man page(1) manual page
Table of Contents
manuals with
A tutorial sampler for writing manual pages with the macro
package, a and formatting package for Its predecessor, the package,
addressed page layout leaving the manipulation of fonts and other typesetting
details to the individual author. In page layout macros make up the which
consists of macros for titles, section headers, displays and lists. Essentially
items which affect the physical position of text on a formatted page. In
addition to the page structure domain, there are two more domains, the
manual domain and the general text domain. The general text domain is defined
as macros which perform tasks such as quoting or emphasizing pieces of
text. The manual domain is defined as macros that are a subset of the day
to day informal language used to describe commands, routines and related
files. Macros in the manual domain handle command names, command-line arguments
and options, function names, function parameters, pathnames, variables,
cross references to other manual pages, and so on. These domain items have
value for both the author and the future user of the manual page. It is
hoped the consistency gained across the manual set will provide easier
translation to future documentation tools. Throughout the manual pages,
a manual entry is simply referred to as a man page, regardless of actual
length and without sexist intention.
Since a tutorial document
is normally read when a person desires to use the material immediately,
the assumption has been made that the user of this document may be impatient.
The material presented in the remained of this document is outlined as
follows:
The package attempts to
simplify the process of writing a man page. Theoretically, one should not
have to learn the dirty details of to use however, there are a few limitations
which are unavoidable and best gotten out of the way. And, too, be forewarned,
this package is fast. As in a macro is called by placing a (dot character)
at the beginning of a line followed by the two character name for the macro.
Arguments may follow the macro separated by spaces. It is the dot character
at the beginning of the line which causes to interpret the next two characters
as a macro name. To place a (dot character) at the beginning of a line
in some context other than a macro invocation, precede the (dot) with
the escape sequence. The translates literally to a zero width space, and
is never displayed in the output. In general, macros accept up to nine
arguments, any extra arguments are ignored. Most macros in accept nine
arguments and, in limited cases, arguments may be continued or extended
on the next line (See A few macros handle quoted arguments (see below).
Most of the general text domain and manual domain macros are special
in that their argument lists are for callable macro names. This means an
argument on the argument list which matches a general text or manual domain
macro name and is determined to be callable will be executed or called
when it is processed. In this case, the argument, although the name of a
macro, is not preceded by a (dot). It is in this manner that many macros
are nested; for example the option macro, may the flag and argument macros,
and to specify an optional flag with an argument: is produced by
To prevent a two character string from being interpreted as a macro name,
precede the string with the escape sequence is produced by Here the
strings and are not interpreted as macros. Macros whose argument lists
are parsed for callable arguments are referred to as parsed and macros
which may be called from an argument list are referred to as callable throughout
this document and in the companion quick reference manual This is a technical
as almost all of the macros in are parsed, but as it was cumbersome to
constantly refer to macros as being callable and being able to call other
macros, the term parsed has been used. Sometimes it is desirable to give
as one argument a string containing one or more blank space characters.
This may be necessary to defeat the nine argument limit or to specify arguments
to macros which expect particular arrangement of items in the argument
list. For example, the function macro expects the first argument to be
the name of a function and any remaining arguments to be function parameters.
As stipulates the declaration of function parameters in the parenthesized
parameter list, each parameter is guaranteed to be at minimum a two word
string. For example, There are two possible ways to pass an argument which
contains an embedded space. Unfortunately, the most convenient way of passing
spaces in between quotes by reassigning individual arguments before parsing
was fairly expensive speed wise and space wise to implement in all the
macros for It is not expensive for but for the sake of portability,
has been limited to the following macros which need it the most: Configuration
declaration (section 4 Begin list (for the width specifier). Emphasized
text. Functions (sections two and four). List items. Literal text. Symbolic
text. Book titles. Journal names. Optional notes for a reference. Report
title (in a reference). Title of article in a book or journal. One way
of passing a string containing blank spaces is to use the hard or unpaddable
space character that is, a blank space preceded by the escape character
This method may be used with any macro but has the side effect of interfering
with the adjustment of text over the length of a line. sees the hard space
as if it were any other printable character and cannot split the string
into blank or newline separated pieces as one would expect. The method is
useful for strings which are not expected to overlap a line boundary. For
example: is created by can also be created by If the or quotes
were omitted, would see three arguments and the result would be: For
an example of what happens when the parameter list overlaps a newline boundary,
see the section. can be confused by blank space characters at the end
of a line. It is a wise preventive measure to globally remove all blank
spaces from <blank-space><end-of-line> character sequences. Should the need arise
to force a blank character at the end of a line, it may be forced with
an unpaddable space and the escape character. For example, Special characters
like the newline character are handled by replacing the with (e.g., to
preserve the backslash.
