mandoc_mdoc(7) - BetterMan

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NAME	.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 the Nd macro. See Nm and Nd.
LIBRARY	.Lb libarm See Lb.
SYNOPSIS	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, and Fo 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, and Ft. All of these macros are output on their own line. If two such dissimilar macros are pairwise invoked (except for Ft before Fo or Fn), they are separated by a vertical space, unless in the case of Fo, Fn, and Ft, 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 the Nm macro, up to the next Nm, Sh, or Ss macro or the end of an enclosing block, whichever comes first.
DESCRIPTION	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 options 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 an Sh macro followed by a non-standard section name, and each having several subsections, like in the present mdoc 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	See Rv.
ENVIRONMENT	See Ev.
FILES	See Pa.
EXIT STATUS	See Ex.
EXAMPLES	Example usages. This often contains snippets of well-formed, well-tested invocations. Make sure that examples work properly!
DIAGNOSTICS	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	See Er.
SEE ALSO	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 and Xr.
STANDARDS	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	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.
%Afirst_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.
%Btitle	Book title of an Rs block. This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographic context when referring to book titles.
%Clocation	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.
%Iname	Publisher or issuer name of an Rs block.
%Jname	Journal name of an Rs block.
%Nnumber	Issue number (usually for journals) of an Rs block.
%Oline	Optional information of an Rs block.
%Pnumber	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
%Qname	Institutional author (school, government, etc.) of an Rs block. Multiple institutional authors should each be accorded their own %Q line.
%Rname	Technical report name of an Rs block.
%Ttitle	Article title of an Rs block. This macro may also be used in a non-bibliographical context when referring to article titles.
%Uprotocol://path	URI of reference document.
%Vnumber	Volume number of an Rs block.
Ac	Close an Ao block. Does not have any tail arguments.
Adaddress	Examples:
-nosplit	-split Start a new output line before each subsequent invocation of An. -nosplit The opposite of -split. 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:
Aoblock	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	Examples:
Aqline	Occasionally, it is used for names of characters and keys, for example: Press the .Aq escape key to ... For URIs, use Lk instead, and In for “#include” directives. Never wrap Ar in Aq. 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 macros Pf, Ns, or Eo as needed. See also Ao.
Ar [placeholder ...]	Examples: The arguments to the Ar macro are names and placeholders for command arguments; for fixed strings to be passed verbatim as arguments, use Fl or Cm.
At [version]	v[1-7] \| 32v A version of AT&T UNIX. III AT&T System III UNIX. V \| V.[1-4] A version of AT&T System V UNIX. Note that these arguments do not begin with a hyphen. Examples: See also Bsx, Bx, Dx, Fx, Nx, and Ox.
Bc	Close a Bo block. Does not have any tail arguments.
Bd-type [-offsetwidth] [-compact]	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: -offsetwidth One of the pre-defined strings indent , the width of a standard indentation (six constant width characters); indent-two , twice indent ; left , which has no effect; right , which justifies to the right margin; or center , 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. -compact Do not assert vertical space before the display. Examples: .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact Hello world. .Ed See also D1 and Dl.
-literal-symbolic	See also Li, Ef, Em, and Sy.
Bk-words	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 [-widthval] [-offsetval] [-compact] [col ...]	The list type is mandatory and must be specified first. The -width and -offset arguments accept macro names as described for Bd-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 an It macro line, It contexts spanning one input line each are implied until an It macro line is encountered, at which point items start being interpreted as described in the It 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 and It.
Boblock	Examples: .Bo 1 , .Dv BUFSIZ Bc See also Bq.
Bqline	Examples: Remarks: this macro is sometimes abused to emulate optional arguments for commands; the correct macros to use for this purpose are Op, Oo, and Oc. See also Bo.
Brc	Close a Bro block. Does not have any tail arguments.
Broblock	Examples: .Bro 1 , ... , .Va n Brc See also Brq.
Brqline	Examples: See also Bro.
Bsx [version]	Examples: See also At, Bx, Dx, Fx, Nx, and Ox.
Bt	Supported only for compatibility, do not use this in new manuals. Prints “is currently in beta test.”
Bx [version [variant]]	Examples: See also At, Bsx, Dx, Fx, Nx, and Ox.
Cdline	Examples: Remarks: this macro is commonly abused by using quoted literals to retain whitespace and align consecutive Cd declarations. This practise is discouraged.
Cmkeyword ...	Examples:
D1line	Examples: See also Bd and Dl.
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	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: See also Dt and Os.
Dlline	Examples: See also Ql, Bd-literal, and D1.
Doblock	Examples: .Do April is the cruellest month .Dc \(em T.S. Eliot See also Dq.
Dqline	Examples: .Dq April is the cruellest month \(em T.S. Eliot See also Qq, Sq, and Do.
DtTITLE section [arch]	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), or 9 (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 example alpha, amd64, i386, or sparc64. The list of valid architectures varies by operating system. Examples: See also Dd and Os.
Dvidentifier ...	Examples: See also Er and Ev for special-purpose constants, Va for variable symbols, and Fd for listing preprocessor variable definitions in the SYNOPSIS.
Dx [version]	Examples: See also At, Bsx, Bx, Fx, Nx, and Ox.
Ec [closing_delimiter]	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 also It.
Emword ...	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 and Ar 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, and Sy.
Enword ...	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.
Eridentifier ...	Examples: See also Dv for general constants.
Esopening_delimiter closing_delimiter	It takes two arguments, defining the delimiters to be used by subsequent En macros.
Evidentifier ...	Examples: See also Dv for general constants.
Ex-std [utility ...]	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.
Faargument ...	This macro is also used to specify the field name of a structure. Most often, the Fa macro is used in the SYNOPSIS within Fo blocks when documenting multi-line function prototypes. If invoked with multiple arguments, the arguments are separated by a comma. Furthermore, if the following macro is another Fa, the last argument will also have a trailing comma. Examples: See also Fo.
