Provided by: groff_1.22.4-8build1_amd64 
NAME
groff_mdoc — reference for groff's mdoc implementation
SYNOPSIS
groff -mdoc file ...
DESCRIPTION
A complete reference for writing Unix manual pages with the -mdoc macro package; a content-based and
domain-based formatting package for GNU troff(1). Its predecessor, the -man(7) package, addressed page
layout leaving the manipulation of fonts and other typesetting details to the individual author. In
-mdoc, page layout macros make up the page structure domain which consists of macros for titles, section
headers, displays and lists – essentially items which affect the physical position of text on a formatted
page. In addition to the page structure domain, there are two more domains, the manual domain and the
general text domain. The general text domain is defined as macros which perform tasks such as quoting or
emphasizing pieces of text. The manual domain is defined as macros that are a subset of the day to day
informal language used to describe commands, routines and related Unix files. Macros in the manual
domain handle command names, command-line arguments and options, function names, function parameters,
pathnames, variables, cross references to other manual pages, and so on. These domain items have value
for both the author and the future user of the manual page. Hopefully, the consistency gained across the
manual set will provide easier translation to future documentation tools.
Throughout the Unix manual pages, a manual entry is simply referred to as a man page, regardless of
actual length and without sexist intention.
GETTING STARTED
The material presented in the remainder of this document is outlined as follows:
1. TROFF IDIOSYNCRASIES
Macro Usage
Passing Space Characters in an Argument
Trailing Blank Space Characters
Escaping Special Characters
Other Possible Pitfalls
2. A MANUAL PAGE TEMPLATE
3. CONVENTIONS
4. TITLE MACROS
5. INTRODUCTION OF MANUAL AND GENERAL TEXT DOMAINS
What's in a Name...
General Syntax
6. MANUAL DOMAIN
Addresses
Author Name
Arguments
Configuration Declarations (Section Four Only)
Command Modifiers
Defined Variables
Errno's
Environment Variables
Flags
Function Declarations
Function Types
Functions (Library Routines)
Function Arguments
Return Values
Exit Status
Interactive Commands
Library Names
Literals
Names
Options
Pathnames
Standards
Variable Types
Variables
Manual Page Cross References
7. GENERAL TEXT DOMAIN
AT&T Macro
BSD Macro
NetBSD Macro
FreeBSD Macro
DragonFly Macro
OpenBSD Macro
BSD/OS Macro
UNIX Macro
Emphasis Macro
Font Mode
Enclosure and Quoting Macros
No-Op or Normal Text Macro
No-Space Macro
Section Cross References
Symbolics
Mathematical Symbols
References and Citations
Trade Names (or Acronyms and Type Names)
Extended Arguments
8. PAGE STRUCTURE DOMAIN
Section Headers
Subsection Headers
Paragraphs and Line Spacing
Keeps
Examples and Displays
Lists and Columns
9. MISCELLANEOUS MACROS
10. PREDEFINED STRINGS
11. DIAGNOSTICS
12. FORMATTING WITH GROFF, TROFF, AND NROFF
13. FILES
14. SEE ALSO
15. BUGS
TROFF IDIOSYNCRASIES
The -mdoc package attempts to simplify the process of writing a man page. Theoretically, one should not
have to learn the tricky details of GNU troff(1) to use -mdoc; however, there are a few limitations which
are unavoidable and best gotten out of the way. And, too, be forewarned, this package is not fast.
Macro Usage
As in GNU troff(1), a macro is called by placing a ‘.’ (dot character) at the beginning of a line
followed by the two-character (or three-character) name for the macro. There can be space or tab
characters between the dot and the macro name. Arguments may follow the macro separated by spaces (but
no tabs). It is the dot character at the beginning of the line which causes GNU troff(1) to interpret
the next two (or more) characters as a macro name. A single starting dot followed by nothing is ignored.
To place a ‘.’ (dot character) at the beginning of an input line in some context other than a macro
invocation, precede the ‘.’ (dot) with the ‘\&’ escape sequence which translates literally to a zero-
width space, and is never displayed in the output.
In general, GNU troff(1) macros accept an unlimited number of arguments (contrary to other versions of
troff which can't handle more than nine arguments). In limited cases, arguments may be continued or
extended on the next line (See “Extended Arguments” below). Almost all macros handle quoted arguments
(see “Passing Space Characters in an Argument” below).
Most of the -mdoc general text domain and manual domain macros are special in that their argument lists
are parsed for callable macro names. This means an argument on the argument list which matches a general
text or manual domain macro name (and which is defined to be callable) will be executed or called when it
is processed. In this case the argument, although the name of a macro, is not preceded by a ‘.’ (dot).
This makes it possible to nest macros; for example the option macro, ‘.Op’, may call the flag and
argument macros, ‘Fl’ and ‘Ar’, to specify an optional flag with an argument:
[-s bytes] is produced by ‘.Op Fl s Ar bytes’
To prevent a string from being interpreted as a macro name, precede the string with the escape sequence
‘\&’:
[Fl s Ar bytes] is produced by ‘.Op \&Fl s \&Ar bytes’
Here the strings ‘Fl’ and ‘Ar’ are not interpreted as macros. Macros whose argument lists are parsed for
callable arguments are referred to as parsed and macros which may be called from an argument list are
referred to as callable throughout this document. This is a technical faux pas as almost all of the
macros in -mdoc are parsed, but as it was cumbersome to constantly refer to macros as being callable and
being able to call other macros, the term parsed has been used.
In the following, we call an -mdoc macro which starts a line (with a leading dot) a command if this
distinction is necessary.
Passing Space Characters in an Argument
Sometimes it is desirable to give as an argument a string containing one or more blank space characters,
say, to specify arguments to commands which expect particular arrangement of items in the argument list.
Additionally, it makes -mdoc working faster. For example, the function command ‘.Fn’ expects the first
argument to be the name of a function and any remaining arguments to be function parameters. As 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, int foo.
There are two possible ways to pass an argument which contains an embedded space. One way of passing a
string containing blank spaces is to use the hard or unpaddable space character ‘\ ’, that is, a blank
space preceded by the escape character ‘\’. 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. 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. This method is useful for strings which are not expected to overlap a line
boundary. An alternative is to use ‘\~’, a paddable (i.e. stretchable), unbreakable space (this is a GNU
troff(1) extension). The second method is to enclose the string with double quotes.
For example:
fetch(char *str) is created by ‘.Fn fetch char\ *str’
fetch(char *str) can also be created by ‘.Fn fetch "char *str"’
If the ‘\’ before the space in the first example or double quotes in the second example were omitted,
‘.Fn’ would see three arguments, and the result would be:
fetch(char, *str)
Trailing Blank Space Characters
Troff can be confused by blank space characters at the end of a line. It is a wise preventive measure to
globally remove all blank spaces from ⟨blank-space⟩⟨end-of-line⟩ character sequences. Should the need
arise to use a blank character at the end of a line, it may be forced with an unpaddable space and the
‘\&’ escape character. For example, ‘string\ \&’.
Escaping Special Characters
Special characters like the newline character ‘\n’ are handled by replacing the ‘\’ with ‘\e’ (e.g.
‘\en’) to preserve the backslash.
Other Possible Pitfalls
A warning is emitted when an empty input line is found outside of displays (see below). Use ‘.sp’
instead. (Well, it is even better to use -mdoc macros to avoid the usage of low-level commands.)
Leading spaces will cause a break and are output directly. Avoid this behaviour if possible. Similarly,
do not use more than one space character between words in an ordinary text line; contrary to other text
formatters, they are not replaced with a single space.
You can't pass ‘"’ directly as an argument. Use ‘\*[q]’ (or ‘\*q’) instead.
By default, troff(1) inserts two space characters after a punctuation mark closing a sentence; characters
like ‘)’ or ‘'’ are treated transparently, not influencing the sentence-ending behaviour. To change
this, insert ‘\&’ before or after the dot:
The
.Ql .
character.
.Pp
The
.Ql \&.
character.
.Pp
.No test .
test
.Pp
.No test.
test
gives
The ‘’. character
The ‘.’ character.
test. test
test. test
As can be seen in the first and third line, -mdoc handles punctuation characters specially in macro
arguments. This will be explained in section “General Syntax” below. In the same way, you have to
protect trailing full stops of abbreviations with a trailing zero-width space: ‘e.g.\&’.
A comment in the source file of a man page can be either started with ‘.\"’ on a single line, ‘\"’ after
some input, or ‘\#’ anywhere (the latter is a GNU troff(1) extension); the rest of such a line is
ignored.
A MANUAL PAGE TEMPLATE
The body of a man page is easily constructed from a basic template:
.\" The following commands are required for all man pages.
.Dd Month day, year
.Dt DOCUMENT_TITLE [section number] [architecture/volume]
.Os [OPERATING_SYSTEM] [version/release]
.Sh NAME
.Nm name
.Nd one line description of name
.\" This next command is for sections 2 and 3 only.
.\" .Sh LIBRARY
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.\" The following commands should be uncommented and
.\" used where appropriate.
.\" .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
.\" This next command is for sections 2, 3, and 9 only
.\" (function return values).
.\" .Sh RETURN VALUES
.\" This next command is for sections 1, 6, 7, and 8 only.
.\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT
.\" .Sh FILES
.\" This next command is for sections 1, 6, and 8 only
.\" (command return values to the shell).
