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MAN !!!MAN NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION PREAMBLE SECTIONS FONTS OTHER MACROS AND STRINGS SAFE SUBSET NOTES FILES BUGS AUTHORS SEE ALSO ---- !!NAME man - macros to format man pages !!SYNOPSIS __groff -Tascii -man__ ''file'' ... __groff -Tps -man__ ''file'' ... __man__ [[''section''] ''title'' !!DESCRIPTION This manual page explains the __groff tmac.an__ macro package (often called the __man__ macro package) and related conventions for creating manual (man) pages. This macro package should be used by developers when writing or porting man pages for Linux. It is fairly compatible with other versions of this macro package, so porting man pages should not be a major problem (exceptions include the NET-2 BSD release, which uses a totally different macro package called mdoc; see mdoc(7)). Note that NET-2 BSD mdoc man pages can be used with __groff__ simply by specifying the __-mdoc__ option instead of the __-man__ option. Using the __-mandoc__ option is, however, recommended, since this will automatically detect which macro package is in use. !!PREAMBLE The first command in a man page (after comment lines) should be __.TH__ ''title section date source manual'', where: ''title'' The title of the man page (e.g., ''MAN''). ''section'' The section number the man page should be placed in (e.g., ''7''). ''date'' The date of the last revision--remember to change this every time a change is made to the man page, since this is the most general way of doing version control. ''source'' The source of the command. For binaries, use something like: ''GNU'', ''NET-2'', ''SLS Distribution'', ''MCC Distribution''. For system calls, use the version of the kernel that you are currently looking at: ''Linux 0.99.11''. For library calls, use the source of the function: ''GNU'', ''BSD 4.3'', ''Linux DLL 4.4.1''. ''manual'' The title of the manual (e.g., ''Linux Programmer's Manual''). Note that BSD mdoc-formatted pages begin with the __Dd__ command, not the __TH__ command. The manual sections are traditionally defined as follows: __1 Commands__ Those commands that can be executed by the user from within a shell. __2 System calls__ Those functions which must be performed by the kernel. __3 Library calls__ Most of the ''libc'' functions, such as qsort(3)) __4 Special files__ Files found in ''/dev'') __5 File formats and conventions__ The format for ''/etc/passwd'' and other human-readable files. __6 Games__ __7 Macro packages and conventions__ A description of the standard file system layout, network protocols, ASCII and other character codes, this man page, and other things. __8 System management commands__ Commands like mount(8), many of which only ''root'' can execute. __9 Kernel routines__ This is an obsolete manual section. Once it was thought a good idea to document the Linux kernel here, but in fact very little has been documented, and the documentation that exists is outdated already. There are better sources of information for kernel developers. !!SECTIONS Sections are started with __.SH__ followed by the heading name. If the name contains spaces and appears on the same line as __.SH__, then place the heading in double quotes. Traditional or suggested headings include: NAME, SYNOPSIS, DESCRIPTION, RETURN VALUE, EXIT STATUS, ERROR HANDLING, ERRORS, OPTIONS, USAGE, FILES, ENVIRONMENT, DIAGNOSTICS, SECURITY, CONFORMING TO, NOTES, BUGS, AUTHOR, and SEE ALSO. Where a traditional heading would apply, please use it; this kind of consistency can make the information easier to understand. However, feel free to create your own headings if they make things easier to understand. The only required heading is ''NAME'', which should be the first section and be followed on the next line by a one line description of the program: .SH NAME chess - the game of chess It is extremely important that this format is followed, and that there is a backslash before the single dash which follows the command name. This syntax is used by the makewhatis(8) or mandb(8) programs to create a database of short command descriptions for the whatis(1) and apropos(1) commands. Some other traditional sections have the following contents: __SYNOPSIS__ briefly describes the command or function's interface. For commands, this shows the syntax of the command and its arguments (including options); boldface is used for as-is text and italics are used to indicate replaceable arguments. Brackets ([[]) surround optional arguments, vertical bars (|) separate choices, and