Unix Man Pages - mdoc - tutorial sampler for writing .Bx manuals with .Nm -mdoc

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NAME

manuals with

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

A tutorial sampler for writing

A tutorial sampler for writing manual pages with the

A tutorial sampler for writing manual pages with the macro package, a

A tutorial sampler for writing manual pages with the macro package, a and

A tutorial sampler for writing manual pages with the macro package, a and formatting package for

A tutorial sampler for writing manual pages with the macro package, a and formatting package for Its predecessor, the

A tutorial sampler for writing manual pages with the macro package, a and formatting package for Its predecessor, the package, addressed page layout leaving the manipulation of fonts and other typesetting details to the individual author. In page layout macros make up the which consists of macros for titles, section headers, displays and lists. Essentially items which affect the physical position of text on a formatted page. In addition to the page structure domain, there are two more domains, the manual domain and the general text domain. The general text domain is defined as macros which perform tasks such as quoting or emphasizing pieces of text. The manual domain is defined as macros that are a subset of the day to day informal language used to describe commands, routines and related files. Macros in the manual domain handle command names, command line arguments and options, function names, function parameters, pathnames, variables, cross references to other manual pages, and so on. These domain items have value for both the author and the future user of the manual page. It is hoped the consistency gained across the manual set will provide easier translation to future documentation tools. Throughout the

GETTING STARTED

Since a tutorial document is normally read when a person desires to use the material immediately, the assumption has been made that the user of this document may be impatient. The material presented in the remained of this document is outlined as follows:

TROFF IDIOSYNCRASIES

The

The package attempts to simplify the process of writing a man page. Theoretically, one should not have to learn the dirty details of

The package attempts to simplify the process of writing a man page. Theoretically, one should not have to learn the dirty details of to use

The package attempts to simplify the process of writing a man page. Theoretically, one should not have to learn the dirty details of to use however, there are a few limitations which are unavoidable and best gotten out of the way. And, too, be forewarned, this package is

Macro Usage

As in

As in a macro is called by placing a

As in a macro is called by placing a (dot character) at the beginning of a line followed by the two character name for the macro. Arguments may follow the macro separated by spaces. It is the dot character at the beginning of the line which causes to interpret the next two characters as a macro name. To place a (dot character) at the beginning of a line in some context other than a macro invocation, precede the (dot) with the escape sequence. The translates literally to a zero width space, and is never displayed in the output. In general, macros accept up to nine arguments, any extra arguments are ignored. Most macros in accept nine arguments and, in limited cases, arguments may be continued or extended on the next line (See A few macros handle quoted arguments (see below). Most of the general text domain and manual domain macros are special in that their argument lists are for callable macro names. This means an argument on the argument list which matches a general text or manual domain macro name and is determined to be callable will be executed or called when it is processed. In this case the argument, although the name of a macro, is not preceded by a (dot). It is in this manner that many macros are nested; for example the option macro, may the flag and argument macros, and to specify an optional flag with an argument: is produced by To prevent a two character string from being interpreted as a macro name, precede the string with the escape sequence

Passing Space Characters in an Argument

Sometimes it is desirable to give as one argument a string containing one or more blank space characters. This may be necessary to defeat the nine argument limit or to specify arguments to macros which expect particular arrangement of items in the argument list. For example, the function macro expects the first argument to be the name of a function and any remaining arguments to be function parameters. As stipulates the declaration of function parameters in the parenthesized parameter list, each parameter is guaranteed to be at minimum a two word string. For example, There are two possible ways to pass an argument which contains an embedded space. Unfortunately, the most convenient way of passing spaces in between quotes by reassigning individual arguments before parsing was fairly expensive speed wise and space wise to implement in all the macros for It is not expensive for but for the sake of portability, has been limited to the following macros which need it the most: Configuration declaration (section 4 Begin list (for the width specifier). Emphasized text. Functions (sections two and four). List items. Literal text. Symbolic text. Book titles. Journal names. Optional notes for a reference. Report title (in a reference). Title of article in a book or journal. One way of passing a string containing blank spaces is to use the hard or unpaddable space character that is, a blank space preceded by the escape character

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