Fc	End a function context started by Fo.
Fd #directive [argument ...]	Examples: See also MANUAL STRUCTURE, In, and Dv.
Fl [word ...]	Examples: For GNU-sytle long options, escaping the additional hyphen-minus is not strictly required, but may be safer with future versions of GNU troff; see mandoc_char(7) for details. See also Cm.
Fnfuncname [argument ...]	Function arguments are surrounded in parenthesis and are delimited by commas. If no arguments are specified, blank parenthesis are output. In the SYNOPSIS section, this macro starts a new output line, and a blank line is automatically inserted between function definitions. Examples: .Ft functype .Fn funcname When referring to a function documented in another manual page, use Xr instead. See also MANUAL STRUCTURE, Fo, and Ft.
Fofuncname	Invocations usually occur in the following context: A Fo scope is closed by Fc. See also MANUAL STRUCTURE, Fa, Fc, and Ft.
Frnumber	It was used to show numerical function return values in an italic font.
Ftfunctype	In the SYNOPSIS section, a new output line is started after this macro. Examples: .Ft functype .Fn funcname See also MANUAL STRUCTURE, Fn, and Fo.
Fx [version]	Examples: See also At, Bsx, Bx, Dx, Nx, and Ox.
Hffilename	This macro is not implemented in mandoc(1). It was used to include the contents of a (header) file literally.
Ickeyword ...	Examples: Note that using Ql, Dl, or Bd-literal is preferred for displaying code samples; the Ic macro is used when referring to an individual command name.
Infilename	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: See also MANUAL STRUCTURE.
It [head]	Lists of type -hang, -ohang, -inset, and -diag have the following syntax: Lists of type -bullet, -dash, -enum, -hyphen and -item have the following syntax: with subsequent lines interpreted within the scope of the It until either a closing El or another It. The -tag list has the following syntax: Subsequent lines are interpreted as with -bullet and family. The line arguments correspond to the list's left-hand side; body arguments correspond to the list's contents. The -column list is the most complicated. Its syntax is as follows: The arguments consist of one or more lines of text and macros representing a complete table line. Cells within the line are delimited by 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 the Ta macro can be used to delimit cells, and portability requires that Ta 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, will preserve the whitespace before both commas, but not the whitespace before the semicolon. See also Bl.
Lblibname	The name parameter may be a system library, such as z or pam, 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:
Liword ...	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), or Bd-literal (multi-line) instead.
Lkuri [display_name]	Examples: See also Mt.
Lp	Deprecated synonym for Pp.
Msname	Examples:
Mtlocalpart@domain	Examples:
Ndline	Examples: The Nd macro technically accepts child macros and terminates with a subsequent Sh invocation. Do not assume this behaviour: some whatis(1) database generators are not smart enough to parse more than the line arguments and will display macros verbatim. See also Nm.
Nm [name]	Examples: .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm cat .Op Fl benstuv .Op Ar In the SYNOPSIS of section 2, 3 and 9 manual pages, use the Fn macro rather than Nm to mark up the name of the manual page.
Noword ...	Examples: .Sm off .Cm :C No / Ar pattern No / Ar replacement No / .Sm on See also Em, Ql, and Sy.
Ns	This has no effect when invoked at the start of a macro line. Examples: See also No and Sm.
Nx [version]	Examples: See also At, Bsx, Bx, Dx, Fx, and Ox.
Oc	Close multi-line Oo context.
Ooblock	Examples: .Oo .Op Fl flag Ns Ar value .Oc
Opline	Examples: See also Oo.
Os [system [version]]	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: See also Dd and Dt.
Otfunctype	Historical mdoc packages described it as “old function type (FORTRAN)”.
Ox [version]	Examples: See also At, Bsx, Bx, Dx, Fx, and Nx.
Paname ...	Examples: See also Lk.
Pc	Close parenthesised context opened by Po.
Pfprefix macro [argument ...]	The prefix argument is not parsed for macro names or delimiters, but used verbatim as if it were escaped. Examples: See also Ns and Sm.
Poblock	Multi-line version of Pq.
Pp	Paragraph breaks are not needed before or after Sh or Ss macros or before displays (Bdline) or lists (Bl) unless the -compact flag is given.
Pqline	See also Po.
Qc	Close quoted context opened by Qo.
Qlline	See also Dl and Bd-literal.
Qoblock	Multi-line version of Qq.
Qqline	See also Dq, Sq, and Qo.
Re	Close an Rs block. Does not have any tail arguments.
Rs	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 ...]	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.
ShTITLE LINE	Section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by Sx. Although this macro is parsed, it should not consist of child node or it may not be linked with Sx. See also Pp, Ss, and Sx.
Sm [on \| off]	By default, spacing is on. When switched off, no white space is inserted between macro arguments and between the output generated from adjacent macros, but text lines still get normal spacing between words and sentences. When called without an argument, the Sm macro toggles the spacing mode. Using this is not recommended because it makes the code harder to read.
Soblock	Multi-line version of Sq.
Sqline	See also Dq, Qq, and So.
SsTitle line	Sub-section names should be unique so that they may be keyed by Sx. Although this macro is parsed, it should not consist of child node or it may not be linked with Sx. See also Pp, Sh, and Sx.
St-abbreviation	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 X/Open System Interfaces and Headers Issue 4, Version 2 (“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”)
SxTitle line	Examples: See also Sh and Ss.
Syword ...	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, and Ql.
Ta	Table cell separator in Bl-column lists; can only be used below It.
Tg [term]	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 the MANPAGER variable in man(1); when producing HTML output, a fragment identifier (idattribute) 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 one Tg macro for a term, no other places are automatically marked as definitions of that term.
Tnword ...	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 ...	Examples: For function arguments and parameters, use Fa instead. For declarations of global variables in the SYNOPSIS section, use Vt.
Vttype [identifier]	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: For parameters in function prototypes, use Fa instead, for function return types Ft, and for variable names outside the SYNOPSIS section Va, even when including a type with the name. See also MANUAL STRUCTURE.
Xc	Close a scope opened by Xo.
Xoblock	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).
Xrname section	Cross reference the name and section number of another man page. Examples:
(	left parenthesis
[	left bracket
.	period
,	comma
:	colon
;	semicolon
)	right parenthesis
]	right bracket
?	question mark
!	exclamation mark
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NAME

