mdoc
—
semantic markup language for formatting manual
pages
The
mdoc
language supports authoring of
manual pages for the
man(1) utility by allowing
semantic annotations of words, phrases, page sections and complete manual
pages. Such annotations are used by formatting tools to achieve a uniform
presentation across all manuals written in
mdoc
, and to support hyperlinking if
supported by the output medium.
This reference document describes the structure of manual pages and the syntax
and usage of the
mdoc
language. The
reference implementation of a parsing and formatting tool is
mandoc(1); the
COMPATIBILITY section
describes compatibility with other implementations.
In an
mdoc
document, lines beginning with the
control character ‘.’ are called “macro lines”.
The first word is the macro name. It consists of two or three letters. Most
macro names begin with a capital letter. For a list of available macros, see
MACRO OVERVIEW. The words
following the macro name are arguments to the macro, optionally including the
names of other, callable macros; see
MACRO SYNTAX for details.
Lines not beginning with the control character are called “text
lines”. They provide free-form text to be printed; the formatting of
the text depends on the respective processing context:
.Sh Macro lines change control state.
Text lines are interpreted within the current state.
Many aspects of the basic syntax of the
mdoc
language are based on the
mandoc_roff(5)
language; see the
LANGUAGE SYNTAX and
MACRO SYNTAX sections in the
mandoc_roff(5) manual for details, in particular
regarding comments, escape sequences, whitespace, and quoting. However, using
mandoc_roff(5) requests in
mdoc
documents is discouraged;
mandoc(1) supports some of them merely for
backward compatibility.
A well-formed
mdoc
document consists of a
document prologue followed by one or more sections.
The prologue, which consists of the
Dd,
Dt, and
Os macros in that order, is required
for every document.
The first section (sections are denoted by
Sh) must be the NAME section,
consisting of at least one
Nm followed
by
Nd.
Following that, convention dictates specifying at least the
SYNOPSIS and
DESCRIPTION sections, although this varies
between manual sections.
The following is a well-formed skeleton
mdoc
file for a utility “progname”:
.Dd Jan 1, 1970
.Dt PROGNAME section
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm progname
.Nd one line about what it does
.\" .Sh LIBRARY
.\" For sections 2, 3, and 9 only.
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm progname
.Op Fl options
.Ar
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility processes files ...
.\" .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
.\" .Sh RETURN VALUES
.\" For sections 2, 3, and 9 only.
.\" .Sh CONTEXT
.\" For section 9 functions only.
.\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT
.\" For sections 1, 1M, and 5.
.\" .Sh FILES
.\" .Sh EXIT STATUS
.\" For sections 1, 1M, and 5.
.\" .Sh EXAMPLES
.\" .Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.\" .Sh ERRORS
.\" For sections 2, 3, and 9 only.
.\" .Sh ARCHITECTURE
.\" .Sh CODE SET INDEPENDENCE
.\" For sections 1, 1M, and 3 only.
.\" .Sh INTERFACE STABILITY
.\" .Sh MT-LEVEL
.\" For sections 2 and 3 only.
.\" .Sh SECURITY
.\" .Sh SEE ALSO
.\" .Xr foobar 1
.\" .Sh STANDARDS
.\" .Sh HISTORY
.\" .Sh AUTHORS
.\" .Sh CAVEATS
.\" .Sh BUGS
The sections in an
mdoc
document are
conventionally ordered as they appear above. Sections should be composed as
follows:
- NAME
- The name(s) and a one line description of the documented material. The
syntax for this as follows:
.Nm name0 ,
.Nm name1 ,
.Nm name2
.Nd a one line description
Multiple ‘Nm’ names should be separated by commas.
The Nm macro(s) must precede the
Nd macro.
See Nm and
Nd.
- LIBRARY
- The name of the library containing the documented material, which is
assumed to be a function in a section 2, 3, or 9 manual. The syntax for
this is as follows:
See Lb.
- SYNOPSIS
- Documents the utility invocation syntax, function call syntax, or device
configuration.
For the first, utilities (sections 1 and 1M), this is generally structured
as follows:
.Nm bar
.Op Fl v
.Op Fl o Ar file
.Op Ar
.Nm foo
.Op Fl v
.Op Fl o Ar file
.Op Ar
Commands should be ordered alphabetically.
For the second, function calls (sections 2, 3, 7I, 7P, 9):
.In header.h
.Vt extern const char *global;
.Ft "char *"
.Fn foo "const char *src"
.Ft "char *"
.Fn bar "const char *src"
Ordering of In,
Vt,
Fn, and
Fo macros should follow C
header-file conventions.
And for the third, configurations (section 7D):
Manuals not in these sections generally don't need a
SYNOPSIS.
Some macros are displayed differently in the
SYNOPSIS section, particularly
Nm,
Cd,
Fd,
Fn,
Fo,
In,
Vt, and
Ft. All of these macros are output
on their own line. If two such dissimilar macros are pairwise invoked
(except for Ft before
Fo or
Fn), they are separated by a
vertical space, unless in the case of
Fo,
Fn, and
Ft, which are always separated by
vertical space.
When text and macros following an Nm
macro starting an input line span multiple output lines, all output lines
but the first will be indented to align with the text immediately
following the Nm macro, up to the
next Nm,
Sh, or
Ss macro or the end of an
enclosing block, whichever comes first.
- DESCRIPTION
- This begins with an expansion of the brief, one line description in
NAME:
The
.Nm
utility does this, that, and the other.
It usually follows with a breakdown of the options (if documenting a
command), such as:
The arguments are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl v
Print verbose information.
.El
List the options in alphabetical order, uppercase before lowercase for each
letter and with no regard to whether an option takes an argument. Put
digits in ascending order before all letter options.
Manuals not documenting a command won't include the above fragment.
Since the DESCRIPTION section usually contains
most of the text of a manual, longer manuals often use the
Ss macro to form subsections. In
very long manuals, the DESCRIPTION may be
split into multiple sections, each started by an
Sh macro followed by a
non-standard section name, and each having several subsections, like in
the present mdoc
manual.
- IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
- Implementation-specific notes should be kept here. This is useful when
implementing standard functions that may have side effects or notable
algorithmic implications.
- RETURN VALUES
- This section documents the return values of functions in sections 2, 3,
and 9.
See Rv.
- CONTEXT
- This section lists the contexts in which functions can be called in
section 9. The contexts are user, kernel, or interrupt.
- ENVIRONMENT
- Lists the environment variables used by the utility, and explains the
syntax and semantics of their values. The
environ(5) manual provides examples of
typical content and formatting.
See Ev.
- FILES
- Documents files used. It's helpful to document both the file name and a
short description of how the file is used (created, modified, etc.).
See Pa.
- EXIT STATUS
- This section documents the command exit status for sections 1 and 1M.
Historically, this information was described in
DIAGNOSTICS, a practise that is now
discouraged.
See Ex.
- EXAMPLES
- Example usages. This often contains snippets of well-formed, well-tested
invocations. Make sure that examples work properly!
- DIAGNOSTICS
- Documents error and diagnostic messages displayed to the user or sent to
logs. Note that exit status and return values should be documented in the
EXIT STATUS and
RETURN VALUES sections.
See Bl
-diag
.
- ERRORS
- Documents error handling in sections 2, 3, and 9.
See Er.
- ARCHITECTURE
- This section is usually absent, but will be present when the interface is
specific to one or more architectures.
- CODE SET INDEPENDENCE
- Indicates whether the interface operates correctly with various different
code sets. True independent code sets will support not only ASCII and
Extended UNIX Codesets (EUC), but also other multi-byte encodings such as
UTF-8 and GB2312.
Generally there will be some limitations that are fairly standard. See
standards(5) for more information about some
of these. Most interfaces should support at least UTF-8 in addition to
ASCII.
