.\" $Id$ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons .\" .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. .\" .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. .\" .Dd $Mdocdate$ .Dt MDOC 7 .Os .\" SECTION--------------------------------------------- .Sh NAME .Nm mdoc .Nd mdoc language reference .\" SECTION--------------------------------------------- .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm mdoc language is used to format .Bx .Ux manuals. In this reference document, we describe its syntax, structure, and usage. Our reference implementation is .Xr mandoc 1 . The .Sx COMPATIBILITY section describes compatibility with .Xr groff 1 . .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp An .Nm document follows simple rules: lines beginning with the control character .Sq \. are parsed for macros. Other lines are interpreted within the scope of prior macros: .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Sh Macro lines change control state. Other lines are interpreted within the current state. .Ed .\" SECTION--------------------------------------------- .Sh INPUT ENCODING .Nm documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the space character, and, in certain circumstances, the tab character. All manuals must have .Ux line termination. .\" SUB-SECTION---------------------- .Ss Comments Text following a .Sq \e" , whether in a macro or free-form text line, is ignored to the end of line. A macro line with only a control character and comment escape, .Sq \&.\e" , is also ignored. .\" SUB-SECTION---------------------- .Ss Reserved Characters Within a macro line, the following characters are reserved: .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact .It \&. .Pq period .It \&, .Pq comma .It \&: .Pq colon .It \&; .Pq semicolon .It \&( .Pq left-parenthesis .It \&) .Pq right-parenthesis .It \&[ .Pq left-bracket .It \&] .Pq right-bracket .It \&? .Pq question .It \&! .Pq exclamation .It \&| .Pq vertical bar .El .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp Use of reserved characters is described in .Sx MACRO SYNTAX . For general use in macro lines, these characters must either be escaped with a non-breaking space .Pq Sq \e& or, if applicable, an appropriate escape sequence used. .\" SUB-SECTION---------------------- .Ss Special Characters Special characters may occur in both macro and free-form 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. See .Xr mandoc_char 1 for a complete list. Examples include .Sq \e(em .Pq em-dash and .Sq \ee .Pq back-slash . .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp An alternative escape sequence is the slash-asterisk, .Sq \e* , but this method is discouraged for compatibility reasons. .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp Terms may also be text-decorated using the .Sq \ef escape followed by an indicator: B (bold), I, (italic), or P and R (Roman, or reset). This form is not recommended. .\" SUB-SECTION---------------------- .Ss Whitespace In general, consecutive blocks of whitespace are pruned from input. These are later re-added, when applicable, by .Xr mandoc 1 . .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp Blank lines are permitted within .Sq \&Bd \-literal or .Sq \&Bd \-unfilled contexts. Tab characters are only acceptable when delimiting .Sq \&Bl \-column and in .Sq \&Bd \-literal or .Sq \&Bd \-unfilled contexts. .\" SECTION--------------------------------------------- .Sh MANUAL STRUCTURE Each .Nm document must begin with a document prologue, containing, in order, .Sq \&Dd , .Sq \&Dt , and .Sq \&Os (using this manual as an example): .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$ \&.Dt mdoc 7 \&.Os \&.Sh NAME \&.Nm mdoc \&.Nd mdoc language reference .Ed .Pp Following these, the document body must begin with the NAME section containing at least one .Sq \&Nm followed by .Sq \&Nd . .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp Subsequent SYNOPSIS and DESCRIPTION sections are strongly encouraged, but non-compulsory. .\" SUB-SECTION---------------------- .\" .Ss Classification .\" Macros are classified by their scope rules: block full-explicit (BFE), .\" block partial-explicit (BPE), block full-implicit (BFI), block .\" partial-implicit (BPI), and in-line. .\" SUB-SECTION---------------------- .\" .Ss Scope .\" .Bl -inset .\" .\" LIST-ITEM .\" .It Em Block .\" macros enclose other block macros, in-line macros or text, and .\" may span multiple lines. .\" .Bl -inset -offset indent .\" .\" LIST-ITEM .\" .It Em Full-block .\" macros always span multiple lines. They consist of zero or .\" more .\" .Qq heads , .\" subsequent macros or text on the same line following invocation; an .\" optional .\" .Qq body , .\" which spans subsequent lines of text or macros; and an optional .\" .Qq tail , .\" macros or text on the same line following closure. .\" .\" LIST-ITEM .\" .It Em Partial-block .\" macros may span multiple lines. They consists of a optional .\" .Qq head , .\" text immediately following invocation; always a .\" .Qq body , .\" text or macros following the head on the same and subsequent lines; and .\" optionally a .\" .Qq tail , .\" text immediately following closure. .\" .\" LIST-ITEM .\" .It Em In-line .