The body of a man page
is easily constructed from a basic template found in the file Several
example man pages can also be found in .\" The following requests are
required for all man pages. .Dd Month day, year .Os OPERATING_SYSTEM [version/release]
.Dt DOCUMENT_TITLE [section number] [volume] .Sh NAME .Nm name .Nd one line
description of name .Sh SYNOPSIS .Sh DESCRIPTION .\" The following requests
should be uncommented and .\" used where appropriate. This next request is
.\" for sections 2 and 3 function return values only. .\" .Sh RETURN VALUE .\"
This next request is for sections 1, 6, 7 & 8 only .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT .\" .Sh
FILES .\" .Sh EXAMPLES .\" This next request is for sections 1, 6, 7 & 8 only
.\" (command return values (to shell) and .\" fprintf/stderr type diagnostics)
.\" .Sh DIAGNOSTICS .\" The next request is for sections 2 and 3 error .\" and
signal handling only. .\" .Sh ERRORS .\" .Sh SEE ALSO .\" .Sh CONFORMING TO .\" .Sh
HISTORY .\" .Sh AUTHORS .\" .Sh BUGS The first items in the template are the
macros the document date, the operating system the man page or subject
source is developed or modified for, and the man page title along with
the section of the manual the page belongs in. These macros identify the
page, and are discussed below in The remaining items in the template
are section headers of which and are mandatory. The headers are discussed
in after presentation of Several content macros are used to demonstrate
page layout macros; reading about content macros before page layout macros
is recommended.
The title macros are the first portion of the
page structure domain, but are presented first and separate for someone
who wishes to start writing a man page yesterday. Three header macros designate
the document title or manual page title, the operating system, and the
date of authorship. These macros are one called once at the very beginning
of the document and are used to construct the headers and footers only.
The document title is the subject of the man page and must be in due
to troff limitations. The section number may be 1, ..., 8, and if it is specified,
the volume title may be omitted. A volume title may be arbitrary or one
of the following: The default volume labeling is for sections
1, 6, and 7; for section 8; for sections 2, 3, 4, and 5. The name
of the operating system should be the common acronym, for example, or
or The release should be the standard release nomenclature for the system
specified, for example, 4.3, 4.3+Tahoe, V.3, V.4. Unrecognized arguments are
displayed as given in the page footer. For instance, a typical footer might
be: or or for a locally produced set The Berkeley default, without
an argument, has been defined as in the site-specific file It really should
default to Note, if the macro is not present, the bottom left corner
of the page will be ugly. The date should be written formally:
The manual domain macro names are derived
from the day to day informal language used to describe commands, subroutines
and related files. Slightly different variations of this language are used
to describe the three different aspects of writing a man page. First, there
is the description of macro request usage. Second is the description of
a command macros and third, the description of a command to a user in
the verbal sense; that is, discussion of a command in the text of a man
page. In the first case, macros are themselves a type of command; the
general syntax for a troff command is: .Va argument1 argument2 ... argument9
The is a macro command or request, and anything following it is an argument
to be processed. In the second case, the description of a command using
the content macros is a bit more involved; a typical command line might
be displayed as: Here, is the command name and the bracketed string
is a argument designated as optional by the option brackets. In terms,
and are called The macros which formatted the above example: .Nm filter
.Op Fl flag .Ar infile outfile In the third case, discussion of commands
and command syntax includes both examples above, but may add more detail.