- INTERFACE STABILITY
- Indicates the level of commitment to the interface. Interfaces can be
described with in the following ways:
-
-
Standard
- Indicates that the interface is defined by one or more standards
bodies. Generally, changes to the interface will be carefully managed
to conform to the relevant standards. These interfaces are generally
the most suitable for use in portable programs.
-
-
Committed
- Indicates that the interface is intended to be preserved for the
long-haul, and will rarely, if ever change, and never without
notification (barring extraordinary and extenuating circumstances).
These interfaces are preferred over other interfaces with the
exeception of
Standard
interfaces.
-
-
Uncommitted
- Indicates that the interface may change. Generally, changes to these
interfaces should be infrequent, and some effort will be made to
address compatibility considerations when changing or removing such
interfaces. However, there is no firm commitment to the preservation
of the interface. Most often this is applied to interfaces where
operational experience with the interface is still limited and some
need to change may be anticipated.
Consumers should expect to revalidate any
Uncommitted
interfaces when
crossing release boundaries. Products intended for use on many
releases or intended to support compatibility with future releases
should avoid these interfaces.
-
-
Volatile
- The interface can change at any time for any reason. Often this
relates to interfaces that are part of external software components
that are still evolving rapidly. Consumers should not expect that the
interface (either binary or source level) will be unchanged from one
release to the next.
-
-
Not-an-Interface
- Describes something that is specifically not intended for programmatic
consumption. For example, specific human-readable output, or the
layout of graphical items on a user interface, may be described this
way. Generally programmatic alternatives to these will be available,
and should be used when programmatic consumption is needed.
-
-
Private
- This is an internal interface. Generally these interfaces should only
be used within the project, and should not be used by other programs
or modules. The interface can and will change without notice as the
project needs, at any time.
Most often, Private interfaces will lack any documentation whatsoever,
and generally any undocumented interface can be assumed to be
Private.
-
-
Obsolete
- The interface is not intended for use in new projects or programs, and
may be removed at a future date. The
Obsolete
word is a modifier that
can be applied to other commitment levels. For example an
Obsolete Committed
interface is
unlikely to be removed or changed, but nonetheless new use is
discouraged (perhaps a better newer alternative is present).
- MT-LEVEL
- This section describes considerations for the interface when used within
programs that use multiple threads. More discussion of these
considerations is made in the MT-Level section of
attributes(5). The interface can be described
in the following ways.
-
-
Safe
- Indicates the interface is safe for use within multiple threads. There
may be additional caveats that apply, in which case those will be
described. Note that some interfaces have semantics which may affect
other threads, but these should be an intrinsic part of the interface
rather than an unexpected side effect. For example, closing a file in
one thread will cause that file to be closed in all threads.
-
-
Unsafe
- Indicates the interface is unsuitable for concurrent use within
multiple threads. A threaded application may still make use of the
interface, but will be required to provide external synchronization
means to ensure that only a single thread calls the interface at a
time.
-
-
MT-Safe
- Indicates that the interface is not only safe for concurrent use, but
is designed for such use. For example, a
Safe
interface may make use of a
global lock to provide safety, but at reduced internal concurrency,
whereas an MT-Safe
interface will
be designed to be efficient even when used concurrently.
-
-
Async-Signal-Safe
- Indicates that the library is safe for use within a signal handler. An
MT-Safe
interface can be made
Async-Signal-Safe
by ensuring that
it blocks signals when acquiring locks.
-
-
Safe with Exceptions
- As for
Safe
but with specific
exceptions noted.
-
-
MT-Safe with Exceptions
- As for
MT-Safe
but with specific
exceptions noted.
- SECURITY
- Documents any security precautions that operators should consider.
- SEE ALSO
- References other manuals with related topics. This section should exist
for most manuals. Cross-references should conventionally be ordered first
by section, then alphabetically (ignoring case).
References to other documentation concerning the topic of the manual page,
for example authoritative books or journal articles, may also be provided
in this section.
See Rs and
Xr.
- STANDARDS
- References any standards implemented or used. If not adhering to any
standards, the HISTORY section should be used
instead.
See St.
- HISTORY
- A brief history of the subject, including where it was first implemented,
and when it was ported to or reimplemented for the operating system at
hand.
- AUTHORS
- Credits to the person or persons who wrote the code and/or documentation.
Authors should generally be noted by both name and email address.
See An.
- CAVEATS
- Common misuses and misunderstandings should be explained in this
section.
- BUGS
- Known bugs, limitations, and work-arounds should be described in this
section.
This overview is sorted such that macros of similar purpose are listed together,
to help find the best macro for any given purpose. Deprecated macros are not
included in the overview, but can be found below in the alphabetical
MACRO REFERENCE.
Dd |
document date: month day,
year |
Dt |
document title: TITLE SECTION
[ arch ] |
Os |
operating system version:
[] |
Nm |
document name (one argument) |
Nd |
document description (one line) |
Sh |
section header (one line) |
Ss |
subsection header (one line) |
Sx |
internal cross reference to a section or subsection |
Xr |
cross reference to another manual page: name
section |
Pp,
Lp |
start a text paragraph (no arguments) |
Bd,
Ed |
display block:
- type
[-offset
width ]
[-compact ] |
D1 |
indented display (one line) |
Dl |
indented literal display (one line) |
Ql |
in-line literal display:
‘text ’ |
Bl,
El |
list block:
- type
[-width
val ]
[-offset
val ]
[-compact ] |
It |
list item (syntax depends on
- type) |
Ta |
table cell separator in Bl
-column
lists |
Rs,
%*,
Re |
bibliographic block (references) |
Pf |
prefix, no following horizontal space (one argument) |
Ns |
roman font, no preceding horizontal space (no arguments) |
Ap |
apostrophe without surrounding whitespace (no arguments) |
Sm |
switch horizontal spacing mode:
[ on |
off ] |
Bk,
Ek |
keep block: -words |
Nm |
start a SYNOPSIS block with the name of a utility |
Fl |
command line options (flags) (>=0 arguments) |
Cm |
command modifier (>0 arguments) |
Ar |
command arguments (>=0 arguments) |
Op,
Oo,
Oc |
optional syntax elements (enclosure) |
Ic |
internal or interactive command (>0 arguments) |
Ev |
environmental variable (>0 arguments) |
Pa |
file system path (>=0 arguments) |
Lb |
function library (one argument) |
In |
include file (one argument) |
Fd |
other preprocessor directive (>0 arguments) |
Ft |
function type (>0 arguments) |
Fo,
Fc |
function block: funcname |
Fn |
function name:
[ functype ]
funcname
[] |
Fa |
function argument (>0 arguments) |
Vt |
variable type (>0 arguments) |
Va |
variable name (>0 arguments) |
Dv |
defined variable or preprocessor constant (>0 arguments) |
Er |
error constant (>0 arguments) |
Ev |
environmental variable (>0 arguments) |
An |
author name (>0 arguments) |
Lk |
hyperlink: uri
[ name ] |
Mt |
“mailto” hyperlink:
address |
Cd |
kernel configuration declaration (>0 arguments) |
Ad |
memory address (>0 arguments) |
Ms |
mathematical symbol (>0 arguments) |
Em |
italic font or underline (emphasis) (>0 arguments) |
Sy |
boldface font (symbolic) (>0 arguments) |
Li |
typewriter font (literal) (>0 arguments) |
No |
return to roman font (normal) (no arguments) |
Bf,
Ef |
font block:
[ - type
| Em |
Li |
Sy ] |
Dq,
Do,
Dc |
enclose in typographic double quotes: “text” |
Qq,
Qo,
Qc |
enclose in typewriter double quotes: “text” |
Sq,
So,
Sc |
enclose in single quotes: ‘text’ |
Pq,
Po,
Pc |
enclose in parentheses: (text) |
Bq,
Bo,
Bc |
enclose in square brackets: [text] |
Brq,
Bro,
Brc |
enclose in curly braces: {text} |
Aq,
Ao,
Ac |
enclose in angle brackets: ⟨text⟩ |
Eo,
Ec |
generic enclosure |
Ex
-std |
standard command exit values:
[ utility ... ] |
Rv
-std |
standard function return values:
[ function ... ] |
St |
reference to a standards document (one argument) |
At |
AT&T UNIX |
Bx |
BSD |
Bsx |
BSD/OS |
Nx |
NetBSD |
Fx |
FreeBSD |
Ox |
OpenBSD |
Dx |
DragonFly |
This section is a canonical reference of all macros, arranged alphabetically.