ellipses (...) can be repeated. For functions, it shows any required data declarations or __#include__ directives, followed by the function declaration. __DESCRIPTION__ gives an explanation of what the command, function, or format does. Discuss how it interacts with files and standard input, and what it produces on standard output or standard error. Omit internals and implementation details unless they're critical for understanding the interface. Describe the usual case; for information on options use the __OPTIONS__ section. If there is some kind of input grammar or complex set of subcommands, consider describing them in a separate __USAGE__ section (and just place an overview in the __DESCRIPTION__ section). __RETURN VALUE__ gives a list of the values the library routine will return to the caller and the conditions that cause these values to be returned. __EXIT STATUS__ lists the possible exit status values or a program and the conditions that cause these values to be returned. __OPTIONS__ describes the options accepted by the program and how they change its behavior. __USAGE__ describes the grammar of any sublanguage this implements. __FILES__ lists the files the program or function uses, such as configuration files, startup files, and files the program directly operates on. Give the full pathname of these files, and use the installation process to modify the directory part to match user preferences. For many programs, the default installation location is in /usr/local, so your base manual page should use /usr/local as the base. __ENVIRONMENT__ lists all environment variables that affect your program or function and how they affect it. __DIAGNOSTICS__ gives an overview of the most common error messages and how to cope with them. You don't need to explain system error messages or fatal signals that can appear during execution of any program unless they're special in some way to your program. __SECURITY__ discusses security issues and implications. Warn about configurations or environments that should be avoided, commands that may have security implications, and so on, especially if they aren't obvious. Discussing security in a separate section isn't necessary; if it's easier to understand, place security information in the other sections (such as the __DESCRIPTION__ or __USAGE__ section). However, please include security information somewhere! __CONFORMING TO__ describes any standards or conventions this implements. __NOTES__ provides miscellaneous notes. __BUGS__ lists limitations, known defects or inconveniences, and other questionable activities. __AUTHOR__ lists authors of the documentation or program so you can mail in bug reports. __SEE ALSO__ lists related man pages in alphabetical order, possibly followed by other related pages or documents. Conventionally this is the last section. !!FONTS Although there are many arbitrary conventions for man pages in the UNIX world, the existence of several hundred Linux-specific man pages defines our font standards: For functions, the arguments are always specified using italics, ''even in the SYNOPSIS section'', where the rest of the function is specified in bold:__ int myfunction(int__ ''argc''__, char **__''argv''__);__ Filenames are always in italics (e.g., ''/usr/include/stdio.h''), except in the SYNOPSIS section, where included files are in bold (e.g., __#include __). Special macros, which are usually in upper case, are in bold (e.g., __MAXINT__). When enumerating a list of error codes, the codes are in bold (this list usually uses the __.TP__ macro). Any reference to another man page (or to the subject of the current man page) is in bold. If the manual section number is given, it is given in Roman (normal) font, without any spaces (e.g., man(7)). The commands to select the type face are: __.B__ Bold __.BI__ Bold alternating with italics (especially useful for function specifications) __.BR__ Bold alternating with Roman (especially useful for referring to other manual pages) __.I__ Italics __.IB__ Italics alternating with bold __.IR__ Italics alternating with Roman __.RB__ Roman alternating with bold __.RI__ Roman alternating with italics __.SB__ Small alternating with bold __.SM__ Small (useful for acronyms) Traditionally, each command can have up to six arguments, but the GNU implementation removes this limitation (you might still want to limit yourself to 6 arguments for portability's sake). Arguments are delimited by spaces. Double quotes can be used to specify an argument which contains spaces. All of the arguments