path: root/mandoc.1

.\"	$Id$
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@kth.se>
.\"
.\" 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 MANDOC 1
.Os
.
.
.Sh NAME
.Nm mandoc
.Nd format and display UNIX manuals
.
.
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm mandoc
.Op Fl f Ns Ar option...
.Op Fl m Ns Ar format
.Op Fl O Ns Ar option...
.Op Fl T Ns Ar output
.Op Fl V
.Op Fl W Ns Ar err...
.Op Ar infile...
.
.
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility formats
.Ux
manual pages for display.  The arguments are as follows:
.
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl f Ns Ar option...
Comma-separated compiler options.  See
.Sx Compiler Options
for details.
.
.It Fl m Ns Ar format
Input format.  See
.Sx Input Formats
for available formats.  Defaults to
.Fl m Ns Ar andoc .
.
.It Fl O Ns Ar option...
Comma-separated output options.  See
.Sx Output Options
for details.
.
.It Fl T Ns Ar output
Output format.  See
.Sx Output Formats
for available formats.  Defaults to
.Fl T Ns Ar ascii .
.
.It Fl V
Print version and exit.
.
.It Fl W Ns Ar err...
Comma-separated warning options.  Use
.Fl W Ns Ar all
to print warnings,
.Fl W Ns Ar error
for warnings to be considered errors and cause utility
termination.  Multiple
.Fl W
arguments may be comma-separated, such as
.Fl W Ns Ar error,all .
.
.It Ar infile...
Read input from zero or more
.Ar infile .
If unspecified, reads from stdin.  If multiple files are specified,
.Nm
will halt with the first failed parse.
.El
.
.Pp
By default,
.Nm
reads
.Xr mdoc 7
or
.Xr man 7
text from stdin, implying
.Fl m Ns Ar andoc ,
and prints 78-column backspace-encoded output to stdout as if
.Fl T Ns Ar ascii
were provided.
.
.Pp
.Ex -std mandoc
.
.
.Ss Punctuation and Spacing
If punctuation is set apart from words, such as in the phrase
.Dq to be \&, or not to be ,
it's processed by
.Nm
according to the following rules:  opening punctuation
.Po
.Sq \&( ,
.Sq \&[ ,
and
.Sq \&{
.Pc
is not followed by a space; closing punctuation
.Po
.Sq \&. ,
.Sq \&, ,
.Sq \&; ,
.Sq \&: ,
.Sq \&? ,
.Sq \&! ,
.Sq \&) ,
.Sq \&]
and
.Sq \&}
.Pc
is not preceded by whitespace.
.
.Pp
If the input is
.Xr mdoc 7 ,
these rules are also applied to macro arguments when appropriate.
.
.Pp
White-space, in non-literal (normal) mode, is stripped from input and
replaced on output by a single space.  Thus, if you wish to preserve multiple
spaces, they must be space-escaped or used in a literal display mode, e.g.,
.Sq \&Bd \-literal
in
.Xr mdoc 7 .
.
.
.Ss Input Formats
The
.Nm
utility accepts
.Xr mdoc 7
and
.Xr man 7
input with
.Fl m Ns Ar doc
and
.Fl m Ns Ar an ,
respectively.  The
.Xr mdoc 7
format is
.Em strongly
recommended;
.Xr man 7
should only be used for legacy manuals.
.
.Pp
A third option,
.Fl m Ns Ar andoc ,
which is also the default, determines encoding on-the-fly: if the first
non-comment macro is
.Sq \&Dd
or
.Sq \&Dt ,
the
.Xr mdoc 7
parser is used; otherwise, the
.Xr man 7
parser is used.
.
.Pp
If multiple
files are specified with
.Fl m Ns Ar andoc ,
each has its file-type determined this way.  If multiple files are
specified and
.Fl m Ns Ar doc
or
.Fl m Ns Ar an
is specified, then this format is used exclusively.
.
.
.Ss Output Formats
The
.Nm
utility accepts the following
.Fl T
arguments:
.
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl T Ns Ar ascii
Produce 7-bit ASCII output, backspace-encoded for bold and underline
styles.  This is the default.
.
.It Fl T Ns Ar html
Produce strict HTML-4.01 output, with a sane default style.
.
.It Fl T Ns Ar tree
Produce an indented parse tree.
.
.It Fl T Ns Ar lint
Parse only: produce no output.
.El
.
.Pp
If multiple input files are specified, these will be processed by the
corresponding filter in-order.
.
.
.Ss Compiler Options
Default compiler behaviour may be overridden with the
.Fl f
flag.
.
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl f Ns Ar ign-scope
When rewinding the scope of a block macro, forces the compiler to ignore
scope violations.  This can seriously mangle the resulting tree.
