MAN(5)MAN(5)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 com‐
mands shown above must be piped through the appropriate preprocessor.
This is handled automatically by the man(1) command. See the ``Conven‐
tions'' 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)' in nroff.
\*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 SunSoft internal use.
.LP yes - Begin left-aligned paragraph. Set pre‐
vailing indent to .5i.
.P yes - Same as .LP.
.PD d no d=.4v Set vertical distance between para‐
graphs.
.PP yes - Same as .LP.
.RE yes - End of relative indent. Restores pre‐
vailing 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 "f d, m"
.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 pre‐
vailing 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 con‐
sisting of:
'\" t
indicates that the manual page must be run through the tbl(1) pre‐
processor.
A typical manual page for a command or function is laid out as follows:
.TH TITLE [1-9] " , "
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 windex database, which
is used by the whatis(1) command.
.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 that you
supply. References to bold or ital‐
icized items are not capitalized in
other sections, even when they
begin a sentence.
Syntactic symbols appear in roman
face:
[ ]
An argument, when sur‐
rounded 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 ellipsis can be
repeated. When an
ellipsis 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 func‐
tion declaration is shown.
.SH DESCRIPTION
A narrative overview of the command or func‐
tion'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 pro‐
vide a succinct overview in answer to the ques‐
tion, "what does it do?"
Literal text from the synopsis appears in con‐
stant width, as do literal filenames and refer‐
ences 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 sec‐
tion, 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 RETURN VALUES
A list of the values the library routine will
return to the calling program and the condi‐
tions that cause these values to be returned.
.SH EXIT STATUS
A list of the values the utility will return to
the calling program or shell, and the condi‐
tions that cause these values to be returned.
.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 mate‐
rials.
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
A list of diagnostic messages and an explanation
of each.
.SH BUGS
A description of limitations, known defects, and
possible problems associated with the command or
function.
FILES
/usr/share/lib/tmac/an
/usr/share/man/windex
SEE ALSOman(1), nroff(1), troff(1), whatis(1)
Dale Dougherty and Tim O'Reilly, Unix Text Processing
Jan 30, 1995 MAN(5)