1 .\" $Id: roff.7,v 1.55 2014/07/07 11:35:06 schwarze Exp $
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011, 2012 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
4 .\" Copyright (c) 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
6 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
7 .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
8 .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
10 .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
11 .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
12 .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
13 .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
14 .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
15 .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
16 .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
18 .Dd $Mdocdate: July 7 2014 $
23 .Nd roff language reference for mandoc
27 language is a general purpose text formatting language.
28 Since traditional implementations of the
32 manual formatting languages are based on it,
33 many real-world manuals use small numbers of
35 requests and escape sequences intermixed with their
40 To properly format such manuals, the
42 utility supports a tiny subset of
45 Only these requests and escapes supported by
47 are documented in the present manual,
48 together with the basic language syntax shared by
59 Input lines beginning with the control character
61 are parsed for requests and macros.
67 Requests change the processing state and manipulate the formatting;
68 some macros also define the document structure and produce formatted
72 is accepted as an alternative control character,
78 Lines not beginning with control characters are called
80 They provide free-form text to be printed; the formatting of the text
81 depends on the respective processing context.
84 documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the space
85 character, and, in certain circumstances, the tab character.
86 The backslash character
88 indicates the start of an escape sequence, used for example for
90 .Sx Special Characters ,
91 .Sx Predefined Strings ,
93 user-defined strings defined using the
96 For a listing of escape sequences, consult the
97 .Sx ESCAPE SEQUENCE REFERENCE
100 Text following an escaped double-quote
102 whether in a request, macro, or text line, is ignored to the end of the line.
103 A request line beginning with a control character and comment escape
106 Furthermore, request lines with only a control character and optional
107 trailing whitespace are stripped from input.
110 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
111 \&.\e\(dq This is a comment line.
112 \&.\e\(dq The next line is ignored:
114 \&.Sh EXAMPLES \e\(dq This is a comment, too.
115 \&example text \e\(dq And so is this.
117 .Ss Special Characters
118 Special characters are used to encode special glyphs and are rendered
119 differently across output media.
120 They may occur in request, macro, and text lines.
121 Sequences begin with the escape character
123 followed by either an open-parenthesis
125 for two-character sequences; an open-bracket
127 for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket
129 or a single one character sequence.
132 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
134 Two-letter em dash escape.
136 One-letter backslash escape.
143 Terms may be text-decorated using the
145 escape followed by an indicator: B (bold), I (italic), R (regular), or P
146 (revert to previous mode).
147 A numerical representation 3, 2, or 1 (bold, italic, and regular,
148 respectively) may be used instead.
149 The indicator or numerical representative may be preceded by C
150 (constant-width), which is ignored.
152 The two-character indicator
154 requests a font that is both bold and italic.
155 It may not be portable to old roff implementations.
158 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
160 Write in \fBbold\fP, then switch to regular font mode.
161 .It Li \efIitalic\efP
162 Write in \fIitalic\fP, then return to previous font mode.
163 .It Li \ef(BIbold italic\efP
164 Write in \f(BIbold italic\fP, then return to previous font mode.
171 which encourages semantic annotation.
172 .Ss Predefined Strings
173 Predefined strings, like
174 .Sx Special Characters ,
175 mark special output glyphs.
176 Predefined strings are escaped with the slash-asterisk,
186 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
188 Two-letter ampersand predefined string.
190 One-letter double-quote predefined string.
193 Predefined strings are not recommended for use,
194 as they differ across implementations.
199 Manuals using these predefined strings are almost certainly not portable.
201 Whitespace consists of the space character.
202 In text lines, whitespace is preserved within a line.
203 In request and macro lines, whitespace delimits arguments and is discarded.
205 Unescaped trailing spaces are stripped from text line input unless in a
207 In general, trailing whitespace on any input line is discouraged for
208 reasons of portability.
209 In the rare case that a blank character is needed at the end of an
210 input line, it may be forced by
213 Literal space characters can be produced in the output
214 using escape sequences.
215 In macro lines, they can also be included in arguments using quotation; see
219 Blank text lines, which may include whitespace, are only permitted
220 within literal contexts.
221 If the first character of a text line is a space, that line is printed
222 with a leading newline.
224 Many requests and macros support scaled widths for their arguments.
225 The syntax for a scaled width is
226 .Sq Li [+-]?[0-9]*.[0-9]*[:unit:] ,
227 where a decimal must be preceded or followed by at least one digit.