.\" .Sh EXIT STATUS
.\" .Sh EXAMPLES
.\" This next command is for sections 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 only
.\" (fprintf/stderr type diagnostics).
.\" .Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.\" .Sh COMPATIBILITY
.\" This next command is for sections 2, 3, 4, and 9 only
.\" (settings of the errno variable).
.\" .Sh ERRORS
.\" .Sh SEE ALSO
.\" .Sh STANDARDS
.\" .Sh HISTORY
.\" .Sh AUTHORS
.\" .Sh CAVEATS
.\" .Sh BUGS
The first items in the template are the commands ‘.Dd’, ‘.Dt’, and ‘.Os’; the document date, the
operating system the man page or subject source is developed or modified for, and the man page title (in
upper case) along with the section of the manual the page belongs in. These commands identify the page
and are discussed below in “TITLE MACROS”.
The remaining items in the template are section headers (.Sh); of which NAME, SYNOPSIS, and DESCRIPTION
are mandatory. The headers are discussed in “PAGE STRUCTURE DOMAIN”, after presentation of “MANUAL
DOMAIN”. Several content macros are used to demonstrate page layout macros; reading about content macros
before page layout macros is recommended.
CONVENTIONS
In the description of all macros below, optional arguments are put into brackets. An ellipsis (‘...’)
represents zero or more additional arguments. Alternative values for a parameter are separated with ‘|’.
If there are alternative values for a mandatory parameter, braces are used (together with ‘|’) to enclose
the value set. Meta-variables are specified within angles.
Example:
.Xx ⟨foo⟩ {bar1 | bar2} [-test1 [-test2 | -test3]] ...
Except stated explicitly, all macros are parsed and callable.
Note that a macro takes effect up to the next nested macro. For example, ‘.Ic foo Aq bar’ doesn't
produce ‘foo <bar>’ but ‘foo ⟨bar⟩’. Consequently, a warning message is emitted for most commands if the
first argument is a macro itself since it cancels the effect of the calling command completely. Another
consequence is that quoting macros never insert literal quotes; ‘foo <bar>’ has been produced by ‘.Ic
"foo <bar>"’.
Most macros have a default width value which can be used to specify a label width (-width) or offset
(-offset) for the ‘.Bl’ and ‘.Bd’ macros. It is recommended not to use this rather obscure feature to
avoid dependencies on local modifications of the -mdoc package.
TITLE MACROS
The title macros are part of the page structure domain but are presented first and separately for someone
who wishes to start writing a man page yesterday. Three header macros designate the document title or
manual page title, the operating system, and the date of authorship. These macros are called once at the
very beginning of the document and are used to construct headers and footers only.
.Dt [⟨document title⟩] [⟨section number⟩] [⟨volume⟩]
The document title is the subject of the man page and must be in CAPITALS due to troff
limitations. If omitted, ‘UNTITLED’ is used. The section number may be a number in the range
1, ..., 9 or ‘unass’, ‘draft’, or ‘paper’. If it is specified, and no volume name is given, a
default volume name is used.
Under Debian, the following sections are defined:
1 General Commands Manual
2 System Calls Manual
3 Library Functions Manual
4 Kernel Interfaces Manual
5 File Formats Manual
6 Games Manual
7 Miscellaneous Information Manual
8 System Manager's Manual
9 Kernel Developer's Manual
A volume name may be arbitrary or one of the following:
USD User's Supplementary Documents
PS1 Programmer's Supplementary Documents
AMD Ancestral Manual Documents
SMM System Manager's Manual
URM User's Reference Manual
PRM Programmer's Manual
KM Kernel Manual
IND Manual Master Index
LOCAL Local Manual
CON Contributed Software Manual
For compatibility, ‘MMI’ can be used for ‘IND’, and ‘LOC’ for ‘LOCAL’. Values from the previous
table will specify a new volume name. If the third parameter is a keyword designating a computer
architecture, its value is prepended to the default volume name as specified by the second
parameter. By default, the following architecture keywords are defined:
acorn26, acorn32, algor, alpha, amd64, amiga, amigappc, arc, arm, arm26, arm32, armish,
atari, aviion, beagle, bebox, cats, cesfic, cobalt, dreamcast, emips, evbarm, evbmips,
evbppc, evbsh3, ews4800mips, hp300, hp700, hpcarm, hpcmips, hpcsh, hppa, hppa64, i386,
ia64, ibmnws, iyonix, landisk, loongson, luna68k, luna88k, m68k, mac68k, macppc, mips,
mips64, mipsco, mmeye, mvme68k, mvme88k, mvmeppc, netwinder, news68k, newsmips, next68k,
ofppc, palm, pc532, playstation2, pmax, pmppc, powerpc, prep, rs6000, sandpoint, sbmips,
sgi, sgimips, sh3, shark, socppc, solbourne, sparc, sparc64, sun2, sun3, tahoe, vax, x68k,
x86_64, xen, zaurus
If the section number is neither a numeric expression in the range 1 to 9 nor one of the above
described keywords, the third parameter is used verbatim as the volume name.
In the following examples, the left (which is identical to the right) and the middle part of the
manual page header strings are shown. Note how ‘\&’ prevents the digit 7 from being a valid
numeric expression.
.Dt FOO 7 ‘FOO(7)’ ‘Miscellaneous Information Manual’
.Dt FOO 7 bar ‘FOO(7)’ ‘Miscellaneous Information Manual’
.Dt FOO \&7 bar
‘FOO(7)’ ‘bar’
.Dt FOO 2 i386 ‘FOO(2)’ ‘/i386 System Calls Manual’
.Dt FOO "" bar ‘FOO’ ‘bar’
Local, OS-specific additions might be found in the file mdoc.local; look for strings named
‘volume-ds-XXX’ (for the former type) and ‘volume-as-XXX’ (for the latter type); ‘XXX’ then
denotes the keyword to be used with the ‘.Dt’ macro.
This macro is neither callable nor parsed.
.Os [⟨operating system⟩] [⟨release⟩]
If the first parameter is empty, the default ‘Debian’ is used. This may be overridden in the
local configuration file, mdoc.local. In general, 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. In the following table, the possible second arguments for some predefined
operating systems are listed. Similar to ‘.Dt’, local additions might be defined in mdoc.local;
look for strings named ‘operating-system-XXX-YYY’, where ‘XXX’ is the acronym for the operating
system and ‘YYY’ the release ID.
ATT 7th, 7, III, 3, V, V.2, V.3, V.4
BSD 3, 4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.3t, 4.3T, 4.3r, 4.3R, 4.4
NetBSD 0.8, 0.8a, 0.9, 0.9a, 1.0, 1.0a, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2a, 1.2b, 1.2c, 1.2d, 1.2e, 1.3,
1.3a, 1.4, 1.4.1, 1.4.2, 1.4.3, 1.5, 1.5.1, 1.5.2, 1.5.3, 1.6, 1.6.1, 1.6.2,
1.6.3, 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3, 2.1, 3.0, 3.0.1, 3.0.2, 3.0.3, 3.1, 3.1.1, 4.0,
4.0.1, 5.0, 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 5.1.4, 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 6.0,
6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.0.3, 6.0.4, 6.0.5, 6.0.6, 6.1, 6.1.1, 6.1.2, 6.1.3, 6.1.4,
6.1.5, 7.0, 7.0.1, 7.0.2, 7.1, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 7.2, 8.0, 8.1
FreeBSD 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.5, 1.1.5.1, 2.0, 2.0.5, 2.1, 2.1.5, 2.1.6, 2.1.7, 2.2, 2.2.1,
2.2.2, 2.2.5, 2.2.6, 2.2.7, 2.2.8, 2.2.9, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 4.0,
4.1, 4.1.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10, 4.11, 5.0, 5.1,
5.2, 5.2.1, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4,
8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 11.0,
11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 12.0, 12.1
OpenBSD 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5,
3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 5.0, 5.1,
5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6
DragonFly 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.8.1, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12,
1.12.2, 1.13, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 2.9.1, 2.10,
2.10.1, 2.11, 2.12, 2.13, 3.0, 3.0.1, 3.0.2, 3.1, 3.2, 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.3, 3.4,
3.4.1, 3.4.2, 3.4.3, 3.5, 3.6, 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.7, 3.8, 3.8.1, 3.8.2, 4.0, 4.0.1,
4.0.2, 4.0.3, 4.0.4, 4.0.5, 4.0.6, 4.1, 4.2, 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.2.3, 4.2.4, 4.3,
4.4, 4.4.1, 4.4.2, 4.4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.8, 4.8.1, 4.9, 5.0,
5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.4.1, 5.4.2, 5.4.3, 5.5, 5.6,
5.6.1, 5.6.2
Darwin 8.0.0, 8.1.0, 8.2.0, 8.3.0, 8.4.0, 8.5.0, 8.6.0, 8.7.0, 8.8.0, 8.9.0, 8.10.0,
8.11.0, 9.0.0, 9.1.0, 9.2.0, 9.3.0, 9.4.0, 9.5.0, 9.6.0, 9.7.0, 9.8.0, 10.0.0,
10.1.0, 10.2.0, 10.3.0, 10.4.0, 10.5.0, 10.6.0, 10.7.0, 10.8.0, 11.0.0, 11.1.0,
11.2.0, 11.3.0, 11.4.0, 11.5.0, 12.0.0, 12.1.0, 12.2.0, 13.0.0, 13.1.0, 13.2.0,
13.3.0, 13.4.0, 14.0.0, 14.1.0, 14.2.0, 14.3.0, 14.4.0, 14.5.0, 15.0.0, 15.1.0,
15.2.0, 15.3.0, 15.4.0, 15.5.0, 15.6.0, 16.0.0, 16.1.0, 16.2.0, 16.3.0, 16.4.0,
16.5.0, 16.6.0, 17.0.0, 17.1.0, 17.2.0, 17.3.0, 17.4.0, 17.5.0, 17.6.0, 17.7.0,
18.0.0, 18.1.0, 18.2.0, 18.3.0, 18.4.0, 18.5.0, 18.6.0, 18.7.0, 19.0.0, 19.1.0,
19.2.0
For ATT, an unknown second parameter will be replaced with the string UNIX; for the other
predefined acronyms it will be ignored and a warning message emitted. Unrecognized arguments are
displayed as given in the page footer. For instance, a typical footer might be:
.Os BSD 4.3
giving ‘4.3 Berkeley Distribution’, or for a locally produced set
.Os CS Department
which will produce ‘CS Department’.