For the scoping of individual macros, see
MACRO SYNTAX.
Author name of an
Rs block. Multiple
authors should each be accorded their own
%A line. Author names should be
ordered with full or abbreviated forename(s) first, then full surname.
Book title of an
Rs block. This macro
may also be used in a non-bibliographic context when referring to book titles.
Publication city or location of an
Rs
block.
Publication date of an
Rs block.
Recommended formats of arguments are
month
day,
year or just
year.
Publisher or issuer name of an
Rs block.
Journal name of an
Rs block.
Issue number (usually for journals) of an
Rs block.
Optional information of an
Rs block.
Book or journal page number of an
Rs
block.
Institutional author (school, government, etc.) of an
Rs block. Multiple institutional
authors should each be accorded their own
%Q line.
Technical report name of an
Rs block.
Article title of an
Rs block. This macro
may also be used in a non-bibliographical context when referring to article
titles.
URI of reference document.
Volume number of an
Rs block.
Close an
Ao block. Does not have any
tail arguments.
Memory address. Do not use this for postal addresses.
Examples:
.Ad [0,$]
.Ad 0x00000000
Author name. Can be used both for the authors of the program, function, or
driver documented in the manual, or for the authors of the manual itself.
Requires either the name of an author or one of the following arguments:
-split
- Start a new output line before each subsequent invocation of
An.
-nosplit
- The opposite of
-split
.
The default is
-nosplit
. The effect of
selecting either of the
-split
modes ends
at the beginning of the
AUTHORS section. In the
AUTHORS section, the default is
-nosplit
for the first author listing and
-split
for all other author listings.
Examples:
.An -nosplit
.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt
kristaps@bsd.lv
Begin a block enclosed by angle brackets. Does not have any head arguments. This
macro is almost never useful. See
Aq
for more details.
Inserts an apostrophe without any surrounding whitespace. This is generally used
as a grammatical device when referring to the verb form of a function.
Examples:
.Fn execve Ap d
Encloses its arguments in angle brackets. The only important use case is for
email addresses. See
Mt for an
example.
Occasionally, it is used for names of characters and keys, for example:
Press the
.Aq escape
key to ...
For URIs, use
Lk instead, and
In for “#include”
directives. Never wrap
Ar in
Aq.
Since
Aq usually renders with non-ASCII
characters in non-ASCII output modes, do not use it where the ASCII characters
‘<’ and ‘>’ are required as syntax elements.
Instead, use these characters directly in such cases, combining them with the
macros
Pf,
Ns, or
Eo as needed.
See also
Ao.
Command arguments. If an argument is not provided, the string “file
...” is used as a default.
Examples:
.Fl o Ar file
.Ar
.Ar arg1 , arg2 .
The arguments to the
Ar macro are names
and placeholders for command arguments; for fixed strings to be passed
verbatim as arguments, use
Fl or
Cm.
Formats an
AT&T UNIX version. Accepts one optional
argument:
v[1-7]
|
32v
- A version of AT&T UNIX.
III
- AT&T System III UNIX.
V
|
V.[1-4]
- A version of AT&T System V UNIX.
Note that these arguments do not begin with a hyphen.
Examples:
.At
.At III
.At V.1
See also
Bsx,
Bx,
Dx,
Fx,
Nx, and
Ox.
Close a
Bo block. Does not have any tail
arguments.
Begin a display block. Its syntax is as follows:
.
Bd
-
type
[
-offset
width
]
[
-compact
]
Display blocks are used to select a different indentation and justification than
the one used by the surrounding text. They may contain both macro lines and
text lines. By default, a display block is preceded by a vertical space.
The
type must be one of the following:
-
-
-centered
- Produce one output line from each input line, and center-justify each
line. Using this display type is not recommended; many
mdoc
implementations render it
poorly.
-
-
-filled
- Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left- and
right-justify the resulting block.
-
-
-literal
- Produce one output line from each input line, and do not justify the block
at all. Preserve white space as it appears in the input. Always use a
constant-width font. Use this for displaying source code.
-
-
-ragged
- Change the positions of line breaks to fill each line, and left-justify
the resulting block.
-
-
-unfilled
- The same as
-literal
, but using the
same font as for normal text, which is a variable width font if supported
by the output device.
The
type must be provided first. Additional
arguments may follow:
-
-
-offset
width
- Indent the display by the width, which
may be one of the following:
- One of the pre-defined strings
indent
, the width of a standard
indentation (six constant width characters);
indent-two
, twice
indent
;
left
, which has no effect;
right
, which justifies to the right
margin; or center
, which aligns
around an imagined center axis.
- A macro invocation, which selects a predefined width associated with
that macro. The most popular is the imaginary macro
Ds, which resolves to
6n.
- A scaling width as described in
mandoc_roff(5).
- An arbitrary string, which indents by the length of this string.
When the argument is missing, -offset
is
ignored.
-
-
-compact
- Do not assert vertical space before the display.
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
Hello world.
.Ed
See also
D1 and
Dl.
Change the font mode for a scoped block of text. Its syntax is as follows:
.
Bf
[
-emphasis
|
-literal
|
-symbolic
|
Em
| Li
| Sy
]
The
-emphasis
and
Em
argument are equivalent, as are
-symbolic
and
Sy
, and
-literal
and
Li
. Without an argument, this macro does
nothing. The font mode continues until broken by a new font mode in a nested
scope or
Ef is encountered.
See also
Li,
Ef,
Em, and
Sy.
For each macro, keep its output together on the same output line, until the end
of the macro or the end of the input line is reached, whichever comes first.
Line breaks in text lines are unaffected. The syntax is as follows:
The
-words
argument is required; additional
arguments are ignored.
The following example will not break within each
Op macro line:
.Bk -words
.Op Fl f Ar flags
.Op Fl o Ar output
.Ek
Be careful in using over-long lines within a keep block! Doing so will clobber
the right margin.
Begin a list. Lists consist of items specified using the
It macro, containing a head or a body
or both. The list syntax is as follows:
.
Bl
-
type
[
-width
val
]
[
-offset
val
]
[
-compact
]
[
HEAD ...
]
The list
type is mandatory and must be
specified first. The
-width
and
-offset
arguments accept macro names as
described for
Bd
-offset
, scaling widths as described in
mandoc_roff(5), or use the length of the given
string. The
-offset
is a global indentation
for the whole list, affecting both item heads and bodies. For those list types
supporting it, the
-width
argument requests
an additional indentation of item bodies, to be added to the
-offset
. Unless the
-compact
argument is specified, list
entries are separated by vertical space.
A list must specify one of the following list types:
-
-
-bullet
- No item heads can be specified, but a bullet will be printed at the head
of each item. Item bodies start on the same output line as the bullet and
are indented according to the
-width
argument.
-
-
-column
- A columnated list. The
-width
argument
has no effect; instead, the string length of each argument specifies the
width of one column. If the first line of the body of a
-column
list is not an
It macro line,
It contexts spanning one input
line each are implied until an It
macro line is encountered, at which point items start being interpreted as
described in the It
documentation.
-
-
-dash
- Like
-bullet
, except that dashes are
used in place of bullets.
-
-
-diag
- Like
-inset
, except that item heads are
not parsed for macro invocations. Most often used in the
DIAGNOSTICS section with error constants in
the item heads.