228 Negative numbers, while accepted, are truncated to zero.
230 The following scaling units are accepted:
232 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
245 default vertical span
257 default horizontal span
262 Using anything other than
268 is necessarily non-portable across output media.
272 If a scaling unit is not provided, the numerical value is interpreted
273 under the default rules of
275 for vertical spaces and
280 .Bl -tag -width ".Bl -tag -width 2i" -offset indent -compact
281 .It Li \&.Bl -tag -width 2i
282 two-inch tagged list indentation in
285 two-inch tagged list indentation in
291 Each sentence should terminate at the end of an input line.
292 By doing this, a formatter will be able to apply the proper amount of
293 spacing after the end of sentence (unescaped) period, exclamation mark,
294 or question mark followed by zero or more non-sentence closing
303 The proper spacing is also intelligently preserved if a sentence ends at
304 the boundary of a macro line.
307 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
308 Do not end sentences mid-line like this. Instead,
309 end a sentence like this.
310 A macro would end like this:
314 A request or macro line consists of:
318 the control character
322 at the beginning of the line,
324 optionally an arbitrary amount of whitespace,
326 the name of the request or the macro, which is one word of arbitrary
327 length, terminated by whitespace,
329 and zero or more arguments delimited by whitespace.
332 Thus, the following request lines are all equivalent:
333 .Bd -literal -offset indent
339 Macros are provided by the
343 languages and can be defined by the
346 When called, they follow the same syntax as requests, except that
347 macro arguments may optionally be quoted by enclosing them
348 in double quote characters
350 Quoted text, even if it contains whitespace or would cause
351 a macro invocation when unquoted, is always considered literal text.
352 Inside quoted text, pairs of double quote characters
354 resolve to single double quote characters.
356 To be recognised as the beginning of a quoted argument, the opening
357 quote character must be preceded by a space character.
358 A quoted argument extends to the next double quote character that is not
359 part of a pair, or to the end of the input line, whichever comes earlier.
360 Leaving out the terminating double quote character at the end of the line
362 For clarity, if more arguments follow on the same input line,
363 it is recommended to follow the terminating double quote character
364 by a space character; in case the next character after the terminating
365 double quote character is anything else, it is regarded as the beginning
366 of the next, unquoted argument.
368 Both in quoted and unquoted arguments, pairs of backslashes
370 resolve to single backslashes.
371 In unquoted arguments, space characters can alternatively be included
372 by preceding them with a backslash
374 but quoting is usually better for clarity.
377 .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
378 .It Li .Fn strlen \(dqconst char *s\(dq
381 into one function argument.
387 would be considered separate arguments.
388 .It Li .Op \(dqFl a\(dq
391 as literal text instead of a flag macro.
393 .Sh REQUEST REFERENCE
397 parser recognises the following requests.
400 language defines many more requests not implemented in
403 Set line adjustment mode.
404 This line-scoped request is intended to have one argument to select
405 normal, left, right, or centre adjustment for subsequent text.
406 Currently, it is ignored including its arguments,
407 and the number of arguments is not checked.
409 Append to a macro definition.
410 The syntax of this request is the same as that of
413 Append to a macro definition, specifying the macro name indirectly.
414 The syntax of this request is the same as that of
417 Append to a macro definition, switching roff compatibility mode off
418 during macro execution.
419 The syntax of this request is the same as that of
425 compatibility mode at all, it handles this request as an alias for
428 Append to a user-defined string.
429 The syntax of this request is the same as that of
431 If a user-defined string with the specified name does not yet exist,
432 it is set to the empty string before appending.
434 Changes the control character.
435 Its syntax is as follows:
436 .Bd -literal -offset indent
437 .Pf . Cm \&cc Op Ar c
442 is not specified, the control character is reset to
444 Trailing characters are ignored.
447 This line-scoped request is intended to take one integer argument,
448 specifying how many lines to center.
449 Currently, it is ignored including its arguments, and the number
450 of arguments is not checked.
455 Its syntax can be either
456 .Bd -literal -offset indent
457 .Pf . Cm \&de Ar name
463 .Bd -literal -offset indent
464 .Pf . Cm \&de Ar name Ar end
469 Both forms define or redefine the macro
472 .Ar macro definition ,
473 which may consist of one or more input lines, including the newline
474 characters terminating each line, optionally containing calls to
478 macros or high-level macros like
482 macros, whichever applies to the document in question.
