diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'man7/man.7')
| -rw-r--r-- | man7/man.7 | 37 |
1 files changed, 22 insertions, 15 deletions
diff --git a/man7/man.7 b/man7/man.7 index 085b1414f5..8a0ccc1d9d 100644 --- a/man7/man.7 +++ b/man7/man.7 @@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ .\" Modified Sun Jan 6 18:26:25 2002 by Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org> .\" Modified Tue Jul 27 20:12:02 2004 by Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org> .\" -.TH MAN 7 2004-07-27 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual" +.TH MAN 7 2007-05-17 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual" .SH NAME man \- macros to format man pages .SH SYNOPSIS @@ -70,8 +70,9 @@ Using the .B \-mandoc option is, however, recommended, since this will automatically detect which macro package is in use. -.SH PREAMBLE -The first command in a man page (after comment lines) should be +.SS Preamble +The first command in a man page (after comment lines, +that is, lines that start with \fB.\\"\fP) should be .RS .sp .B \&.TH @@ -86,13 +87,14 @@ The title of the man page (e.g., .IR MAN ). .TP .I section -The section number the man page should be placed in (e.g., +The section number in which the man page should be placed (e.g., .IR 7 ). .TP .I date The date of the last revision\(emremember to change this every time a change is made to the man page, since this is the most general way of doing version control. +Dates should be written in the form YYYY-MM-DD. .TP .I source The source of the command. @@ -105,10 +107,11 @@ looking at: .IR "Linux 0.99.11" . .sp For library calls, use the source of the function: -.IR GNU ", " "4.3BSD" ", " "Linux DLL 4.4.1" . +.IR "GNU C Library" ", " GNU ", " "4.3BSD" ", " "Linux DLL 4.4.1" . .TP .I manual -The title of the manual (e.g., +The title of the manual (e.g., for Section 2 and 3 pages in +the \fIman-pages\fI package, use .IR "Linux Programmer's Manual" ). .RE .PP @@ -161,16 +164,16 @@ many of which only root can execute. .\" There are better sources of .\" information for kernel developers. .RE -.SH SECTIONS +.SS Sections Sections are started with .B \&.SH followed by the heading name. -.\" The follwoing doesn't seem to be required (see Debian bug 411303), +.\" The following doesn't seem to be required (see Debian bug 411303), .\" If the name contains spaces and appears .\" on the same line as .\" .BR \&.SH , .\" then place the heading in double quotes. -The list below shows conventional or suggested sewctions. +The list below shows conventional or suggested sections. Most manual pages should include at least the .B highlighted sections. @@ -207,9 +210,13 @@ EXAMPLE .in .IR "Where a traditional heading would apply, please use it" ; this kind of consistency can make the information easier to understand. -If you really feel it necessary, you cann create your own +If you must, you can create your own headings if they make things easier to understand (this can be especially useful for pages in sections 4 and 5). +However, before doing this, consider whether you could use the +traditional headings, with some subsections (\fI.SS\fP) within +those sections. + The only mandatory heading is NAME, which should be the first section and be followed on the next line by a one line description of the program: .RS @@ -330,7 +337,7 @@ describes any standards or conventions this implements. .TP .B NOTES provides miscellaneous notes. -.\" FIXME -- mention .SS Linux Notes and .SS Glib Notes? +.\" FIXME -- mention .SS Linux Notes and .SS Glibc Notes? .TP .B BUGS lists limitations, known defects or inconveniences, @@ -342,7 +349,7 @@ reports. .IR "Use of an AUTHOR section is discouraged". (One exception is section 4 pages that list the authors of device drivers, to whom software bugs should be sent.) -Generally, it is better not to clutter every page with list +Generally, it is better not to clutter every page with a list of (over time potentially numerous) authors; if you write or significantly amend a page, add a copyright notice as a comment in the source file. @@ -351,7 +358,7 @@ add a copyright notice as a comment in the source file. lists related man pages in alphabetical order, possibly followed by other related pages or documents. Conventionally this is the last section. -.SH FONTS +.SS Fonts Although there are many arbitrary conventions for man pages in the UNIX world, the existence of several hundred Linux-specific man pages defines our font standards: @@ -454,7 +461,7 @@ command can be used to specify a word in bold followed by a mark of punctuation in Roman. If no arguments are given, the command is applied to the following line of text. -.SH "OTHER MACROS AND STRINGS" +.SS "Other Macros and Strings" .PP Below are other relevant macros and predefined strings. Unless noted otherwise, all macros @@ -645,7 +652,7 @@ Trademark Symbol: \*(Tm Left angled doublequote: \*(lq .IP \e*(rq Right angled doublequote: \*(rq -.SH "SAFE SUBSET" +.SS "Safe Subset" Although technically .B man is a troff macro package, in reality a large number of other tools |
