NAME
mdoc
—
semantic markup language for formatting
manual pages
DESCRIPTION
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
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. However, using
roff(7) requests in mdoc
documents is
discouraged; mandoc(1) supports some of them merely for backward
compatibility.
MANUAL STRUCTURE
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 $Mdocdate$ .Dt PROGNAME section .Os .Sh NAME .Nm progname .Nd one line about what it does .\" .Sh LIBRARY .\" For sections 2, 3, and 9 only. .\" Not used in OpenBSD. .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm progname .Op Fl options .Ar .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm utility processes files ... .\" .Sh CONTEXT .\" For section 9 functions only. .\" .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES .\" Not used in OpenBSD. .\" .Sh RETURN VALUES .\" For sections 2, 3, and 9 function return values only. .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT .\" For sections 1, 6, 7, and 8 only. .\" .Sh FILES .\" .Sh EXIT STATUS .\" For sections 1, 6, and 8 only. .\" .Sh EXAMPLES .\" .Sh DIAGNOSTICS .\" For sections 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 printf/stderr messages only. .\" .Sh ERRORS .\" For sections 2, 3, 4, and 9 errno settings only. .\" .Sh SEE ALSO .\" .Xr foobar 1 .\" .Sh STANDARDS .\" .Sh HISTORY .\" .Sh AUTHORS .\" .Sh CAVEATS .\" .Sh BUGS .\" .Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS .\" Not used in OpenBSD.
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 theNd
macro.See
Nm
andNd
. - 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:
.Lb libarm
See
Lb
. - SYNOPSIS
- Documents the utility invocation syntax, function call syntax, or device
configuration.
For the first, utilities (sections 1, 6, and 8), 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, 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
, andFo
macros should follow C header-file conventions.And for the third, configurations (section 4):
.Cd "it* at isa? port 0x2e" .Cd "it* at isa? port 0x4e"
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
, andFt
. All of these macros are output on their own line. If two such dissimilar macros are pairwise invoked (except forFt
beforeFo
orFn
), they are separated by a vertical space, unless in the case ofFo
,Fn
, andFt
, 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 theNm
macro, up to the nextNm
,Sh
, orSs
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 anSh
macro followed by a non-standard section name, and each having several subsections, like in the presentmdoc
manual. - CONTEXT
- This section lists the contexts in which functions can be called in section 9. The contexts are autoconf, process, or interrupt.
- 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
. - ENVIRONMENT
- Lists the environment variables used by the utility, and explains the
syntax and semantics of their values. The
environ(7) 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 section 1, 6, and 8
utilities. 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 messages. In section 4 and 9 manuals, these are usually
messages printed by the kernel to the console and to the kernel log. In
section 1, 6, 7, and 8, these are usually messages printed by userland
programs to the standard error output.
Historically, this section was used in place of EXIT STATUS for manuals in sections 1, 6, and 8; however, this practise is discouraged.
See
Bl
-diag
. - ERRORS
- Documents errno(2) settings in sections 2, 3, 4, and 9.
See
Er
. - 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
andXr
. - 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.
- SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
- Documents any security precautions that operators should consider.
MACRO OVERVIEW
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.
Document preamble and NAME section macros
Dd |
document date: $Mdocdate$ |
month day, year |
Dt |
document title: TITLE section [arch] |
Os |
operating system version: [system [version]] |
Nm |
document name (one argument) |
Nd |
document description (one line) |
Sections and cross references
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 |
Tg |
tag the definition of a term (<= 1 arguments) |
Pp |
start a text paragraph (no arguments) |
Displays and lists
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) |
Spacing control
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 |
Semantic markup for command line utilities
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) |
Semantic markup for function libraries
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: funcname [argument ...] |
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) |
Various semantic markup
An |
author name (>0 arguments) |
Lk |
hyperlink: uri [display_name] |
Mt |
“mailto” hyperlink: localpart@domain |
Cd |
kernel configuration declaration (>0 arguments) |
Ad |
memory address (>0 arguments) |
Ms |
mathematical symbol (>0 arguments) |
Physical markup
Em |
italic font or underline (emphasis) (>0 arguments) |
Sy |
boldface font (symbolic) (>0 arguments) |
No |
return to roman font (normal) (>0 arguments) |
Bf ,
Ef |
font block: - type |
Em
| Li |
Sy |
Physical enclosures
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 |
Text production
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 |
MACRO REFERENCE
This section is a canonical reference of all macros, arranged alphabetically. For the scoping of individual macros, see MACRO SYNTAX.