The arguments and from the example above might be referred to as or
Some command-line argument lists are quite long: Here one
might talk about the command and qualify the argument as an argument
to the flag, or discuss the optional file operand In the verbal context,
such detail can prevent confusion, however the package does not have a
macro for an argument a flag. Instead the argument macro is used for an
operand or file argument like as well as an argument to a flag like The
make command line was produced from: .Nm make .Op Fl eiknqrstv .Op Fl D Ar
variable .Op Fl d Ar flags .Op Fl f Ar makefile .Op Fl I Ar directory .Op Fl
j Ar max_jobs .Op Ar variable=value .Bk -words .Op Ar target ... .Ek The and
macros are explained in The manual domain and general text domain macros
share a similar syntax with a few minor deviations: and differ only
when called without arguments; and impose an order on their argument
lists and the and macros have nesting limitations. All content macros
are capable of recognizing and properly handling punctuation, provided
each punctuation character is separated by a leading space. If a request
is given: The result is: The punctuation is not recognized and all
is output in the literal font. If the punctuation is separated by a leading
white space: The result is: The punctuation is now recognized and
is output in the default font distinguishing it from the strings in literal
font. To remove the special meaning from a punctuation character escape
it with is limited as a macro language, and has difficulty when presented
with a string containing a member of the mathematical, logical or quotation
set: {+,-,/,*,%,<,>,<=,>=,=,==,&,‘,’,"} The problem is that may assume it is
supposed to actually perform the operation or evaluation suggested by the
characters. To prevent the accidental evaluation of these characters, escape
them with Typical syntax is shown in the first content macro displayed
below,
The address macro identifies an address construct
of the form addr1[,addr2[,addr3]]. It is an error to call
without arguments. is callable by other macros and is parsed. The macro
is used to specify the name of the author of the item being documented,
or the name of the author of the actual manual page. Any remaining arguments
after the name information are assumed to be punctuation. The
macro is parsed and is callable. It is an error to call without any arguments.
The argument macro may be used whenever a command-line argument is referenced.
If is called without arguments, is assumed. The macro
is parsed and is callable. The macro is used to demonstrate a declaration
for a device interface in a section four manual. This macro accepts quoted
arguments (double quotes only). produced by: The command modifier
is identical to the (flag) command with the exception the macro does
not assert a dash in front of every argument. Traditionally flags are marked
by the preceding dash, some commands or subsets of commands do not use
them. Command modifiers may also be specified in conjunction with interactive
commands such as editor commands. See A variable which is defined in an
include file is specified by the macro It is an error to call
without arguments. is parsed and is callable. The errno macro specifies
the error return value for section two library routines. The second example
below shows used with the general text domain macro, as it would be used
in a section two manual page. It is an error to call without
arguments. The macro is parsed and is callable. The macro specifies an
environment variable. It is an error to call without arguments.
The macro is parsed and is callable. The macro is used to refer to function
arguments (parameters) outside of the section of the manual or inside
the section should a parameter list be too long for the macro and the
enclosure macros and must be used. may also be used to refer to structure
members. It is an error to call without arguments. is parsed and
is callable. The macro is used in the section with section two or three
functions. The macro does not call other macros and is not callable by
other macros. In the section a request causes a line break if a function
has already been presented and a break has not occurred. This leaves a nice
vertical space in between the previous function call and the declaration
for the next function. The macro handles command-line flags. It prepends
a dash, to the flag. For interactive command flags, which are not prepended
with a dash, the (command modifier) macro is identical, but without the
dash. The macro without any arguments results in a dash
representing stdin/stdout. Note that giving a single dash, will result
in two dashes. The macro is parsed and is callable. The .Fn macro is modeled
on ANSI C conventions. Usage: .Fn [type] function [[type] parameters ... ]
It is an error to call without any arguments. The macro is parsed
and is callable, note that any call to another macro signals the end of
the call (it will close-parenthesis at that point). For functions that
have more than eight parameters (and this is rare), the macros (function
open) and (function close) may be used with (function argument) to get
around the limitation. For example: .Fo "int res_mkquery" .Fa "int op" .Fa
"char *dname" .Fa "int class" .Fa "int type" .Fa "char *data" .Fa "int datalen"
.Fa "struct rrec *newrr" .Fa "char *buf" .Fa "int buflen" .Fc Produces:
The and macros are parsed and are callable. In the section,
the function will always begin at the beginning of line. If there is more
than one function presented in the section and a function type has not
been given, a line break will occur, leaving a nice vertical space between
the current function name and the one prior. At the moment, does not check
its word boundaries against troff line lengths and may split across a newline
ungracefully. This will be fixed in the near future. This macro is intended
for the section. It may be used anywhere else in the man page without problems,
but its main purpose is to present the function type in kernel normal form
for the of sections two and three (it causes a line break allowing the
function name to appear on the next line). The request is not callable
by other macros. The macro designates an interactive or internal command.