\" macros may only enclose text and span at most a single line. .\" .El .\" .El .\" SUB-SECTION---------------------- .\" .Ss Closure .\" Closure of a macro's scope depends first on its classification, then .\" on whether it's parsable. In this table, .\" .Sq BFE .\" refers to block full-explicit and so on. .\" .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .\" .Pp .\" .Bl -tag -width 12n -offset indent -compact .\" .It BPE , BFE .\" corresponding explicit closure macro .\" .It BFI .\" end-of-file or a corresponding implicit closure macro .\" .It BPI .\" end-of-line (body may be closed by >0 space-separated .\" .Sx Reserved Characters , .\" although block scope will still be open) .\" .It INL .\" end-of-line .\" .El .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .\" .Pp .\" If a macro (block or in-line) is parsable, it may also be closed out by .\" one of the following scenarios (unless specifically noted otherwise): .\" .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .\" .Pp .\" .Bl -dash -offset indent -compact .\" .It .\" a sequence of >0 space-separated .\" .Sx Reserved Characters , .\" .It .\" another macro, .\" .It .\" end-of-line, or .\" .It .\" completion of a set number of arguments. .\" .El .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .\" .Pp .\" If >0 space-separated .\" .Sx Reserved Characters .\" are followed by non-reserved characters, the behaviour differs per .\" macro. In general, scope of the macro is closed and re-opened: .\" subsequent tokens are interpreted as if the scope had just been opened. .\" In other circumstances, scope is simply closed out. .\" SECTION--------------------------------------------- .Sh MACRO SYNTAX Every line beginning with the control character .Sq \. is processed for macros, two- or three-character semantic annotations. .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp The syntax of macro depends on its classification. In this section, .Sq \-arg refers to macro arguments, which may be followed by zero or more .Sq parm parameters; .Sq \&Yo opens the scope of a macro; and if specified, .Sq \&Yc closes it out. .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp The .Em Callable column indicates that the macro may be called subsequent to the initial line-macro. The .Qq Parsable column indicates whether the macro may be followed by further (ostensibly callable) macros. The .Em Scope column, if applicable, describes closure rules. .\" SUB-SECTION---------------------- .Ss Block full-explicit Multi-line scope closed by an explicit closing macro. All macros contains bodies; only .Pq Sq \&Bf contains a head. .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \&.Yc .Ed .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp .Bl -column -compact -offset indent "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "closed by XXX" .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Scope .It \&Bd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by \&Ed .It \&Ed Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by \&Bd .It \&Bl Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by \&El .It \&El Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by \&Bl .It \&Bf Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by \&Ef .It \&Ef Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by \&Bf .It \&Bk Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by \&Ek .It \&Ek Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by \&Bk .El .\" SUB-SECTION---------------------- .Ss Block full-implicit Multi-line scope closed by end-of-file or implicitly by another macro. All macros have bodies; some .Po .Sq \&It \-bullet , .Sq \-hyphen , .Sq \-dash , .Sq \-enum , .Sq \-item .Pc don't have heads, while .Sq \&It \-column may have multiple heads. .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead... \(lBTa head...\(rB\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB .Ed .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp .Bl -column -compact -offset indent "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "closed by XXXXXXXXXXX" .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Scope .It \&Nd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by \&Sh .It \&Sh Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by \&Sh .It \&Ss Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by \&Sh, \&Ss .It \&It Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta closed by \&It, \&El .El .\" SUB-SECTION---------------------- .Ss 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 .Pq So \&Fo Sc , So \&Eo Sc and/or tail .Pq So \&Ec Sc . .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \&.Yc \(lBtail...\(rB \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBparm...\(rB\(rB \(lBhead...\(rB \ \(lBbody...\(rB \&Yc \(lBtail...\(rB .Ed .