.\" $OpenBSD: man.7,v 1.57 2020/02/18 17:31:23 schwarze Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Kristaps Dzonsons .\" Copyright (c) 2011-2015, 2017-2020 Ingo Schwarze .\" Copyright (c) 2017 Anthony Bentley .\" Copyright (c) 2010 Joerg Sonnenberger .\" .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. .\" .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: February 18 2020 $ .Dt MAN 7 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm man .Nd legacy formatting language for manual pages .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm man language was the standard formatting language for .At manual pages from 1979 to 1989. Do not use it to write new manual pages: it is a purely presentational language and lacks support for semantic markup. Use the .Xr mdoc 7 language, instead. .Pp In a .Nm document, lines beginning with the control character .Sq \&. are called .Dq macro lines . The first word is the macro name. It usually consists of two capital letters. For a list of portable macros, see .Sx MACRO OVERVIEW . The words following the macro name are arguments to the macro. .Pp Lines not beginning with the control character are called .Dq text lines . They provide free-form text to be printed; the formatting of the text depends on the respective processing context: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.SH Macro lines change control state. Text lines are interpreted within the current state. .Ed .Pp Many aspects of the basic syntax of the .Nm language are based on the .Xr roff 7 language; see the .Em LANGUAGE SYNTAX and .Em MACRO SYNTAX sections in the .Xr roff 7 manual for details, in particular regarding comments, escape sequences, whitespace, and quoting. .Pp Each .Nm document starts with the .Ic TH macro specifying the document's name and section, followed by the .Sx NAME section formatted as follows: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.TH PROGNAME 1 1979-01-10 \&.SH NAME \efBprogname\efR \e(en one line about what it does .Ed .Sh MACRO OVERVIEW This overview is sorted such that macros of similar purpose are listed together. Deprecated and non-portable macros are not included in the overview, but can be found in the alphabetical reference below. .Ss Page header and footer meta-data .Bl -column "RS, RE" description .It Ic TH Ta set the title: Ar name section date Op Ar source Op Ar volume .It Ic AT Ta display AT&T UNIX version in the page footer (<= 1 argument) .It Ic UC Ta display BSD version in the page footer (<= 1 argument) .El .Ss Sections and paragraphs .Bl -column "RS, RE" description .It Ic SH Ta section header (one line) .It Ic SS Ta subsection header (one line) .It Ic PP Ta start an undecorated paragraph (no arguments) .It Ic RS , RE Ta reset the left margin: Op Ar width .It Ic IP Ta indented paragraph: Op Ar head Op Ar width .It Ic TP Ta tagged paragraph: Op Ar width .It Ic PD Ta set vertical paragraph distance: Op Ar height .It Ic in Ta additional indent: Op Ar width .El .Ss Physical markup .Bl -column "RS, RE" description .It Ic B Ta boldface font .It Ic I Ta italic font .It Ic SB Ta small boldface font .It Ic SM Ta small roman font .It Ic BI Ta alternate between boldface and italic fonts .It Ic BR Ta alternate between boldface and roman fonts .It Ic IB Ta alternate between italic and boldface fonts .It Ic IR Ta alternate between italic and roman fonts .It Ic RB Ta alternate between roman and boldface fonts .It Ic RI Ta alternate between roman and italic fonts .El .Sh MACRO REFERENCE This section is a canonical reference to all macros, arranged alphabetically. For the scoping of individual macros, see .Sx MACRO SYNTAX . .Bl -tag -width 3n .It Ic AT Sets the volume for the footer for compatibility with man pages from .At releases. The optional arguments specify which release it is from. This macro is an extension that first appeared in .Bx 4.3 . .It Ic B Text is rendered in bold face. .It Ic BI Text is rendered alternately in bold face and italic. Thus, .Sq .BI this word and that causes .Sq this and .Sq and to render in bold face, while .Sq word and .Sq that render in italics. Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output. .Pp Example: .Pp .Dl \&.BI bold italic bold italic .It Ic BR Text is rendered alternately in bold face and roman (the default font). Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output. See also .Ic BI . .It Ic DT Restore the default tabulator positions. They are at intervals of 0.5 inches. This has no effect unless the tabulator positions were changed with the .Xr roff 7 .Ic ta request. .It Ic EE This is a non-standard Version 9 .At extension later adopted by GNU. In .Xr mandoc 1 , it does the same as the .Xr roff 7 .Ic fi request (switch to fill mode). .It Ic EX This is a non-standard Version 9 .At extension later adopted by GNU. In .Xr mandoc 1 , it does the same as the .Xr roff 7 .Ic nf request (switch to no-fill mode). .It Ic HP Begin a paragraph whose initial output line is left-justified, but subsequent output lines are indented, with the following syntax: .Pp .D1 Pf . Ic HP Op Ar width .Pp The .Ar width argument is a .Xr roff 7 scaling width. If specified, it's saved for later paragraph left margins; if unspecified, the saved or default width is used. .Pp This macro is portable, but deprecated because it has no good representation in HTML output, usually ending up indistinguishable from .Ic PP . .It Ic I Text is rendered in italics. .It Ic IB Text is rendered alternately in italics and bold face. Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output. See also .Ic BI . .It Ic IP Begin an indented paragraph with the following syntax: .Pp .D1 Pf . Ic IP Op Ar head Op Ar width .Pp The .Ar width argument is a .Xr roff 7 scaling width defining the left margin. It's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if unspecified, the saved or default width is used. .Pp The .Ar head argument is used as a leading term, flushed to the left margin. This is useful for bulleted paragraphs and so on. .It Ic IR Text is rendered alternately in italics and roman (the default font). Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output. See also .Ic BI . .It Ic LP A synonym for .Ic PP . .It Ic ME End a mailto block started with .Ic MT . This is a non-standard GNU extension. .It Ic MT Begin a mailto block. This is a non-standard GNU extension. It has the following syntax: .Bd -unfilled -offset indent .Pf . Ic MT Ar address link description to be shown .Pf . Ic ME .Ed .It Ic OP Optional command-line argument. This is a non-standard GNU extension. It has the following syntax: .Pp .D1 Pf . Ic OP Ar key Op Ar value .Pp The .Ar key is usually a command-line flag and .Ar value its argument. .It Ic P This synonym for .Ic PP is an .At III extension later adopted by .Bx 4.3 . .It Ic PD Specify the vertical space to be inserted before each new paragraph. .br The syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf . Ic PD Op Ar height .Pp The .Ar height argument is a .Xr roff 7 scaling width. It defaults to .Cm 1v . If the unit is omitted, .Cm v is assumed. .Pp This macro affects the spacing before any subsequent instances of .Ic HP , .Ic IP , .Ic LP , .Ic P , .Ic PP , .Ic SH , .Ic SS , .Ic SY , and .Ic TP . .It Ic PP Begin an undecorated paragraph. The scope of a paragraph is closed by a subsequent paragraph, sub-section, section, or end of file. The saved paragraph left-margin width is reset to the default. .It Ic RB Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and bold face. Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output. See also .Ic BI . .It Ic RE Explicitly close out the scope of a prior .Ic RS . The default left margin is restored to the state before that .Ic RS invocation. .Pp The syntax is as follows: .Pp .D1 Pf . Ic RE Op Ar level .Pp Without an argument, the most recent .Ic RS block is closed out. If .Ar level is 1, all open .Ic RS blocks are closed out. Otherwise, .Ar level No \(mi 1 nested .Ic RS blocks remain open. .It Ic RI Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and italics. Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output. See also .Ic BI . .It Ic RS Temporarily reset the default left margin. This has the following syntax: .Pp .D1 Pf . Ic RS Op Ar width .Pp The .Ar width argument is a .Xr roff 7 scaling width. If not specified, the saved or default width is used. .Pp See also .Ic RE . .It Ic SB Text is rendered in small size (one point smaller than the default font) bold face. This macro is an extension that probably first appeared in SunOS 4.0 and was later adopted by GNU and by .Bx 4.4 . .It Ic SH Begin a section. The scope of a section is only closed by another section or the end of file. The paragraph left-margin width is reset to the default. .It Ic SM Text is rendered in small size (one point smaller than the default font). .It Ic SS Begin a sub-section. The scope of a sub-section is closed by a subsequent sub-section, section, or end of file. The paragraph left-margin width is reset to the default. .It Ic SY Begin a synopsis block with the following syntax: .Bd -unfilled -offset indent .Pf . Ic SY Ar command .Ar arguments .Pf . Ic YS .Ed .Pp This is a non-standard GNU extension and very rarely used even in GNU manual pages. Formatting is similar to .Ic IP . .It Ic TH Set the name of the manual page for use in the page header and footer with the following syntax: .Pp .D1 Pf . Ic TH Ar name section date Op Ar source Op Ar volume .Pp Conventionally, the document .Ar name is given in all caps. The .Ar section is usually a single digit, in a few cases followed by a letter. The recommended .Ar date format is .Sy YYYY-MM-DD as specified in the ISO-8601 standard; if the argument does not conform, it is printed verbatim. If the .Ar date is empty or not specified, the current date is used. The optional .Ar source string specifies the organisation providing the utility. When unspecified, .Xr mandoc 1 uses its .Fl Ios argument. The .Ar volume string replaces the default volume title of the .Ar section . .Pp Examples: .Pp .Dl \&.TH CVS 5 "1992-02-12" GNU .It Ic TP Begin a paragraph where the head, if exceeding the indentation width, is followed by a newline; if not, the body follows on the same line after advancing to the indentation width. Subsequent output lines are indented. The syntax is as follows: .Bd -unfilled -offset indent .Pf . Ic TP Op Ar width .Ar head No \e" one line .Ar body .Ed .Pp The .Ar width argument is a .Xr roff 7 scaling width. If specified, it's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if unspecified, the saved or default width is used. .It Ic TQ Like .Ic TP , except that no vertical spacing is inserted before the paragraph. This is a non-standard GNU extension and very rarely used even in GNU manual pages. .It Ic UC Sets the volume for the footer for compatibility with man pages from .Bx releases. The optional first argument specifies which release it is from. This macro is an extension that first appeared in .Bx 3 . .It Ic UE End a uniform resource identifier block started with .Ic UR . This is a non-standard GNU extension. .It Ic UR Begin a uniform resource identifier block. This is a non-standard GNU extension. It has the following syntax: .Bd -unfilled -offset indent .Pf . Ic UR Ar uri link description to be shown .Pf . Ic UE .Ed .It Ic YS End a synopsis block started with .Ic SY . This is a non-standard GNU extension. .It Ic in Indent relative to the current indentation: .Pp .D1 Pf . Ic in Op Ar width .Pp If .Ar width is signed, the new offset is relative. Otherwise, it is absolute. This value is reset upon the next paragraph, section, or sub-section. .El .Sh MACRO SYNTAX The .Nm macros are classified by scope: line scope or block scope. Line macros are only scoped to the current line (and, in some situations, the subsequent line). Block macros are scoped to the current line and subsequent lines until closed by another block macro. .Ss Line Macros Line macros are generally scoped to the current line, with the body consisting of zero or more arguments. If a macro is scoped to the next line and the line arguments are empty, the next line, which must be text, is used instead. Thus: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.I foo .Ed .Pp is equivalent to .Sq .I foo . If next-line macros are invoked consecutively, only the last is used. If a next-line macro is followed by a non-next-line macro, an error is raised. .Pp The syntax is as follows: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.YO \(lBbody...