It is an error to call without arguments. The macro is parsed
and is callable. The macro is used for the document title or subject name.
It has the peculiarity of remembering the first argument it was called
with, which should always be the subject name of the page. When called without
arguments, regurgitates this initial name for the sole purpose of making
less work for the author. Note: a section two or three document function
name is addressed with the in the section, and with in the and remaining
sections. For interactive commands, such as the command keyword in the
macro should be used. While the is nearly identical to it can not recall
the first argument it was invoked with. The macro is parsed
and is callable. The macro places option brackets around the any remaining
arguments on the command line, and places any trailing punctuation outside
the brackets. The macros and may be used across one or more lines.
The and macros: .Oo .Op Fl k Ar kilobytes .Op Fl i Ar
interval .Op Fl c Ar count .Oc Produce: The macros and are parsed
and are callable. The macro formats pathnames or filenames. The
macro is parsed and is callable. Generic variable reference:
It is an error to call without any arguments. The macro is parsed
and is callable. The macro expects the first argument to be a manual page
name, and the second argument, if it exists, to be either a section page
number or punctuation. Any remaining arguments are assumed to be punctuation.
The macro is parsed and is callable. It is an error to call
without any arguments.
Usage: .At [v6 | v7 | 32v | V.1
| V.4] ... The macro is parsed and callable It accepts at most two
arguments. The macro is parsed and is callable. Usage: .Fx Version.release
... The macro is parsed and callable It accepts at most two arguments.
The macro is parsed and is callable. The concept of enclosure is
similar to quoting. The object being to enclose one or more strings between
a pair of characters like quotes or parentheses. The terms quoting and enclosure
are used interchangeably throughout this document. Most of the one line
enclosure macros end in small letter to give a hint of quoting, but there
are a few irregularities. For each enclosure macro there is also a pair
of open and close macros which end in small letters and respectively.
These can be used across one or more lines of text and while they have
nesting limitations, the one line quote macros can be used inside of them.
.Aq .Ac .Ao Angle Bracket Enclosure <string> .Bq .Bc .Bo Bracket Enclosure [string]
.Dq .Dc .Do Double Quote ‘‘string’’ .Ec .Eo Enclose String (in XX) XXstringXX
.Pq .Pc .Po Parenthesis Enclosure (string) .Ql Quoted Literal ‘st’ or string .Qq .Qc .Qo Straight
Double Quote "string" .Sq .Sc .So Single Quote ‘string’ Except for the irregular
macros noted below, all of the quoting macros are parsed and callable. All
handle punctuation properly, as long as it is presented one character at
a time and separated by spaces. The quoting macros examine opening and closing
punctuation to determine whether it comes before or after the enclosing
string This makes some nesting possible. These macros expect the first
argument to be the opening and closing strings respectively. The quoted
literal macro behaves differently for than If formatted with a quoted
literal is always quoted. If formatted with troff, an item is quoted only
if the width of the item is less than three constant width characters. This
is to make short strings more visible where the font change to literal
(constant width) is less noticeable. The prefix macro is not callable,
but it is parsed: becomes The (no space) macro performs the analogous
suffix function. Examples of quoting: For
a good example of nested enclosure macros, see the option macro. It was
created from the same underlying enclosure macros as those presented in
the list above. The and extended argument list macros were also built
from the same underlying routines and are a good example of macro usage
at its worst. The macro is a hack for words in a macro command line which
should be formatted and follows the conventional syntax for content macros.