486 macro works in the same way as for
491 .Ar macro definition ,
492 and after that, it is also evaluated as a
496 macro, but not as a high-level macro.
498 The macro can be invoked later using the syntax
500 .D1 Pf . Ar name Op Ar argument Op Ar argument ...
502 Regarding argument parsing, see
506 The line invoking the macro will be replaced
507 in the input stream by the
508 .Ar macro definition ,
509 replacing all occurrences of
514 .Ar N Ns th Ar argument .
516 .Bd -literal -offset indent
518 \efI\e^\e\e$1\e^\efP\e\e$2
525 .D1 \efI\e^XtFree\e^\efP.
527 in the input stream, and thus in the output: \fI\^XtFree\^\fP.
529 Since macros and user-defined strings share a common string table,
532 clobbers the user-defined string
536 can also be printed using the
538 string interpolation syntax described below
540 but this is rarely useful because every macro definition contains at least
541 one explicit newline character.
543 In order to prevent endless recursion, both groff and
545 limit the stack depth for expanding macros and strings
546 to a large, but finite number.
547 Do not rely on the exact value of this limit.
551 macro, specifying the macro name indirectly.
552 The syntax of this request is the same as that of
556 .D1 Pf . Cm \&dei Ar name Op Ar end
558 has the same effect as:
560 .D1 Pf . Cm \&de No \e* Ns Bo Ar name Bc Op \e* Ns Bq Ar end
564 macro that will be executed with
566 compatibility mode switched off during macro execution.
567 This is a GNU extension not available in traditional
569 implementations and not even in older versions of groff.
574 compatibility mode at all, it handles this request as an alias for
577 Define a user-defined string.
578 Its syntax is as follows:
580 .D1 Pf . Cm \&ds Ar name Oo \(dq Oc Ns Ar string
586 arguments are space-separated.
589 begins with a double-quote character, that character will not be part
591 All remaining characters on the input line form the
593 including whitespace and double-quote characters, even trailing ones.
597 can be interpolated into subsequent text by using
598 .No \e* Ns Bq Ar name
601 of arbitrary length, or \e*(NN or \e*N if the length of
603 is two or one characters, respectively.
604 Interpolation can be prevented by escaping the leading backslash;
605 that is, an asterisk preceded by an even number of backslashes
606 does not trigger string interpolation.
608 Since user-defined strings and macros share a common string table,
615 used for defining a string can also be invoked as a macro,
616 in which case the following input line will be appended to the
618 forming a new input line passed to the
622 .Bd -literal -offset indent
633 Such abuse is of course strongly discouraged.
637 half of an if/else conditional.
638 Pops a result off the stack of conditional evaluations pushed by
640 and uses it as its conditional.
641 If no stack entries are present (e.g., due to no prior
644 then false is assumed.
645 The syntax of this request is similar to
647 except that the conditional is missing.
649 End an equation block.
653 Begin an equation block.
656 for a description of the equation language.
658 Change the font family.
659 This line-scoped request is intended to have one argument specifying
660 the font family to be selected.
661 It is a groff extension, and currently, it is ignored including its
662 arguments, and the number of arguments is not checked.
665 Its syntax is as follows:
667 .D1 Pf . Cm \&ft Op Ar font
671 arguments are supported:
672 .Bl -tag -width 4n -offset indent
673 .It Cm B , BI , 3 , 4
682 switches to normal font
683 .It Cm P No "or no argument"
684 switches back to the previous font
687 This request takes effect only locally, may be overridden by macros
688 and escape sequences, and is only supported in
692 Specify hyphenation points in words.
693 This line-scoped request is currently ignored.
695 Set automatic hyphenation mode.
696 This line-scoped request is currently ignored.
700 half of an if/else conditional.
701 The result of the conditional is pushed into a stack used by subsequent
704 which may be separated by any intervening input (or not exist at all).
705 Its syntax is equivalent to
708 Begins a conditional.
709 This request has the following syntax:
710 .Bd -literal -offset indent
713 .Bd -literal -offset indent
717 .Bd -literal -offset indent
723 COND is a conditional statement.
726 supports the following subset of roff conditionals:
731 is prefixed to COND, the condition is logically inverted.
733 If the first character of COND is
739 COND evaluates to true.
741 If the first character of COND is
743 .Pq character available ,
749 .Pq register accessed ,
753 COND evaluates to false.
755 If COND starts with a parenthesis or with an optionally signed
756 integer number, it is evaluated according to the rules of
757 .Sx Numerical expressions
759 It evaluates to true if the the result is positive,
760 or to false if the result is zero or negative.
