MAN(6)MAN(6)NAMEman - manual page format
DESCRIPTION
The Inferno manual pages are stored as text files in a format origi‐
nally defined for use with the Unix and Plan 9 troff command, when used
with the man macro package. Within Inferno, the format is interpreted
by the programs of man(1).
Except in and requests, any text argument denoted t in the request sum‐
mary may be zero to six words. Quotes " ... " may be used to include
blanks in a `word'. If t is empty, the special treatment is applied to
the next text input line (the next line that doesn't begin with dot).
In this way, for example, .I may be used to italicize a line of more
than 6 words, or .SM followed by .B to make small letters in `bold'
font.
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.
The fonts are
R roman, the main font, preferred for diagnostics
I italic, preferred for parameters, short names of commands, names
of manual pages, and naked function names
B `bold', actually the constant width font, preferred for exam‐
ples, file names, declarations, keywords, names of struct mem‐
bers, and literals (numbers are rarely literals)
L also the constant width font. For graphical display and print‐
ing, L=B; when converted to plain text, the arguments of the
macros .L, .LR, and .RL are printed in quotes; preferred only
where quotes really help (e.g. lower-case literals and punctua‐
tion).
Type font and size are reset to default values before each paragraph,
and after processing font- or size-setting macros.
The man format admits equations and tables in the style of Unix eqn
(equation setting) and tbl (table layout) preprocessors, but do not
support arguments on .EQ and .TS macros.
These strings are predefined by man:
\*R Trademark symbol
\*S Change to default type size.
FILES
/man/*/*
Source files of manual pages.
SEE ALSOman(1)REQUESTS
Request Cause If no Explanation
Break Argument .B
t no t=n.t.l.*Text t is `bold'. .BI
t no t=n.t.l. Join words of t alternating bold
and italic. .BR t no t=n.t.l. Join words of t
alternating bold and Roman.
.DT no Restore default tabs.
.EE yes End displayed example
.EX yes Begin displayed example .HP
i yes i=p.i.* Set prevailing indent to i.
Begin paragraph with hanging indent. .I
t no t=n.t.l. Text t is italic. .IB
t no t=n.t.l. Join words of t alternating
italic and bold. .IP x i yes x="" Same as
.TP with tag x. .IR t no t=n.t.l. Join words
of t alternating italic and Roman. .L
t no t=n.t.l. Text t is literal.
.LP yes Same as .PP. .LR
t no Join 2 words of t alternating
literal and Roman. .PD d no d=.4v Inter‐
paragraph distance is d.
.PP yes Begin paragraph. Set pre‐
vailing indent to default.
.RE yes End of relative indent. Set
prevailing indent to amount of starting .RS. .RI
t no t=n.t.l. Join words of t alternating
Roman and italic. .RL t no Join 2 or
3 words of t alternating Roman and literal. .RS
i yes i=p.i. Start relative indent, move left
margin in distance i. Set prevailing indent to
default for nested indents. .SH
t yes t="" Subhead; reset paragraph dis‐
tance. .SM t no t=n.t.l. Text t is small.
.SS t no t="" Secondary subhead. .TF
s yes Prevailing indent is wide as
string s in font L; paragraph distance is 0. .TH n c
x yes Begin page named n of chapter c; x
is extra commentary, e.g. `local', for page head.
Set prevailing indent and tabs to default. .TP
i yes i=p.i. Set prevailing indent to i.
Restore default indent if i=0. Begin indented para‐
graph with hanging tag given by next text line. If
tag doesn't fit, place it on separate line.
.1C yes Equalize columns and return
to 1-column output .2C yes Start
2-column nofill output
* n.t.l. = next text line; p.i. = prevailing indent
BUGS
There's no way to include literal double quote marks " in font-alterna‐
tion macros, such as
There is no direct way to suppress column widows in 2-column output;
the column lengths may be adjusted by inserting requests before the
closing
MAN(6)