%A
first_name ... last_name- 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
title- Book title of an
Rs
block. This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographic context when referring to book titles. %C
location- Publication city or location of an
Rs
block. %D
[month day,] year- Publication date of an
Rs
block. Provide the full English name of the month and all four digits of the year. %I
name- Publisher or issuer name of an
Rs
block. %J
name- Journal name of an
Rs
block. %N
number- Issue number (usually for journals) of an
Rs
block. %O
line- Optional information of an
Rs
block. %P
number- Book or journal page number of an
Rs
block. Conventionally, the argument starts with ‘p.
’ for a single page or ‘pp.
’ for a range of pages, for example:.%P pp. 42\(en47
%Q
name- Institutional author (school, government, etc.) of an
Rs
block. Multiple institutional authors should each be accorded their own%Q
line. %R
name- Technical report name of an
Rs
block. %T
title- Article title of an
Rs
block. This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographical context when referring to article titles. %U
protocol://path- URI of reference document.
%V
number- Volume number of an
Rs
block. Ac
- Close an
Ao
block. Does not have any tail arguments. Ad
address- Memory address. Do not use this for postal addresses.
Examples:
.Ad [0,$]
.Ad 0x00000000
An
-split
|-nosplit
| first_name ... last_name- 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:
.An -nosplit
.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt kristaps@bsd.lv
Ao
block- Begin a block enclosed by angle brackets. Does not have any head
arguments. This macro is almost never useful. See
Aq
for more details. 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:
.Fn execve Ap d
Aq
line- Enclose the rest of the input line 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, andIn
for “#include” directives. Never wrapAr
inAq
.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 macrosPf
,Ns
, orEo
as needed.See also
Ao
. Ar
[placeholder ...]- 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, useFl
orCm
. At
[version]- Formats an AT&T UNIX version. Accepts one
optional argument:
Note that these arguments do not begin with a hyphen.
Examples:
.At
.At III
.At V.1
See also
Bsx
,Bx
,Dx
,Fx
,Nx
, andOx
. Bc
- Close a
Bo
block. Does not have any tail arguments. Bd
-
type [-offset
width] [-compact
]- Begin a display block. 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
, twiceindent
;left
, which has no effect;right
, which justifies to the right margin; orcenter
, 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 roff(7).
- An arbitrary string, which indents by the length of this string.
When the argument is missing,
-offset
is ignored. - One of the pre-defined strings
-compact
- Do not assert vertical space before the display.
Examples:
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact Hello world. .Ed
See also
D1
andDl
. Bf
-emphasis
|-literal
|-symbolic
|Em
|Li
|Sy
- Change the font mode for a scoped block of text. The
-emphasis
andEm
argument are equivalent, as are-symbolic
andSy
, and-literal
andLi
. Without an argument, this macro does nothing. The font mode continues until broken by a new font mode in a nested scope orEf
is encountered.See also
Li
,Ef
,Em
, andSy
. Bk
-words
- 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
-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
-
type [-width
val] [-offset
val] [-compact
] [col ...]- Begin a list. Lists consist of items specified using the
It
macro, containing a head or a body or both.The list type is mandatory and must be specified first. The
-width
and-offset
arguments accept macro names as described forBd
-offset
, 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:
-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 anIt
macro line,It
contexts spanning one input line each are implied until anIt
macro line is encountered, at which point items start being interpreted as described in theIt
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
andIt
. Bo
block- Begin a block enclosed by square brackets. Does not have any head
arguments.