The macro eliminates unwanted spaces in between macro requests. It is
useful for old style argument lists where there is no space between the
flag and argument: produces Note: the macro always invokes the macro
after eliminating the space unless another macro name follows it. The macro
is parsed and is callable. The macro designates a reference to a section
header within the same document. It is parsed and is callable. The
following macros make a modest attempt to handle references. At best, the
macros make it convenient to manually drop in a subset of refer style references.
Reference Start. Causes a line break and begins collection of reference
information until the reference end macro is read. Reference End. The reference
is printed. Reference author name, one name per invocation. Book title.
City/place. Date. Journal name. Issue number. Optional information. Page
number. Report name. Title of article. Volume(s). The macros beginning
with are not callable, and are parsed only for the trade name macro which
returns to its caller. (And not very predictably at the moment either.) The
purpose is to allow trade names to be pretty printed in output. The macro
generates text for use in the section. will generate the following
text: The option is valid only for manual page sections 2 and 3.
The trade name macro is generally a small caps macro for all uppercase
words longer than two characters. The macro is parsed and is callable
by other macros. The and macros allow one to extend an argument list
on a macro boundary. Argument lists cannot be extended within a macro which
expects all of its arguments on one line such as Here is an example of
using the space mode macro to turn spacing off: .Sm off .It Xo Sy I Ar
operation .No \en Ar count No \en .Xc .Sm on Produces Another one:
.Sm off .It Cm S No / Ar old_pattern Xo .No / Ar new_pattern .No / Op Cm g
.Xc .Sm on Produces Another example of and using enclosure
macros: Test the value of a variable. .It Xo .Ic .ifndef .Oo \&! Oc Ns Ar variable
.Op Ar operator variable ... .Xc Produces All of the above examples
have used the macro on the argument list of the (list-item) macro. The
extend macros are not used very often, and when they are it is usually
to extend the list-item argument list. Unfortunately, this is also where
the extend macros are the most finicky. In the first two examples, spacing
was turned off; in the third, spacing was desired in part of the output
but not all of it. To make these macros work in this situation make sure
the and macros are placed as shown in the third example. If the macro
is not alone on the argument list, spacing will be unpredictable. The
(no space macro) must not occur as the first or last macro on a line in
this situation. Out of 900 manual pages (about 1500 actual pages) currently
released with only fifteen use the macro.
The first
three section header macros list below are required in every man page.
The remaining section headers are recommended at the discretion of the
author writing the manual page. The macro can take up to nine arguments.
It is parsed and but is not callable. The macro is mandatory. If not specified,
the headers, footers and page layout defaults will not be set and things
will be rather unpleasant. The section consists of at least three items.
The first is the name macro naming the subject of the man page. The second
is the Name Description macro, which separates the subject name from the
third item, which is the description. The description should be the most
terse and lucid possible, as the space available is small. The section
describes the typical usage of the subject of a man page. The macros required
are either (and possibly macros). The function name macro is required
for manual page sections 2 and 3, the command and general name macro is
required for sections 1, 5, 6, 7, 8. Section 4 manuals require a or a
configuration device usage macro. Several other macros may be necessary
to produce the synopsis line as shown below: The following macros
were used: The macros and recognize the pipe bar character so
a command line such as: will not go orbital. normally interprets a Ba
as a special operator. See for a usable Ba character in other situations.
In most cases the first text in the section is a brief paragraph on
the command, function or file, followed by a lexical list of options and
respective explanations. To create such a list, the begin-list, list-item
and end-list macros are used (see below). The following section headers
are part of the preferred manual page layout and must be used appropriately
to maintain consistency. They are listed in the order in which they would
be used. The section should reveal any related environment variables
and clues to their behavior and/or usage. There are several ways to create
examples. See the section below for details. Files which are used or created
by the man page subject should be listed via the macro in the section.