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "closed by XXXX" -compact -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Scope .It \&Ao Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by \&Ac .It \&Ac Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by \&Ao .It \&Bc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by \&Bo .It \&Bo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by \&Bc .It \&Pc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by \&Po .It \&Po Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by \&Pc .It \&Do Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by \&Dc .It \&Dc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by \&Do .It \&Xo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by \&Xc .It \&Xc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by \&Xo .It \&Bro Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by \&Brc .It \&Brc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by \&Bro .It \&Oc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by \&Oo .It \&Oo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by \&Oc .It \&So Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by \&Sc .It \&Sc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by \&So .It \&Fc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by \&Fo .It \&Fo Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by \&Fc .It \&Ec Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by \&Eo .It \&Eo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by \&Ec .It \&Qc Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta opened by \&Oo .It \&Qo Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta closed by \&Oc .It \&Re Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta opened by \&Rs .It \&Rs Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta closed by \&Re .El .\" SUB-SECTION---------------------- .Ss Block partial-implicit Like block full-implicit, but with single-line scope closed by .Sx Reserved Characters or end of line. .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBbody...\(rB \(lBres...\(rB .Ed .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" -compact -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable .It \&Aq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It \&Op Ta Yes Ta Yes .It \&Bq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It \&Dq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It \&Pq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It \&Qq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It \&Sq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It \&Brq Ta Yes Ta Yes .It \&D1 Ta \&No Ta \&Yes .It \&Dl Ta \&No Ta Yes .It \&Ql Ta Yes Ta Yes .El .\" SUB-SECTION---------------------- .Ss In-line Closed by .Sx Reserved Characters , end of line, fixed argument lengths, and/or subsequent macros. In-line macros have only text children. If a number (or inequality) of arguments is .Pq n , then the macro accepts an arbitrary number of arguments. .Bd -literal -offset indent \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB \(lbres...\(rb \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB \(lBargs...\(rB Yc... \&.Yo \(lB\-arg \(lBval...\(rB\(rB arg0 arg1 argN .Ed .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp .Bl -column "MacroX" "CallableX" "ParsableX" "Arguments" -compact -offset indent .It Em Macro Ta Em Callable Ta Em Parsable Ta Em Arguments .It \&Dd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&Dt Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It \&Os Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It \&Pp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It \&Ad Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&An Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Ar Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Cd Ta Yes Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&Cm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Dv Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Er Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&Ev Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Ex Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It \&Fa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Fd Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&Fl Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Fn Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&Ft Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Ic Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&In Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It \&Li Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Nm Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Ot Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It \&Pa Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Rv Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It \&St Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta 1 .It \&Va Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Vt Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&Xr Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0, <3 .It \&%A Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&%B Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&%C Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&%D Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&%I Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&%J Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&%N Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&%O Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&%P Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&%R Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&%T Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&%V Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta >0 .It \&At Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 1 .It \&Bsx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Bx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Db Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1 .It \&Em Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&Fx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Ms Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&No Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0 .It \&Ns Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0 .It \&Nx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Ox Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Pf Ta \&No Ta Yes Ta 1 .It \&Sm Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1 .It \&Sx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&Sy Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&Tn Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&Ux Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Dx Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Bt Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It \&Hf Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It \&Fr Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta n .It \&Ud Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It \&Lb Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 1 .It \&Ap Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta 0 .It \&Lp Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It \&Lk Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta n .It \&Mt Ta Yes Ta Yes Ta >0 .It \&Es Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .It \&En Ta \&No Ta \&No Ta 0 .El .\" SECTION--------------------------------------------- .Sh COMPATIBILITY This section documents compatibility with other roff implementations, at this time limited to .Xr groff 1 . The term .Qq historic groff refers to those versions before the .Pa doc.tmac file re-write .Pq somewhere between 1.15 and 1.19 . .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp .Bl -dash -compact .\" LIST-ITEM .It Some character sequences in groff are not handled depending on escape style, e.g., .Sq \e(ba and .Sq \e*(Ba may not be interchanged. This is no longer the case: all character sequences resolve to the same symbol, regardless the escape style. .\" LIST-ITEM .It Blocks of whitespace are stripped from both macro and free-form text lines (except when in literal mode), while groff would retain whitespace in free-form text lines. .\" LIST-ITEM .It Historic groff has many un-callable macros. Most of these (excluding some block-level macros) are now callable, conforming to the non-historic groff version. .\" LIST-ITEM .It The vertical bar .Sq \(ba made historic groff .Qq go orbital but is a proper delimiter in this implementation. .\" LIST-ITEM .It .Sq \&.It \-nested is assumed for all lists (it wasn't in historic groff): any list may be nested and .Sq \-enum lists will restart the sequence only for the sub-list. .\" LIST-ITEM .It .Sq \&.It \-column syntax where column widths may be preceded by other arguments (instead of proceeded) is not supported. .\" LIST-ITEM .It The .Sq \&.At macro only accepts a single parameter. .\" LIST-ITEM .It Some manuals use .Sq \&.Li incorrectly by following it with a reserved character and expecting the delimiter to render. This is not supported. .\" LIST-ITEM .It If an special-character control character is escaped .Sq \e\e , it will obviously not render the subsequent sequence. Even newer versions of groff seem to dither on this. .\" LIST-ITEM .It In groff, the .Sq \&.Fo macro only produces the first parameter. This is no longer the case. .El .\" SECTION--------------------------------------------- .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr mandoc 1 , .Xr mandoc_char 7 .\" SECTION--------------------------------------------- .Sh AUTHORS The .Nm utility was written by .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@kth.se . .\" SECTION--------------------------------------------- .Sh CAVEATS There are many ambiguous parts of mdoc. .\" PARAGRAPH------------ .Pp .Bl -dash -compact .\" LIST-ITEM .It .Sq \&.Fa should be .Sq \&.Va as function arguments are variables. .\" LIST-ITEM .It .Sq \&.Ft should be .Sq \&.Vt as function return types are still types. Furthermore, the .Sq \&.Ft should be removed and .Sq \&.Fo , which ostensibly follows it, should follow the same convention as .Sq \&.Va . .\" LIST-ITEM .It .Sq \&.Va should formalise that only one or two arguments are acceptable: a variable name and optional, preceding type. .\" LIST-ITEM .It .Sq \&.Fd is ambiguous. It's commonly used to indicate an include file in the synopsis section. .Sq \&.In should be used, instead. .\" LIST-ITEM .It Only the .Sq \-literal argument to .Sq \&.Bd makes sense. The remaining ones should be removed. .\" LIST-ITEM .It The .Sq \&.Xo and .Sq \&.Xc macros should be deprecated. .\" LIST-ITEM .It The .Sq \&.Dt macro lacks clarity. It should be absolutely clear which title will render when formatting the manual page. .\" LIST-ITEM .It A .Sq \&.Lx should be provided for Linux (\(`a la .Sq \&.Ox , .Sq \&.Nx etc.). .\" LIST-ITEM .It There's no way to refer to references in .Sq \&.Rs/.Re blocks. .\" LIST-ITEM .It The \-split and \-nosplit arguments to .Sq \&.An are inane. .El