will be printed next to each other without intervening spaces, so that the __.BR__ command can be used to specify a word in bold followed by a mark of punctuation in Roman. If no arguments are given, the command is applied to the following line of text. !!OTHER MACROS AND STRINGS Below are other relevant macros and predefined strings. Unless noted otherwise, all macros cause a break (end the current line of text). Many of these macros set or use the i'' below; macros may omit ''i'' in which case the current prevailing indent will be used. As a result, successive indented paragraphs can use the same indent without re-specifying the indent value. A normal (non-indented) paragraph resets the prevailing indent value to its default value (0.5 inches). By default a given indent is measured in ens; try to ens or ems as units for indents, since these will automatically adjust to font size changes. The other key macro definitions are: __Normal Paragraphs__ __.LP__ Same as __.PP__ (begin a new paragraph). __.P__ Same as __.PP__ (begin a new paragraph). __.PP__ Begin a new paragraph and reset prevailing indent. __Relative Margin Indent__ __.RS__ ''i'' Start relative margin indent - moves the left margin ''i'' to the right (if ''i'' is omitted, the prevailing indent value is used). A new prevailing indent is set to 0.5 inches. As a result, all following paragraph(s) will be indented until the corresponding __.RE__. __.RE__ End relative margin indent and restores the previous value of the prevailing indent. __Indented Paragraph Macros__ __.HP__ ''i'' Begin paragraph with a hanging indent (the first line of the paragraph is at the left margin of normal paragraphs, and the rest of the paragraph's lines are indented). __.IP__ ''x i'' Indented paragraph with optional hanging tag. If the tag ''x'' is omitted, the entire following paragraph is indented by ''i''. If the tag ''x'' is provided, it is hung at the left margin before the following indented paragraph (this is just like __.TP__ except the tag is included with the command instead of being on the following line). If the tag is too long, the text after the tag will be moved down to the next line (text will not be lost or garbled). For bulleted lists, use this macro with (bullet) or (em dash) as the tag, and for numbered lists, use the number or letter followed by a period as the tag; this simplifies translation to other formats. __.TP__ ''i'' Begin paragraph with hanging tag. The tag is given on the next line, but its results are like those of the __.IP__ command. __Hypertext Link Macros__ __.UR__ ''u'' Begins a hypertext link to the URI (URL) ''u''; it will end with the corresponding __UE__ command. When generating HTML this should translate into the HTML command ____''u''____. There is an exception: if ''u'' is the special value ''UE__ (this permits disabling hypertext links in phrases like !LALR(1) when linking is not appropriate). These hypertext link __ __.UE__ Ends the corresponding __UR__ command; when generating HTML this should translate into ____. __.UN__ ''u'' Creates a named hypertext location named ''u''; do not include a corresponding __UE__ command. When generating HTML this should translate into the HTML command __ __''u''__ __''u''____ (the __ __Miscellaneous Macros__ __.DT__ Reset tabs to default tab values (every 0.5 inches); does not cause a break. __.IX__ ''...'' Inserts index information (for a search system or printed index list). Index information is not normally displayed in the page itself. If followed by a single parameter, the parameter is added as a standalone index term pointing to this location in the man page. If it's two parameters, it's probably in Perl manpage format; the first parameter identifies the type of name (one of Name, Title, Header, Subsection, or Item) and the second parameter the name itself to be indexed. Otherwise, it's in the long index format: each parameter gives an index term, subordinate index term, subsubordinate index term, and so on until terminated by an empty parameter, then a parameter with the name of the program, em, and short description; this may be followed by another empty parameter and possibly by page control messages (e.g. PAGE START). An example of this would be __.PD__ ''d'' Set inter-paragraph vertical distance to d (if omitted, d=0.4v); does not cause a break. __.SS__ ''t'' Subheading ''t'' (like __.SH__, but used for a subsection inside a section). __Predefined Strings__ The __man__ package has the following predefined strings: *R Registration Symbol: *S Change