References to other material on the man page topic and cross references
to other relevant man pages should be placed in the section. Cross references
are specified using the macro. Cross references in the section should
be sorted by section number, and then placed in alphabetical order and
comma separated. For example: At this time style references are
not accommodated. If the command, library function or file adheres to a
specific implementation such as or this should be noted here. If the command
does not adhere to any standard, its history should be noted in the section.
Any command which does not adhere to any specific standards should be
outlined historically in this section. Credits, if need be, should be placed
here. Diagnostics from a command should be placed in this section. Specific
error handling, especially from library functions (man page sections 2
and 3) should go here. The macro is used to specify an errno. Blatant problems
with the topic go here... User specified sections may be added, for example,
this section was set with: .Sh PAGE STRUCTURE DOMAIN The paragraph
command may be used to specify a line space where necessary. The macro is
not necessary after a or macro or before a macro. (The macro asserts
a vertical distance unless the -compact flag is given).
The only keep that is implemented at this
time is for words. The macros are (begin-keep) and (end-keep). The only option
that accepts is and is useful for preventing line breaks in the middle
of options. In the example for the make command-line arguments (see the
keep prevented from placing up the flag and the argument on separate lines.
(Actually, the option macro used to prevent this from occurring, but was
dropped when the decision (religious) was made to force right justified
margins in as options in general look atrocious when spread across a sparse
line. More work needs to be done with the keep macros, a option needs to
be added.) There are five types of displays, a quickie one line indented
display a quickie one line literal display and a block literal, block
filled and block ragged which use the begin-display and end-display macros.
(D-one) Display one line of indented text. This macro is parsed, but it
is not callable. The above was produced by: (D-ell) Display one line
of indented text. The example macro has been used throughout this file.
It allows the indent (display) of one line of text. Its default font is
set to constant width (literal) however it is parsed and will recognized
other macros. It is not callable however. The above was produced by
Begin-display. The display must be ended with the macro. Displays may be
nested within displays and lists. has the following syntax: The display-type
must be one of the following four types and may have an offset specifier
for indentation: Display a block of text as typed, right (and left)
margin edges are left ragged. Display a filled (formatted) block. The block
of text is formatted (the edges are filled - not left unjustified). Display
a literal block, useful for source code or simple tabbed or spaced text.
The filename following the flag is read and displayed. Literal mode is
asserted and tabs are set at 8 constant width character intervals, however
any commands in file will be processed. If is specified with one of the
following strings, the string is interpreted to indicate the level of indentation
for the forthcoming block of text: Align block on the current left margin,
this is the default mode of Supposedly center the block. At this time
unfortunately, the block merely gets left aligned about an imaginary center
margin. Indents by one default indent value or tab. The default indent value
is also used for the display so one is guaranteed the two types of displays
will line up. This indent is normally set to 6n or about two thirds of an
inch (six constant width characters). Indents two times the default indent
value. This aligns the block about two inches from the right side of the
page. This macro needs work and perhaps may never do the right thing by
End-display. There are five macros for changing the appearance of the
manual page text: Text may be stressed or emphasized with the macro.
The usual font for emphasis is italic. The macro is parsed and
is callable. It is an error to call without arguments. The literal macro
may be used for special characters, variable constants, anything which
should be displayed as it would be typed. The macro is parsed
and is callable. The symbolic emphasis macro is generally a boldface macro
in either the symbolic sense or the traditional English usage. The
macro is parsed and is callable. Arguments to may be quoted. Begin font
mode. The font mode must be ended with the macro. Font modes may be nested
within other font modes. has the following syntax: The font-mode must
be one of the following three types: Same as if the macro was used
for the entire block of text. Same as if the macro was used for the entire
block of text. Same as if the macro was used for the entire block of text.