If the ‘.Os’ macro is not present, the bottom left corner of the manual page will be ugly.
This macro is neither callable nor parsed.
.Dd [⟨month⟩ ⟨day⟩, ⟨year⟩]
If ‘Dd’ has no arguments, ‘Epoch’ is used for the date string. If it has exactly three
arguments, they are concatenated, separated with unbreakable space:
.Dd January 25, 2001
The month's name shall not be abbreviated.
With any other number of arguments, the current date is used, ignoring the parameters.
As a special exception, the format
.Dd $Mdocdate: ⟨month⟩ ⟨day⟩ ⟨year⟩ $
is also recognized. It is used in OpenBSD manuals to automatically insert the current date when
committing.
This macro is neither callable nor parsed.
INTRODUCTION OF MANUAL AND GENERAL TEXT DOMAINS
What's in a Name...
The manual domain macro names are derived from the day to day informal language used to describe
commands, subroutines and related files. Slightly different variations of this language are used to
describe the three different aspects of writing a man page. First, there is the description of -mdoc
macro command usage. Second is the description of a Unix command with -mdoc macros, and third, the
description of a command to a user in the verbal sense; that is, discussion of a command in the text of a
man page.
In the first case, troff(1) macros are themselves a type of command; the general syntax for a troff
command is:
.Xx argument1 argument2 ...
‘.Xx’ is a macro command, and anything following it are arguments to be processed. In the second case,
the description of a Unix command using the content macros is a bit more involved; a typical “SYNOPSIS”
command line might be displayed as:
filter [-flag] ⟨infile⟩ ⟨outfile⟩
Here, filter is the command name and the bracketed string -flag is a flag argument designated as optional
by the option brackets. In -mdoc terms, ⟨infile⟩ and ⟨outfile⟩ are called meta arguments; in this
example, the user has to replace the meta expressions given in angle brackets with real file names. Note
that in this document meta arguments are used to describe -mdoc commands; in most man pages, meta
variables are not specifically written with angle brackets. The macros which formatted the above
example:
.Nm filter
.Op Fl flag
.Ao Ar infile Ac Ao Ar outfile Ac
In the third case, discussion of commands and command syntax includes both examples above, but may add
more detail. The arguments ⟨infile⟩ and ⟨outfile⟩ from the example above might be referred to as
operands or file arguments. Some command-line argument lists are quite long:
make [-eiknqrstv] [-D variable] [-d flags] [-f makefile] [-I directory] [-j max_jobs]
[variable=value] [target ...]
Here one might talk about the command make and qualify the argument, makefile, as an argument to the
flag, -f, or discuss the optional file operand target. In the verbal context, such detail can prevent
confusion, however the -mdoc package does not have a macro for an argument to a flag. Instead the ‘Ar’
argument macro is used for an operand or file argument like target as well as an argument to a flag like
variable. The make command line was produced from:
.Nm make
.Op Fl eiknqrstv
.Op Fl D Ar variable
.Op Fl d Ar flags
.Op Fl f Ar makefile
.Op Fl I Ar directory
.Op Fl j Ar max_jobs
.Op Ar variable Ns = Ns Ar value
.Bk
.Op Ar target ...
.Ek
The ‘.Bk’ and ‘.Ek’ macros are explained in “Keeps”.
General Syntax
The manual domain and general text domain macros share a similar syntax with a few minor deviations; most
notably, ‘.Ar’, ‘.Fl’, ‘.Nm’, and ‘.Pa’ differ only when called without arguments; and ‘.Fn’ and ‘.Xr’
impose an order on their argument lists. All content macros are capable of recognizing and properly
handling punctuation, provided each punctuation character is separated by a leading space. If a command
is given:
.Ar sptr, ptr),
The result is:
sptr, ptr),
The punctuation is not recognized and all is output in the font used by ‘.Ar’. If the punctuation is
separated by a leading white space:
.Ar sptr , ptr ) ,
The result is:
sptr, ptr),
The punctuation is now recognized and output in the default font distinguishing it from the argument
strings. To remove the special meaning from a punctuation character escape it with ‘\&’.
The following punctuation characters are recognized by -mdoc:
. , : ; (
) [ ] ? !
Troff is limited as a macro language, and has difficulty when presented with a string containing a member
of the mathematical, logical or quotation set:
{+,-,/,*,%,<,>,<=,>=,=,==,&,`,',"}
The problem is that troff may assume it is supposed to actually perform the operation or evaluation
suggested by the characters. To prevent the accidental evaluation of these characters, escape them with
‘\&’. Typical syntax is shown in the first content macro displayed below, ‘.Ad’.
MANUAL DOMAIN
Addresses
The address macro identifies an address construct.
Usage: .Ad ⟨address⟩ ...
.Ad addr1 addr1
.Ad addr1 . addr1.
.Ad addr1 , file2 addr1, file2
.Ad f1 , f2 , f3 : f1, f2, f3:
.Ad addr ) ) , addr)),
The default width is 12n.
Author Name
The ‘.An’ macro is used to specify the name of the author of the item being documented, or the name of
the author of the actual manual page.
Usage: .An ⟨author name⟩ ...
.An "Joe Author" Joe Author
.An "Joe Author" , Joe Author,
.An "Joe Author" Aq nobody@FreeBSD.org
Joe Author <nobody@FreeBSD.org>
.An "Joe Author" ) ) , Joe Author)),
The default width is 12n.
In the AUTHORS section, the ‘.An’ command causes a line break allowing each new name to appear on its own
line. If this is not desirable,
.An -nosplit
call will turn this off. To turn splitting back on, write
.An -split
Arguments
The .Ar argument macro may be used whenever an argument is referenced. If called without arguments, the
‘file ...’ string is output.
Usage: .Ar [⟨argument⟩] ...
.Ar file ...
.Ar file1 file1
.Ar file1 . file1.
.Ar file1 file2 file1 file2
.Ar f1 f2 f3 : f1 f2 f3:
.Ar file ) ) , file)),
The default width is 12n.
Configuration Declaration (Section Four Only)
The ‘.Cd’ macro is used to demonstrate a config(8) declaration for a device interface in a section four
manual.
Usage: .Cd ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Cd "device le0 at scode?" device le0 at scode?
In the “SYNOPSIS” section a ‘.Cd’ command causes a line break before and after its arguments are printed.
The default width is 12n.
Command Modifiers
The command modifier is identical to the ‘.Fl’ (flag) command with the exception that the ‘.Cm’ macro
does not assert a dash in front of every argument. Traditionally flags are marked by the preceding dash,
however, some commands or subsets of commands do not use them. Command modifiers may also be specified
in conjunction with interactive commands such as editor commands. See “Flags”.
The default width is 10n.
Defined Variables
A variable (or constant) which is defined in an include file is specified by the macro ‘.Dv’.
Usage: .Dv ⟨defined variable⟩ ...
.Dv MAXHOSTNAMELEN MAXHOSTNAMELEN
.Dv TIOCGPGRP ) TIOCGPGRP)
The default width is 12n.
Errno's
The ‘.Er’ errno macro specifies the error return value for section 2, 3, and 9 library routines. The
second example below shows ‘.Er’ used with the ‘.Bq’ general text domain macro, as it would be used in a
section two manual page.
Usage: .Er ⟨errno type⟩ ...
.Er ENOENT ENOENT
.Er ENOENT ) ; ENOENT);
.Bq Er ENOTDIR [ENOTDIR]
The default width is 17n.
Environment Variables
The ‘.Ev’ macro specifies an environment variable.
Usage: .Ev ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Ev DISPLAY DISPLAY
.Ev PATH . PATH.
.Ev PRINTER ) ) , PRINTER)),
The default width is 15n.
Flags
The ‘.Fl’ macro handles command-line flags. It prepends a dash, ‘-’, to the flag. For interactive
command flags, which are not prepended with a dash, the ‘.Cm’ (command modifier) macro is identical, but
without the dash.
Usage: .Fl ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Fl -
.Fl cfv -cfv
.Fl cfv . -cfv.
.Cm cfv . cfv.