762 Otherwise, the first character of COND is regarded as a delimiter
763 and COND evaluates to true if the string extending from its first
764 to its second occurrence is equal to the string extending from its
765 second to its third occurrence.
767 If COND cannot be parsed, it evaluates to false.
770 If a conditional is false, its children are not processed, but are
771 syntactically interpreted to preserve the integrity of the input
779 which may lead to interesting results, but
781 .D1 \&.if t .if t \e{\e
783 will continue to syntactically interpret to the block close of the final
785 Sub-conditionals, in this case, obviously inherit the truth value of
788 If the BODY section is begun by an escaped brace
790 scope continues until the end of the input line containing the
791 matching closing-brace escape sequence
793 If the BODY is not enclosed in braces, scope continues until
795 If the COND is followed by a BODY on the same line, whether after a
796 brace or not, then requests and macros
798 begin with a control character.
799 It is generally more intuitive, in this case, to write
800 .Bd -literal -offset indent
807 than having the request or macro follow as
809 .D1 \&.if COND \e{ .foo
811 The scope of a conditional is always parsed, but only executed if the
812 conditional evaluates to true.
816 is converted into a zero-width escape sequence if not passed as a
825 being considered an argument of the
830 Its syntax can be either
831 .Bd -literal -offset indent
838 .Bd -literal -offset indent
844 In the first case, input is ignored until a
846 request is encountered on its own line.
847 In the second case, input is ignored until the specified
849 macro is encountered.
850 Do not use the escape character
852 anywhere in the definition of
854 it would cause very strange behaviour.
858 macro is a roff request or a roff macro, like in
862 the subsequent invocation of
864 will first terminate the
866 then be invoked as usual.
867 Otherwise, it only terminates the
869 and arguments following it or the
871 request are discarded.
873 Change the output line length.
874 Its syntax is as follows:
876 .D1 Pf . Cm \&ll Op Oo +|- Oc Ns Ar width
880 argument is omitted, the line length is reset to its previous value.
881 The default setting for terminal output is 78n.
882 If a sign is given, the line length is added to or subtracted from;
883 otherwise, it is set to the provided value.
884 Using this request in new manuals is discouraged for several reasons,
885 among others because it overrides the
890 Declare the need for the specified minimum vertical space
891 before the next trap or the bottom of the page.
892 This line-scoped request is currently ignored.
894 Turn off automatic hyphenation mode.
895 This line-scoped request is currently ignored.
897 Define or change a register.
898 A register is an arbitrary string value that defines some sort of state,
899 which influences parsing and/or formatting.
900 Its syntax is as follows:
902 .D1 Pf \. Cm \&nr Ar name Oo +|- Oc Ns Ar expression
907 .Sx Numerical expressions
909 If it is prefixed by a sign, the register will be
910 incremented or decremented instead of assigned to.
912 The following register
914 is handled specially:
917 If set to a positive integer value, certain
919 macros will behave in the same way as in the
922 If set to 0, these macros will behave in the same way as outside the
924 section, even when called within the
927 Note that starting a new
931 macro will reset this register.
934 Turn on no-space mode.
935 This line-scoped request is intended to take no arguments.
936 Currently, it is ignored including its arguments,
937 and the number of arguments is not checked.
940 This line-scoped request is intended to take one numerical argument.
941 Currently, it is ignored including its arguments,
942 and the number of arguments is not checked.
944 Remove a request, macro or string.
945 Its syntax is as follows:
947 .D1 Pf \. Cm \&rm Ar name
950 Its syntax is as follows:
952 .D1 Pf \. Cm \&rr Ar name
954 Include a source file.
955 Its syntax is as follows:
957 .D1 Pf \. Cm \&so Ar file
961 will be read and its contents processed as input in place of the
964 To avoid inadvertent inclusion of unrelated files,
966 only accepts relative paths not containing the strings
971 This request requires
973 to change to the right directory before calling
975 per convention to the root of the manual tree.
976 Typical usage looks like:
978 .Dl \&.so man3/Xcursor.3
980 As the whole concept is rather fragile, the use of
988 This line-scoped request can take an arbitrary number of arguments.
989 Currently, it is ignored including its arguments.
991 Output character translation.
992 Its syntax is as follows:
994 .D1 Pf \. Cm \&tr Ar [ab]+
998 characters are replaced
1002 Replacement (or origin) characters may also be character escapes; thus,
1006 replaces all invocations of \e(xx with \e(yy.