Examples:
.Bo 1 , .Dv BUFSIZ Bc
See also
Bq
. Bq
line- 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
, andOc
.See also
Bo
. Brc
- Close a
Bro
block. Does not have any tail arguments. Bro
block- Begin a block enclosed by curly braces. Does not have any head arguments.
Examples:
.Bro 1 , ... , .Va n Brc
See also
Brq
. Brq
line- Encloses its arguments in curly braces.
Examples:
.Brq 1, ..., Va n
See also
Bro
. Bsx
[version]- 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
, andOx
. Bt
- Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints “is currently in beta test.”
Bx
[version [variant]]- 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
, andOx
. Cd
line- Kernel configuration declaration. This denotes strings accepted by
config(8). It is most often used in section 4 manual pages.
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. Cm
keyword ...- Command modifiers. Typically used for fixed strings passed as arguments to
interactive commands, to commands in interpreted scripts, or to
configuration file directives, unless
Fl
is more appropriate.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
.Ic set Fl o Cm vi
.Ic lookup Cm file bind
.Ic permit Ar identity Op Cm as Ar target
D1
line- 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
andDl
. Db
- 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.
Dc
- Close a
Do
block. Does not have any tail arguments. Dd
$Mdocdate$
| month day, year- Document date for display in the page footer, by convention the date of
the last change. This is the mandatory first macro of any
mdoc
manual.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(7) 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
andOs
. Dl
line- 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.7 \(ba less
See also
Ql
,Bd
-literal
, andD1
. Do
block- 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
line- Encloses its arguments in “typographic” double-quotes.
Examples:
.Dq April is the cruellest month \(em T.S. Eliot
See also
Qq
,Sq
, andDo
. Dt
TITLE section [arch]- Document title for display in the page header. This is the mandatory
second macro of any
mdoc
file.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. This may be one of
1
(General Commands),2
(System Calls),3
(Library Functions),3p
(Perl Library),4
(Device Drivers),5
(File Formats),6
(Games),7
(Miscellaneous Information),8
(System Manager's Manual), or9
(Kernel Developer's Manual). It should correspond to the manual's filename suffix and defaults to the empty string if unspecified. - arch
- This specifies the machine architecture a manual page applies to,
where relevant. For OpenBSD, the following are
valid architectures:
alpha
,amd64
,armv7
,arm64
,hppa
,i386
,landisk
,loongson
,luna88k
,macppc
,mips64
,octeon
,powerpc64
,sgi
, andsparc64
.
Examples:
.Dt FOO 1
.Dt FOO 9 i386
See also
Dd
andOs
. Dv
identifier ...- Defined variables such as preprocessor constants, constant symbols,
enumeration values, and so on.
Examples:
.Dv NULL
.Dv BUFSIZ
.Dv STDOUT_FILENO
See also
Er
andEv
for special-purpose constants,Va
for variable symbols, andFd
for listing preprocessor variable definitions in the SYNOPSIS. Dx
[version]- 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
, andOx
. Ec
[closing_delimiter]- Close a scope started by
Eo
.The closing_delimiter 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 alsoIt
. Em
word ...- 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
andAr
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
No
,Ql
, andSy
. En
word ...- 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
[opening_delimiter]- An arbitrary enclosure. The opening_delimiter
argument is used as the enclosure head, for example, specifying \(lq will
emulate
Do
. Er
identifier ...- 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. Es
opening_delimiter closing_delimiter- 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
identifier ...- Environmental variables such as those specified in
environ(7).
Examples:
.Ev DISPLAY
.Ev PATH
See also
Dv
for general constants. Ex
-std
[utility ...]- 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.
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
argument ...- Function argument or parameter. 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 withinFo
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 anotherFa
, 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
. Fc
- End a function context started by
Fo
. Fd
#directive [argument ...]- 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
.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
, andDv
. Fl
[word ...]- 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
. Fn
funcname [argument ...]- A function name.