.Fl s v t -s -v -t
.Fl - , --,
.Fl xyz ) , -xyz),
.Fl | - |
The ‘.Fl’ macro without any arguments results in a dash representing stdin/stdout. Note that giving
‘.Fl’ a single dash will result in two dashes.
The default width is 12n.
Function Declarations
The ‘.Fd’ macro is used in the “SYNOPSIS” section with section two or three functions. It is neither
callable nor parsed.
Usage: .Fd ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Fd "#include <sys/types.h>" #include <sys/types.h>
In the “SYNOPSIS” section a ‘.Fd’ command 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.
The ‘.In’ macro, while in the “SYNOPSIS” section, represents the #include statement, and is the short
form of the above example. It specifies the C header file as being included in a C program. It also
causes a line break.
While not in the “SYNOPSIS” section, it represents the header file enclosed in angle brackets.
Usage: .In ⟨header file⟩
.In stdio.h <stdio.h>
.In stdio.h <stdio.h>
Function Types
This macro is intended for the “SYNOPSIS” section. It may be used anywhere else in the man page without
problems, but its main purpose is to present the function type in kernel normal form for the “SYNOPSIS”
of sections two and three (it causes a line break, allowing the function name to appear on the next
line).
Usage: .Ft ⟨type⟩ ...
.Ft struct stat struct stat
Functions (Library Routines)
The ‘.Fn’ macro is modeled on ANSI C conventions.
Usage: .Fn ⟨function⟩ [⟨parameter⟩] ...
.Fn getchar getchar()
.Fn strlen ) , strlen()),
.Fn align "char *ptr" , align(char *ptr),
Note that any call to another macro signals the end of the ‘.Fn’ call (it will insert a closing
parenthesis at that point).
For functions with many parameters (which is rare), the macros ‘.Fo’ (function open) and ‘.Fc’ (function
close) may be used with ‘.Fa’ (function argument).
Example:
.Ft int
.Fo res_mkquery
.Fa "int op"
.Fa "char *dname"
.Fa "int class"
.Fa "int type"
.Fa "char *data"
.Fa "int datalen"
.Fa "struct rrec *newrr"
.Fa "char *buf"
.Fa "int buflen"
.Fc
Produces:
int res_mkquery(int op, char *dname, int class, int type, char *data, int datalen,
struct rrec *newrr, char *buf, int buflen)
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.
The default width values of ‘.Fn’ and ‘.Fo’ are 12n and 16n, respectively.
Function Arguments
The ‘.Fa’ macro is used to refer to function arguments (parameters) outside of the “SYNOPSIS” section of
the manual or inside the “SYNOPSIS” section if the enclosure macros ‘.Fo’ and ‘.Fc’ instead of ‘.Fn’ are
used. ‘.Fa’ may also be used to refer to structure members.
Usage: .Fa ⟨function argument⟩ ...
.Fa d_namlen ) ) , d_namlen)),
.Fa iov_len iov_len
The default width is 12n.
Return Values
The ‘.Rv’ macro generates text for use in the “RETURN VALUES” section.
Usage: .Rv [-std] [⟨function⟩ ...]
For example, ‘.Rv -std atexit’ produces:
The atexit() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the
global variable errno is set to indicate the error.
The -std option is valid only for manual page sections 2 and 3. Currently, this macro does nothing if
used without the -std flag.
Exit Status
The ‘.Ex’ macro generates text for use in the “DIAGNOSTICS” section.
Usage: .Ex [-std] [⟨utility⟩ ...]
For example, ‘.Ex -std cat’ produces:
The cat utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
The -std option is valid only for manual page sections 1, 6 and 8. Currently, this macro does nothing if
used without the -std flag.
Interactive Commands
The ‘.Ic’ macro designates an interactive or internal command.
Usage: .Ic ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Ic :wq :wq
.Ic "do while {...}" do while {...}
.Ic setenv , unsetenv setenv, unsetenv
The default width is 12n.
Library Names
The ‘.Lb’ macro is used to specify the library where a particular function is compiled in.
Usage: .Lb ⟨argument⟩ ...
Available arguments to ‘.Lb’ and their results are:
libarchive Reading and Writing Streaming Archives Library (libarchive, -larchive)
libarm ARM Architecture Library (libarm, -larm)
libarm32 ARM32 Architecture Library (libarm32, -larm32)
libbluetooth Bluetooth Library (libbluetooth, -lbluetooth)
libbsm Basic Security Module Library (libbsm, -lbsm)
libc Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
libc_r Reentrant C Library (libc_r, -lc_r)
libcalendar Calendar Arithmetic Library (libcalendar, -lcalendar)
libcam Common Access Method User Library (libcam, -lcam)
libcdk Curses Development Kit Library (libcdk, -lcdk)
libcipher FreeSec Crypt Library (libcipher, -lcipher)
libcompat Compatibility Library (libcompat, -lcompat)
libcrypt Crypt Library (libcrypt, -lcrypt)
libcurses Curses Library (libcurses, -lcurses)
libdevinfo Device and Resource Information Utility Library (libdevinfo, -ldevinfo)
libdevstat Device Statistics Library (libdevstat, -ldevstat)
libdisk Interface to Slice and Partition Labels Library (libdisk, -ldisk)
libdwarf DWARF Access Library (libdwarf, -ldwarf)
libedit Command Line Editor Library (libedit, -ledit)
libelf ELF Access Library (libelf, -lelf)
libevent Event Notification Library (libevent, -levent)
libfetch File Transfer Library for URLs (libfetch, -lfetch)
libform Curses Form Library (libform, -lform)
libgeom Userland API Library for kernel GEOM subsystem (libgeom, -lgeom)
libgpib General-Purpose Instrument Bus (GPIB) library (libgpib, -lgpib)
libi386 i386 Architecture Library (libi386, -li386)
libintl Internationalized Message Handling Library (libintl, -lintl)
libipsec IPsec Policy Control Library (libipsec, -lipsec)
libipx IPX Address Conversion Support Library (libipx, -lipx)
libiscsi iSCSI protocol library (libiscsi, -liscsi)
libjail Jail Library (libjail, -ljail)
libkiconv Kernel side iconv library (libkiconv, -lkiconv)
libkse N:M Threading Library (libkse, -lkse)
libkvm Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm, -lkvm)
libm Math Library (libm, -lm)
libm68k m68k Architecture Library (libm68k, -lm68k)
libmagic Magic Number Recognition Library (libmagic, -lmagic)
libmd Message Digest (MD4, MD5, etc.) Support Library (libmd, -lmd)
libmemstat Kernel Memory Allocator Statistics Library (libmemstat, -lmemstat)
libmenu Curses Menu Library (libmenu, -lmenu)
libnetgraph Netgraph User Library (libnetgraph, -lnetgraph)
libnetpgp Netpgp signing, verification, encryption and decryption (libnetpgp, -lnetpgp)
libossaudio OSS Audio Emulation Library (libossaudio, -lossaudio)
libpam Pluggable Authentication Module Library (libpam, -lpam)
libpcap Packet Capture Library (libpcap, -lpcap)
libpci PCI Bus Access Library (libpci, -lpci)
libpmc Performance Counters Library (libpmc, -lpmc)
libposix POSIX Compatibility Library (libposix, -lposix)
libprop Property Container Object Library (libprop, -lprop)
libpthread POSIX Threads Library (libpthread, -lpthread)
libpuffs puffs Convenience Library (libpuffs, -lpuffs)
librefuse File System in Userspace Convenience Library (librefuse, -lrefuse)
libresolv DNS Resolver Library (libresolv, -lresolv)
librpcsec_gss RPC GSS-API Authentication Library (librpcsec_gss, -lrpcsec_gss)
librpcsvc RPC Service Library (librpcsvc, -lrpcsvc)
librt POSIX Real-time Library (librt, -lrt)
libsdp Bluetooth Service Discovery Protocol User Library (libsdp, -lsdp)
libssp Buffer Overflow Protection Library (libssp, -lssp)
libSystem System Library (libSystem, -lSystem)
libtermcap Termcap Access Library (libtermcap, -ltermcap)
libterminfo Terminal Information Library (libterminfo, -lterminfo)
libthr 1:1 Threading Library (libthr, -lthr)
libufs UFS File System Access Library (libufs, -lufs)
libugidfw File System Firewall Interface Library (libugidfw, -lugidfw)
libulog User Login Record Library (libulog, -lulog)
libusbhid USB Human Interface Devices Library (libusbhid, -lusbhid)
libutil System Utilities Library (libutil, -lutil)
libvgl Video Graphics Library (libvgl, -lvgl)
libx86_64 x86_64 Architecture Library (libx86_64, -lx86_64)
libz Compression Library (libz, -lz)
Local, OS-specific additions might be found in the file mdoc.local; look for strings named ‘str-Lb-XXX’.
‘XXX’ then denotes the keyword to be used with the ‘.Lb’ macro.
In the LIBRARY section an ‘.Lb’ command causes a line break before and after its arguments are printed.
Literals
The ‘.Li’ literal macro may be used for special characters, variable constants, etc. - anything which
should be displayed as it would be typed.
Usage: .Li ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Li \en \n
.Li M1 M2 M3 ; M1 M2 M3;
.Li cntrl-D ) , cntrl-D),
.Li 1024 ... 1024 ...
The default width is 16n.
