| MAN(7) | Miscellaneous Information Manual | MAN(7) | 
man —
man language was the standard formatting language
  for AT&T UNIX manual pages from 1979 to 1989. Do
  not use it to write new manual pages: it is a purely presentational language
  and lacks support for semantic markup. Use the
  mdoc(7) language, instead.
In a man document, lines beginning with
    the control character ‘.’ are called “macro
    lines”. The first word is the macro name. It usually consists of two
    capital letters. For a list of portable macros, see
    MACRO OVERVIEW. The words following
    the macro name are arguments to the macro.
Lines not beginning with the control character are called “text lines”. They provide free-form text to be printed; the formatting of the text depends on the respective processing context:
.SH Macro lines change control state. Text lines are interpreted within the current state.
Many aspects of the basic syntax of the
    man language are based on the
    roff(7) language; see the
    LANGUAGE SYNTAX and MACRO SYNTAX
    sections in the roff(7) manual
    for details, in particular regarding comments, escape sequences, whitespace,
    and quoting.
Each man document starts with the
    TH macro specifying the document's name and section,
    followed by the NAME section formatted as
    follows:
.TH PROGNAME 1 1979-01-10 .SH NAME \fBprogname\fR \(en one line about what it does
| TH | set the title: name section date [source [volume]] | 
| AT | display AT&T UNIX version in the page footer (<= 1 argument) | 
| UC | display BSD version in the page footer (<= 1 argument) | 
| SH | section header (one line) | 
| SS | subsection header (one line) | 
| PP | start an undecorated paragraph (no arguments) | 
| RS,RE | reset the left margin: [width] | 
| IP | indented paragraph: [head [width]] | 
| TP | tagged paragraph: [width] | 
| PD | set vertical paragraph distance: [height] | 
| in | additional indent: [width] | 
| B | boldface font | 
| I | italic font | 
| SB | small boldface font | 
| SM | small roman font | 
| BI | alternate between boldface and italic fonts | 
| BR | alternate between boldface and roman fonts | 
| IB | alternate between italic and boldface fonts | 
| IR | alternate between italic and roman fonts | 
| RB | alternate between roman and boldface fonts | 
| RI | alternate between roman and italic fonts | 
ATBBIExample:
.BI bold italic bold
      italicBRBI.DTta request.EEfi request (switch to fill mode).EXnf request (switch to no-fill mode).HPHP
      [width]The width argument is a roff(7) scaling width. If specified, it's saved for later paragraph left margins; if unspecified, the saved or default width is used.
This macro is portable, but deprecated because it has no good
        representation in HTML output, usually ending up indistinguishable from
        PP.
IIBBI.IPIP
      [head [width]]The width argument is a roff(7) scaling width defining the left margin. It's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if unspecified, the saved or default width is used.
The head argument is used as a leading term, flushed to the left margin. This is useful for bulleted paragraphs and so on.
IRBI.LPPP.MEMT. This is a
      non-standard GNU extension.MT.MTaddress link description to be shown .ME
OPOP
      key [value]The key is usually a command-line flag and value its argument.
PPP.PDPD
      [height]The height argument is a
        roff(7) scaling width. It
        defaults to 1v. If the unit is omitted,
        v is assumed.
This macro affects the spacing before any subsequent instances
        of HP, IP,
        LP, P,
        PP, SH,
        SS, SY, and
        TP.
PPRBBI.RERS. The
      default left margin is restored to the state before that
      RS invocation.
    The syntax is as follows:
RE
      [level]Without an argument, the most recent
        RS block is closed out. If
        level is 1, all open RS
        blocks are closed out. Otherwise, level
        − 1 nested RS
        blocks remain open.
RIBI.RSRS
      [width]The width argument is a roff(7) scaling width. If not specified, the saved or default width is used.
See also RE.
SBSHSMSSSY.SYcommand arguments .YS
This is a non-standard GNU extension and very rarely used even
        in GNU manual pages. Formatting is similar to
        IP.
THTH name
      section date [source
      [volume]]Conventionally, the document name is
        given in all caps. The section is usually a single
        digit, in a few cases followed by a letter. The recommended
        date format is YYYY-MM-DD as
        specified in the ISO-8601 standard; if the argument does not conform, it
        is printed verbatim. If the date is empty or not
        specified, the current date is used. The optional
        source string specifies the organisation providing
        the utility. When unspecified,
        mandoc(1) uses its
        -Ios argument. The volume
        string replaces the default volume title of the
        section.
