OpenBSD manual page server

Document preamble and NAME section macros

Sections and cross references

Displays and lists

Spacing control

Semantic markup for command line utilities:

Semantic markup for function libraries:

Various semantic markup:

Physical markup

Physical enclosures

Text production

%A

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.

%B

Book title of an Rs block. This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographic context when referring to book titles.

%C

Publication city or location of an Rs block.

%D

Publication date of an Rs block. Recommended formats of arguments are month day, year or just year.

%I

Publisher or issuer name of an Rs block.

%J

Journal name of an Rs block.

%N

Issue number (usually for journals) of an Rs block.

%O

Optional information of an Rs block.

%P

Book or journal page number of an Rs block.

%Q

Institutional author (school, government, etc.) of an Rs block. Multiple institutional authors should each be accorded their own %Q line.

%R

Technical report name of an Rs block.

%T

Article title of an Rs block. This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographical context when referring to article titles.

%U

URI of reference document.

%V

Volume number of an Rs block.

Ac

Close an Ao block. Does not have any tail arguments.

Ad

Memory address. Do not use this for postal addresses.

Examples:

An

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:

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:

Ao

Begin a block enclosed by angle brackets. Does not have any head arguments.

Examples:

See also Aq.

Ap

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:

Aq

Encloses its arguments in angle brackets.

Examples:

Remarks: this macro is often abused for rendering URIs, which should instead use Lk or Mt, or to note pre-processor “#include” statements, which should use In.

See also Ao.

Ar

Command arguments. If an argument is not provided, the string “file ...” is used as a default.

Examples:

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.

At

Formats an AT&T UNIX version. Accepts one optional argument:

Note that these arguments do not begin with a hyphen.

Examples:

See also Bsx, Bx, Dx, Fx, Nx, and Ox.

Bc

Close a Bo block. Does not have any tail arguments.

Bd

Begin a display block. Its syntax is as follows:

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:

The type must be provided first. Additional arguments may follow:

Examples:

.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
   Hello       world.
.Ed

See also D1 and Dl.

Bf

Change the font mode for a scoped block of text. Its syntax is as follows:

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.

Bk

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.

Bl

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:

The list type is mandatory and must be specified first. The -width and -offset arguments accept scaling widths as described in roff(7) 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:

Lists may be nested within lists and displays. Nesting of -column and -enum lists may not be portable.

See also El and It.

Bo

Begin a block enclosed by square brackets. Does not have any head arguments.

Examples:

.Bo 1 ,
.Dv BUFSIZ Bc

See also Bq.

Bq

Encloses its arguments in square brackets.

Examples:

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.

Brc

Close a Bro block. Does not have any tail arguments.

Bro

Begin a block enclosed by curly braces. Does not have any head arguments.

Examples:

.Bro 1 , ... ,
.Va n Brc

See also Brq.

Brq

Encloses its arguments in curly braces.

Examples:

See also Bro.

Bsx

Format the BSD/OS version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided.

Examples:

See also At, Bx, Dx, Fx, Nx, and Ox.

Bt

Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints “is currently in beta test.”

Bx

Format the BSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided.

Examples:

See also At, Bsx, Dx, Fx, Nx, and Ox.

Cd

Kernel configuration declaration. This denotes strings accepted by config(8). It is most often used in section 4 manual pages.

Examples:

Remarks: this macro is commonly abused by using quoted literals to retain whitespace and align consecutive Cd declarations. This practise is discouraged.

Cm

Command modifiers. Typically used for fixed strings passed as arguments, unless Fl is more appropriate. Also useful when specifying configuration options or keys.

Examples:

D1

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:

See also Bd and Dl.

Db

Switch debugging mode. Its syntax is as follows:

This macro is ignored by mandoc(1).

Dc

Close a Do block. Does not have any tail arguments.

Dd

Document date. 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 optionally zero-padded numeral, 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.
• A few alternative date formats are accepted as well and converted to the standard form.
• If a date string cannot be parsed, it is used verbatim.
• If no date string is given, the current date is used.

Examples:

See also Dt and Os.

Dl

One-line intended display. This is formatted as literal text and is useful for commands and invocations. It is followed by a newline.

Examples:

See also Bd and D1.

Do

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.