to default font size *(Tm Trademark Symbol: (TM) *(lq Left angled doublequote: `` *(rq Right angled doublequote: '' !!SAFE SUBSET Although technically __man__ is a troff macro package, in reality a large number of other tools process man page files that don't implement all of troff's abilities. Thus, it's best to avoid some of troff's more exotic abilities where possible to permit these other tools to work correctly. Avoid using the various troff preprocessors (if you must, go ahead and use tbl(1), but try to use the __IP__ and __TP__ commands instead for two-column tables). Avoid using computations; most other tools can't process them. Use simple commands that are easy to translate to other formats. The following troff macros are believed to be safe (though in many cases they will be ignored by translators): ____, __.__, __ad__, __bp__, __br__, __ce__, __de__, __ds__, __el__, __ie__, __if__, __fi__, __ft__, __hy__, __ig__, __in__, __na__, __ne__, __nf__, __nh__, __ps__, __so__, __sp__, __ti__, __tr__. You may also use many troff escape sequences (those sequences beginning with ). When you need to include the backslash character as normal text, use e. Other sequences you may use, where x or xx are any characters and N is any digit, include: __'__, __`__, __-__, __.__, ____, __%__, __*x__, __*(xx__, ____, __$N__, __nx__, __n(xx__, __fx__, and __f(xx__. Avoid using the escape sequences for drawing graphics. Do not use the optional parameter for __bp__ (break page). Use only positive values for __sp__ (vertical space). Don't define a macro (__de__) with the same name as a macro in this or the mdoc macro package with a different meaning; it's likely that such redefinitions will be ignored. Every positive indent (__in__) should be paired with a matching negative indent (although you should be using the __RS__ and __RE__ macros instead). The condition test (__if,ie__) should only have 't' or 'n' as the condition. Only translations (__tr__) that can be ignored should be used. Font changes (__ft__ and the __f__ escape sequence) should only have the values 1, 2, 3, 4, R, I, B, P, or CW (the ft command may also have no parameters). If you use capabilities beyond these, check the results carefully on several tools. Once you've confirmed that the additional capability is safe, let the maintainer of this document know about the safe command or sequence that should be added to this list. !!NOTES By all means include full URLs (or URIs) in the text itself; some tools such as man2html(1) can automatically turn them into hypertext links. You can also use the new __UR__ macro to identify links to related information. If you include URLs, use the full URL (e.g., __ Tools processing these files should open the file and examine the first non-whitespace character. A period (.) or single quote (') at the beginning of a line indicates a troff-based file (such as man or mdoc). A left angle bracket ( Many man pages begin with ' tbl__(1), and Linux can detect that automatically. However, you might want to include this information so your man page can be handled by other (less capable) systems. Here are the definitions of the preprocessors invoked by these characters: __e__ eqn(1) __g__ grap(1) __p__ pic(1) __r__ refer(1) __t__ tbl(1) __v__ vgrind(1) !!FILES ''/usr/share/groff/tmac/tmac.an /usr/man/whatis'' !!BUGS Most of the macros describe formatting (e.g., font type and spacing) instead of marking semantic content (e.g., this text is a reference to another page), compared to formats like mdoc and !DocBook (even HTML has more semantic markings). This situation makes it harder to vary the __man__ format for different media, to make the formatting consistent for a given media, and to automatically insert cross-references. By sticking to the safe subset described above, it should be easier to automate transitioning to a different reference page format in the future. The Sun macro __TX__ is not implemented. !!AUTHORS -- James Clark (jjc@jclark.com) wrote the implementation of the macro package. -- Rickard E. Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu) wrote the initial version of this manual page. -- Jens Schweikhardt (schweikh@noc.fdn.de) wrote the Linux Man-Page Mini-HOWTO (which influenced this manual page). -- David A. Wheeler (dwheeler@ida.org) heavily modified this manual page, such as adding detailed information on sections and macros. !!SEE ALSO apropos(1), groff(1), man(1), man2html(1), mdoc(7), __mdoc.samples__(7), whatis(1) ----
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