Names
The ‘.Nm’ macro is used for the document title or 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, ‘.Nm’ regurgitates this initial name for the sole purpose of making less work for the
author. ‘.Nm’ causes a line break within the “SYNOPSIS” section.
Note: A section two or three document function name is addressed with the ‘.Nm’ in the NAME section, and
with ‘.Fn’ in the “SYNOPSIS” and remaining sections. For interactive commands, such as the ‘while’
command keyword in csh(1), the ‘.Ic’ macro should be used. While ‘.Ic’ is nearly identical to ‘.Nm’, it
can not recall the first argument it was invoked with.
Usage: .Nm [⟨argument⟩] ...
.Nm groff_mdoc groff_mdoc
.Nm \-mdoc -mdoc
.Nm foo ) ) , foo)),
.Nm : groff_mdoc:
The default width is 10n.
Options
The ‘.Op’ macro places option brackets around any remaining arguments on the command line, and places any
trailing punctuation outside the brackets. The macros ‘.Oo’ and ‘.Oc’ (which produce an opening and a
closing option bracket respectively) may be used across one or more lines or to specify the exact
position of the closing parenthesis.
Usage: .Op [⟨option⟩] ...
.Op []
.Op Fl k [-k]
.Op Fl k ) . [-k]).
.Op Fl k Ar kookfile [-k kookfile]
.Op Fl k Ar kookfile , [-k kookfile],
.Op Ar objfil Op Ar corfil [objfil [corfil]]
.Op Fl c Ar objfil Op Ar corfil , [-c objfil [corfil]],
.Op word1 word2 [word1 word2]
.Li .Op Oo Ao option Ac Oc ... .Op [⟨option⟩] ...
Here a typical example of the ‘.Oo’ and ‘.Oc’ macros:
.Oo
.Op Fl k Ar kilobytes
.Op Fl i Ar interval
.Op Fl c Ar count
.Oc
Produces:
[[-k kilobytes] [-i interval] [-c count]]
The default width values of ‘.Op’ and ‘.Oo’ are 14n and 10n, respectively.
Pathnames
The ‘.Pa’ macro formats path or file names. If called without arguments, the ‘~’ string is output, which
represents the current user's home directory.
Usage: .Pa [⟨pathname⟩] ...
.Pa ~
.Pa /usr/share /usr/share
.Pa /tmp/fooXXXXX ) . /tmp/fooXXXXX).
The default width is 32n.
Standards
The ‘.St’ macro replaces standard abbreviations with their formal names.
Usage: .St ⟨abbreviation⟩ ...
Available pairs for “Abbreviation/Formal Name” are:
ANSI/ISO C
-ansiC ANSI X3.159-1989 (“ANSI C89”)
-ansiC-89 ANSI X3.159-1989 (“ANSI C89”)
-isoC ISO/IEC 9899:1990 (“ISO C90”)
-isoC-90 ISO/IEC 9899:1990 (“ISO C90”)
-isoC-99 ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (“ISO C99”)
-isoC-2011 ISO/IEC 9899:2011 (“ISO C11”)
POSIX Part 1: System API
-iso9945-1-90 ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (“POSIX.1”)
-iso9945-1-96 ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1 IEEE Std 1003.1 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-88 IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-90 ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-96 ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1b-93 IEEE Std 1003.1b-1993 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1c-95 IEEE Std 1003.1c-1995 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1g-2000 IEEE Std 1003.1g-2000 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1i-95 IEEE Std 1003.1i-1995 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-2001 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-2004 IEEE Std 1003.1-2004 (“POSIX.1”)
-p1003.1-2008 IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”)
POSIX Part 2: Shell and Utilities
-iso9945-2-93 ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993 (“POSIX.2”)
-p1003.2 IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”)
-p1003.2-92 IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (“POSIX.2”)
-p1003.2a-92 IEEE Std 1003.2a-1992 (“POSIX.2”)
X/Open
-susv2 Version 2 of the Single UNIX Specification (“SUSv2”)
-susv3 Version 3 of the Single UNIX Specification (“SUSv3”)
-svid4 System V Interface Definition, Fourth Edition (“SVID4”)
-xbd5 X/Open Base Definitions Issue 5 (“XBD5”)
-xcu5 X/Open Commands and Utilities Issue 5 (“XCU5”)
-xcurses4.2 X/Open Curses Issue 4, Version 2 (“XCURSES4.2”)
-xns5 X/Open Networking Services Issue 5 (“XNS5”)
-xns5.2 X/Open Networking Services Issue 5.2 (“XNS5.2”)
-xpg3 X/Open Portability Guide Issue 3 (“XPG3”)
-xpg4 X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4 (“XPG4”)
-xpg4.2 X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4, Version 2 (“XPG4.2”)
-xsh5 X/Open System Interfaces and Headers Issue 5 (“XSH5”)
Miscellaneous
-ieee754 IEEE Std 754-1985
-iso8601 ISO 8601
-iso8802-3 ISO/IEC 8802-3:1989
Variable Types
The ‘.Vt’ macro may be used whenever a type is referenced. In the “SYNOPSIS” section, it causes a line
break (useful for old style variable declarations).
Usage: .Vt ⟨type⟩ ...
.Vt extern char *optarg ; extern char *optarg;
.Vt FILE * FILE *
Variables
Generic variable reference.
Usage: .Va ⟨variable⟩ ...
.Va count count
.Va settimer , settimer,
.Va "int *prt" ) : int *prt):
.Va "char s" ] ) ) , char s])),
The default width is 12n.
Manual Page Cross References
The ‘.Xr’ macro expects the first argument to be a manual page name. The optional second argument, if a
string (defining the manual section), is put into parentheses.
Usage: .Xr ⟨man page name⟩ [⟨section⟩] ...
.Xr mdoc mdoc
.Xr mdoc , mdoc,
.Xr mdoc 7 mdoc(7)
.Xr xinit 1x ; xinit(1x);
The default width is 10n.
GENERAL TEXT DOMAIN
AT&T Macro
Usage: .At [⟨version⟩] ...
.At AT&T UNIX
.At v6 . Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
The following values for ⟨version⟩ are possible:
32v, v1, v2, v3, v4, v5, v6, v7, III, V, V.1, V.2, V.3, V.4
BSD Macro
Usage: .Bx {-alpha | -beta | -devel} ...
.Bx [⟨version⟩ [⟨release⟩]] ...
.Bx BSD
.Bx 4.3 . 4.3BSD.
.Bx -devel BSD (currently under development)
⟨version⟩ will be prepended to the string ‘BSD’. The following values for ⟨release⟩ are possible:
Reno, reno, Tahoe, tahoe, Lite, lite, Lite2, lite2
NetBSD Macro
Usage: .Nx [⟨version⟩] ...
.Nx NetBSD
.Nx 1.4 . NetBSD 1.4.
For possible values of ⟨version⟩ see the description of the ‘.Os’ command above in section “TITLE
MACROS”.
FreeBSD Macro
Usage: .Fx [⟨version⟩] ...
.Fx FreeBSD
.Fx 2.2 . FreeBSD 2.2.
For possible values of ⟨version⟩ see the description of the ‘.Os’ command above in section “TITLE
MACROS”.
DragonFly Macro
Usage: .Dx [⟨version⟩] ...
.Dx DragonFly
.Dx 1.4 . DragonFly 1.4.
For possible values of ⟨version⟩ see the description of the ‘.Os’ command above in section “TITLE
MACROS”.
OpenBSD Macro
Usage: .Ox [⟨version⟩] ...
.Ox 1.0 OpenBSD 1.0
BSD/OS Macro
Usage: .Bsx [⟨version⟩] ...
.Bsx 1.0 BSD/OS 1.0
UNIX Macro
Usage: .Ux ...
.Ux Unix
Emphasis Macro
Text may be stressed or emphasized with the ‘.Em’ macro. The usual font for emphasis is italic.
Usage: .Em ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Em does not does not
.Em exceed 1024 . exceed 1024.
.Em vide infra ) ) , vide infra)),
The default width is 10n.
Font Mode
The ‘.Bf’ font mode must be ended with the ‘.Ef’ macro (the latter takes no arguments). Font modes may
be nested within other font modes.
‘.Bf’ has the following syntax:
.Bf ⟨font mode⟩
⟨font mode⟩ must be one of the following three types:
Em | -emphasis Same as if the ‘.Em’ macro was used for the entire block of text.
Li | -literal Same as if the ‘.Li’ macro was used for the entire block of text.
Sy | -symbolic Same as if the ‘.Sy’ macro was used for the entire block of text.
Both macros are neither callable nor parsed.
Enclosure and Quoting Macros
The concept of enclosure is similar to quoting. The object being to enclose one or more strings between
a pair of characters like quotes or parentheses. The terms quoting and enclosure are used
interchangeably throughout this document. Most of the one-line enclosure macros end in small letter ‘q’
to give a hint of quoting, but there are a few irregularities. For each enclosure macro there is also a
pair of open and close macros which end in small letters ‘o’ and ‘c’ respectively.
Quote Open Close Function Result
.Aq .Ao .Ac Angle Bracket Enclosure <string>
.Bq .Bo .Bc Bracket Enclosure [string]
.Brq .Bro .Brc Brace Enclosure {string}
.Dq .Do .Dc Double Quote "string"
.Eq .Eo .Ec Enclose String (in XX) XXstring
.Pq .Po .Pc Parenthesis Enclosure (string)
.Ql Quoted Literal “string” or string
.Qq .Qo .Qc Straight Double Quote "string"
.Sq .So .Sc Single Quote 'string'
All macros ending with ‘q’ and ‘o’ have a default width value of 12n.