-
-
-enum
- A numbered list. No item heads can be specified. Formatted like
-bullet
, except that cardinal numbers
are used in place of bullets, starting at 1.
-
-
-hang
- Like
-tag
, except that the first lines
of item bodies are not indented, but follow the item heads like in
-inset
lists.
-
-
-hyphen
- Synonym for
-dash
.
-
-
-inset
- Item bodies follow items heads on the same line, using normal inter-word
spacing. Bodies are not indented, and the
-width
argument is ignored.
-
-
-item
- No item heads can be specified, and none are printed. Bodies are not
indented, and the
-width
argument is
ignored.
-
-
-ohang
- Item bodies start on the line following item heads and are not indented.
The
-width
argument is ignored.
-
-
-tag
- Item bodies are indented according to the
-width
argument. When an item head fits
inside the indentation, the item body follows this head on the same output
line. Otherwise, the body starts on the output line following the
head.
Lists may be nested within lists and displays. Nesting of
-column
and
-enum
lists may not be portable.
See also
El and
It.
Begin a block enclosed by square brackets. Does not have any head arguments.
Examples:
See also
Bq.
Encloses its arguments in square brackets.
Examples:
.Bq 1, Dv BUFSIZ
Remarks: this macro is sometimes abused to emulate
optional arguments for commands; the correct macros to use for this purpose
are
Op,
Oo, and
Oc.
See also
Bo.
Close a
Bro block. Does not have any
tail arguments.
Begin a block enclosed by curly braces. Does not have any head arguments.
Examples:
See also
Brq.
Encloses its arguments in curly braces.
Examples:
.Brq 1, ..., Va n
See also
Bro.
Format the
BSD/OS version provided as an argument, or a
default value if no argument is provided.
Examples:
.Bsx 1.0
.Bsx
See also
At,
Bx,
Dx,
Fx,
Nx, and
Ox.
Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints
“is currently in beta test.”
Format the
BSD version provided as an argument, or a
default value if no argument is provided.
Examples:
.Bx 4.3 Tahoe
.Bx 4.4
.Bx
See also
At,
Bsx,
Dx,
Fx,
Nx, and
Ox.
Kernel configuration declaration. It is found in pages for
BSD and not used here.
Examples:
.Cd device le0 at scode?
Remarks: this macro is commonly abused by using
quoted literals to retain whitespace and align consecutive
Cd declarations. This practise is
discouraged.
Command modifiers. Typically used for fixed strings passed as arguments, unless
Fl is more appropriate. Also useful
when specifying configuration options or keys.
Examples:
.Nm mt Fl f Ar device Cm
rewind
.Nm ps Fl o Cm pid , Ns Cm
command
.Nm dd Cm if= Ns Ar file1 Cm of= Ns
Ar file2
.Cm IdentityFile Pa
~/.ssh/id_rsa
.Cm LogLevel Dv DEBUG
One-line indented display. This is formatted by the default rules and is useful
for simple indented statements. It is followed by a newline.
Examples:
.D1 Fl abcdefgh
See also
Bd and
Dl.
This macro is obsolete. No replacement is needed. It is ignored by
mandoc(1) and groff including its arguments. It
was formerly used to toggle a debugging mode.
Close a
Do block. Does not have any tail
arguments.
Document date for display in the page footer. This is the mandatory first macro
of any
mdoc
manual. Its syntax is as
follows:
The
month is the full English month name, the
day is an integer number, and the
year is the full four-digit year.
Other arguments are not portable; the
mandoc(1)
utility handles them as follows:
- To have the date automatically filled in by the
OpenBSD version of
cvs(1), the special string
“$Mdocdate$” can be given as an argument.
- The traditional, purely numeric man(5) format
year–month–day
is accepted, too.
- If a date string cannot be parsed, it is used verbatim.
- If no date string is given, the current date is used.
Examples:
.Dd $Mdocdate$
.Dd $Mdocdate: July 2
2018$
.Dd July 2, 2018
See also
Dt and
Os.
One-line indented display. This is formatted as literal text and is useful for
commands and invocations. It is followed by a newline.
Examples:
.Dl % mandoc mdoc.5 \(ba
less
See also
Ql,
Bd
-literal
, and
D1.
Begin a block enclosed by double quotes. Does not have any head arguments.
Examples:
.Do
April is the cruellest month
.Dc
\(em T.S. Eliot
See also
Dq.
Encloses its arguments in “typographic” double-quotes.
Examples:
.Dq April is the cruellest month
\(em T.S. Eliot
See also
Qq,
Sq, and
Do.
Document title for display in the page header. This is the mandatory second
macro of any
mdoc
file. Its syntax is as
follows:
Its arguments are as follows:
-
-
- TITLE
- The document's title (name), defaulting to “UNTITLED” if
unspecified. To achieve a uniform appearance of page header lines, it
should by convention be all caps.
-
-
- SECTION
- The manual section. It should correspond to the manual's filename suffix
and defaults to the empty string if unspecified. This field is optional.
To achieve a uniform appearance of page header lines, it should by
convention be all caps.
-
-
- arch
- This specifies the machine architecture a manual page applies to, where
relevant.
Defined variables such as preprocessor constants, constant symbols, enumeration
values, and so on.
Examples:
.Dv NULL
.Dv BUFSIZ
.Dv STDOUT_FILENO
See also
Er and
Ev for special-purpose constants,
Va for variable symbols, and
Fd for listing preprocessor variable
definitions in the
SYNOPSIS.
Format the
DragonFly version provided as an argument, or
a default value if no argument is provided.
Examples:
.Dx 2.4.1
.Dx
See also
At,
Bsx,
Bx,
Fx,
Nx, and
Ox.
Close a scope started by
Eo. Its syntax
is as follows:
The
TERM argument is used as the enclosure
tail, for example, specifying \(rq will emulate
Dc.
End a display context started by
Bd.
End a font mode context started by
Bf.
End a keep context started by
Bk.
End a list context started by
Bl.
See also
Bl and
It.
Request an italic font. If the output device does not provide that, underline.
This is most often used for stress emphasis (not to be confused with importance,
see
Sy). In the rare cases where none
of the semantic markup macros fit, it can also be used for technical terms and
placeholders, except that for syntax elements,
Sy and
Ar are preferred, respectively.
Examples:
Selected lines are those
.Em not
matching any of the specified patterns.
Some of the functions use a
.Em hold space
to save the pattern space for subsequent retrieval.
See also
Bf,
Li,
No, and
Sy.
This macro is obsolete. Use
Eo or any of
the other enclosure macros.
It encloses its argument in the delimiters specified by the last
Es macro.
An arbitrary enclosure. Its syntax is as follows:
The
TERM argument is used as the enclosure
head, for example, specifying \(lq will emulate
Do.
Error constants for definitions of the
errno
libc global variable. This is most often used in section 2 and 3 manual pages.
Examples:
.Er EPERM
.Er ENOENT
See also
Dv for general constants.
This macro is obsolete. Use
Eo or any of
the other enclosure macros.
It takes two arguments, defining the delimiters to be used by subsequent
En macros.
Environmental variables such as those specified in
environ(5).
Examples:
.Ev DISPLAY
.Ev PATH
See also
Dv for general constants.
Insert a standard sentence regarding command exit values of 0 on success and
>0 on failure. This is most often used in section 1 and 1M manual pages.
Its syntax is as follows:
If
utility is not specified, the document's
name set by
Nm is used. Multiple
utility arguments are treated as separate
utilities.
See also
Rv.
Function argument or parameter. Its syntax is as follows:
.
Fa
“[
argtype
]
[
argname
]”
...
Each argument may be a name and a type (recommended for the
SYNOPSIS section), a name alone (for function
invocations), or a type alone (for function prototypes). If both a type and a
name are given or if the type consists of multiple words, all words belonging
to the same function argument have to be given in a single argument to the
Fa macro.
