diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'roff.7')
| -rw-r--r-- | roff.7 | 318 |
1 files changed, 291 insertions, 27 deletions
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ .\" $Id$ .\" -.\" Copyright (c) 2010 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv> -.\" Copyright (c) 2010 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org> +.\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv> +.\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org> .\" .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above @@ -25,38 +25,279 @@ The .Nm roff language is a general purpose text formatting language. -In particular, it serves as the basis for the +Since traditional implementations of the .Xr mdoc 7 and .Xr man 7 -manual formatting macro languages. -This manual describes the subset of the +manual formatting languages are based on it, +many real-world manuals use small numbers of .Nm -language accepted by the +requests intermixed with their +.Xr mdoc 7 +or +.Xr man 7 +code. +To properly format such manuals, the .Xr mandoc 1 -utility. +utility supports a tiny subset of +.Nm +requests. +Only these requests supported by +.Xr mandoc 1 +are documented in the present manual, +together with the basic language syntax shared by +.Nm , +.Xr mdoc 7 , +and +.Xr man 7 . +For complete +.Nm +manuals, consult the +.Sx SEE ALSO +section. .Pp -Input lines beginning with the control characters +Input lines beginning with the control character .Sq \&. -or -.Sq \(aq are parsed for requests and macros. -These define the document structure, change the processing state -and manipulate the formatting. -Some requests and macros also produce formatted output, -while others do not. -.Pp -All other input lines provide free-form text to be printed; -the formatting of free-form text depends on the respective -processing context. +Such lines are called +.Dq request lines +or +.Dq macro lines , +respectively. +Requests change the processing state and manipulate the formatting; +some macros also define the document structure and produce formatted +output. +The single quote +.Pq Qq \(aq +is accepted as an alternative control character, +treated by +.Xr mandoc 1 +just like +.Ql \&. +.Pp +Lines not beginning with control characters are called +.Dq text lines . +They provide free-form text to be printed; the formatting of the text +depends on the respective processing context. .Sh LANGUAGE SYNTAX .Nm documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the space character, and, in certain circumstances, the tab character. -To produce other characters in the output, use the escape sequences -documented in the +The back-space character +.Sq \e +indicates the start of an escape sequence for +.Sx Comments , +.Sx Special Characters , +.Sx Predefined Strings , +and +user-defined strings defined using the +.Sx ds +request. +.Ss Comments +Text following an escaped double-quote +.Sq \e\(dq , +whether in a request, macro, or text line, is ignored to the end of the line. +A request line beginning with a control character and comment escape +.Sq \&.\e\(dq +is also ignored. +Furthermore, request lines with only a control character and optional +trailing whitespace are stripped from input. +.Pp +Examples: +.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact +\&.\e\(dq This is a comment line. +\&.\e\(dq The next line is ignored: +\&. +\&.Sh EXAMPLES \e\(dq This is a comment, too. +\&example text \e\(dq And so is this. +.Ed +.Ss Special Characters +Special characters are used to encode special glyphs and are rendered +differently across output media. +They may occur in request, macro, and text lines. +Sequences begin with the escape character +.Sq \e +followed by either an open-parenthesis +.Sq \&( +for two-character sequences; an open-bracket +.Sq \&[ +for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket +.Sq \&] ) ; +or a single one character sequence. +.Pp +Examples: +.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact +.It Li \e(em +Two-letter em dash escape. +.It Li \ee +One-letter backslash escape. +.El +.Pp +See .Xr mandoc_char 7 -manual. +for a complete list. +.Ss Text Decoration +Terms may be text-decorated using the +.Sq \ef +escape followed by an indicator: B (bold), I (italic), R (regular), or P +(revert to previous mode). +A numerical representation 3, 2, or 1 (bold, italic, and regular, +respectively) may be used instead. +.Pp +Examples: +.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact +.It Li \efBbold\efR +Write in bold, then switch to regular font mode. +.It Li \efIitalic\efP +Write in italic, then return to previous font mode. +.El +.Pp +Text decoration is +.Em not +recommended for +.Xr mdoc 7 , +which encourages semantic annotation. +.Ss Predefined Strings +Predefined strings, like +.Sx Special Characters , +mark special output glyphs. +Predefined strings are escaped with the slash-asterisk, +.Sq \e* : +single-character +.Sq \e*X , +two-character +.Sq \e*(XX , +and N-character +.Sq \e*[N] . +.Pp +Examples: +.