.Pq mdoc only
.
.It Fl f Ns Ar ign-escape
Ignore invalid escape sequences.
This is the default, but the option can be used to override an earlier
.Fl f Ns Ar strict .
.
.It Fl f Ns Ar no-ign-escape
Don't ignore invalid escape sequences.
.
.It Fl f Ns Ar no-ign-macro
Do not ignore unknown macros at the start of input lines.
.
.It Fl f Ns Ar no-ign-chars
Do not ignore disallowed characters.
.
.It Fl f Ns Ar strict
Implies
.Fl f Ns Ar no-ign-escape ,
.Fl f Ns Ar no-ign-macro
and
.Fl f Ns Ar no-ign-chars .
.
.It Fl f Ns Ar ign-errors
Don't halt when encountering parse errors.  Useful with
.Fl T Ns Ar lint
over a large set of manuals passed on the command line.
.El
.
.Ss Output Options
For the time being, only
.Fl T Ns Ar html
is the only mode with output options:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl O Ns Ar style=style.css
The file
.Ar style.css
is used for an external style-sheet.  This must be a valid absolute or
relative URI.
.It Fl O Ns Ar includes=fmt
The string
.Ar fmt ,
for example, 
.Ar ../src/%I.html ,
is used as a template for linked header files (usually via the
.Sq \&In
macro).  Instances of
.Sq \&%I
are replaced with the include filename.  The default is not to present a
hyperlink.
.It Fl O Ns Ar man=fmt
The string
.Ar fmt ,
for example, 
.Ar ../html%S/%N.%S.html ,
is used as a template for linked manuals (usually via the
.Sq \&Xr
macro).  Instances of
.Sq \&%N
and
.Sq %S
are replaced with the linked manual's name and section, respectively.
If no section is included, section 1 is assumed.  The default is not to
present a hyperlink.
.El
.
.Sh EXAMPLES
To page manuals to the terminal:
.
.Pp
.D1 % mandoc \-Wall,error \-fstrict mandoc.1 2>&1 | less
.D1 % mandoc mandoc.1 mdoc.3 mdoc.7 | less
.
.Pp
To produce HTML manuals with
.Ar style.css
as the style-sheet:
.Pp
.D1 % mandoc \-Thtml -ostyle=style.css mdoc.7 > mdoc.7.html
.Pp
To check over a large set of manuals:
.
.Pp
.Dl % mandoc \-Tlint \-fign-errors `find /usr/src -name \e*\e.[1-9]`
.
.
.Sh COMPATIBILITY
This section summarises
.Nm
compatibility with
.Xr groff 1 .
Each input and output format is separately noted.
.
.
.Ss ASCII output
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
The 
.Sq \e~
special character doesn't produce expected behaviour in 
.Fl T Ns Ar ascii .
.
.It
The 
.Sq \&Bd \-literal
and 
.Sq \&Bd \-unfilled
macros of
.Xr mdoc 7
in
.Fl T Ns Ar ascii
are synonyms, as are \-filled and \-ragged.
.
.It
In 
.Xr groff 1 ,
the
.Sq \&Pa
.Xr mdoc 7
macro does not underline when scoped under an
.Sq \&It
in the FILES section.  This behaves correctly in
.Nm .
.
.It
A list or display following
.Sq \&Ss
.Xr mdoc 7
macro in
.Fl T Ns Ar ascii
does not assert a prior vertical break, just as it doesn't with
.Sq \&Sh .
.
.It
The
.Sq \&na
.Xr man 7
macro in
.Fl T Ns Ar ascii
has no effect.
.
.It
Words aren't hyphenated.
.
.It
In normal mode (not a literal block), blocks of spaces aren't preserved,
so double spaces following sentence closure are reduced to a single space;
.Xr groff 1
retains spaces.
.
.It
Sentences are unilaterally monospaced.
.El
.
.Ss HTML output
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
The
.Xr mdoc 7
.Sq \&Bl \-hang
and
.Sq \&Bl \-tag
list types render similarly (no break following overreached left-hand
side) due to the expressive constraints of HTML.
.
.It
The
.Xr man 7
.Sq IP
and
.Sq TP
lists render similarly.
.El
.\" SECTION
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr mandoc_char 7 ,
.Xr mdoc 7 ,
.Xr man 7
.
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
utility was written by
.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@kth.se .
.
.Sh CAVEATS
In
.Fl T Ns Ar html ,
the maximum size of an element attribute is determined by
.Dv BUFSIZ ,
which is usually 1024 bytes.  Be aware of this when setting long link
formats with
.Fl O Ns Ar man=fmt .