This macro is also used to specify the field name of a structure.
Most often, the
Fa macro is used in the
SYNOPSIS within
Fo blocks when documenting multi-line
function prototypes. If invoked with multiple arguments, the arguments are
separated by a comma. Furthermore, if the following macro is another
Fa, the last argument will also have a
trailing comma.
Examples:
.Fa "const char
*p"
.Fa "int a" "int
b" "int c"
.Fa "char *"
size_t
See also
Fo.
End a function context started by
Fo.
Preprocessor directive, in particular for listing it in the
SYNOPSIS. Historically, it was also used to
document include files. The latter usage has been deprecated in favour of
In.
Its syntax is as follows:
.
Fd
#
directive
[
argument ...
]
Examples:
.Fd #define sa_handler
__sigaction_u.__sa_handler
.Fd #define SIO_MAXNFDS
.Fd #ifdef FS_DEBUG
.Ft void
.Fn dbg_open "const char
*"
.Fd #endif
See also
MANUAL STRUCTURE,
In, and
Dv.
Command-line flag or option. Used when listing arguments to command-line
utilities. Prints a fixed-width hyphen ‘-’ directly followed by
each argument. If no arguments are provided, a hyphen is printed followed by a
space. If the argument is a macro, a hyphen is prefixed to the subsequent
macro output.
Examples:
.Fl R Op Fl H | L | P
.Op Fl
1AaCcdFfgHhikLlmnopqRrSsTtux
.Fl type Cm d Fl name Pa
CVS
.Fl Ar signal_number
.Fl o Fl
See also
Cm.
A function name. Its syntax is as follows:
.
Fn
[
functype
]
funcname
[
]
Function arguments are surrounded in parenthesis and are delimited by commas. If
no arguments are specified, blank parenthesis are output. In the
SYNOPSIS section, this macro starts a new output
line, and a blank line is automatically inserted between function definitions.
Examples:
.Fn "int funcname"
"int arg0" "int arg1"
.Fn funcname "int
arg0"
.Fn funcname arg0
.Ft functype
.Fn funcname
When referring to a function documented in another manual page, use
Xr instead. See also
MANUAL STRUCTURE,
Fo, and
Ft.
Begin a function block. This is a multi-line version of
Fn. Its syntax is as follows:
Invocations usually occur in the following context:
.
Ft
functype
.
Fo
funcname
.
Fa
“
argtype
argname”
...
.
Fc
A
Fo scope is closed by
Fc.
See also
MANUAL STRUCTURE,
Fa,
Fc, and
Ft.
This macro is obsolete. No replacement markup is needed.
It was used to show numerical function return values in an italic font.
A function type. Its syntax is as follows:
In the
SYNOPSIS section, a new output line is
started after this macro.
Examples:
.Ft int
.Ft functype
.Fn funcname
See also
MANUAL STRUCTURE,
Fn, and
Fo.
Format the
FreeBSD version provided as an argument, or a
default value if no argument is provided.
Examples:
.Fx 7.1
.Fx
See also
At,
Bsx,
Bx,
Dx,
Nx, and
Ox.
This macro is not implemented in
mandoc(1).
It was used to include the contents of a (header) file literally. The syntax
was:
Designate an internal or interactive command. This is similar to
Cm but used for instructions rather
than values.
Examples:
.Ic :wq
.Ic hash
.Ic alias
Note that using
Bd
-literal
or
D1 is preferred for displaying code;
the
Ic macro is used when referring to
specific instructions.
The name of an include file. This macro is most often used in section 2, 3, and
9 manual pages.
When invoked as the first macro on an input line in the
SYNOPSIS section, the argument is displayed in
angle brackets and preceded by “#include”, and a blank line is
inserted in front if there is a preceding function declaration. In other
sections, it only encloses its argument in angle brackets and causes no line
break.
Examples:
.In sys/types.h
See also
MANUAL STRUCTURE.
A list item. The syntax of this macro depends on the list type.
Lists of type
-hang
,
-ohang
,
-inset
, and
-diag
have the following syntax:
Lists of type
-bullet
,
-dash
,
-enum
,
-hyphen
and
-item
have the following syntax:
with subsequent lines interpreted within the scope of the
It until either a closing
El or another
It.
The
-tag
list has the following syntax:
Subsequent lines are interpreted as with
-bullet
and family. The line arguments
correspond to the list's left-hand side; body arguments correspond to the
list's contents.
The
-column
list is the most complicated. Its
syntax is as follows:
.
It
cell [
<TAB>
cell ...
]
The arguments consist of one or more lines of text and macros representing a
complete table line. Cells within the line are delimited by the special
Ta block macro or by literal tab
characters.
Using literal tabs is strongly discouraged because they are very hard to use
correctly and
mdoc
code using them is very
hard to read. In particular, a blank character is syntactically significant
before and after the literal tab character. If a word precedes or follows the
tab without an intervening blank, that word is never interpreted as a macro
call, but always output literally.
The tab cell delimiter may only be used within the
It line itself; on following lines,
only the
Ta macro can be used to
delimit cells, and portability requires that
Ta is called by other macros: some
parsers do not recognize it when it appears as the first macro on a line.
Note that quoted strings may span tab-delimited cells on an
It line. For example,
.It "col1 , <TAB> col2
," ;
will preserve the whitespace before both commas, but not the whitespace before
the semicolon.
See also
Bl.
Specify a library. The syntax is as follows:
The
library parameter may be a system library,
such as
libz
or
libpam
, in which case a small library
description is printed next to the linker invocation; or a custom library, in
which case the library name is printed in quotes. This is most commonly used
in the
SYNOPSIS section as described in
MANUAL STRUCTURE.
Examples:
.Lb libz
.Lb mdoc
Denotes text that should be in a
literal
font mode. Note
that this is a presentation term and should not be used for stylistically
decorating technical terms.
On terminal output devices, this is often indistinguishable from normal text.
See also
Bf,
Em,
No, and
Sy.
Format a hyperlink. Its syntax is as follows:
Examples:
.Lk http://bsd.lv "The BSD.lv
Project"
.Lk http://bsd.lv
See also
Mt.
Synonym for
Pp.
Display a mathematical symbol. Its syntax is as follows:
Examples:
.Ms sigma
.Ms aleph
Format a “mailto:” hyperlink. Its syntax is as follows:
Examples:
.Mt
discuss@manpages.bsd.lv
.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt
kristaps@bsd.lv
A one line description of the manual's content. This is the mandatory last macro
of the
NAME section and not appropriate for other
sections.
Examples:
The
Nd macro technically accepts child
macros and terminates with a subsequent
Sh invocation. Do not assume this
behaviour: some
whatis(1) database generators are
not smart enough to parse more than the line arguments and will display macros
verbatim.
See also
Nm.
The name of the manual page, or — in particular in section 1 pages
— of an additional command or feature documented in the manual page.
When first invoked, the
Nm macro
expects a single argument, the name of the manual page. Usually, the first
invocation happens in the
NAME section of the
page. The specified name will be remembered and used whenever the macro is
called again without arguments later in the page. The
Nm macro uses
Block full-implicit
semantics when invoked as the first macro on an input line in the
SYNOPSIS section; otherwise, it uses ordinary
In-line semantics.
Examples:
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm cat
.Op Fl benstuv
.Op Ar
In the
SYNOPSIS of section 2, 3 and 9 manual pages,
use the
Fn macro rather than
Nm to mark up the name of the manual
page.
Normal text. Closes the scope of any preceding in-line macro. When used after
physical formatting macros like
Em or
Sy, switches back to the standard font
face and weight. Can also be used to embed plain text strings in macro lines
using semantic annotation macros.
Examples:
.Em italic , Sy bold , No and
roman
.Sm off
.Cm :C No / Ar pattern No / Ar replacement No /
.Sm on
See also
Em,
Li, and
Sy.