1008 Re-start a table layout, retaining the options of the prior table
1013 End a table context.
1017 Begin a table, which formats input in aligned rows and columns.
1020 for a description of the tbl language.
1021 .Ss Numerical expressions
1027 requests accept integer numerical expressions as arguments.
1028 These are always evaluated using the C
1030 type; integer overflow works the same way as in the C language.
1031 Numbers consist of an arbitrary number of digits
1035 prefixed by an optional sign
1040 The following binary operators are implemented.
1041 Unless otherwise stated, they behave as in the C language:
1043 .Bl -tag -width 2n -compact
1053 remainder of division
1061 equal to, same effect as
1063 (this differs from C)
1065 less than or equal to
1067 greater than or equal to
1069 not equal to (corresponds to C
1071 this one is of limited portability, it is supported by Heirloom roff,
1074 logical and (corresponds to C
1077 logical or (corresponds to C
1080 minimum (not available in C)
1082 maximum (not available in C)
1085 There is no concept of precendence; evaluation proceeds from left to right,
1086 except when subexpressions are enclosed in parantheses.
1087 Inside parentheses, whitespace is ignored.
1088 .Sh ESCAPE SEQUENCE REFERENCE
1092 parser recognises the following escape sequences.
1095 language defines more escape sequences not implemented in
1101 documents, using escape sequences is discouraged except for those
1106 A backslash followed by any character not listed here
1107 simply prints that character itself.
1109 A backslash at the end of an input line can be used to continue the
1110 logical input line on the next physical input line, joining the text
1111 on both lines together as if it were on a single input line.
1113 The escape sequence backslash-space
1115 is an unpaddable space-sized non-breaking space character; see
1118 The rest of the input line is treated as
1121 Hyphenation allowed at this point of the word; ignored by
1124 Non-printing zero-width character; see
1127 Acute accent special character; use
1131 .Sx Special Characters
1132 with two-letter names, see
1134 .Ss \e*[ Ns Ar name ]
1135 Interpolate the string with the
1138 .Sx Predefined Strings
1141 For short names, there are variants
1147 .Dq mathematical minus sign .
1148 .Ss \e[ Ns Ar name ]
1149 .Sx Special Characters
1150 with names of arbitrary length, see
1153 One-twelfth em half-narrow space character, effectively zero-width in
1156 Grave accent special character; use
1160 Begin conditional input; see
1163 One-sixth em narrow space character, effectively zero-width in
1166 End conditional input; see
1169 Paddable non-breaking space character.
1171 Digit width space character.
1172 .Ss \eA\(aq Ns Ar string Ns \(aq
1173 Anchor definition; ignored by
1175 .Ss \eB\(aq Ns Ar string Ns \(aq
1180 conforms to the syntax of
1181 .Sx Numerical expressions
1185 .Ss \eb\(aq Ns Ar string Ns \(aq
1186 Bracket building function; ignored by
1188 .Ss \eC\(aq Ns Ar name Ns \(aq
1189 .Sx Special Characters
1190 with names of arbitrary length.
1192 Interrupt text processing to insert requests or macros; ignored by
1194 .Ss \eD\(aq Ns Ar string Ns \(aq
1195 Draw graphics function; ignored by
1198 Move down by half a line; ignored by
1201 Backslash special character.
1202 .Ss \eF[ Ns Ar name ]
1203 Switch font family (groff extension); ignored by
1205 For short names, there are variants
1209 .Ss \ef[ Ns Ar name ]
1213 .Sx Text Decoration .
1214 For short names, there are variants
1218 .Ss \eg[ Ns Ar name ]
1219 Interpolate the format of a number register; ignored by
1221 For short names, there are variants
1225 .Ss \eH\(aq Ns Oo +|- Oc Ns Ar number Ns \(aq
1226 Set the height of the current font; ignored by
1228 .Ss \eh\(aq Ns Ar number Ns \(aq
1229 Horizontal motion; ignored by
1231 .Ss \ek[ Ns Ar name ]
1232 Mark horizontal input place in register; ignored by
1234 For short names, there are variants
1238 .Ss \eL\(aq Ns Ar number Ns Oo Ar c Oc Ns \(aq
1239 Vertical line drawing function; ignored by
1241 .Ss \el\(aq Ns Ar number Ns Oo Ar c Oc Ns \(aq
1242 Horizontal line drawing function; ignored by
1244 .Ss \eM[ Ns Ar name ]
1245 Set fill (background) color (groff extension); ignored by
1247 For short names, there are variants
1251 .Ss \em[ Ns Ar name ]
1252 Set glyph drawing color (groff extension); ignored by
1254 For short names, there are variants
1258 .Ss \eN\(aq Ns Ar number Ns \(aq
1261 on the current font.