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.

Dt

Document title. This is the mandatory second macro of any mdoc file. Its syntax is as follows:

Its arguments are as follows:

Examples:

See also Dd and Os.

Dv

Defined variables such as preprocessor constants, constant symbols, enumeration values, and so on.

Examples:

See also Er and Ev for special-purpose constants, Va for variable symbols, and Fd for listing preprocessor variable definitions in the SYNOPSIS.

Dx

Format the DragonFly version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided.

Examples:

See also At, Bsx, Bx, Fx, Nx, and Ox.

Ec

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.

Ed

End a display context started by Bd.

Ef

End a font mode context started by Bf.

Ek

End a keep context started by Bk.

El

End a list context started by Bl.

See also Bl and It.

Em

Denotes text that should be emphasised. Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for stylistically decorating technical terms. Depending on the output device, this is usually represented using an italic font or underlined characters.

Examples:

See also Bf, Li, No, and Sy.

En

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.

Eo

An arbitrary enclosure. Its syntax is as follows:

The TERM argument is used as the enclosure head, for example, specifying \(lq will emulate Do.

Er

Error constants for definitions of the errno libc global variable. This is most often used in section 2 and 3 manual pages.

Examples:

See also Dv for general constants.

Es

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.

Ev

Environmental variables such as those specified in environ(7).

Examples:

See also Dv for general constants.

Ex

Insert a standard sentence regarding command exit values of 0 on success and >0 on failure. This is most often used in section 1, 6, and 8 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.

Fa

Function argument. Its syntax is as follows:

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:

See also Fo.

Fc

End a function context started by Fo.

Fd

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:

Examples:

See also MANUAL STRUCTURE, In, and Dv.

Fl

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:

See also Cm.

Fn

A function name. Its syntax is as follows:

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:

.Ft functype
.Fn funcname

When referring to a function documented in another manual page, use Xr instead. See also MANUAL STRUCTURE, Fo, and Ft.

Fo

Begin a function block. This is a multi-line version of Fn. Its syntax is as follows:

Invocations usually occur in the following context:

A Fo scope is closed by Fc.

See also MANUAL STRUCTURE, Fa, Fc, and Ft.

Fr

This macro is obsolete. No replacement markup is needed.

It was used to show numerical function return values in an italic font.

Ft

A function type. Its syntax is as follows:

In the SYNOPSIS section, a new output line is started after this macro.

Examples:

.Ft functype
.Fn funcname

See also MANUAL STRUCTURE, Fn, and Fo.

Fx

Format the FreeBSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided.

Examples:

See also At, Bsx, Bx, Dx, Nx, and Ox.

Hf

This macro is not implemented in mandoc(1).

It was used to include the contents of a (header) file literally. The syntax was:

Ic

Designate an internal or interactive command. This is similar to Cm but used for instructions rather than values.

Examples:

Note that using Bd -literal or D1 is preferred for displaying code; the Ic macro is used when referring to specific instructions.

In

An “include” file. 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. This is most often used in section 2, 3, and 9 manual pages.

Examples:

See also MANUAL STRUCTURE.

It

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:

The arguments consist of one or more lines of text and macros representing a complete table line. Cells within the line are delimited by tabs or by the special Ta block macro. 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 Ta is only recognised as a macro when called by other macros, not as the first macro on a line.

Note that quoted strings may span tab-delimited cells on an It line. For example,

will preserve the semicolon whitespace except for the last.

See also Bl.

Lb

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:

Li

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.

Lk

Format a hyperlink. Its syntax is as follows:

Examples:

See also Mt.

Lp

Synonym for Pp.

Ms

Display a mathematical symbol. Its syntax is as follows:

Examples:

Mt

Format a “mailto:” hyperlink. Its syntax is as follows:

Examples:

Nd

A one line description of the manual's content. This may only be invoked in the SYNOPSIS section subsequent the Nm macro.

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.

Nm

The name of the manual page, or — in particular in section 1, 6, and 8 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.

No

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:

.Sm off
.Cm :C No / Ar pattern No / Ar replacement No /
.Sm on

See also Em, Li, and Sy.

Ns

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:

See also No and Sm.

Nx

Format the NetBSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided.