Suppress a space between the output of the preceding macro and the following
text or macro. Following invocation, input is interpreted as normal text just
like after an
No macro.
This has no effect when invoked at the start of a macro line.
Examples:
.Ar name Ns = Ns Ar
value
.Cm :M Ns Ar pattern
.Fl o Ns Ar output
See also
No and
Sm.
Format the
NetBSD version provided as an argument, or a
default value if no argument is provided.
Examples:
.Nx 5.01
.Nx
See also
At,
Bsx,
Bx,
Dx,
Fx, and
Ox.
Close multi-line
Oo context.
Multi-line version of
Op.
Examples:
.Oo
.Op Fl flag Ns Ar value
.Oc
Optional part of a command line. Prints the argument(s) in brackets. This is
most often used in the
SYNOPSIS section of
section 1 and 1M manual pages.
Examples:
.Op Fl a Ar b
.Op Ar a | b
See also
Oo.
Operating system version for display in the page footer. This is the mandatory
third macro of any
mdoc
file. Its syntax is
as follows:
The optional
system parameter specifies the
relevant operating system or environment. It is suggested to leave it
unspecified, in which case
mandoc(1) uses its
-Ios
argument or, if that isn't specified
either,
sysname and
release as returned by
uname(3).
Examples:
.Os
.Os KTH/CSC/TCS
.Os BSD 4.3
See also
Dd and
Dt.
This macro is obsolete. Use
Ft instead;
with
mandoc(1), both have the same effect.
Historical
mdoc
packages described it as
“old function type (FORTRAN)”.
Format the
OpenBSD version provided as an argument, or a
default value if no argument is provided.
Examples:
.Ox 4.5
.Ox
See also
At,
Bsx,
Bx,
Dx,
Fx, and
Nx.
An absolute or relative file system path, or a file or directory name. If an
argument is not provided, the character ‘~’ is used as a
default.
Examples:
.Pa /usr/bin/mandoc
.Pa
/usr/share/man/man5/mdoc.5
See also
Lk.
Close parenthesised context opened by
Po.
Removes the space between its argument and the following macro. Its syntax is as
follows:
.Pf prefix macro arguments
...
This is equivalent to:
.No \&prefix
Ns macro arguments
...
The
prefix argument is not parsed for macro
names or delimiters, but used verbatim as if it were escaped.
Examples:
.Pf $ Ar variable_name
.Pf . Ar macro_name
.Pf 0x Ar hex_digits
See also
Ns and
Sm.
Multi-line version of
Pq.
Break a paragraph. This will assert vertical space between prior and subsequent
macros and/or text.
Paragraph breaks are not needed before or after
Sh or
Ss macros or before displays
(
Bd) or lists
(
Bl) unless the
-compact
flag is given.
Parenthesised enclosure.
See also
Po.
Close quoted context opened by
Qo.
In-line literal display. This can for example be used for complete command
invocations and for multi-word code fragments when more specific markup is not
appropriate and an indented display is not desired. While
mandoc(1) always encloses the arguments in single
quotes, other formatters usually omit the quotes on non-terminal output
devices when the arguments have three or more characters.
See also
Dl and
Bd
-literal
.
Multi-line version of
Qq.
Encloses its arguments in “typewriter” double-quotes. Consider
using
Dq.
See also
Dq,
Sq, and
Qo.
Close an
Rs block. Does not have any
tail arguments.
Begin a bibliographic (“reference”) block. Does not have any head
arguments. The block macro may only contain
%A,
%B,
%C,
%D,
%I,
%J,
%N,
%O,
%P,
%Q,
%R,
%T,
%U, and
%V child macros (at least one must be
specified).
Examples:
.Rs
.%A J. E. Hopcroft
.%A J. D. Ullman
.%B Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation
.%I Addison-Wesley
.%C Reading, Massachusetts
.%D 1979
.Re
If an
Rs block is used within a SEE ALSO
section, a vertical space is asserted before the rendered output, else the
block continues on the current line.
Insert a standard sentence regarding a function call's return value of 0 on
success and -1 on error, with the
errno libc
global variable set on error. Its syntax is as follows:
If
function is not specified, the document's
name set by
Nm is used. Multiple
function arguments are treated as separate
functions.
See also
Ex.
Close single-quoted context opened by
So.
Begin a new section. For a list of conventional manual sections, see
MANUAL STRUCTURE. These
sections should be used unless it's absolutely necessary that custom sections
be used.
Section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by
Sx. Although this macro is parsed, it
should not consist of child node or it may not be linked with
Sx.
See also
Pp,
Ss, and
Sx.
Switches the spacing mode for output generated from macros. Its syntax is as
follows:
By default, spacing is
on
. When switched
off
, no white space is inserted between
macro arguments and between the output generated from adjacent macros, but
text lines still get normal spacing between words and sentences.
When called without an argument, the
Sm
macro toggles the spacing mode. Using this is not recommended because it makes
the code harder to read.
Multi-line version of
Sq.
Encloses its arguments in ‘typewriter’ single-quotes.
See also
Dq,
Qq, and
So.
Begin a new subsection. Unlike with
Sh,
there is no convention for the naming of subsections. Except
DESCRIPTION, the conventional sections described
in
MANUAL STRUCTURE
rarely have subsections.
Sub-section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by
Sx. Although this macro is parsed, it
should not consist of child node or it may not be linked with
Sx.
See also
Pp,
Sh, and
Sx.
Replace an abbreviation for a standard with the full form. The following
standards are recognised. Where multiple lines are given without a blank line
in between, they all refer to the same standard, and using the first form is
recommended.
-
-
- C language standards
-
- -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”)
The original C standard.
- -isoC-amd1
- ISO/IEC 9899/AMD1:1995
(“ISO C90, Amendment 1”)
- -isoC-tcor1
- ISO/IEC 9899/TCOR1:1994
(“ISO C90, Technical Corrigendum 1”)
- -isoC-tcor2
- ISO/IEC 9899/TCOR2:1995
(“ISO C90, Technical Corrigendum 2”)
- -isoC-99
- ISO/IEC 9899:1999
(“ISO C99”)
The second major version of the C language standard.
- -isoC-2011
- ISO/IEC 9899:2011
(“ISO C11”)
The third major version of the C language standard.
-
-
- POSIX.1 before the Single UNIX Specification
-
- -p1003.1-88
- IEEE Std 1003.1-1988
(“POSIX.1”)
- -p1003.1
- IEEE Std 1003.1
(“POSIX.1”)
The original POSIX standard, based on ANSI C.
- -p1003.1-90
- IEEE Std 1003.1-1990
(“POSIX.1”)
- -iso9945-1-90
- ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990
(“POSIX.1”)
The first update of POSIX.1.
- -p1003.1b-93
- IEEE Std 1003.1b-1993
(“POSIX.1b”)
- -p1003.1b
- IEEE Std 1003.1b
(“POSIX.1b”)
Real-time extensions.
- -p1003.1c-95
- IEEE Std 1003.1c-1995
(“POSIX.1c”)
POSIX thread interfaces.
- -p1003.1i-95
- IEEE Std 1003.1i-1995
(“POSIX.1i”)
Technical Corrigendum.
- -p1003.1-96
- ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996
(“POSIX.1”)
- -iso9945-1-96
- ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996
(“POSIX.1”)
Includes POSIX.1-1990, 1b, 1c, and 1i.
-
-
- X/Open Portability Guide version 4 and related standards
-
- -xpg3
- X/Open Portability Guide Issue 3
(“XPG3”)
An XPG4 precursor, published in 1989.
- -p1003.2
- IEEE Std 1003.2
(“POSIX.2”)
- -p1003.2-92
- IEEE Std 1003.2-1992
(“POSIX.2”)
- -iso9945-2-93
- ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993
(“POSIX.2”)
An XCU4 precursor.
