man(7) PUBLIC FILES, TABLES, AND TROFF MACROS man(7)
NAME
man - macros to format Reference Manual pages
SYNOPSIS
nroff -man filename... troff -man filename...
DESCRIPTION
These macros are used to lay out the reference pages in this
manual. Note: if filename contains format input for a
preprocessor, the commands shown above must be piped through
the appropriate preprocessor. This is handled automatically
by man(1). See the ``Conventions'' section. Any text argu-
ment t may be zero to six words. Quotes may be used to
include SPACE characters in a word. If text is empty, the
special treatment is applied to the next input line with
text to be printed. In this way .I may be used to italicize
a whole line, or .SB may be used to make small bold letters.
A prevailing indent distance is remembered between succes-
sive indented paragraphs, and is reset to default value upon
reaching a non-indented paragraph. Default units for
indents i are ens. Type font and size are reset to default
values before each paragraph, and after processing font and
size setting macros. These strings are predefined by -man:
\*R `(Reg)', trademark symbol in troff.
\*S Change to default type size.
Requests
* n.t.l. = next text line; p.i. = prevailing indent
Request Cause If no Explanation
Break Argument
.B t no t=n.t.l.* Text is in bold font.
.BI t no t=n.t.l. Join words, alternating bold and italic.
.BR t no t=n.t.l. Join words, alternating bold and roman.
.DT no .5i 1i... Restore default tabs.
.HP i yes i=p.i.* Begin paragraph with hanging indent.
Set prevailing indent to i.
.I t no t=n.t.l. Text is italic.
.IB t no t=n.t.l. Join words, alternating italic and bold.
.IP x i yes x="" Same as .TP with tag x.
.IR t no t=n.t.l. Join words, alternating italic and roman.
.IX t no - Index macro, for Sun internal use.
.LP yes - Begin left-aligned paragraph.
Set prevailing indent to .5i.
.PD d no d=.4v Set vertical distance between paragraphs.
.PP yes - Same as .LP.
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man(7) PUBLIC FILES, TABLES, AND TROFF MACROS man(7)
.RE yes - End of relative indent.
Restores prevailing indent.
.RB t no t=n.t.l. Join words, alternating roman and bold.
.RI t no t=n.t.l. Join words, alternating roman and italic.
.RS i yes i=p.i. Start relative indent, increase indent by i.
Sets prevailing indent to .5i for nested
indents.
.SB t no - Reduce size of text by 1 point, make text bold.
.SH t yes - Section Heading.
.SM t no t=n.t.l. Reduce size of text by 1 point.
.SS t yes t=n.t.l. Section Subheading.
.TH n s d f m yes - Begin reference page n, of of section s; d is
the date of the most recent change. If
present, f is the left page footer; m is the
main page (center) header. Sets prevailing
indent and tabs to .5i.
.TP i yes i=p.i. Begin indented paragraph, with the tag given on
the next text line.
Set prevailing indent to i.
.TX t p no - Resolve the title abbreviation t; join to punc-
tuation mark (or text) p.
Conventions
When formatting a manual page, man examines the first line
to determine whether it requires special processing. For
example a first line consisting of:
'\" t
indicates that the manual page must be run through the
tbl(1) preprocessor. A typical manual page for a command or
function is laid out as follows:
.TH title [1-8]
The name of the command or function, which serves as
the title of the manual page. This is followed by the
number of the section in which it appears.
.SH NAME
The name, or list of names, by which the command is
called, followed by a dash and then a one-line summary
of the action performed. All in roman font, this sec-
tion contains no troff(1) commands or escapes, and no
macro requests. It is used to generate the whatis(1)
database.
.SH SYNOPSIS
Commands:
The syntax of the command and its arguments, as
typed on the command line. When in boldface, a
word must be typed exactly as printed. When in
italics, a word can be replaced with an argument
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man(7) PUBLIC FILES, TABLES, AND TROFF MACROS man(7)
that you supply. References to bold or italicized
items are not capitalized in other sections, even
when they begin a sentence.
Syntactic symbols appear in roman face:
[ ] An argument, when surrounded by brackets is
optional.
| Arguments separated by a vertical bar are
exclusive. You can supply only one item from
such a list.
... Arguments followed by an elipsis can be
repeated. When an elipsis follows a brack-
eted set, the expression within the brackets
can be repeated.
Functions:
If required, the data declaration, or #include
directive, is shown first, followed by the func-
tion declaration. Otherwise, the function
declaration is shown.
.SH DESCRIPTION
A narrative overview of the command or function's
external behavior. This includes how it interacts with
files or data, and how it handles the standard input,
standard output and standard error. Internals and
implementation details are normally omitted. This sec-
tion attempts to provide a succinct overview in answer
to the question, "what does it do?"
Literal text from the synopsis appears in constant
width, as do literal filenames and references to items
that appear elsewhere in the reference manuals. Argu-
ments are italicized.
If a command interprets either subcommands or an input
grammar, its command interface or input grammar is nor-
mally described in a USAGE section, which follows the
OPTIONS section. The DESCRIPTION section only
describes the behavior of the command itself, not that
of subcommands.
.SH OPTIONS
The list of options along with a description of how
each affects the command's operation.
.SH FILES
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man(7) PUBLIC FILES, TABLES, AND TROFF MACROS man(7)
A list of files associated with the command or func-
tion.
.SH SEE ALSO
A comma-separated list of related manual pages, fol-
lowed by references to other published materials.
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
A list of diagnostic messages and an explanation of
each.
.SH BUGS
A description of limitations, known defects, and possi-
ble problems associated with the command or function.
FILES
/usr/ucblib/doctools/tmac/an
SEE ALSO
man(1), nroff(1), troff(1), whatis(1) Formatting Documents.
Last change: BSD Compatibility Package 4