Examples:

See also At, Bsx, Bx, Dx, Fx, and Ox.

Oc

Close multi-line Oo context.

Oo

Multi-line version of Op.

Examples:

.Oo
.Op Fl flag Ns Ar value
.Oc

Op

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 8 manual pages.

Examples:

See also Oo.

Os

Document operating system version. 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. Left unspecified, it defaults to the local operating system version. This is the suggested form.

Examples:

See also Dd and Dt.

Ot

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)”.

Ox

Format the OpenBSD version provided as an argument, or a default value if no argument is provided.

Examples:

See also At, Bsx, Bx, Dx, Fx, and Nx.

Pa

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:

See also Lk.

Pc

Close parenthesised context opened by Po.

Pf

Removes the space between its argument (“prefix”) and the following macro. Its syntax is as follows:

This is equivalent to:

Examples:

See also Ns and Sm.

Po

Multi-line version of Pq.

Pp

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.

Pq

Parenthesised enclosure.

See also Po.

Qc

Close quoted context opened by Qo.

Ql

Format a single-quoted literal. See also Qq and Sq.

Qo

Multi-line version of Qq.

Qq

Encloses its arguments in "typewriter" double-quotes. Consider using Dq.

See also Dq, Sq, and Qo.

Re

Close an Rs block. Does not have any tail arguments.

Rs

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, Massachusettes
.%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.

Rv

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.

Sc

Close single-quoted context opened by So.

Sh

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.

Sm

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.

So

Multi-line version of Sq.

Sq

Encloses its arguments in ‘typewriter’ single-quotes.

See also Dq, Qq, and So.

Ss

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.

St

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”)

-ansiC-99

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

-xpg4.2

X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4, Version 2 (“XPG4.2”)
This standard was published in 1994 and is also called SUSv1. It was used as the basis for UNIX 95 certification. The following three refer to parts of it.

-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.

-xpg4.3

-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”)

-xns5.2d2.0

 

-xns5.2

X/Open Networking Services Issue 5.2 (“XNS5.2”)

-p1387.2

 

-p1387.2-95

POSIX software administration.

Single UNIX Specification version 3 and related standards

-p1003.1d-99

Additional real-time extensions.

-p1003.1j-2000

Advanced real-time extensions.

-p1003.1q-2000

Amendment 7: Tracing [C Language].

-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”)
This standard is also called SUSv4 and X/Open Portability Guide version 7.

-p1003.1-2013

This is the first Technical Corrigendum.

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”)

Sx

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:

See also Sh and Ss.

Sy

Format enclosed arguments in symbolic (“boldface”). Note that this is a presentation term and should not be used for stylistically decorating technical terms.

See also Bf, Em, Li, and No.

Ta

Table cell separator in Bl -column lists; can only be used below It.

Tn

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.

Ud

Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints out “currently under development.”

Ux

Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints out “UNIX”.

Va

A variable name.

Examples:

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.

Note that this should not be confused with Ft, which is used for function return types.

Examples:

See also MANUAL STRUCTURE and Va.

Xc

Close a scope opened by Xo.

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 roff(7).

Xr

Link to another manual ("cross-reference"). Its syntax is as follows:

Cross reference the name and section number of another man page; omitting the section number is rarely useful.

Examples:

br

Emits a line-break. This macro should not be used; it is implemented for compatibility with historical manuals.

Consider using Pp in the event of natural paragraph breaks.

sp

Emits vertical space. This macro should not be used; it is implemented for compatibility with historical manuals. Its syntax is as follows:

The height argument is a scaling width as described in roff(7). If unspecified, sp asserts a single vertical space.

Block full-explicit

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

Block full-implicit

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...]

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.

Block partial-explicit

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...]

Block partial-implicit

Like block full-implicit, but with single-line scope closed by the end of the line.

.Yo [-arg [val...]] [body...] [res...]

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.

Special block macro

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.

In-line

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

Delimiters

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. For example,

renders as:

Opening delimiters are:

Closing delimiters are:

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,

renders as:

This applies to both opening and closing delimiters, and also to the middle delimiter:

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.

Font handling

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 roff(7) font mode, it will automatically restore the previous font when exiting its scope. Manually switching the font using the roff(7) ‘\f’ font escape sequences is never required.