- -p1003.2a-92
- IEEE Std 1003.2a-1992
(“POSIX.2”)
Updates to POSIX.2.
- -xpg4
- X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4
(“XPG4”)
Based on POSIX.1 and POSIX.2, published in 1992.
-
-
- Single UNIX Specification version 1 and related standards
-
- -susv1
- Version 1 of the Single UNIX
Specification (“SUSv1”)
- -xpg4.2
- X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4,
Version 2 (“XPG4.2”)
This standard was published in 1994. It was used as the basis for UNIX
95 certification. The following three refer to parts of it.
- -xsh4.2
- X/Open System Interfaces and Headers
Issue 4, Version 2 (“XSH4.2”)
- -xcurses4.2
- X/Open Curses Issue 4,
Version 2 (“XCURSES4.2”)
- -p1003.1g-2000
- IEEE Std 1003.1g-2000
(“POSIX.1g”)
Networking APIs, including sockets.
- -svid4
- System V Interface Definition,
Fourth Edition (“SVID4”),
Published in 1995.
-
-
- Single UNIX Specification version 2 and related standards
-
- -susv2
- Version 2 of the Single UNIX
Specification (“SUSv2”) This Standard was
published in 1997 and is also called X/Open Portability Guide version
5. It was used as the basis for UNIX 98 certification. The following
refer to parts of it.
- -xbd5
- X/Open Base Definitions Issue 5
(“XBD5”)
- -xsh5
- X/Open System Interfaces and Headers
Issue 5 (“XSH5”)
- -xcu5
- X/Open Commands and Utilities
Issue 5 (“XCU5”)
- -xns5
- X/Open Networking Services Issue 5
(“XNS5”)
- -xns5.2
- X/Open Networking Services
Issue 5.2 (“XNS5.2”)
-
-
- Single UNIX Specification version 3
-
- -p1003.1-2001
- IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
(“POSIX.1”)
- -susv3
- Version 3 of the Single UNIX
Specification (“SUSv3”)
This standard is based on C99, SUSv2, POSIX.1-1996, 1d, and 1j. It is
also called X/Open Portability Guide version 6. It is used as the
basis for UNIX 03 certification.
- -p1003.1-2004
- IEEE Std 1003.1-2004
(“POSIX.1”)
The second and last Technical Corrigendum.
-
-
- Single UNIX Specification version 4
-
- -p1003.1-2008
- IEEE Std 1003.1-2008
(“POSIX.1”)
- -susv4
- Version 4 of the Single UNIX
Specification (“SUSv4”)
This standard is also called X/Open Portability Guide version 7.
-
-
- Other standards
-
- -ieee754
- IEEE Std 754-1985
Floating-point arithmetic.
- -iso8601
- ISO 8601
Representation of dates and times, published in 1988.
- -iso8802-3
- ISO 8802-3: 1989
Ethernet local area networks.
- -ieee1275-94
- IEEE Std 1275-1994 (“Open
Firmware”)
Reference a section or subsection in the same manual page. The referenced
section or subsection name must be identical to the enclosed argument,
including whitespace.
Examples:
.Sx MANUAL STRUCTURE
See also
Sh and
Ss.
Request a boldface font.
This is most often used to indicate importance or seriousness (not to be
confused with stress emphasis, see
Em). When none of the semantic macros
fit, it is also adequate for syntax elements that have to be given or that
appear verbatim.
Examples:
.Sy Warning :
If
.Sy s
appears in the owner permissions, set-user-ID mode is set.
This utility replaces the former
.Sy dumpdir
program.
See also
Bf,
Em,
Li, and
No.
Table cell separator in
Bl
-column
lists; can only be used below
It.
Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Even though
the macro name (“tradename”) suggests a semantic function,
historic usage is inconsistent, mostly using it as a presentation-level macro
to request a small caps font.
Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints out
“currently under development.”
Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints out
“
UNIX”.
A variable name.
Examples:
.Va foo
.Va const char *bar;
For function arguments and parameters, use
Fa instead. For declarations of global
variables in the
SYNOPSIS section, use
Vt.
A variable type.
This is also used for indicating global variables in the
SYNOPSIS section, in which case a variable name
is also specified. Note that it accepts
Block
partial-implicit syntax when invoked as the first macro on an input line
in the
SYNOPSIS section, else it accepts ordinary
In-line syntax. In the former
case, this macro starts a new output line, and a blank line is inserted in
front if there is a preceding function definition or include directive.
Examples:
.Vt unsigned char
.Vt extern const char * const
sys_signame[] ;
For parameters in function prototypes, use
Fa instead, for function return types
Ft, and for variable names outside the
SYNOPSIS section
Va, even when including a type with
the name. See also
MANUAL
STRUCTURE.
Close a scope opened by
Xo.
Extend the header of an
It macro or the
body of a partial-implicit block macro beyond the end of the input line. This
macro originally existed to work around the 9-argument limit of historic
mandoc_roff(5).
Link to another manual (“cross-reference”). Its syntax is as
follows:
Cross reference the
name and
section number of another man page.
Examples:
.Xr mandoc 1
.Xr mandoc 1 ;
.Xr mandoc 1 Ns s
behaviour
The syntax of a macro depends on its classification. In this section,
‘-arg’ refers to macro arguments, which may be followed by zero
or more ‘parm’ parameters; ‘Yo’ opens the scope of
a macro; and if specified, ‘Yc’ closes it out.
The
Callable column indicates that the macro may
also be called by passing its name as an argument to another macro. For
example, ‘.Op Fl O Ar file’ produces
‘[
-O
file
]’. To prevent a macro call
and render the macro name literally, escape it by prepending a zero-width
space, ‘\&’. For example, ‘Op \&Fl O’
produces ‘[
Fl O
]’. If a macro is not
callable but its name appears as an argument to another macro, it is
interpreted as opaque text. For example, ‘.Fl Sh’ produces
‘
-Sh
’.
The
Parsed column indicates whether the macro may
call other macros by receiving their names as arguments. If a macro is not
parsed but the name of another macro appears as an argument, it is interpreted
as opaque text.
The
Scope column, if applicable, describes closure
rules.
Multi-line scope closed by an explicit closing macro. All macros contains
bodies; only
Bf and (optionally)
Bl contain a head.
.Yo [-arg [parm...]] [head...]
[body...]
.Yc
Macro |
Callable |
Parsed |
Scope |
Bd |
No |
No |
closed by Ed |
Bf |
No |
No |
closed by Ef |
Bk |
No |
No |
closed by Ek |
Bl |
No |
No |
closed by El |
Ed |
No |
No |
opened by Bd |
Ef |
No |
No |
opened by Bf |
Ek |
No |
No |
opened by Bk |
El |
No |
No |
opened by Bl |
Multi-line scope closed by end-of-file or implicitly by another macro. All
macros have bodies; some (
It
-bullet
,
-hyphen
,
-dash
,
-enum
,
-item
) don't have heads; only one
(
It in
Bl
-column
) has multiple heads.
.Yo [-arg [parm...]] [head... [Ta head...]]
[body...]
Macro |
Callable |
Parsed |
Scope |
It |
No |
Yes |
closed by It,
El |
Nd |
No |
No |
closed by Sh |
Nm |
No |
Yes |
closed by Nm,
Sh,
Ss |
Sh |
No |
Yes |
closed by Sh |
Ss |
No |
Yes |
closed by Sh,
Ss |
Note that the
Nm macro is a
Block full-implicit
macro only when invoked as the first macro in a
SYNOPSIS section line, else it is
In-line.
Like block full-explicit, but also with single-line scope. Each has at least a
body and, in limited circumstances, a head
(
Fo,
Eo) and/or tail
(
Ec).
.Yo [-arg [parm...]] [head...]
[body...]
.Yc [tail...]
.Yo [-arg [parm...]] [head...] [body...] Yc [tail...]