1262 .Ss \en[ Ns Ar name ]
1263 Interpolate the number register
1265 For short names, there are variants
1269 .Ss \eo\(aq Ns Ar string Ns \(aq
1274 .Ss \eR\(aq Ns Ar name Oo +|- Oc Ns Ar number Ns \(aq
1275 Set number register; ignored by
1277 .Ss \eS\(aq Ns Ar number Ns \(aq
1278 Slant output; ignored by
1280 .Ss \es\(aq Ns Oo +|- Oc Ns Ar number Ns \(aq
1281 Change point size; ignored by
1284 .No \es Ns Oo +|- Oc Ns Ar n ,
1285 .No \es Ns Oo +|- Oc Ns \(aq Ns Ar number Ns \(aq ,
1286 .No \es Ns [ Oo +|- Oc Ns Ar number ] ,
1288 .No \es Ns Oo +|- Oc Ns [ Ar number Ns ]
1289 are also parsed and ignored.
1291 Horizontal tab; ignored by
1294 Move up by half a line; ignored by
1296 .Ss \eV[ Ns Ar name ]
1297 Interpolate an environment variable; ignored by
1299 For short names, there are variants
1303 .Ss \ev\(aq Ns Ar number Ns \(aq
1304 Vertical motion; ignored by
1306 .Ss \ew\(aq Ns Ar string Ns \(aq
1307 Interpolate the width of the
1311 implementation assumes that after expansion of user-defined strings, the
1313 only contains normal characters, no escape sequences, and that each
1314 character has a width of 24 basic units.
1315 .Ss \eX\(aq Ns Ar string Ns \(aq
1318 as device control function; ignored in nroff mode and by
1320 .Ss \ex\(aq Ns Ar number Ns \(aq
1321 Extra line space function; ignored by
1323 .Ss \eY[ Ns Ar name ]
1324 Output a string as a device control function; ignored in nroff mode and by
1326 For short names, there are variants
1330 .Ss \eZ\(aq Ns Ar string Ns \(aq
1333 with zero width and height; ignored by
1336 Output the next character without advancing the cursor position;
1339 by simply skipping the next character.
1341 This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other
1343 implementations, at this time limited to GNU troff
1347 refers to groff version 1.15.
1357 macros are considered regular macros.
1360 implementations, these are special macros that must be specified without
1361 spacing between the control character (which must be a period) and the
1366 register is only compatible with OpenBSD's groff-1.15.
1368 Historic groff did not accept white-space before a custom
1376 and family would print funny white-spaces with historic groff when
1377 using the next-line syntax.
1387 .%A Joseph F. Ossanna
1388 .%A Brian W. Kernighan
1389 .%I AT&T Bell Laboratories
1390 .%T Troff User's Manual
1391 .%R Computing Science Technical Report
1393 .%C Murray Hill, New Jersey
1395 .%U http://www.kohala.com/start/troff/cstr54.ps
1398 .%A Joseph F. Ossanna
1399 .%A Brian W. Kernighan
1401 .%T Heirloom Documentation Tools Nroff/Troff User's Manual
1402 .%D September 17, 2007
1403 .%U http://heirloom.sourceforge.net/doctools/troff.pdf
1406 The RUNOFF typesetting system, whose input forms the basis for
1408 was written in MAD and FAP for the CTSS operating system by Jerome E.
1410 Doug McIlroy rewrote it in BCPL in 1969, renaming it
1412 Dennis M. Ritchie rewrote McIlroy's
1414 in PDP-11 assembly for
1416 Joseph F. Ossanna improved roff and renamed it nroff
1419 then ported nroff to C as troff, which Brian W. Kernighan released with
1421 In 1989, James Clarke re-implemented troff in C++, naming it groff.
1426 reference was written by
1427 .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt kristaps@bsd.lv
1429 .An Ingo Schwarze Aq Mt schwarze@openbsd.org .