Current File : //usr/share/doc/man-db/examples/manpage.example
.\" In .TH, FOO should be all caps, SECTION should be 1-8, maybe w/ subsection
.\" other parameters are allowed: see man(7), man(1)
.\"
.\" This template provided by Tom Christiansen <tchrist@jhereg.perl.com>.
.\"
.TH FOO SECTION
.SH NAME
foo, bar \- programs to do something
.SH SYNOPSIS
A short usage summary.
.PP
.B foo
{
.BR this | that
}
[
.B -flags
]
[
.B \-o
.I option
]
.I argument
[
.I more...
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.\" Putting a newline after each sentence can generate better output.
Long drawn-out discussion of the program.
It's a good idea to break this up into subsections using the .SS macro,
like these:
.SS "A Sample Subsection"
.SS "Yet Another Sample Subsection"
References to the
.BR foo (SECTION)
(or other) manual page should use the .BR macro as here.
.PP
Use the .PP macro to start a new paragraph within a section.
.SH OPTIONS
Some people make this separate from the description.
The following style is typically used to document options:
.TP
.BR this | that
The user MUST specify either
.B this
or
.B that
to run the program.
The { and } braces mean one of the enclosed is required.
The bar (|) separates exclusive options (i.e. you cannot have both at once).
.TP
.B \-o
Pass the user-supplied
.I option
to
.B foo
to change its behaviour.
The fact that
.I option
is underlined or in italics means that the user replaces it with a valid
value for this option.
The [ and ] brackets mean it isn't required.
.IP
Use \(oq\e-\(cq rather than \(oq-\(cq for dashes in command-line options.
\(oq-\(cq means hyphen, and formats differently when using certain output
devices.
.TP
.I argument
The last
.I argument
is required, because it is not in brackets.
.TP
.I more
means that the user can optionally specify additional arguments at the end.
The ellipses (...) indicate one or more of this parameter is allowed.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
What the program or function returns if successful.
.SH ERRORS
Return codes, either exit status or errno settings.
.SH EXAMPLES
Give some example uses of the program.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
Environment variables this program might care about.
.SH FILES
All files used by the program.
Typical usage is like this:
.br
.nf
.\" set tabstop to longest possible filename, plus a wee bit
.ta \w'/usr/lib/perl/getopts.pl 'u
\fI/usr/man\fR default man tree
\fI/usr/man/man*/*.*\fR unformatted (nroff source) man pages
.SH NOTES
Miscellaneous commentary.
.SH CAVEATS
Things to take special care with, sometimes called WARNINGS.
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
All the possible error messages the program can print out,
what they mean, and how to correct them if applicable.
.SH BUGS
Things that are broken or just don't work quite right.
.SH RESTRICTIONS
Bugs you don't plan to fix. :-)
.SH AUTHOR
Who wrote it (or AUTHORS if multiple).
.SH HISTORY
Programs derived from other sources sometimes have this.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.\" Always quote multiple words for .SH
Other man pages to check out, like
.BR man (1),
.BR man (7),
.BR mandb (8),
.BR catman (8).
Mini Shell