Page header and footer meta-data

Sections and paragraphs

Physical markup

AT

Sets the volume for the footer for compatibility with man pages from AT&T UNIX releases. The optional arguments specify which release it is from.

B

Text is rendered in bold face.

See also I and R.

BI

Text is rendered alternately in bold face and italic. Thus, ‘.BI this word and that’ causes ‘this’ and ‘and’ to render in bold face, while ‘word’ and ‘that’ render in italics. Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

Examples:

The output of this example will be emboldened “bold” and italicised “italic”, with spaces stripped between arguments.

See also IB, BR, RB, RI, and IR.

BR

Text is rendered alternately in bold face and roman (the default font). Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

See BI for an equivalent example.

See also BI, IB, RB, RI, and IR.

DT

Has no effect. Included for compatibility.

EE

This is a non-standard GNU extension, included only for compatibility. In mandoc(1), it does the same as fi.

EX

This is a non-standard GNU extension, included only for compatibility. In mandoc(1), it does the same as nf.

HP

Begin a paragraph whose initial output line is left-justified, but subsequent output lines are indented, with the following syntax:

The width argument is a roff(7) scaling width. If specified, it's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if unspecified, the saved or default width is used.

See also IP, LP, P, PP, and TP.

I

Text is rendered in italics.

See also B and R.

IB

Text is rendered alternately in italics and bold face. Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

See BI for an equivalent example.

See also BI, BR, RB, RI, and IR.

IP

Begin an indented paragraph with the following syntax:

The width argument is a 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.

The head argument is used as a leading term, flushed to the left margin. This is useful for bulleted paragraphs and so on.

See also HP, LP, P, PP, and TP.

IR

Text is rendered alternately in italics and roman (the default font). Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

See BI for an equivalent example.

See also BI, IB, BR, RB, and RI.

LP

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.

See also HP, IP, P, PP, and TP.

OP

Optional command-line argument. This is a non-standard GNU extension, included only for compatibility. It has the following syntax:

The key is usually a command-line flag and value its argument.

P

Synonym for LP.

See also HP, IP, LP, PP, and TP.

PD

Specify the vertical space to be inserted before each new paragraph.
The syntax is as follows:

The height argument is a roff(7) scaling width. It defaults to 1v. If the unit is omitted, v is assumed.

This macro affects the spacing before any subsequent instances of HP, IP, LP, P, PP, SH, SS, and TP.

PP

Synonym for LP.

See also HP, IP, LP, P, and TP.

R

Text is rendered in roman (the default font).

See also I and B.

RB

Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and bold face. Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

See BI for an equivalent example.

See also BI, IB, BR, RI, and IR.

RE

Explicitly close out the scope of a prior RS. The default left margin is restored to the state before that RS invocation.

The syntax is as follows:

Without an argument, the most recent RS block is closed out. If level is 1, all open RS blocks are closed out. Otherwise, level − 1 nested RS blocks remain open.

RI

Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and italics. Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output.

See BI for an equivalent example.

See also BI, IB, BR, RB, and IR.

RS

Temporarily reset the default left margin. This has the following syntax:

The width argument is a roff(7) scaling width. If not specified, the saved or default width is used.

See also RE.

SB

Text is rendered in small size (one point smaller than the default font) bold face.

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.

SM

Text is rendered in small size (one point smaller than the default font).

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.

TH

Sets the title of the manual page for use in the page header and footer with the following syntax:

Conventionally, the document title is given in all caps. The recommended date format is YYYY-MM-DD as specified in the ISO-8601 standard; if the argument does not conform, it is printed verbatim. If the date is empty or not specified, the current date is used. The optional source string specifies the organisation providing the utility. When unspecified, mandoc(1) uses its -Ios argument. The volume string replaces the default rendered volume, which is dictated by the manual section.

Examples:

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 a buffer to the indentation width. Subsequent output lines are indented. The syntax is as follows:

The width argument is a roff(7) scaling width. If specified, it's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if unspecified, the saved or default width is used.

See also HP, IP, LP, P, and PP.

UC

Sets the volume for the footer for compatibility with man pages from BSD releases. The optional first argument specifies which release it is from.

UE

End a uniform resource identifier block. This is a non-standard GNU extension, included only for compatibility. See UE.

UR

Begin a uniform resource identifier block. This is a non-standard GNU extension, included only for compatibility. It has the following syntax:

.UR uri
link description to be shown
.UE

br

Breaks the current line. Consecutive invocations have no further effect.

See also sp.

fi

End literal mode begun by nf.

in

Indent relative to the current indentation:

If width is signed, the new offset is relative. Otherwise, it is absolute. This value is reset upon the next paragraph, section, or sub-section.

nf

Begin literal mode: all subsequent free-form lines have their end of line boundaries preserved. May be ended by fi. Literal mode is implicitly ended by SH or SS.

sp

Insert vertical spaces into output with the following syntax:

The height argument is a scaling width as described in roff(7). If 0, this is equivalent to the br macro. Defaults to 1, if unspecified.

See also br.

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:

.I
foo

is equivalent to ‘.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, except for br and sp.

The syntax is as follows:

.YO [body...]
[body...]

Macros marked as "compat" are included for compatibility with the significant corpus of existing manuals that mix dialects of roff. These macros should not be used for portable man manuals.

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 Line Macros apply here as well).

The syntax is as follows:

.YO [head...]
[head...]
[body...]

The closure of body scope may be to the section, where a macro is closed by SH; sub-section, closed by a section or SS; part, closed by a section, sub-section, or RE; or paragraph, closed by a section, sub-section, part, HP, IP, LP, P, PP, or TP. No closure refers to an explicit block closing macro.

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.

Macros marked "compat" are as mentioned in Line Macros.

If a block macro is next-line scoped, it may only be followed by in-line macros for decorating text.

Font handling

In man documents, both Physical markup macros and roff(7) ‘\f’ 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 BR open and close a font scope for each argument.