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author | Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org> | 2011-08-01 07:45:11 +0000 |
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committer | Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org> | 2011-08-01 07:45:11 +0000 |
commit | a91466659f5111b3d5a07ce9efa43ea732523aaf (patch) | |
tree | 17f56df25a2833c11e5691936b78fabdc9d166a8 /mdoc.7 | |
parent | 418a46ad6cd8a4427e2de08a2d767c06977e5105 (diff) | |
download | mandoc-a91466659f5111b3d5a07ce9efa43ea732523aaf.tar.gz |
Add some new text written from scratch after checking whether anything
explained in mdoc.samples(7) is missing from mdoc(7):
* Discourage trailing whitespace.
* Move all information about quoted arguments to the relevant
subsection, shortening it a bit, and adding an example.
* Mention that blanks can be quoted with a backslash.
* A better .Nd line in the template (verbatim from mdoc.samples(7)).
* Explain how to escape callable macro names, and provide examples.
ok jmc@
Diffstat (limited to 'mdoc.7')
-rw-r--r-- | mdoc.7 | 42 |
1 files changed, 38 insertions, 4 deletions
@@ -178,15 +178,38 @@ trailing spaces are stripped from input (unless in a literal context). Blank text lines, which may include whitespace, are only permitted within literal contexts. .Pp +In general, trailing whitespace on input lines is discouraged +for reasons of clarity and portability. +In the rare case that a blank character is needed at the end of an +input line, it may be forced by +.Sq \e\ \e& . +.Pp In macro lines, whitespace delimits arguments and is discarded. -If arguments are quoted, whitespace within the quotes is retained. .Ss Quotation -Macro arguments may be quoted with double-quotes to group -space-delimited terms or to retain blocks of whitespace. +Macro arguments may be quoted with double-quotes; in this case, +whitespace within the quotes is retained as part of the argument. +For example, +.Pp +.D1 Pf \. \&Fn strlen "\(dqconst char *s\(dq" +.Pp +renders as +.Sq Fn strlen "const char *s" , +while +.Pp +.D1 Pf \. \&Fn strlen "const char *s" +.Pp +would produce +.Sq Fn strlen const char *s . +.Pp A quoted argument begins with a double-quote preceded by whitespace. The next double-quote not pairwise adjacent to another double-quote terminates the literal, regardless of surrounding whitespace. .Pp +In unquoted arguments, space characters can alternatively be included +by preceding them with a backslash +.Pq Sq \e\~ , +but quoting is usually better for clarity. +.Pp Note that any quoted text, even if it would cause a macro invocation when unquoted, is considered literal text. Thus, the following produces @@ -304,7 +327,7 @@ file for a utility \&.Os \&.Sh NAME \&.Nm progname -\&.Nd a description goes here +\&.Nd one line about what it does \&.\e\*q .Sh LIBRARY \&.\e\*q For sections 2, 3, & 9 only. \&.\e\*q Not used in OpenBSD. @@ -600,6 +623,17 @@ The .Em Callable column indicates that the macro may also be called by passing its name as an argument to another macro. +For example, +.Sq \&.Op \&Fl O \&Ar file +produces +.Sq Op Fl O Ar file . +To prevent a macro call and render the macro name literally, +escape it by prepending a non-breaking space, +.Sq \e& . +For example, +.Sq \&Op \e&Fl O +produces +.Sq Op \&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, |