Macro |
Callable |
Parsed |
Scope |
Ac |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Ao |
Ao |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Ac |
Bc |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Bo |
Bo |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Bc |
Brc |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Bro |
Bro |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Brc |
Dc |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Do |
Do |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Dc |
Ec |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Eo |
Eo |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Ec |
Fc |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Fo |
Fo |
No |
No |
closed by Fc |
Oc |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Oo |
Oo |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Oc |
Pc |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Po |
Po |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Pc |
Qc |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Oo |
Qo |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Oc |
Re |
No |
No |
opened by Rs |
Rs |
No |
No |
closed by Re |
Sc |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by So |
So |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Sc |
Xc |
Yes |
Yes |
opened by Xo |
Xo |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Xc |
Like block full-implicit, but with single-line scope closed by the end of the
line.
.Yo [-arg [val...]] [body...] [res...]
Macro |
Callable |
Parsed |
Aq |
Yes |
Yes |
Bq |
Yes |
Yes |
Brq |
Yes |
Yes |
D1 |
No |
Yes |
Dl |
No |
Yes |
Dq |
Yes |
Yes |
En |
Yes |
Yes |
Op |
Yes |
Yes |
Pq |
Yes |
Yes |
Ql |
Yes |
Yes |
Qq |
Yes |
Yes |
Sq |
Yes |
Yes |
Vt |
Yes |
Yes |
Note that the
Vt macro is a
Block
partial-implicit only when invoked as the first macro in a
SYNOPSIS section line, else it is
In-line.
The
Ta macro can only be used below
It in
Bl
-column
lists. It delimits blocks
representing table cells; these blocks have bodies, but no heads.
Macro |
Callable |
Parsed |
Scope |
Ta |
Yes |
Yes |
closed by Ta,
It |
Closed by the end of the line, fixed argument lengths, and/or subsequent macros.
In-line macros have only text children. If a number (or inequality) of
arguments is (n), then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of arguments.
.Yo [-arg [val...]] [args...] [res...]
.Yo [-arg [val...]] [args...] Yc...
.Yo [-arg [val...]] arg0 arg1 argN
Macro |
Callable |
Parsed |
Arguments |
%A |
No |
No |
>0 |
%B |
No |
No |
>0 |
%C |
No |
No |
>0 |
%D |
No |
No |
>0 |
%I |
No |
No |
>0 |
%J |
No |
No |
>0 |
%N |
No |
No |
>0 |
%O |
No |
No |
>0 |
%P |
No |
No |
>0 |
%Q |
No |
No |
>0 |
%R |
No |
No |
>0 |
%T |
No |
No |
>0 |
%U |
No |
No |
>0 |
%V |
No |
No |
>0 |
Ad |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
An |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Ap |
Yes |
Yes |
0 |
Ar |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
At |
Yes |
Yes |
1 |
Bsx |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Bt |
No |
No |
0 |
Bx |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Cd |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Cm |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Db |
No |
No |
1 |
Dd |
No |
No |
n |
Dt |
No |
No |
n |
Dv |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Dx |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Em |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Er |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Es |
Yes |
Yes |
2 |
Ev |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Ex |
No |
No |
n |
Fa |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Fd |
No |
No |
>0 |
Fl |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Fn |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Fr |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Ft |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Fx |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Hf |
No |
No |
n |
Ic |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
In |
No |
No |
1 |
Lb |
No |
No |
1 |
Li |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Lk |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Lp |
No |
No |
0 |
Ms |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Mt |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Nm |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
0 |
Ns |
Yes |
Yes |
0 |
Nx |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Os |
No |
No |
n |
Ot |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Ox |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Pa |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Pf |
Yes |
Yes |
1 |
Pp |
No |
No |
0 |
Rv |
No |
No |
n |
Sm |
No |
No |
<2 |
St |
No |
Yes |
1 |
Sx |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Sy |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Tn |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Ud |
No |
No |
0 |
Ux |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Va |
Yes |
Yes |
n |
Vt |
Yes |
Yes |
>0 |
Xr |
Yes |
Yes |
2 |
When a macro argument consists of one single input character considered as a
delimiter, the argument gets special handling. This does not apply when
delimiters appear in arguments containing more than one character.
Consequently, to prevent special handling and just handle it like any other
argument, a delimiter can be escaped by prepending a zero-width space
(‘\&’). In text lines, delimiters never need escaping, but
may be used as normal punctuation.
For many macros, when the leading arguments are opening delimiters, these
delimiters are put before the macro scope, and when the trailing arguments are
closing delimiters, these delimiters are put after the macro scope. Spacing is
suppressed after opening delimiters and before closing delimiters. For
example,
.Aq ( [ word ] ) .
renders as:
([⟨word⟩]).
Opening delimiters are:
- (
- left parenthesis
- [
- left bracket
Closing delimiters are:
- .
- period
- ,
- comma
- :
- colon
- ;
- semicolon
- )
- right parenthesis
- ]
- right bracket
- ?
- question mark
- !
- exclamation mark
Note that even a period preceded by a backslash (‘\.’) gets this
special handling; use ‘\&.’ to prevent that.
Many in-line macros interrupt their scope when they encounter delimiters, and
resume their scope when more arguments follow that are not delimiters. For
example,
.Fl a ( b | c \*(Ba d ) e
renders as:
-a
(-b
| -c
| -d
)
-e
This applies to both opening and closing delimiters, and also to the middle
delimiter, which does not suppress spacing:
As a special case, the predefined string \*(Ba is handled and rendered in the
same way as a plain ‘|’ character. Using this predefined string
is not recommended in new manuals.
In
mdoc
documents, usage of semantic markup
is recommended in order to have proper fonts automatically selected; only when
no fitting semantic markup is available, consider falling back to
Physical markup macros.
Whenever any
mdoc
macro switches the
mandoc_roff(5) font mode, it will automatically
restore the previous font when exiting its scope. Manually switching the font
using the
mandoc_roff(5)
‘
\f
’ font escape sequences is never
required.
This section provides an incomplete list of compatibility issues between mandoc
and GNU troff (“groff”).
The following problematic behaviour is found in groff:
- Dd with non-standard arguments
behaves very strangely. When there are three arguments, they are printed
verbatim. Any other number of arguments is replaced by the current date,
but without any arguments the string “Epoch” is
printed.
- Lk only accepts a single link-name
argument; the remainder is misformatted.
- Pa does not format its arguments
when used in the FILES section under certain list types.
- Ta can only be called by other
macros, but not at the beginning of a line.
- %C is not implemented (up to and
including groff-1.22.2).
- ‘\f’ (font face) and ‘\F’ (font family face)
Text Decoration
escapes behave irregularly when specified within line-macro scopes.
- Negative scaling units return to prior lines. Instead, mandoc truncates
them to zero.
The following features are unimplemented in mandoc:
- Bd
-file
file is unsupported for security
reasons.
- Bd
-filled
does not adjust the right
margin, but is an alias for Bd
-ragged
.
- Bd
-literal
does not use a literal font,
but is an alias for Bd
-unfilled
.
- Bd
-offset
center
and
-offset
right
don't work. Groff does not
implement centered and flush-right rendering either, but produces large
indentations.
man(1),
mandoc(1),
eqn(5),
man(5),
mandoc_char(5),
mandoc_roff(5),
tbl(5)
The web page
extended
documentation for the mdoc language provides a few tutorial-style pages
for beginners, an extensive style guide for advanced authors, and an
alphabetic index helping to choose the best macros for various kinds of
content.
The
mdoc
language first appeared as a troff
macro package in
4.4BSD. It was later significantly
updated by Werner Lemberg and Ruslan Ermilov in groff-1.17. The standalone
implementation that is part of the
mandoc(1)
utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in
OpenBSD
4.6.
The
mdoc
reference was written by
Kristaps Dzonsons
<
kristaps@bsd.lv>.