man(7) UNIX System V(BSD Compatibility Package) 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 argument 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 successive 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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.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
punctuation 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 section 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
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argument 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 bracketed set, the expression
within the brackets can be repeated.
Functions:
If required, the data declaration, or #include directive, is
shown first, followed by the function 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 section 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. Arguments are italicized.
If a command interprets either subcommands or an input grammar, its
command interface or input grammar is normally 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
A list of files associated with the command or function.
.SH SEE ALSO
A comma-separated list of related manual pages, followed by
references to other published materials.
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.SH DIAGNOSTICS
A list of diagnostic messages and an explanation of each.
.SH NOTES
A description of limitations, known defects, and possible problems
associated with the command or function.
FILES
/usr/ucblib/doctools/man
SEE ALSO
man(1), nroff(1), troff(1), whatis(1)
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