages with .Nm -mdoc macro package .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm man mdoc.samples .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 preceded 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 For an example of what happens when the parameter list overlaps a newline boundary, see the .Sx BUGS section. .\" 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\ dictionarytable\e\ *dictionarylookup struct\e\ dictionarytable\e\ *tab[] .\" .Ed .\" .Pp .\" produces, nudge nudge, .\" .Fn struct\ dictionarytable\ *dictionarylookup char\ *h struct\ dictionarytable\ *tab[] , .\" .Fn struct\ dictionarytable\ *dictionarylookup char\ *h struct\ dictionarytable\ *tab[] , .\" nudge .\" .Fn struct\ dictionarytable\ *dictionarylookup char\ *h struct\ dictionarytable\ *tab[] . .\" .Pp .\" If double quotes are used, for example: .\" .Bd -literal .\" \&.Fn \*qstruct dictionarytable *dictionarylookup\*q \*qchar *h\*q \*qstruct dictionarytable *tab[]\*q .\" .Ed .\" .Pp .\" produces, nudge nudge, .\" .Fn "struct dictionarytable *dictionarylookup" "char *h" "struct dictionarytable *tab[]" , .\" nudge .\" .Fn "struct dictionarytable *dictionarylookup" "char *h" "struct dictionarytable *tab[]" , .\" nudge .\" .Fn "struct dictionarytable *dictionarylookup" "char *h" "struct dictionarytable *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 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 -literal -offset indent \&.Nm filter \&.Op \&Fl flag \&.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 referred 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 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 \&.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 *sptrsxx" -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.samples" -compact -offset 14n .It Li \&.Nm mdoc.samples .Nm mdoc.samples .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. .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 macro is a short cut for combining two strings together, the first of which is in the default font, and the second 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 beginning 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 behavior 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 \¯os 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 \¶graphs 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 such as .Ql \&Ar , as .Ql \&aR or 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 (). .\" 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 behavior 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.