.Eo, .Ec These macros expect the first argument to be the opening and closing strings respectively.
.Es, .En Due to the nine-argument limit in the original troff program two other macros have been
implemented which are now rather obsolete: ‘.Es’ takes the first and second parameter as the
left and right enclosure string, which are then used to enclose the arguments of ‘.En’. The
default width value is 12n for both macros.
.Eq The first and second arguments of this macro are the opening and closing strings respectively,
followed by the arguments to be enclosed.
.Ql The quoted literal macro behaves differently in troff and nroff mode. If formatted with nroff,
a quoted literal is always quoted. If formatted with troff, an item is only quoted if the
width of the item is less than three constant width characters. This is to make short strings
more visible where the font change to literal (constant width) is less noticeable.
The default width is 16n.
.Pf The prefix macro suppresses the whitespace between its first and second argument:
.Pf ( Fa name2 (name2
The default width is 12n.
The ‘.Ns’ macro (see below) performs the analogous suffix function.
.Ap The ‘.Ap’ macro inserts an apostrophe and exits any special text modes, continuing in ‘.No’
mode.
Examples of quoting:
.Aq ⟨⟩
.Aq Pa ctype.h ) , ⟨ctype.h⟩),
.Bq []
.Bq Em Greek , French . [Greek, French].
.Dq “”
.Dq string abc . “string abc”.
.Dq ´^[A-Z]´ “´^[A-Z]´”
.Ql man mdoc ‘man mdoc’
.Qq ""
.Qq string ) , "string"),
.Qq string Ns ), "string),"
.Sq ‘’
.Sq string ‘string’
.Em or Ap ing or'ing
For a good example of nested enclosure macros, see the ‘.Op’ option macro. It was created from the same
underlying enclosure macros as those presented in the list above. The ‘.Xo’ and ‘.Xc’ extended argument
list macros are discussed below.
No-Op or Normal Text Macro
The ‘.No’ macro can be used in a macro command line for parameters which should not be formatted. Be
careful to add ‘\&’ to the word ‘No’ if you really want that English word (and not the macro) as a
parameter.
Usage: .No ⟨argument⟩ ...
.No test Ta with Ta tabs test with tabs
The default width is 12n.
No-Space Macro
The ‘.Ns’ macro suppresses insertion of a space between the current position and its first parameter.
For example, it is useful for old style argument lists where there is no space between the flag and
argument:
Usage: ... ⟨argument⟩ Ns [⟨argument⟩] ...
.Ns ⟨argument⟩ ...
.Op Fl I Ns Ar directory [-Idirectory]
Note: The ‘.Ns’ macro always invokes the ‘.No’ macro after eliminating the space unless another macro
name follows it. If used as a command (i.e., the second form above in the ‘Usage’ line), ‘.Ns’ is
identical to ‘.No’.
Section Cross References
The ‘.Sx’ macro designates a reference to a section header within the same document.
Usage: .Sx ⟨section reference⟩ ...
.Sx FILES “FILES”
The default width is 16n.
Symbolics
The symbolic emphasis macro is generally a boldface macro in either the symbolic sense or the traditional
English usage.
Usage: .Sy ⟨symbol⟩ ...
.Sy Important Notice Important Notice
The default width is 6n.
Mathematical Symbols
Use this macro for mathematical symbols and similar things.
Usage: .Ms ⟨math symbol⟩ ...
.Ms sigma sigma
The default width is 6n.
References and Citations
The following macros make a modest attempt to handle references. At best, the macros make it convenient
to manually drop in a subset of refer(1) style references.
.Rs Reference start (does not take arguments). Causes a line break in the “SEE ALSO” section
and begins collection of reference information until the reference end macro is read.
.Re Reference end (does not take arguments). The reference is printed.
.%A Reference author name; one name per invocation.
.%B Book title.
.%C City/place.
.%D Date.
.%I Issuer/publisher name.
.%J Journal name.
.%N Issue number.
.%O Optional information.
.%P Page number.
.%Q Corporate or foreign author.
.%R Report name.
.%T Title of article.
.%U Optional hypertext reference.
.%V Volume.
Macros beginning with ‘%’ are not callable but accept multiple arguments in the usual way. Only the
‘.Tn’ macro is handled properly as a parameter; other macros will cause strange output. ‘.%B’ and ‘.%T’
can be used outside of the ‘.Rs/.Re’ environment.
Example:
.Rs
.%A "Matthew Bar"
.%A "John Foo"
.%T "Implementation Notes on foobar(1)"
.%R "Technical Report ABC-DE-12-345"
.%Q "Drofnats College"
.%C "Nowhere"
.%D "April 1991"
.Re
produces
Matthew Bar and John Foo, Implementation Notes on foobar(1), Technical Report ABC-DE-12-345,
Drofnats College, Nowhere, April 1991.
Trade Names (or Acronyms and Type Names)
The trade name macro prints its arguments in a smaller font. Its intended use is to imitate a small caps
fonts for uppercase acronyms.
Usage: .Tn ⟨symbol⟩ ...
.Tn DEC DEC
.Tn ASCII ASCII
The default width is 10n.
Extended Arguments
The .Xo and .Xc macros allow one to extend an argument list on a macro boundary for the ‘.It’ macro (see
below). Note that .Xo and .Xc are implemented similarly to all other macros opening and closing an
enclosure (without inserting characters, of course). This means that the following is true for those
macros also.
Here is an example of ‘.Xo’ using the space mode macro to turn spacing off:
.Sm off
.It Xo Sy I Ar operation
.No \en Ar count No \en
.Xc
.Sm on
produces
Ioperation\ncount\n
Another one:
.Sm off
.It Cm S No / Ar old_pattern Xo
.No / Ar new_pattern
.No / Op Cm g
.Xc
.Sm on
produces
S/old_pattern/new_pattern/[g]
Another example of ‘.Xo’ and enclosure macros: Test the value of a variable.
.It Xo
.Ic .ifndef
.Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar variable Oo
.Ar operator variable ...
.Oc Xc
produces
.ifndef [!]variable [operator variable ...]
PAGE STRUCTURE DOMAIN
Section Headers
The following ‘.Sh’ section header macros are required in every man page. The remaining section headers
are recommended at the discretion of the author writing the manual page. The ‘.Sh’ macro is parsed but
not generally callable. It can be used as an argument in a call to ‘.Sh’ only; it then reactivates the
default font for ‘.Sh’.
The default width is 8n.
.Sh NAME The ‘.Sh NAME’ macro is mandatory. If not specified, headers, footers and page layout
defaults will not be set and things will be rather unpleasant. The NAME section
consists of at least three items. The first is the ‘.Nm’ name macro naming the
subject of the man page. The second is the name description macro, ‘.Nd’, which
separates the subject name from the third item, which is the description. The
description should be the most terse and lucid possible, as the space available is
small.
‘.Nd’ first prints ‘-’, then all its arguments.
.Sh LIBRARY This section is for section two and three function calls. It should consist of a
single ‘.Lb’ macro call; see “Library Names”.
.Sh SYNOPSIS The “SYNOPSIS” section describes the typical usage of the subject of a man page. The
macros required are either ‘.Nm’, ‘.Cd’, or ‘.Fn’ (and possibly ‘.Fo’, ‘.Fc’, ‘.Fd’,
and ‘.Ft’). The function name macro ‘.Fn’ is required for manual page sections 2
and 3; the command and general name macro ‘.Nm’ is required for sections 1, 5, 6, 7,
and 8. Section 4 manuals require a ‘.Nm’, ‘.Fd’ or a ‘.Cd’ configuration device usage
macro. Several other macros may be necessary to produce the synopsis line as shown
below:
cat [-benstuv] [-] file ...
The following macros were used:
.Nm cat
.Op Fl benstuv
.Op Fl
.Ar
.Sh DESCRIPTION In most cases the first text in the “DESCRIPTION” section is a brief paragraph on the
command, function or file, followed by a lexical list of options and respective
explanations. To create such a list, the ‘.Bl’ (begin list), ‘.It’ (list item) and
‘.El’ (end list) macros are used (see “Lists and Columns” below).
.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
Implementation specific information should be placed here.
.Sh RETURN VALUES Sections 2, 3 and 9 function return values should go here. The ‘.Rv’ macro may be
used to generate text for use in the “RETURN VALUES” section for most section 2 and 3
library functions; see “Return Values”.
The following ‘.Sh’ section 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.
.Sh ENVIRONMENT The ENVIRONMENT section should reveal any related environment variables and clues to
their behavior and/or usage.
.Sh FILES Files which are used or created by the man page subject should be listed via the ‘.Pa’
macro in the “FILES” section.
.Sh EXAMPLES There are several ways to create examples. See the “Examples and Displays” section
below for details.
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS Diagnostic messages from a command should be placed in this section. The ‘.Ex’ macro
may be used to generate text for use in the “DIAGNOSTICS” section for most section 1,
6 and 8 commands; see “Exit Status”.
.Sh COMPATIBILITY Known compatibility issues (e.g. deprecated options or parameters) should be listed
here.