End font mode. There are several types of lists which may be initiated
with the begin-list macro. Items within the list are specified with the
item macro and each list must end with the macro. Lists may be nested
within themselves and within displays. Columns may be used inside of lists,
but lists are unproven inside of columns. In addition, several list attributes
may be specified such as the width of a tag, the list offset, and compactness
(blank lines between items allowed or disallowed). Most of this document
has been formatted with a tag style list For a change of pace, the list-type
used to present the list-types is an over-hanging list This type of list
is quite popular with users, but might look a bit funny after having read
many pages of tagged lists. The following list types are accepted by
These three are the simplest types of lists. Once the macro has been
given, items in the list are merely indicated by a line consisting solely
of the macro. For example, the source text for a simple enumerated list
would look like: .Bl -enum -compact .It Item one goes here. .It And item two
here. .It Lastly item three goes here. .El The results: Item one goes
here. And item two here. Lastly item three goes here. A simple bullet
list construction: .Bl -bullet -compact .It Bullet one goes here. .It Bullet
two here. .El Produces: Bullet one goes here. Bullet two here.
These list-types collect arguments specified with the macro and create
a label which may be into the forthcoming text, from the forthcoming
text, from above and not indented or This list was constructed with the
list-type. The macro is parsed only for the inset, hang and tag list-types
and is not callable. Here is an example of inset labels: The tagged list
(also called a tagged paragraph) is the most common type of list used in
the Berkeley manuals. Diag lists create section four diagnostic lists and
are similar to inset lists except callable macros are ignored. Hanged labels
are a matter of taste. Overhanging labels are nice when space is constrained.
Inset labels are useful for controlling blocks of paragraphs and are valuable
for converting manuals to other formats. Here is the source text which
produced the above example: .Bl -inset -offset indent .It Em Tag The tagged
list (also called a tagged paragraph) is the most common type of list used
in the Berkeley manuals. .It Em Diag Diag lists create section four diagnostic
lists and are similar to inset lists except callable macros are ignored.
.It Em Hang Hanged labels are a matter of taste. .It Em Ohang Overhanging
labels are nice when space is constrained. .It Em Inset Inset labels are
useful for controlling blocks of paragraphs and are valuable for converting
.Nm -mdoc manuals to other formats. .El Here is a hanged list with two items:
labels appear similar to tagged lists when the label is smaller than
the label width. blend in to the paragraph unlike tagged paragraph labels.
And the unformatted text which created it: .Bl -hang -offset indent .It
Em Hanged labels appear similar to tagged lists when the label is smaller
than the label width. .It Em Longer hanged list labels blend in to the paragraph
unlike tagged paragraph labels. .El The tagged list which follows uses
an optional width specifier to control the width of the tag. sleep time
of the process (seconds blocked) number of disk resulting from references
by the process to pages not loaded in core. numerical user-id of process
owner numerical ID of parent of process process priority (nonpositive
when in noninterruptible wait) The raw text: .Bl -tag -width "PAGEIN" -compact
-offset indent .It SL sleep time of the process (seconds blocked) .It PAGEIN
number of disk .Tn I/O Ns ’s resulting from references by the process to
pages not loaded in core. .It UID numerical user ID of process owner .It PPID
numerical ID of parent of process process priority (nonpositive when in
noninterruptible wait) .El Acceptable width specifiers: sets the width
to the default width for a flag. All callable macros have a default width
value. The value is presently set to ten constant width characters or about
five sixth of an inch. sets the width to 24 constant width characters or
about two inches. The is absolutely necessary for the scaling to work correctly.
sets width to the constant width length of the string given. again, the
width is set to the constant width of the string given. If a width is
not specified for the tag list type, the first time is invoked, an attempt
is made to determine an appropriate width. If the first argument to is
a callable macro, the default width for that macro will be used as if the
macro name had been supplied as the width. However, if another item in the
list is given with a different callable macro name, a new and nested list
is assumed.
The following strings are predefined as may
be used by preceding with the troff string interpreting sequence where
is the name of the defined string or as where is the name of the string.
The interpreting sequence may be used any where in the text.
The string named should be written as since it is only
one char.
The debugging facilities for are limited, but can
help detect subtle errors such as the collision of an argument name with
an internal register or macro name. (A what?) A register is an arithmetic
storage class for with a one or two character name. All registers internal
to for and are two characters and of the form <upper_case><lower_case> such
as <lower_case><upper_case> as or <upper or lower letter><digit> as And adding
to the muddle, has its own internal registers all of which are either
two lowercase characters or a dot plus a letter or metacharacter character.