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
, andFt
. Fo
funcname- Begin a function block. This is a multi-line version of
Fn
.Invocations usually occur in the following context:
.Ft
functype
.Fo
funcname
.Fa
"argtype argname"
...
.Fc
A
Fo
scope is closed byFc
.See also MANUAL STRUCTURE,
Fa
,Fc
, andFt
. Fr
number- This macro is obsolete. No replacement markup is needed.
It was used to show numerical function return values in an italic font.
Ft
functype- A function type.
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
, andFo
. Fx
[version]- 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
, andOx
. Hf
filename- This macro is not implemented in mandoc(1). It was used to include the contents of a (header) file literally.
Ic
keyword ...- Internal or interactive command, or configuration instruction in a
configuration file. See also
Cm
.Examples:
.Ic :wq
.Ic hash
.Ic alias
Note that using
Ql
,Dl
, orBd
-literal
is preferred for displaying code samples; theIc
macro is used when referring to an individual command name. In
filename- 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.
It
[head]- 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:.It
argsLists of type
-bullet
,-dash
,-enum
,-hyphen
and-item
have the following syntax:.It
with subsequent lines interpreted within the scope of the
It
until either a closingEl
or anotherIt
.The
-tag
list has the following syntax:.It
[args
]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 [Ta
cell ...].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 theTa
macro can be used to delimit cells, and portability requires thatTa
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
. Lb
lib
name- Specify a library.
The name parameter may be a system library, such as
z
orpam
, 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 libmandoc
Li
word ...- Request a typewriter (literal) font. Deprecated because on terminal output
devices, this is usually indistinguishable from normal text. For literal
displays, use
Ql
(in-line),Dl
(single line), orBd
-literal
(multi-line) instead. Lk
uri [display_name]- Format a hyperlink.
Examples:
.Lk https://bsd.lv "The BSD.lv Project"
.Lk https://bsd.lv
See also
Mt
. Lp
- Deprecated synonym for
Pp
. Ms
name- Display a mathematical symbol.
Examples:
.Ms sigma
.Ms aleph
Mt
localpart@domain- Format a “mailto:” hyperlink.
Examples:
.Mt discuss@manpages.bsd.lv
.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt kristaps@bsd.lv
Nd
line- 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:
.
Nd mdoc language reference
.
Nd format and display UNIX manuals
The
Nd
macro technically accepts child macros and terminates with a subsequentSh
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
[name]- 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. TheNm
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 thanNm
to mark up the name of the manual page. No
word ...- Normal text. Closes the scope of any preceding in-line macro. When used
after physical formatting macros like
Em
orSy
, 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
,Ql
, andSy
. 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:
.Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
.Cm :M Ns Ar pattern
.Fl o Ns Ar output
See also
No
andSm
. Nx
[version]- 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
, andOx
. Oc
- Close multi-line
Oo
context. Oo
block- Multi-line version of
Op
.Examples:
.Oo .Op Fl flag Ns Ar value .Oc
Op
line- 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:
.Op Fl a Ar b
.Op Ar a | b
See also
Oo
. Os
[system [version]]- Operating system version for display in the page footer. This is the
mandatory third macro of any
mdoc
file.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
andDt
. Ot
functype- 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
[version]- 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
, andNx
. Pa
name ...- 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/man7/mdoc.7
See also
Lk
. Pc
- Close parenthesised context opened by
Po
. Pf
prefix macro [argument ...]- Removes the space between its argument and the following macro. It is
equivalent to:
No
\&prefixNs
macro [argument ...]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
andSm
. Po
block- 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
orSs
macros or before displays (Bd
line) or lists (Bl
) unless the-compact
flag is given. Pq
line- Parenthesised enclosure.
See also
Po
. Qc
- Close quoted context opened by
Qo
. Ql
line- In-line literal display. This can be used for complete command invocations
and for multi-word code examples when an indented display is not desired.