Examples:
.TH CVS 5 1992-02-12
      GNUTP
.
TP
 [width
]
head
 \" one line
body
    
    The width argument is a roff(7) scaling width. If specified, it's saved for later paragraph left-margins; if unspecified, the saved or default width is used.
TQTP, except that no vertical spacing is
      inserted before the paragraph. This is a non-standard GNU extension and
      very rarely used even in GNU manual pages.UCUEUR. This is a non-standard GNU extension.UR.URuri link description to be shown .UE
YSSY. This is a
      non-standard GNU extension.inin
      [width]If width is signed, the new offset is relative. Otherwise, it is absolute. This value is reset upon the next paragraph, section, or sub-section.
man macros are classified by scope: line scope or
  block scope. Line macros are only scoped to the current line (and, in some
  situations, the subsequent line). Block macros are scoped to the current line
  and subsequent lines until closed by another block macro.
.I foo
is equivalent to ‘.I foo’. If next-line macros are invoked consecutively, only the last is used. If a next-line macro is followed by a non-next-line macro, an error is raised.
The syntax is as follows:
.YO [body...] [body...]
| Macro | Arguments | Scope | Notes | 
| AT | <=1 | current | |
| B | n | next-line | |
| BI | n | current | |
| BR | n | current | |
| DT | 0 | current | |
| EE | 0 | current | GNU | 
| EX | 0 | current | GNU | 
| I | n | next-line | |
| IB | n | current | |
| IR | n | current | |
| OP | >=1 | current | GNU | 
| PD | 1 | current | |
| RB | n | current | |
| RI | n | current | |
| SB | n | next-line | |
| SM | n | next-line | |
| TH | >1, <6 | current | |
| UC | <=1 | current | |
| in | 1 | current | roff(7) | 
The syntax is as follows:
.YO [head...] [head...] [body...]
The closure of body scope may be to the section, where a macro is
    closed by SH; sub-section, closed by a section or
    SS; or paragraph, closed by a section, sub-section,
    HP, IP,
    LP, P,
    PP, RE,
    SY, or TP. No closure refers
    to an explicit block closing macro.
As a rule, block macros may not be nested; thus, calling a block macro while another block macro scope is open, and the open scope is not implicitly closed, is syntactically incorrect.
| Macro | Arguments | Head Scope | Body Scope | Notes | 
| HP | <2 | current | paragraph | |
| IP | <3 | current | paragraph | |
| LP | 0 | current | paragraph | |
| ME | 0 | none | none | GNU | 
| MT | 1 | current | to ME | GNU | 
| P | 0 | current | paragraph | |
| PP | 0 | current | paragraph | |
| RE | <=1 | current | none | |
| RS | 1 | current | to RE | |
| SH | >0 | next-line | section | |
| SS | >0 | next-line | sub-section | |
| SY | 1 | current | to YS | GNU | 
| TP | n | next-line | paragraph | |
| TQ | n | next-line | paragraph | GNU | 
| UE | 0 | current | none | GNU | 
| UR | 1 | current | part | GNU | 
| YS | 0 | none | none | GNU | 
If a block macro is next-line scoped, it may only be followed by in-line macros for decorating text.
man documents, both
  Physical markup macros and
  roff(7)
  ‘\f’ font escape sequences can be used
  to choose fonts. In text lines, the effect of manual font selection by escape
  sequences only lasts until the next macro invocation; in macro lines, it only
  lasts until the end of the macro scope. Note that macros like
  BR open and close a font scope for each argument.
man language first appeared as a macro package for
  the roff typesetting system in Version 7 AT&T
  UNIX. It was later rewritten by James Clark as a macro package for
  groff. Eric S. Raymond wrote the extended man macros
  for groff in 2007. The stand-alone implementation that is part of the
  mandoc(1) utility written by
  Kristaps Dzonsons appeared in OpenBSD 4.6.
man reference was written by
  Kristaps Dzonsons
  <kristaps@bsd.lv>.
| March 2, 2019 | NetBSD 10.0 |