.Sh ERRORS Specific error handling, especially from library functions (man page sections 2, 3,
and 9) should go here. The ‘.Er’ macro is used to specify an error (errno).
.Sh SEE ALSO References to other material on the man page topic and cross references to other
relevant man pages should be placed in the “SEE ALSO” section. Cross references are
specified using the ‘.Xr’ macro. Currently refer(1) style references are not
accommodated.
It is recommended that the cross references are sorted on the section number, then
alphabetically on the names within a section, and placed in that order and comma
separated. Example:
ls(1), ps(1), group(5), passwd(5)
.Sh STANDARDS If the command, library function or file adheres to a specific implementation such as
IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) or ANSI X3.159-1989 (“ANSI C89”) this should be noted
here. If the command does not adhere to any standard, its history should be noted in
the HISTORY section.
.Sh HISTORY Any command which does not adhere to any specific standards should be outlined
historically in this section.
.Sh AUTHORS Credits should be placed here. Use the ‘.An’ macro for names and the ‘.Aq’ macro for
e-mail addresses within optional contact information. Explicitly indicate whether the
person authored the initial manual page or the software or whatever the person is
being credited for.
.Sh BUGS Blatant problems with the topic go here.
User-specified ‘.Sh’ sections may be added; for example, this section was set with:
.Sh "PAGE STRUCTURE DOMAIN"
Subsection Headers
Subsection headers have exactly the same syntax as section headers: ‘.Ss’ is parsed but not generally
callable. It can be used as an argument in a call to ‘.Ss’ only; it then reactivates the default font
for ‘.Ss’.
The default width is 8n.
Paragraphs and Line Spacing
.Pp The ‘.Pp’ paragraph command may be used to specify a line space where necessary. The macro is not
necessary after a ‘.Sh’ or ‘.Ss’ macro or before a ‘.Bl’ or ‘.Bd’ macro (which both assert a
vertical distance unless the -compact flag is given).
The macro is neither callable nor parsed and takes no arguments; an alternative name is ‘.Lp’.
Keeps
The only keep that is implemented at this time is for words. The macros are ‘.Bk’ (begin keep) and ‘.Ek’
(end keep). The only option that ‘.Bk’ accepts currently is -words (this is also the default if no
option is given) which is useful for preventing line breaks in the middle of options. In the example for
the make command-line arguments (see “What's in a Name”), the keep prevented nroff from placing up the
flag and the argument on separate lines.
Both macros are neither callable nor parsed.
More work needs to be done with the keep macros; specifically, a -line option should be added.
Examples and Displays
There are seven types of displays.
.D1 (This is D-one.) Display one line of indented text. This macro is parsed but not callable.
-ldghfstru
The above was produced by: .D1 Fl ldghfstru.
.Dl (This is D-ell.) Display one line of indented literal text. The ‘.Dl’ example macro has been used
throughout this file. It allows the indentation (display) of one line of text. Its default font is
set to constant width (literal). ‘.Dl’ is parsed but not callable.
% ls -ldg /usr/local/bin
The above was produced by: .Dl % ls \-ldg /usr/local/bin.
.Bd Begin display. The ‘.Bd’ display must be ended with the ‘.Ed’ macro. It has the following syntax:
.Bd {-literal | -filled | -unfilled | -ragged | -centered} [-offset ⟨string⟩] [-file ⟨file
name⟩] [-compact]
-ragged Fill, but do not adjust the right margin (only left-justify).
-centered Center lines between the current left and right margin. Note that each single
line is centered.
-unfilled Do not fill; display a block of text as typed, using line breaks as specified by
the user. This can produce overlong lines without warning messages.
-filled Display a filled block. The block of text is formatted (i.e., the text is
justified on both the left and right side).
-literal Display block with literal font (usually fixed-width). Useful for source code or
simple tabbed or spaced text.
-file ⟨file name⟩ The file whose name follows the -file flag is read and displayed before any data
enclosed with ‘.Bd’ and ‘.Ed’, using the selected display type. Any troff/-mdoc
commands in the file will be processed.
-offset ⟨string⟩ If -offset is specified with one of the following strings, the string is
interpreted to indicate the level of indentation for the forthcoming block of
text:
left Align block on the current left margin; this is the default mode of
‘.Bd’.
center Supposedly center the block. At this time unfortunately, the block
merely gets left aligned about an imaginary center margin.
indent Indent by one default indent value or tab. The default indent value
is also used for the ‘.D1’ and ‘.Dl’ macros, so one is guaranteed the
two types of displays will line up. The indentation value is
normally set to 6n or about two thirds of an inch (six constant width
characters).
indent-two Indent two times the default indent value.
right This left aligns the block about two inches from the right side of
the page. This macro needs work and perhaps may never do the right
thing within troff.
If ⟨string⟩ is a valid numeric expression instead (with a scale indicator other
than ‘u’), use that value for indentation. The most useful scale indicators are
‘m’ and ‘n’, specifying the so-called Em and En square. This is approximately
the width of the letters ‘m’ and ‘n’ respectively of the current font (for nroff
output, both scale indicators give the same values). If ⟨string⟩ isn't a numeric
expression, it is tested whether it is an -mdoc macro name, and the default
offset value associated with this macro is used. Finally, if all tests fail, the
width of ⟨string⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width font) is taken as the offset.
-compact Suppress insertion of vertical space before begin of display.
.Ed End display (takes no arguments).
Lists and Columns
There are several types of lists which may be initiated with the ‘.Bl’ begin-list macro. Items within
the list are specified with the ‘.It’ item macro, and each list must end with the ‘.El’ macro. Lists may
be nested within themselves and within displays. The use of columns inside of lists or lists inside of
columns is unproven.
In addition, several list attributes may be specified such as the width of a tag, the list offset, and
compactness (blank lines between items allowed or disallowed). Most of this document has been formatted
with a tag style list (-tag).
It has the following syntax forms:
.Bl {-hang | -ohang | -tag | -diag | -inset} [-width ⟨string⟩] [-offset ⟨string⟩] [-compact]
.Bl -column [-offset ⟨string⟩] ⟨string1⟩ ⟨string2⟩ ...
.Bl {-item | -enum [-nested] | -bullet | -hyphen | -dash} [-offset ⟨string⟩] [-compact]
And now a detailed description of the list types.
-bullet A bullet list.
.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact
.It
Bullet one goes here.
.It
Bullet two here.
.El
Produces:
• Bullet one goes here.
• Bullet two here.
-dash (or -hyphen)
A dash list.
.Bl -dash -offset indent -compact
.It
Dash one goes here.
.It
Dash two here.
.El
Produces:
- Dash one goes here.
- Dash two here.
-enum An enumerated list.
.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact
.It
Item one goes here.
.It
And item two here.
.El
The result:
1. Item one goes here.
2. And item two here.
If you want to nest enumerated lists, use the -nested flag (starting with the second-level
list):
.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact
.It
Item one goes here
.Bl -enum -nested -compact
.It
Item two goes here.
.It
And item three here.
.El
.It
And item four here.
.El
Result:
1. Item one goes here.
1.1. Item two goes here.
1.2. And item three here.
2. And item four here.
-item A list of type -item without list markers.
.Bl -item -offset indent
.It
Item one goes here.
Item one goes here.
Item one goes here.
.It
Item two here.
Item two here.
Item two here.
.El
Produces:
Item one goes here. Item one goes here. Item one goes here.
Item two here. Item two here. Item two here.
-tag A list with tags. Use -width to specify the tag width.
SL sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
PAGEIN
number of disk I/O's resulting from references by the process to pages not loaded in
core.
UID numerical user-id of process owner
PPID numerical id of parent of process priority (non-positive when in non-interruptible
wait)
The raw text:
.Bl -tag -width "PPID" -compact -offset indent
.It SL
sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
.It PAGEIN
number of disk
.Tn I/O Ns 's
resulting from references by the process
to pages not loaded in core.
.It UID
numerical user-id of process owner
.It PPID
numerical id of parent of process priority
(non-positive when in non-interruptible wait)
.El
-diag Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists and are similar to inset lists except callable
macros are ignored. The -width flag is not meaningful in this context.
Example:
.Bl -diag
.It You can't use Sy here.
The message says all.
.El
produces
You can't use Sy here. The message says all.
-hang A list with hanging tags.
Hanged labels appear similar to tagged lists when the label is smaller than the label
width.
Longer hanged list labels blend into the paragraph unlike tagged paragraph labels.
And the unformatted text which created it:
.Bl -hang -offset indent
.It Em Hanged
labels appear similar to tagged lists when the
label is smaller than the label width.
.It Em Longer hanged list labels
blend into the paragraph unlike
tagged paragraph labels.
.El
-ohang Lists with overhanging tags do not use indentation for the items; tags are written to a separate
line.
SL
sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
PAGEIN
number of disk I/O's resulting from references by the process to pages not loaded in core.
UID
numerical user-id of process owner
PPID
numerical id of parent of process priority (non-positive when in non-interruptible wait)
The raw text:
.Bl -ohang -offset indent
.It Sy SL
sleep time of the process (seconds blocked)
.It Sy PAGEIN
number of disk
.Tn I/O Ns 's
resulting from references by the process
to pages not loaded in core.