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact +.It Li \e*(Am +Two-letter ampersand predefined string. +.It Li \e*q +One-letter double-quote predefined string. +.El +.Pp +Predefined strings are not recommended for use, +as they differ across implementations. +Those supported by +.Xr mandoc 1 +are listed in +.Xr mandoc_char 7 . +Manuals using these predefined strings are almost certainly not portable. +.Ss Whitespace +Whitespace consists of the space character. +In text lines, whitespace is preserved within a line. +In request and macro lines, whitespace delimits arguments and is discarded. +.Pp +Unescaped trailing spaces are stripped from text line input unless in a +literal context. +In general, trailing whitespace on any input line is discouraged for +reasons of 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 +Literal space characters can be produced in the output +using escape sequences. +In macro lines, they can also be included in arguments using quotation; see +.Sx MACRO SYNTAX +for details. +.Pp +Blank text lines, which may include whitespace, are only permitted +within literal contexts. +If the first character of a text line is a space, that line is printed +with a leading newline. +.Ss Scaling Widths +Many requests and macros support scaled widths for their arguments. +The syntax for a scaled width is +.Sq Li [+-]?[0-9]*.[0-9]*[:unit:] , +where a decimal must be preceded or followed by at least one digit. +Negative numbers, while accepted, are truncated to zero. +.Pp +The following scaling units are accepted: +.Pp +.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact +.It c +centimetre +.It i +inch +.It P +pica (~1/6 inch) +.It p +point (~1/72 inch) +.It f +synonym for +.Sq u +.It v +default vertical span +.It m +width of rendered +.Sq m +.Pq em +character +.It n +width of rendered +.Sq n +.Pq en +character +.It u +default horizontal span +.It M +mini-em (~1/100 em) +.El +.Pp +Using anything other than +.Sq m , +.Sq n , +.Sq u , +or +.Sq v +is necessarily non-portable across output media. +See +.Sx COMPATIBILITY . +.Pp +If a scaling unit is not provided, the numerical value is interpreted +under the default rules of +.Sq v +for vertical spaces and +.Sq u +for horizontal ones. +.Pp +Examples: +.Bl -tag -width ".Bl -tag -width 2i" -offset indent -compact +.It Li \&.Bl -tag -width 2i +two-inch tagged list indentation in +.Xr mdoc 7 +.It Li \&.HP 2i +two-inch tagged list indentation in +.Xr man 7 +.It Li \&.sp 2v +two vertical spaces +.El +.Ss Sentence Spacing +Each sentence should terminate at the end of an input line. +By doing this, a formatter will be able to apply the proper amount of +spacing after the end of sentence (unescaped) period, exclamation mark, +or question mark followed by zero or more non-sentence closing +delimiters +.Po +.Sq \&) , +.Sq \&] , +.Sq \&' , +.Sq \&" +.Pc . +.Pp +The proper spacing is also intelligently preserved if a sentence ends at +the boundary of a macro line. +.Pp +Examples: +.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact +Do not end sentences mid-line like this. Instead, +end a sentence like this. +A macro would end like this: +\&.Xr mandoc 1 \&. +.Ed .Sh REQUEST SYNTAX A request or macro line consists of: .Pp @@ -83,20 +324,25 @@ Thus, the following request lines are all equivalent: \&. ig end .Ed .Sh MACRO SYNTAX -Macros can be defined by the +Macros are provided by the +.Xr mdoc 7 +and +.Xr man 7 +languages and can be defined by the .Sx \&de request. When called, they follow the same syntax as requests, except that macro arguments may optionally be quoted by enclosing them in double quote characters .Pq Sq \(dq . -To be recognised as the beginning of a quoted argument, the opening -quote character must be preceded by a space character. -.Pp -A quoted argument may contain whitespace, and pairs of double quote -characters +Quoted text, even if it contains whitespace or would cause +a macro invocation when unquoted, is always considered literal text. +Inside quoted text, pairs of double quote characters .Pq Sq Qq resolve to single double quote characters. +.Pp +To be recognised as the beginning of a quoted argument, the opening +quote character must be preceded by a space character. A quoted argument extends to the next double quote character that is not part of a pair, or to the end of the input line, whichever comes earlier. Leaving out the terminating double quote character at the end of the line @@ -114,6 +360,24 @@ 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 +Examples: +.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact +.It Li .Fn strlen \(dqconst char *s\(dq +Group arguments +.Qq const char *s +into one function argument. +If unspecified, +.Qq const , +.Qq char , +and +.Qq *s +would be considered separate arguments. +.It Li .Op \(dqFl a\(dq +Consider +.Qq \&Fl a +as literal text instead of a flag macro. +.El .Sh REQUEST REFERENCE The .Xr mandoc 1 |