mdoc — semantic markup language for formatting manual pages

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:

bash

.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":

bash

.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

bash

.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 the Nd macro.

See Nm and Nd.

LIBRARY

bash

.Lb libarm

See Lb.

SYNOPSIS

For the first, utilities (sections 1, 6, and 8), this is generally structured as follows:

bash

.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):

bash

.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, and Fo macros should follow C header-file conventions.

And for the third, configurations (section 4):

bash

.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, and Ft. All of these macros are output on their own line. If two such dissimilar macros are pairwise invoked (except for Ft before Fo or Fn), they are separated by a vertical space, unless in the case of Fo, Fn, and Ft, 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 the Nm macro, up to the next Nm, Sh, or Ss macro or the end of an enclosing block, whichever comes first.

DESCRIPTION

bash

The
.Nm
utility does this, that, and the other.

It usually follows with a breakdown of the options (if documenting a command), such as:

bash

The options 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 an Sh macro followed by a non-standard section name, and each having several subsections, like in the present mdoc 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

See Rv.

ENVIRONMENT

See Ev.

FILES

See Pa.

EXIT STATUS

See Ex.

EXAMPLES

Example usages. This often contains snippets of well-formed, well-tested invocations. Make sure that examples work properly!

DIAGNOSTICS

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

See Er.

SEE ALSO

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 and Xr.

STANDARDS

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

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.

%Afirst_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.

%Btitle

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

%Clocation

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.

%Iname

Publisher or issuer name of an Rs block.

%Jname

Journal name of an Rs block.

%Nnumber

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

%Oline

Optional information of an Rs block.

%Pnumber

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

%Qname

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

%Rname

Technical report name of an Rs block.

%Ttitle

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

%Uprotocol://path

URI of reference document.

%Vnumber

Volume number of an Rs block.

Ac

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

Adaddress

Examples:

An-split | -nosplit | first_name ... last_name

-split: Start a new output line before each subsequent invocation of An.
-nosplit: The opposite of -split.

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:

Aoblock

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

Examples:

Aqline

Occasionally, it is used for names of characters and keys, for example:

bash

Press the
.Aq escape
key to ...

For URIs, use Lk instead, and In for “#include” directives. Never wrap Ar in Aq.

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 macros Pf, Ns, or Eo as needed.

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 ‘[-Ofile]’. 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.

bash

.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.

bash

.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).

bash

.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.

bash

.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.

bash

.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:

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 for Bd -ragged .
Bd -literal does not use a literal font, but is an alias for Bd -unfilled .
Bd -offset center and -offset right don't work. Groff does not implement centered and flush-right rendering either, but produces large indentations.

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 <[email protected]>.