\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB .Ed .Bl -column "MacroX" "ArgumentsX" "ScopeXXXXX" "CompatX" -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments Ta Em Scope Ta Em Notes .It Ic AT Ta <=1 Ta current Ta \& .It Ic B Ta n Ta next-line Ta \& .It Ic BI Ta n Ta current Ta \& .It Ic BR Ta n Ta current Ta \& .It Ic DT Ta 0 Ta current Ta \& .It Ic EE Ta 0 Ta current Ta Version 9 At .It Ic EX Ta 0 Ta current Ta Version 9 At .It Ic I Ta n Ta next-line Ta \& .It Ic IB Ta n Ta current Ta \& .It Ic IR Ta n Ta current Ta \& .It Ic OP Ta >=1 Ta current Ta GNU .It Ic PD Ta 1 Ta current Ta \& .It Ic RB Ta n Ta current Ta \& .It Ic RI Ta n Ta current Ta \& .It Ic SB Ta n Ta next-line Ta \& .It Ic SM Ta n Ta next-line Ta \& .It Ic TH Ta >1, <6 Ta current Ta \& .It Ic UC Ta <=1 Ta current Ta \& .It Ic in Ta 1 Ta current Ta Xr roff 7 .El .Ss Block Macros Block macros comprise a head and body. As with in-line macros, the head is scoped to the current line and, in one circumstance, the next line (the next-line stipulations as in .Sx Line Macros apply here as well). .Pp The syntax is as follows: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.YO \(lBhead...\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB .Ed .Pp The closure of body scope may be to the section, where a macro is closed by .Ic SH ; sub-section, closed by a section or .Ic SS ; or paragraph, closed by a section, sub-section, .Ic HP , .Ic IP , .Ic LP , .Ic P , .Ic PP , .Ic RE , .Ic SY , or .Ic TP . No closure refers to an explicit block closing macro. .Pp As a rule, block macros may not be nested; thus, calling a block macro while another block macro scope is open, and the open scope is not implicitly closed, is syntactically incorrect. .Bl -column "MacroX" "ArgumentsX" "Head ScopeX" "sub-sectionX" "compatX" -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Arguments Ta Em Head Scope Ta Em Body Scope Ta Em Notes .It Ic HP Ta <2 Ta current Ta paragraph Ta \& .It Ic IP Ta <3 Ta current Ta paragraph Ta \& .It Ic LP Ta 0 Ta current Ta paragraph Ta \& .It Ic ME Ta 0 Ta none Ta none Ta GNU .It Ic MT Ta 1 Ta current Ta to \&ME Ta GNU .It Ic P Ta 0 Ta current Ta paragraph Ta \& .It Ic PP Ta 0 Ta current Ta paragraph Ta \& .It Ic RE Ta <=1 Ta current Ta none Ta \& .It Ic RS Ta 1 Ta current Ta to \&RE Ta \& .It Ic SH Ta >0 Ta next-line Ta section Ta \& .It Ic SS Ta >0 Ta next-line Ta sub-section Ta \& .It Ic SY Ta 1 Ta current Ta to \&YS Ta GNU .It Ic TP Ta n Ta next-line Ta paragraph Ta \& .It Ic TQ Ta n Ta next-line Ta paragraph Ta GNU .It Ic UE Ta 0 Ta current Ta none Ta GNU .It Ic UR Ta 1 Ta current Ta part Ta GNU .It Ic YS Ta 0 Ta none Ta none Ta GNU .El .Pp If a block macro is next-line scoped, it may only be followed by in-line macros for decorating text. .Ss Font handling In .Nm documents, both .Sx Physical markup macros and .Xr roff 7 .Ql \ef font escape sequences can be used to choose fonts. In text lines, the effect of manual font selection by escape sequences only lasts until the next macro invocation; in macro lines, it only lasts until the end of the macro scope. Note that macros like .Ic BR open and close a font scope for each argument. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr man 1 , .Xr mandoc 1 , .Xr eqn 7 , .Xr mandoc_char 7 , .Xr mdoc 7 , .Xr roff 7 , .Xr tbl 7 .Sh HISTORY The .Nm language first appeared as a macro package for the roff typesetting system in .At v7 . It was later rewritten by James Clark as a macro package for groff. Eric S. Raymond wrote the extended .Nm macros for groff in 2007. The stand-alone implementation that is part of the .Xr mandoc 1 utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in .Ox 4.6 . .Sh AUTHORS This .Nm reference was written by .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .