EQN(7) BSD Miscellaneous Information Manual EQN(7)NAMEeqn — eqn language reference for mandoc
DESCRIPTION
The eqn language is an equation-formatting language. It is used within
mdoc(7) and man(7) UNIX manual pages. It describes the structure of an
equation, not its mathematical meaning. This manual describes the eqn
language accepted by the mandoc(1) utility, which corresponds to the Sec‐
ond Edition eqn specification (see SEE ALSO for references).
Equations within mdoc(7) or man(7) documents are enclosed by the stand‐
alone ‘.EQ’ and ‘.EN’ tags. Equations are multi-line blocks consisting
of formulas and control statements.
EQUATION STRUCTURE
Each equation is bracketed by ‘.EQ’ and ‘.EN’ strings. Note: these are
not the same as roff(7) macros, and may only be invoked as ‘.EQ’.
The equation grammar is as follows, where quoted strings are case-sensi‐
tive literals in the input:
eqn : box | eqn box
box : text
| "{" eqn "}"
| "define" text text
| "ndefine" text text
| "tdefine" text text
| "gfont" text
| "gsize" text
| "set" text text
| "undef" text
| "sqrt" box
| box pos box
| box mark
| "matrix" "{" [col "{" list "}" ]*
| pile "{" list "}"
| font box
| "size" text box
| "left" text eqn ["right" text]
col : "lcol" | "rcol" | "ccol" | "col"
text : [^space\"]+ | \".*\"
pile : "lpile" | "cpile" | "rpile" | "pile"
pos : "over" | "sup" | "sub" | "to" | "from"
mark : "dot" | "dotdot" | "hat" | "tilde" | "vec"
| "dyad" | "bar" | "under"
font : "roman" | "italic" | "bold" | "fat"
list : eqn
| list "above" eqn
space : [\^~ \t]
White-space consists of the space, tab, circumflex, and tilde characters.
It is required to delimit tokens consisting of alphabetic characters and
it is ignored at other places. Braces and quotes also delimit tokens.
If within a quoted string, these space characters are retained. Quoted
strings are also not scanned for keywords, glyph names, and expansion of
definitions. To print a literal quote character, it can be prepended
with a backslash or expressed with the \(dq escape sequence.
Subequations can be enclosed in braces to pass them as arguments to oper‐
ation keywords, overriding standard operation precedence. Braces can be
nested. To set a brace verbatim, it needs to be enclosed in quotes.
The following text terms are translated into a rendered glyph, if avail‐
able: alpha, beta, chi, delta, epsilon, eta, gamma, iota, kappa, lambda,
mu, nu, omega, omicron, phi, pi, psi, rho, sigma, tau, theta, upsilon,
xi, zeta, DELTA, GAMMA, LAMBDA, OMEGA, PHI, PI, PSI, SIGMA, THETA,
UPSILON, XI, inter (intersection), union (union), prod (product), int
(integral), sum (summation), grad (gradient), del (vector differential),
times (multiply), cdot (center-dot), nothing (zero-width space), approx
(approximately equals), prime (prime), half (one-half), partial (partial
differential), inf (infinity), >> (much greater), << (much less), ->
(left arrow), <- (right arrow), +- (plus-minus), != (not equal), ==
(equivalence), <= (less-than-equal), and >= (more-than-equal). The char‐
acter escape sequences documented in mandoc_char(7) can be used, too.
The following control statements are available:
define Replace all occurrences of a key with a value. Its syntax is as
follows:
define key cvalc
The first character of the value string, c, is used as the delim‐
iter for the value val. This allows for arbitrary enclosure of
terms (not just quotes), such as
define foo 'bar baz'
define foo cbar bazc
It is an error to have an empty key or val. Note that a quoted
key causes errors in some eqn implementations and should not be
considered portable. It is not expanded for replacements. Defi‐
nitions may refer to other definitions; these are evaluated
recursively when text replacement occurs and not when the defini‐
tion is created.
Definitions can create arbitrary strings, for example, the fol‐
lowing is a legal construction.
define foo 'define'
foo bar 'baz'
Self-referencing definitions will raise an error. The ndefine
statement is a synonym for define, while tdefine is discarded.
gfont Set the default font of subsequent output. Its syntax is as fol‐
lows:
gfont font
In mandoc, this value is discarded.
gsize Set the default size of subsequent output. Its syntax is as fol‐
lows:
gsize [+|-]size
The size value should be an integer. If prepended by a sign, the
font size is changed relative to the current size.
set Set an equation mode. In mandoc, both arguments are thrown away.
Its syntax is as follows:
set key val
The key and val are not expanded for replacements. This state‐
ment is a GNU extension.
undef Unset a previously-defined key. Its syntax is as follows:
define key
Once invoked, the definition for key is discarded. The key is
not expanded for replacements. This statement is a GNU exten‐
sion.