.It Sy UID
numerical user-id of process owner
.It Sy PPID
numerical id of parent of process priority
(non-positive when in non-interruptible wait)
.El
-inset Here is an example of inset labels:
Tag The tagged list (also called a tagged paragraph) is the most common type of list used
in the Berkeley manuals. Use a -width attribute as described below.
Diag Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists and are similar to inset lists except
callable macros are ignored.
Hang Hanged labels are a matter of taste.
Ohang Overhanging labels are nice when space is constrained.
Inset Inset labels are useful for controlling blocks of paragraphs and are valuable for
converting -mdoc manuals to other formats.
Here is the source text which produced the above example:
.Bl -inset -offset indent
.It Em Tag
The tagged list (also called a tagged paragraph)
is the most common type of list used in the
Berkeley manuals.
.It Em Diag
Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists
and are similar to inset lists except callable
macros are ignored.
.It Em Hang
Hanged labels are a matter of taste.
.It Em Ohang
Overhanging labels are nice when space is constrained.
.It Em Inset
Inset labels are useful for controlling blocks of
paragraphs and are valuable for converting
.Nm -mdoc
manuals to other formats.
.El
-column This list type generates multiple columns. The number of columns and the width of each column
is determined by the arguments to the -column list, ⟨string1⟩, ⟨string2⟩, etc. If ⟨stringN⟩
starts with a ‘.’ (dot) immediately followed by a valid -mdoc macro name, interpret ⟨stringN⟩
and use the width of the result. Otherwise, the width of ⟨stringN⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width
font) is taken as the Nth column width.
Each ‘.It’ argument is parsed to make a row, each column within the row is a separate argument
separated by a tab or the ‘.Ta’ macro.
The table:
String Nroff Troff
<= <= ≤
>= >= ≥
was produced by:
.Bl -column -offset indent ".Sy String" ".Sy Nroff" ".Sy Troff"
.It Sy String Ta Sy Nroff Ta Sy Troff
.It Li <= Ta <= Ta \*(<=
.It Li >= Ta >= Ta \*(>=
.El
Don't abuse this list type! For more complicated cases it might be far better and easier to use
tbl(1), the table preprocessor.
Other keywords:
-width ⟨string⟩ If ⟨string⟩ starts with a ‘.’ (dot) immediately followed by a valid -mdoc macro name,
interpret ⟨string⟩ and use the width of the result. Almost all lists in this document
use this option.
Example:
.Bl -tag -width ".Fl test Ao Ar string Ac"
.It Fl test Ao Ar string Ac
This is a longer sentence to show how the
.Fl width
flag works in combination with a tag list.
.El
gives:
-test ⟨string⟩ This is a longer sentence to show how the -width flag works in
combination with a tag list.
(Note that the current state of -mdoc is saved before ⟨string⟩ is interpreted;
afterwards, all variables are restored again. However, boxes (used for enclosures)
can't be saved in GNU troff(1); as a consequence, arguments must always be balanced to
avoid nasty errors. For example, do not write ‘.Ao Ar string’ but ‘.Ao Ar string Xc’
instead if you really need only an opening angle bracket.)
Otherwise, if ⟨string⟩ is a valid numeric expression (with a scale indicator other than
‘u’), use that value for indentation. The most useful scale indicators are ‘m’ and
‘n’, specifying the so-called Em and En square. This is approximately the width of the
letters ‘m’ and ‘n’ respectively of the current font (for nroff output, both scale
indicators give the same values). If ⟨string⟩ isn't a numeric expression, it is tested
whether it is an -mdoc macro name, and the default width value associated with this
macro is used. Finally, if all tests fail, the width of ⟨string⟩ (typeset with a
fixed-width font) is taken as the width.
If a width is not specified for the tag list type, ‘6n’ is used.
-offset ⟨string⟩ If ⟨string⟩ is indent, a default indent value (normally set to 6n, similar to the value
used in ‘.Dl’ or ‘.Bd’) is used. If ⟨string⟩ is a valid numeric expression instead
(with a scale indicator other than ‘u’), use that value for indentation. The most
useful scale indicators are ‘m’ and ‘n’, specifying the so-called Em and En square.
This is approximately the width of the letters ‘m’ and ‘n’ respectively of the current
font (for nroff output, both scale indicators give the same values). If ⟨string⟩ isn't
a numeric expression, it is tested whether it is an -mdoc macro name, and the default
offset value associated with this macro is used. Finally, if all tests fail, the width
of ⟨string⟩ (typeset with a fixed-width font) is taken as the offset.
-compact Suppress insertion of vertical space before the list and between list items.
MISCELLANEOUS MACROS
Here a list of the remaining macros which do not fit well into one of the above sections. We couldn't
find real examples for the following macros: ‘.Me’ and ‘.Ot’. They are documented here for completeness
- if you know how to use them properly please send a mail to groff@gnu.org (including an example).
.Bt prints
is currently in beta test.
It is neither callable nor parsed and takes no arguments.
.Fr
Usage: .Fr ⟨function return value⟩ ...
Don't use this macro. It allows a break right before the return value (usually a single digit)
which is bad typographical behaviour. Use ‘\~’ to tie the return value to the previous word.
.Hf Use this macro to include a (header) file literally. It first prints ‘File:’ followed by the file
name, then the contents of ⟨file⟩.
Usage: .Hf ⟨file⟩
It is neither callable nor parsed.
.Lk To be written.
.Me Exact usage unknown. The documentation in the -mdoc source file describes it as a macro for “menu
entries”.
Its default width is 6n.
.Mt To be written.
.Ot Exact usage unknown. The documentation in the -mdoc source file describes it as “old function type
(fortran)”.
.Sm Activate (toggle) space mode.
Usage: .Sm [on | off] ...
If space mode is off, no spaces between macro arguments are inserted. If called without a parameter
(or if the next parameter is neither ‘on’ nor ‘off’, ‘.Sm’ toggles space mode.
.Ud prints
currently under development.
It is neither callable nor parsed and takes no arguments.
PREDEFINED STRINGS
The following strings are predefined:
String Nroff Troff Meaning
<= <= ≤ less equal
>= >= ≥ greater equal
Rq '' ” right double quote
Lq `` “ left double quote
ua ^ ↑ upwards arrow
aa ´ ´ acute accent
ga ` ` grave accent
q " " straight double quote
Pi pi π greek pi
Ne != ≠ not equal
Le <= ≤ less equal
Ge >= ≥ greater equal
Lt < < less than
Gt > > greater than
Pm +- ± plus minus
If infinity ∞ infinity
Am & & ampersand
Na NaN NaN not a number
Ba | | vertical bar
The names of the columns Nroff and Troff are a bit misleading; Nroff shows the ASCII representation,
while Troff gives the best glyph form available. For example, a Unicode enabled TTY-device will have
proper glyph representations for all strings, whereas the enhancement for a Latin1 TTY-device is only the
plus-minus sign.
String names which consist of two characters can be written as ‘\*(xx’; string names which consist of one
character can be written as ‘\*x’. A generic syntax for a string name of any length is ‘\*[xxx]’ (this
is a GNU troff(1) extension).
DIAGNOSTICS
The debugging macro ‘.Db’ available in previous versions of -mdoc has been removed since GNU troff(1)
provides better facilities to check parameters; additionally, many error and warning messages have been
added to this macro package, making it both more robust and verbose.
The only remaining debugging macro is ‘.Rd’ which yields a register dump of all global registers and
strings. A normal user will never need it.
FORMATTING WITH GROFF, TROFF, AND NROFF
By default, the package inhibits page breaks, headers, and footers if displayed with a TTY device like
‘latin1’ or ‘unicode’, to make the manual more efficient for viewing on-line. This behaviour can be
changed (e.g. to create a hardcopy of the TTY output) by setting the register ‘cR’ to zero while calling
groff(1), resulting in multiple pages instead of a single, very long page:
groff -Tlatin1 -rcR=0 -mdoc foo.man > foo.txt
For double-sided printing, set register ‘D’ to 1:
groff -Tps -rD1 -mdoc foo.man > foo.ps
To change the document font size to 11pt or 12pt, set register ‘S’ accordingly:
groff -Tdvi -rS11 -mdoc foo.man > foo.dvi
Register ‘S’ is ignored for TTY devices.
The line and title length can be changed by setting the registers ‘LL’ and ‘LT’, respectively:
groff -Tutf8 -rLL=100n -rLT=100n -mdoc foo.man | less
If not set, both registers default to 78n for TTY devices and 6.5i otherwise.
FILES
doc.tmac The main manual macro package.
mdoc.tmac A wrapper file to call doc.tmac.
mdoc/doc-common Common strings, definitions, stuff related typographic output.
mdoc/doc-nroff Definitions used for a TTY output device.
mdoc/doc-ditroff Definitions used for all other devices.
mdoc.local Local additions and customizations.
andoc.tmac Use this file if you don't know whether the -mdoc or the -man package should be used.
Multiple man pages (in either format) can be handled.
SEE ALSO
groff(1), man(1), troff(1), groff_man(7)
BUGS
Section 3f has not been added to the header routines.
‘.Nm’ font should be changed in NAME section.
‘.Fn’ needs to have a check to prevent splitting up if the line length is too short. Occasionally it
separates the last parenthesis, and sometimes looks ridiculous if a line is in fill mode.
The list and display macros do not do any keeps and certainly should be able to.
Debian November 2, 2010 GROFF_MDOC(7)