In one of the introduction examples, it was shown how to prevent the interpretation
of a macro name with the escape sequence This is sufficient for the internal
register names also. If a nonescaped register name is
given in the argument list of a request, unpredictable behavior will occur.
In general, any time huge portions of text do not appear where expected
in the output, or small strings such as list tags disappear, chances are
there is a misunderstanding about an argument type in the argument list.
Your mother never intended for you to remember this evil stuff - so here
is a way to find out whether or not your arguments are valid: The (debug)
macro displays the interpretation of the argument list for most macros.
Macros such as the (paragraph) macro do not contain debugging information.
All of the callable macros do, and it is strongly advised whenever in doubt,
turn on the macro. An example of a portion of text with the debug macro
placed above and below an artificially created problem (a flag argument
which should be in order to work): .Db on .Op Fl aC Ar file ) .Db off
The resulting output: DEBUGGING ON DEBUG(argv) MACRO: ‘.Op’ Line #: 2 Argc:
1 Argv: ‘Fl’ Length: 2
Space: ‘’ Class: Executable
Argc: 2 Argv: ‘aC’ Length: 2
Space: ‘’ Class: Executable
Argc: 3 Argv: ‘Ar’ Length: 2
Space: ‘’ Class: Executable
Argc: 4 Argv: ‘file’ Length: 4
Space: ‘ ’ Class: String
Argc: 5 Argv: ‘)’ Length: 1
Space: ‘ ’ Class: Closing Punctuation or suffix
MACRO REQUEST: .Op Fl aC Ar file )
DEBUGGING OFF The first line of information tells the name of the calling
macro, here and the line number it appears on. If one or more files are
involved (especially if text from another file is included), the line number
may be bogus. If there is only one file, it should be accurate. The second
line gives the argument count, the argument and its length. If the length
of an argument is two characters, the argument is tested to see if it is
executable (unfortunately, any register which contains a nonzero value
appears executable). The third line gives the space allotted for a class,
and the class type. The problem here is the argument aC should not be executable.
The four types of classes are string, executable, closing punctuation and
opening punctuation. The last line shows the entire argument list as it
was read. In this next example, the offending is escaped: .Db on .Em An
escaped \&aC .Db off DEBUGGING ON DEBUG(fargv) MACRO: ‘.Em’ Line #: 2 Argc:
1 Argv: ‘An’ Length: 2
Space: ‘ ’ Class: String
Argc: 2 Argv: ‘escaped’ Length: 7
Space: ‘ ’ Class: String
Argc: 3 Argv: ‘aC’ Length: 2
Space: ‘ ’ Class: String
MACRO REQUEST: .Em An escaped &aC
DEBUGGING OFF The argument shows up with the same length of 2 as the
sequence produces a zero width, but a register named was not found and
the type classified as string. Other diagnostics consist of usage statements
and are self explanatory.
The package does not need
compatibility mode with The package inhibits page breaks, and the headers
and footers which normally occur at those breaks with to make the manual
more efficient for viewing on-line. At the moment, with does eject the
imaginary remainder of the page at end of file. The inhibiting of the page
breaks makes files unsuitable for hardcopy. There is a register named
which can be set to zero in the site dependent style file to restore the
old style behavior.
manual macro package template for writing a
man page several example man pages
Undesirable hyphenation on the
dash of a flag argument is not yet resolved, and causes occasional mishaps
in the section. (line break on the hyphen). Predefined strings are not
declared in documentation. Section 3f has not been added to the header
routines. font should be changed in section. needs to have a check to
prevent splitting up if the line length is too short. Occasionally it separates
the last parenthesis, and sometimes looks ridiculous if a line is in fill
mode. The method used to prevent header and footer page breaks (other than
the initial header and footer) when using nroff occasionally places an
unsightly partially filled line (blank) at the would be bottom of the page.
The list and display macros to not do any keeps and certainly should be
able to.
This
page is part of release 3.78 of the Linux project. A description of the
project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this
page, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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