See also
Dl
andBd
-literal
. Qo
block- Multi-line version of
Qq
. Qq
line- Encloses its arguments in "typewriter" double-quotes. Consider
using
Dq
.See also
Dq
,Sq
, andQo
. 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, 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. Rv
-std
[function ...]- 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.
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
TITLE LINE- 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 withSx
.See also
Pp
,Ss
, andSx
. Sm
[on
|off
]- Switches the spacing mode for output generated from macros.
By default, spacing is
on
. When switchedoff
, 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
block- Multi-line version of
Sq
. Sq
line- Encloses its arguments in ‘typewriter’ single-quotes.
See also
Dq
,Qq
, andSo
. Ss
Title line- 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 withSx
.See also
Pp
,Sh
, andSx
. St
-
abbreviation- 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
- -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”)
Sx
Title line- 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
andSs
. Sy
word ...- 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
Em
,No
, andQl
. Ta
- Table cell separator in
Bl
-column
lists; can only be used belowIt
. Tg
[term]- Announce that the next input line starts a definition of the
term. This macro must appear alone on its own input
line. The argument defaults to the first argument of the first macro on
the next line. The argument may not contain whitespace characters, not
even when it is quoted. This macro is a
mandoc(1) extension and is typically ignored by other formatters.
When viewing terminal output with less(1), the interactive
:t
command can be used to go to the definition of the term as described for theMANPAGER
variable in man(1); when producing HTML output, a fragment identifier (id
attribute) is generated, to be used for deep linking to this place of the document.In most cases, adding a
Tg
macro would be redundant because mandoc(1) is able to automatically tag most definitions. This macro is intended for cases where automatic tagging of a term is unsatisfactory, for example if a definition is not tagged automatically (false negative) or if places are tagged that do not define the term (false positives). When there is at least oneTg
macro for a term, no other places are automatically marked as definitions of that term. Tn
word ...- 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
[type] identifier ...- 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, useVt
. Vt
type [identifier]- 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 typesFt
, and for variable names outside the SYNOPSIS sectionVa
, even when including a type with the name. See also MANUAL STRUCTURE. Xc
- Close a scope opened by
Xo
. Xo
block- 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
name section- Link to another manual ("cross-reference").
Cross reference the name and section number of another man page.
Examples:
.Xr mandoc 1
.Xr mandoc 1 ;
.Xr mandoc 1 Ns s behaviour
MACRO SYNTAX
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.
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
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 |
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...]
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.
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...]
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 |
Block partial-implicit
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.
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.
Macro | Callable | Parsed | Scope |
Ta |
Yes | Yes | closed by Ta , It |
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
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 |
Tg |
No | No | <2 |
Tn |
Yes | Yes | >0 |
Ud |
No | No | 0 |
Ux |
Yes | Yes | n |
Va |
Yes | Yes | n |
Vt |
Yes | Yes | >0 |
Xr |
Yes | Yes | 2 |
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. Spacing is suppressed after opening delimiters and before closing delimiters. For example,
renders as:
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,
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:
- |
- vertical bar
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.
Appending a zero-width space (‘\&’) to the end of an input line is also useful to prevent the interpretation of a trailing period, exclamation or question mark as the end of a sentence, for example when an abbreviation happens to occur at the end of a text or macro input line.
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.
COMPATIBILITY
This section provides an incomplete list of compatibility issues between mandoc and GNU troff ("groff").
The following problematic behaviour is found in groff:
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.- ‘\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 forBd
-ragged
.Bd
-literal
does not use a literal font, but is an alias forBd
-unfilled
.Bd
-offset
center
and-offset
right
don't work. Groff does not implement centered and flush-right rendering either, but produces large indentations.
SEE ALSO
man(1), mandoc(1), eqn(7), man(7), mandoc_char(7), roff(7), tbl(7)
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 manual page groff_mdoc(7) contained in the “groff” package documents exactly the same language in a somewhat different style.
HISTORY
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.
AUTHORS
The mdoc
reference was written by
Kristaps Dzonsons
<kristaps@bsd.lv>.