Operation keywords have the following semantics:
above See pile.
bar Draw a line over the preceding box.
bold Set the following box using bold font.
ccol Like cpile, but for use in matrix.
cpile Like pile, but with slightly increased vertical spacing.
dot Set a single dot over the preceding box.
dotdot Set two dots (dieresis) over the preceding box.
dyad Set a dyad symbol (left-right arrow) over the preceding box.
fat A synonym for bold.
font Set the second argument using the font specified by the first
argument; currently not recognized by the mandoc(1)eqn parser.
from Set the following box below the preceding box, using a slightly
smaller font. Used for sums, integrals, limits, and the like.
hat Set a hat (circumflex) over the preceding box.
italic Set the following box using italic font.
lcol Like lpile, but for use in matrix.
left Set the first argument as a big left delimiter before the second
argument. As an optional third argument, right can follow. In
that case, the fourth argument is set as a big right delimiter
after the second argument.
lpile Like cpile, but subequations are left-justified.
matrix Followed by a list of columns enclosed in braces. All columns
need to have the same number of subequations. The columns are
set as a matrix. The difference compared to multiple subsequent
pile operators is that in a matrix, corresponding subequations in
all columns line up horizontally, while each pile does vertical
spacing independently.
over Set a fraction. The preceding box is the numerator, the follow‐
ing box is the denominator.
pile Followed by a list of subequations enclosed in braces, the sube‐
quations being separated by above keywords. Sets the subequa‐
tions one above the other, each of them centered. Typically used
to represent vectors in coordinate representation.
rcol Like rpile, but for use in matrix.
right See left; right cannot be used without left. To set a big right
delimiter without a big left delimiter, the following construc‐
tion can be used:
left "" box right delimiter
roman Set the following box using the default font.
rpile Like cpile, but subequations are right-justified.
size Set the second argument with the font size specified by the first
argument; currently ignored by mandoc(1). By prepending a plus
or minus sign to the first argument, the font size can be
selected relative to the current size.
sqrt Set the square root of the following box.
sub Set the following box as a subscript to the preceding box.
sup Set the following box as a superscript to the preceding box. As
a special case, if a sup clause immediately follows a sub clause
as in
mainbox sub subbox sup supbox
both are set with respect to the same mainbox, that is, supbox is
set above subbox.
tilde Set a tilde over the preceding box.
to Set the following box above the preceding box, using a slightly
smaller font. Used for sums and integrals and the like. As a
special case, if a to clause immediately follows a from clause as
in
mainbox from frombox to tobox
both are set below and above the same mainbox.
under Underline the preceding box.
vec Set a vector symbol (right arrow) over the preceding box.
The binary operations from, to, sub, and sup group to the right, that is,
mainbox sup supbox sub subbox
is the same as
mainbox sup {supbox sub subbox}
and different from
{mainbox sup supbox} sub subbox.
By contrast, over groups to the left.
In the following list, earlier operations bind more tightly than later
operations:
1. dyad, vec, under, bar, tilde, hat, dot, dotdot
2. fat, roman, italic, bold, size
3. sub, sup
4. sqrt
5. over
6. from, to
COMPATIBILITY
This section documents the compatibility of mandoc eqn and the troff eqn
implementation (including GNU troff).
- The text string ‘\"’ is interpreted as a literal quote in troff. In
mandoc, this is interpreted as a comment.
- In troff, The circumflex and tilde white-space symbols map to fixed-
width spaces. In mandoc, these characters are synonyms for the space
character.
- The troff implementation of eqn allows for equation alignment with
the mark and lineup tokens. mandoc discards these tokens. The back
n, fwd n, up n, and down n commands are also ignored.
SEE ALSOmandoc(1), man(7), mandoc_char(7), mdoc(7), roff(7)
Brian W. Kernighan and Lorinda L. Cherry, "System for Typesetting
Mathematics", Communications of the ACM, 18, 151–157, March, 1975.
Brian W. Kernighan and Lorinda L. Cherry, Typesetting Mathematics, User's
Guide, 1976.
Brian W. Kernighan and Lorinda L. Cherry, Typesetting Mathematics, User's
Guide (Second Edition), 1978.
HISTORY
The eqn utility, a preprocessor for troff, was originally written by
Brian W. Kernighan and Lorinda L. Cherry in 1975. The GNU reimplementa‐
tion of eqn, part of the GNU troff package, was released in 1989 by James
Clark. The eqn component of mandoc(1) was added in 2011.
AUTHORS
This eqn reference was written by Kristaps Dzonsons ⟨kristaps@bsd.lv⟩.
BSD April 28, 2024 BSD
