NAME
man
—
legacy formatting language for manual
pages
DESCRIPTION
The man
language was the standard
formatting language for AT&T UNIX manual pages
from 1979 to 1989. Do not use it to write new manual pages: it is a purely
presentational language and lacks support for semantic markup. Use the
mdoc(7) language, instead.
In a man
document, lines beginning with
the control character ‘.’ are called “macro
lines”. The first word is the macro name. It usually consists of two
capital letters. For a list of portable macros, see
MACRO OVERVIEW. The words following
the macro name are arguments to the macro.
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
man
language are based on the
roff(7) language; see the
LANGUAGE SYNTAX
and MACRO
SYNTAX sections in the
roff(7) manual for details, in particular regarding comments, escape
sequences, whitespace, and quoting.
Each man
document starts with the
TH
macro specifying the document's name and section,
followed by the NAME section formatted as
follows:
.TH PROGNAME 1 1979-01-10 .SH NAME \fBprogname\fR \(en one line about what it does
MACRO OVERVIEW
This overview is sorted such that macros of similar purpose are listed together. Deprecated and non-portable macros are not included in the overview, but can be found in the alphabetical reference below.
Page header and footer meta-data
TH |
set the title: name section date [source [volume]] |
AT |
display AT&T UNIX version in the page footer (<= 1 argument) |
UC |
display BSD version in the page footer (<= 1 argument) |
Sections and paragraphs
SH |
section header (one line) |
SS |
subsection header (one line) |
PP |
start an undecorated paragraph (no arguments) |
RS ,
RE |
reset the left margin: [width] |
IP |
indented paragraph: [head [width]] |
TP |
tagged paragraph: [width] |
PD |
set vertical paragraph distance: [height] |
in |
additional indent: [width] |
Physical markup
B |
boldface font |
I |
italic font |
SB |
small boldface font |
SM |
small roman font |
BI |
alternate between boldface and italic fonts |
BR |
alternate between boldface and roman fonts |
IB |
alternate between italic and boldface fonts |
IR |
alternate between italic and roman fonts |
RB |
alternate between roman and boldface fonts |
RI |
alternate between roman and italic fonts |
MACRO REFERENCE
This section is a canonical reference to all macros, arranged alphabetically. For the scoping of individual macros, see MACRO SYNTAX.
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. This macro is an extension that first appeared in 4.3BSD.
B
- Text is rendered in bold face.
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.
Example:
.BI bold italic bold italic
BR
- Text is rendered alternately in bold face and roman (the default font).
Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output. See also
BI
. DT
- Restore the default tabulator positions. They are at intervals of 0.5
inches. This has no effect unless the tabulator positions were changed
with the roff(7)
ta
request. EE
- This is a non-standard Version 9 AT&T UNIX
extension later adopted by GNU. In
mandoc(1), it does the same as the
roff(7)
fi
request (switch to fill mode). EX
- This is a non-standard Version 9 AT&T UNIX
extension later adopted by GNU. In
mandoc(1), it does the same as the
roff(7)
nf
request (switch to no-fill mode). HP
- Begin a paragraph whose initial output line is left-justified, but
subsequent output lines are indented, with the following syntax:
.
HP
[width]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.
This macro is portable, but deprecated because it has no good representation in HTML output, usually ending up indistinguishable from
PP
. I
- Text is rendered in italics.
IB
- Text is rendered alternately in italics and bold face. Whitespace between
arguments is omitted in output. See also
BI
. IP
- Begin an indented paragraph with the following syntax:
.
IP
[head [width]]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.
IR
- Text is rendered alternately in italics and roman (the default font).
Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output. See also
BI
. LP
- A synonym for
PP
. ME
- End a mailto block started with
MT
. This is a non-standard GNU extension. MT
- Begin a mailto block. This is a non-standard GNU extension. It has the
following syntax:
.
MT
address link description to be shown .ME
OP
- Optional command-line argument. This is a non-standard GNU extension. It
has the following syntax:
.
OP
key [value]The key is usually a command-line flag and value its argument.
P
- This synonym for
PP
is an AT&T System III UNIX extension later adopted by 4.3BSD. PD
- Specify the vertical space to be inserted before each new paragraph.
The syntax is as follows:.PD
[height]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
,SY
, andTP
. PP
- Begin an undecorated paragraph. The scope of a paragraph is closed by a subsequent paragraph, sub-section, section, or end of file. The saved paragraph left-margin width is reset to the default.
RB
- Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and bold face.
Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output. See also
BI
. RE
- Explicitly close out the scope of a prior
RS
. The default left margin is restored to the state before thatRS
invocation.The syntax is as follows:
.RE
[level]Without an argument, the most recent
RS
block is closed out. If level is 1, all openRS
blocks are closed out. Otherwise, level − 1 nestedRS
blocks remain open. RI
- Text is rendered alternately in roman (the default font) and italics.
Whitespace between arguments is omitted in output. See also
BI
. RS
- Temporarily reset the default left margin. This has the following syntax:
.
RS
[width]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. This macro is an extension that probably first appeared in SunOS 4.0 and was later adopted by GNU and by 4.4BSD.
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.
SY
- Begin a synopsis block with the following syntax:
.
SY
command arguments .YS
This is a non-standard GNU extension and very rarely used even in GNU manual pages. Formatting is similar to
IP
. TH
- Set the name of the manual page for use in the page header and footer with
the following syntax:
.
TH
name section date [source [volume]]Conventionally, the document name is given in all caps. The section is usually a single digit, in a few cases followed by a letter. 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 volume title of the section.Examples:
.TH CVS 5 1992-02-12 GNU
TP
- Begin a paragraph where the head, if exceeding the indentation width, is
followed by a newline; if not, the body follows on the same line after
advancing to the indentation width. Subsequent output lines are indented.
The syntax is as follows:
.
TP
[width] head \" one line bodyThe 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.
TQ
- Like
TP
, except that no vertical spacing is inserted before the paragraph. This is a non-standard GNU extension and very rarely used even in GNU manual pages. 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. This macro is an extension that first appeared in 3BSD.
UE
- End a uniform resource identifier block started with
UR
. This is a non-standard GNU extension. UR
- Begin a uniform resource identifier block. This is a non-standard GNU
extension. It has the following syntax:
.
UR
uri link description to be shown .UE
YS
- End a synopsis block started with
SY
. This is a non-standard GNU extension. in
- Indent relative to the current indentation:
.
in
[width]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.
MACRO SYNTAX
The man
macros are classified by scope:
line scope or block scope. Line macros are only scoped to the current line
(and, in some situations, the subsequent line). Block macros are scoped to
the current line and subsequent lines until closed by another block
macro.
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.
The syntax is as follows:
.YO [body...] [body...]
Macro | Arguments | Scope | Notes |
AT |
<=1 | current | |
B |
n | next-line | |
BI |
n | current | |
BR |
n | current | |
DT |
0 | current | |
EE |
0 | current | Version 9 AT&T UNIX |
EX |
0 | current | Version 9 AT&T UNIX |
I |
n | next-line | |
IB |
n | current | |
IR |
n | current | |
OP |
>=1 | current | GNU |
PD |
1 | current | |
RB |
n | current | |
RI |
n | current | |
SB |
n | next-line | |
SM |
n | next-line | |
TH |
>1, <6 | current | |
UC |
<=1 | current | |
in |
1 | current | roff(7) |
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
; or paragraph, closed by a section, sub-section,
HP
, IP
,
LP
, P
,
PP
, RE
,
SY
, 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.
Macro | Arguments | Head Scope | Body Scope | Notes |
HP |
<2 | current | paragraph | |
IP |
<3 | current | paragraph | |
LP |
0 | current | paragraph | |
ME |
0 | none | none | GNU |
MT |
1 | current | to ME | GNU |
P |
0 | current | paragraph | |
PP |
0 | current | paragraph | |
RE |
<=1 | current | none | |
RS |
1 | current | to RE | |
SH |
>0 | next-line | section | |
SS |
>0 | next-line | sub-section | |
SY |
1 | current | to YS | GNU |
TP |
n | next-line | paragraph | |
TQ |
n | next-line | paragraph | GNU |
UE |
0 | current | none | GNU |
UR |
1 | current | part | GNU |
YS |
0 | none | none | GNU |
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.
SEE ALSO
man(1), mandoc(1), eqn(7), mandoc_char(7), mdoc(7), roff(7), tbl(7)
HISTORY
The man
language first appeared as a macro
package for the roff typesetting system in Version 7
AT&T UNIX. It was later rewritten by James Clark as a macro
package for groff. Eric S. Raymond wrote the extended
man
macros for groff in 2007. The stand-alone
implementation that is part of the
mandoc(1) utility written by Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in
OpenBSD 4.6.
AUTHORS
This man
reference was written by
Kristaps Dzonsons
<kristaps@bsd.lv>.